Plainview was founded in 1888 as the seat of Hale County but was not incorporated until 1907. This four-story buff brick courthouse by Overbeck of Dallas is a typical classical design on a raised basement of banded rusticated brick. Narrow stairs rise to the main level on all sides, with a small portico on the west entrance supported on paired Doric columns. The fourth-floor forms an attic, above which a deep cornice is supported by modillions. The golden octagonal dome has a ribbed melon shape, and the drum is so short that it is not visible from the ground. The courthouse was constructed by Martin, Byrne and Johnston of Colorado City, a firm that designed and built twenty Texas county courthouses and that built the previous courthouse of 1890. Their name was mysteriously scratched away from the cornerstone of this courthouse. The former jail is located on the northeast corner of the courthouse square.