Coffee County’s first courthouse stood at Wellborn until it burned in 1851. After Elba was chosen as the county seat in a county election on October 5, 1852, receiving 58 more votes than Indigo Head (Clintonville), John B. Simmons gave this site. The first building erected here was a two story frame structure that burned during Ward’s Raiders on September 3, 1863. A new courthouse was completed in 1867 and served Coffee County until 1881, when it was sold at auction. A third building, completed in 1881, was enlarged in 1899, and when it no longer met the county’s needs, it was replaced by the present courthouse in 1903. The site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.