Mississippi’s Territorial legislature established Amite County in 1809 and named its county seat Liberty. The two-acre courthouse square, occupying an important intersection of roads to Natchez and St. Francisville, Louisiana, held a frame building until the present brick courthouse was completed. Constructed by Robert Stewart Jr., who had built the jail in 1833, it probably was designed by building commissioner William C. Harrell. The red brick, symmetrical, five-by-three-bay building has an octagonal cupola and such Federal details as fanlights and shaped brick cornices. Four offices occupied the first floor with a courtroom on the second. A renovation completed with Public Works Administration (PWA) funding added a two-bay wing to each end and flat-roof porticos on monumental brick piers to the back and front.