Irish immigrant John Joseph Emmett Gibson (1849–1931) was a local builder and brickmaker who adopted a romantic interpretation of his homeland castles to design this unique courthouse with twelve tall, round towers. The three-story rectangular structure in local red brick has projecting two-story entrance bays on the north and south sides, forming a modified cross plan. The round towers, buttressed on the lower floors and flaring at the tops, mark the building’s corners and bays. Tall windows have round arches. A tall, square cupola rises from the roof ridge. In awarding the project to Gibson following the destruction by fire in 1882 of the 1867 courthouse, county commissioners specified the building’s exterior dimensions, the number and arrangement of rooms, and the construction materials. Specifications also included several innovative components, including filling the areas within the floor framing with mortar, lime, and sawdust as an acoustical barrier and installing dry-earth toilets in the restrooms.
Gibson also designed the old county jail (1885; now the Chamber of Commerce) on the northwest corner of the courthouse square. Compared to the courthouse it is modest and restrained, a two-story red brick structure with end-gable parapets and chimneys. Gibson worked in St. Louis before coming to Texas, where he first settled in Panola County. After moving to Center, he also established a brickworks, providing materials for many of the town’s structures.