Houston architects Milton Foy Martin and Wylie W. Vale produced a modern pavilion to replace Matagorda County's courthouse of 1896 designed by Eugene T. Heiner. Raised high on a broad stepped terrace (concealing an underground parking garage), the courthouse is three stories high, with the second floor carried on exposed columns above a recessed ground-floor arcade faced with polished granite. The courthouse is a dignified public building whose modernity contrasts with the ornamented brick facades of surrounding commercial buildings. Facing 6th Street on Courthouse Square is the Confederate Monument of 1913. Dating from the era of the Texas Centennial is the Matagorda County Monument of 1936 by sculptor Raoul Josset with architects Page and Southerland.