Anticipating the construction of a railroad through the country hamlet of Youngsville, Griffin Young in 1860 hired W. H. Whatley to survey a portion of his property and lay it off in forty-eight town lots, with two acres reserved for use as a public square. Delayed by the Civil War, the railroad was finally completed to the newly named Alexander City in 1874, and the business center developed around and to the north of the public square. In 1877, on the south side of the square, the members of the First Baptist Church erected their first house of worship. In 1889, during the term of Mayor Buford L. Dean, a courthouse-city hall was erected on the site. The original building was destroyed in the 1902 fire, and a second building was erected in 1903 and a third in 1939.