Fairfield was established in 1850 as the county seat, and lots in the donated town site sold at auction over the next two years. This Classical Revival courthouse shows none of the Prairie Style influence designer George Willis (in the Ayres office, 1911–1916) brought to the firm’s earlier courthouses and instead displays a highly personalized use of classical elements. The layering of contrasting materials within a classical hierarchy has created a dynamic image: a raised basement in rusticated dark red brick is capped with a limestone water table, two-story pilasters in red brick frame walls of brown brick, and white, fluted Ionic columns form porticoes, with four columns on the south and two on the east and west raised entrances. The third story above a stone cornice is topped with a stepped parapet with a half-round gable.