Suspicious fires destroyed the second courthouse in 1874 and the third in 1884, as well as county land and court records (a frequent occurrence in Reconstruction Texas). This, the county’s fourth courthouse, is the second of W. C. Dodson’s Second Empire designs. Occupying an ovoid site at the intersection of the principal north–south and east–west highways, the courthouse is an island, surrounded by swirling traffic. However, because the building occupies natural high ground, unobstructed axial vistas from all directions dramatically reveal the building and its tower rising above the city.
The courthouse has a square plan on a cross-axial scheme and four identical sides, each with corner bays stepping forward as towers with convex mansard roofs with dormers. The central bays also project and are topped with gables with end returns. A central three-stage tower of stacked mansard roofs with dormers rises above the hipped roofs. Inside, large wooden trusses spanning the centrally placed second-floor courtroom support the wood-framed tower. The tower’s exterior is sheathed in pressed metal resembling stone. Walls are rock-faced limestone, with contrasting smooth quoins on door and window frames and on stringcourses. French immigrant masons Armand and Emile Laudes built the courthouse with limestone quarried in Parker County. The courthouse was rehabilitated with funding from the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program.