It is difficult to overstate the historical importance of the Liberty County Courthouse in the history of Liberty County and East Texas. Land titles and law enforcement have been located in a building on the county square since Mexican colonization days. The town of Liberty and its case constitucional, laid out in 1831, was established as the headquarters of the Mexican district of Atascosito and has retained governmental offices since that time. The present structure is the seventh courthouse to occupy the town-square since 1831, when Jose Francisco Madero laid out the Villa de le Santisma Trinidad de la Libertad according to the Laws of the Indies.

The courthouse square has witnessed more than 160 years of Texas and county history. The importance of the square and the significance that the County attaches to it is expressed in the continuing use of the plot as the site of seven county courthouses. The Moderns architectural style expressed in the present courthouse represents the progressive economic and business attitudes that Liberty County had embraced with the oil boom in the late 1920s. When the business of the county expanded in the mid-1950s, the county chose to add on to the historic courthouse rather than build another, confirming the historical and economic importance of the courthouse to the citizens.

Houston architect Corneil G. Curtis designed the current courthouse building in 1927. Construction was completed in December, 1931, at a cost of $250,000. Curtis' design is a modernized classical style popular at the time for civic structures. Sited with the long axle running east-west for natural ventilation, the building mass is bi-axially symmetrical. The main block, 62' x 144', has end bays which project eight feet, creating the appearance of a recessed facade to receive the monumental stairs leading to the north and south entrances. The first floor is capped by a bold dado that forms a plinth, above which rises a two-story order of pilasters. A tall, flat entablature cape the composition. With the dark painted steel windows filling the space between the pilasters, the courthouse has the appearance of a classical temple, an image of tradition and stability certainly appropriate to the building's use. Low relief sculptural panels contain stylized imagery relating to the region: longhorns, covered wagons, water lilies, pine trees, oil derricks, and Texas Lone Stars. Waves incised in the continuous dado warn of the proximity of the Gulf of Mexico. Large eagles over the entrances and winged federal shields indicate the governmental function.

The courthouse is a three-story poured in place concrete structure of columns, beams, and slabs. The high roof over the 3rd floor District Courtroom changes to steel trusses on steel and concrete columns. At least 85% of the original fabric remains In the courthouse, including the Texas Cordova Cream limestone exterior and the painted steel windows. Exterior decorative treatments have been well cared for. The interior is remarkably intact, with many interior wood doors, ventilating windows, wood trim, marble wainscots, ceramic tile flooring, and many plaster partitions and ceilings remaining. The large District Courtroom is virtually unchanged.