Built on the site of its 1799 predecessor, which was described by Fortescue Cuming in his travel account of 1807 as “a convenient little court house of stone, with a small, light cupola spire,” this much-altered brick building is one of the state's oldest courthouses in continuous use. It was originally a simple, two-story, brick building on a sandstone foundation, covered with a gable roof. Rudimentary brick pilasters divide side walls into bays, and several rows of corbeled brick help support the cornice. A later, ungainly Doric portico now stretches across the facade, its ceiling brutally cutting across the original second-story windows. A small octagonal cupola set back from the front gable provides an unintentional ecclesiastical aura with its trefoil pattern of wooden tracery. The cupola houses a bell inscribed “G. Hedderly, Philadelphia, 1807, Fecit.”

Seventh Street between Main and Charles streets is a brick-paved pedestrian way known as Wellsburg Town Square. Installed in 1985, it provides a modest civic center, with the courthouse and the city hall, a handsome Georgian Revival structure built in 1940, on its south side.