The courthouse square is located on land donated by the railway on the north edge of Longview’s twelve-square-block business district, which was laid out parallel to the Southern Pacific tracks in 1869. A courthouse of 1897 designed by Marshall Sanguinett of Dallas occupied the square’s center. The 1930s East Texas oil boom necessitated a larger building, which was constructed on the north side of the 1897 courthouse so that government business would not be disrupted; the old courthouse was then demolished. Voelcker and Dixon of Wichita Falls designed a six-story modern classic structure with stepped massing, cream-colored brick, and limestone trim, similar to the firm’s 1930 design of the Cottle County Courthouse (PH1) in Paducah. The courthouse is now sandwiched between a modest annex (1958) on its east side and a physically overpowering jail expansion (1982) to the west.