This is the seventh courthouse to occupy the town square, replacing an 1885 courthouse designed by W. C. Dodson. Greenville architect Ragsdale toured new courthouses throughout the southwest to learn current trends and building methods. The resulting design is a compilation of traditional and modern influences. The five-story scheme (a one-story jail above is not visible from the street) combines stepped massing and classical detailing to create a monumental character. The plan focuses on a single, axial approach, with a broad flight of stairs leading to a three-arched entrance portal that stands forward from the terra-cotta-clad principal floor above a raised basement. Projecting two-story wings, also clad in terra-cotta, flank this central portion as if to form a protective court. At the third story and rising two floors is a seven-bay row of fluted Ionic columns and tawny brick end bays. A one-story attic of pilasters and a stylized triglyph cornice crown the central mass. Lateral four-story blocks in brick with terra-cotta trim frame the central section.
Across the street at 2508 Lee is the former Kress Building (1939, Edward F. Sibbert), now Landon Winery, one of approximately eighteen former Kress stores remaining in Texas. Instead of the iconic glazed terra-cotta used on the earlier stores, the tawny brick facade has limestone pilasters and a red granite base. The original canopy with curved corners and curved glass display windows makes an unusually complete historic facade.