In 1855, when the town of Carrollton became the seat of Jefferson Parish, Henry Howard was hired to design the courthouse. Empolying the classical temple formula then popular in America, he noted in his specifications for the building that the portico’s four Ionic columns were to be based on those of the Erechtheum in Athens. However, the columns were made of brick and the bases and capitals of cast iron. The brick walls were plastered and scored to resemble masonry, and the joints were originally painted brown. A side entrance is pedimented, matched originally by side windows with pediment-shaped moldings. Frederick Wing and Robert Crozier were the builders. After Carrollton was annexed by New Orleans in 1874, the structure was remodeled for use as a public school, and this use continued, off and on, into the early twenty-first century. Vacant now for several years, the building was threatened with an uncertain future, but in 2017 it was sold at public auction to Houston developers who plan to redevelop it into senior citizen housing.