Davidsonville's courthouse, Arkansas's first courthouse, was built from 1819 to 1822 over three years and stood as the town's most prominent building, symbolizing law and order on a rough frontier. People came there to conduct much of the same business handled in courthouses today, including voting, paying taxes, marriages, and court sessions. Archeological work has shown that it was a two-story brick building with glass windows, but no written description of the courthouse has been found. A September 22, 1821, diary entry by James Brown Campbell called Davidsonville a neat little village in the fork of the river, the county seat for Lawrence, with a good log jail and a brick courthouse then under construction.