Dominating the entire business district, the Lavaca County courthouse is one of the least-altered nineteenth-century courthouses in Texas, with a particularly fine interior featuring a grand staircase and a magnificent double-height courtroom on the second floor. Heiner was an active courthouse architect, but most of his work has suffered terribly from insensitive alterations and demolition, leaving this, his last courthouse, as his masterwork. He was obviously heavily influenced by the Romanesque manner popularized by H. H. Richardson and James Riely Gordon. The courthouse was restored in 2003 by TWC Architects with funding from the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program.