This building replaces a predecessor, built in 1833, that was one of West Virginia's most impressive antebellum courthouses. A large, red brick building fronted by a monumental Ionic portico with a typically Jeffersonian lunette in its pediment, it was capped by a domed octagonal cupola. Although consideration was given to remodeling it in the early twentieth century, a completely new structure was erected on the same site instead.

The present building is faced with creamcolored brick, rather than the traditional red brick of its predecessor, but a giant-order, pedimented, Ionic portico of limestone and an octagonal cupola with clock faces on its dome imitate the most significant features.