A mansard roof and bull's eye windows reveal Milton Beebe's intention of providing Huntingdon with a “French Renaissance” courthouse. While it dominates the street and is one of the tallest buildings in town, today it is nearly obscured by tree cover. The staged central tower was rebuilt in wood in the 1930s, and sits awkwardly above a handsome double entrance with a segmental-arched pediment. A stone belt course and springcourses that link the round-arched windows bring horizontality to the red brick exterior. The interior has been unsympathetically altered, with only touches of its original grand space discernible.
This was the fourth of Beebe's four western Pennsylvania courthouses completed between 1877 and 1883. The two surviving courthouses are in Cambria ( CA1) and Warren ( WA1) counties; Beebe's courthouse for McKean County was demolished. In 1892, Beebe designed the Romanesque Revival Schuykill County Courthouse in Pottsville in eastern Pennsylvania.