The unusual visual continuity around the square, one of the most complete late-nineteenth-century courthouse squares in Texas, is because the majority of buildings date to the 1880s and 1890s and are two stories in height. The use of locally quarried limestone also contributes to the visual harmony.
East Bridge Street on the north side of the square is a nearly continuous, two-story limestone Italianate facade with first-story storefronts with cast-iron pilasters, narrow segmental-arched second-story windows with shawl lintels, and a continuous pressed metal cornice. A feature along this block, unusual for Texas, is the continuous canopy covering the sidewalk, which also serves as a second-floor balcony. The J. F. and J. Nutt Building (1893) at 117 E. Bridge in rock-faced limestone has a checkerboard stone frieze and stone cornice with two raised parapets that identify two properties merged into one building. After 1919, the family converted the building to a hotel.
The one-story double building (116 N. Crockett) in the center of the square’s east side is a storefront system from the Mesker and Bro. catalog, consisting of a recessed entrance with cast-iron pilasters and a tall parapet with moldings, brackets, and a pair of gabled pediments. The building at the corner of N. Crockett and E. Pearl was built in 1895, but the first story was altered in 1929 to turn the structure into a corner gas station.
The most prominent building on the square is the Granbury Opera House (1886) at 133 E. Pearl. The two-story facade of smooth ashlar limestone has seven arches on the first story with simple projecting blocks in lieu of capitals on the dividing pilasters. The tall, narrow, second-floor windows have segmental arches with pressed metal hoods on brackets, and a pressed metal cornice with a central pediment completes the building. A recent renovation has restored the interior to its original elegance.