In 1887, Isanti County commissioners recommended an act authorizing eight thousand dollars in bonds to build a courthouse and jail. D. O. Anderson offered to donate the land, and P.J. Lind was to superintend the carpenter work, with instructions to get as much room as possible for the money spent. The building was intended to be plain and substantial, without unnecessary embellishments, and the new courthouse ultimately cost $6,993. The jail was built the following year. County officers had previously kept records in offices and homes scattered across Isanti County until the first courthouse was built in 1871, but that courthouse and jail, with its stockade, were condemned by the grand jury because they did not adequately protect county records or provide enough space for county officials. Several years after construction, brick veneer and a porch were added, though the porch was later removed. Its projecting entrance pavilion, flat-topped tower with a triangular dormer on each face, steeply hipped roof, tall paired windows, stone sills, gray slate main roof, and crimped tin tower roof reflect French Second Empire and Italianate influences. In 1966, the basement was remodeled at a cost of $39,793 to provide a new jail, sheriff's office, and radio and teletype room. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, and despite numerous improvements over the years, the same structure remains today in private ownership for business office space.