The decision to build a second courthouse for Arkansas County was a result of Stuttgart’s dramatic growth in the early twentieth century as the agricultural (rice being the principal crop), transportation, and business center of the county. The courthouse in DeWitt, the initial county seat, was replaced in 1931–1932 by a building designed by H. Ray Burks in a rather severe Art Deco style. Stuttgart’s courthouse, designed by J. B. Barrett for the local contracting firm of Barrett and Ogletree, is a Classical Revival two-story red brick structure on a raised basement. The north and east facades are similar, each with a central three bay-wide frontispiece defined by brick pilasters, a pediment with a small circular window in its center, and a white entablature.