Randolph County was formed in 1779, and its government met at the lost town of Johnstonville in New Market Township from 1786 to 1792. After residents petitioned for a more convenient location in the most central part of the county, the state legislature relocated Randolph Court House to the new site of Asheborough. The first session of court in Asheborough was held on the Publick Ground at the intersection of Main and Salisbury Streets on June 12, 1793. After the arrival of the railroad in 1889, Asheboro’s business center began to migrate away from the old Publick Ground. In 1907 the county commissioners purchased proven plans from the Charlotte firm of Wheeler, Runge and Dickey that were nearly identical to their popular 1899 Iredell County Courthouse plans. In April 1908 citizens of Asheboro purchased Col. A.C. McAlister’s barnyard and windmill water pump as the site for the new building. Construction began on July 8, 1908, and the first term of court was held in the building on July 19, 1909. The 1909 courthouse is the seventh building to serve as the Randolph County Courthouse, the fourth built in Asheboro, and the first built on Worth Street. It combines flamboyant Victorian massing with motifs of American Beaux-Arts Classicism. The two-story main block is topped by a powerful Send Empire cupola covered by a ribbed copper dome. Corinthian columns with terra cotta capitals support an elaborate pediment with pressed tin decoration. Arched windows to the east and west define the courtroom on the second floor, and the windows of the southern facade feature elaborate molded lintels in a variety of shapes and sizes. Construction used one million red bricks from Glenola, N.C., 700,000 yellow bricks from Ohio, and tons of white granite from Mt. Airy, N.C. The building’s final cost was $34,000.