Live Oak County was created by the Texas Legislature in 1852, with its first county seat at Oakville, where a native stone and lumber building on the public square served as the courthouse for more than sixty years after being modified over time. As railroads arrived in the 1910s and the county's population grew, cattleman George Washington West, owner of a 200,000-acre ranch, laid out the town of George West in 1912-13 and pressed to move the county seat there. In 1919 the county seat was relocated, and West immediately deeded an entire block for a new courthouse. The 1920 Live Oak County Courthouse was designed by San Antonio architect Alfred Giles, a friend of West who had also designed his 1880s ranch house; Giles, known for designing more than a dozen county courthouses as well as homes, schools, and commercial buildings in Texas and Mexico, died before the building was completed. The courthouse is a classical revival, symmetrical three-story dark brick and cast stone building, with porticos supported by large unfluted Corinthian columns with detailed capitals, accented in white along with the architrave and cornice, and it was advertised as fireproof with reinforced concrete. Beyond its governmental and legal functions, the courthouse and its grounds have hosted community events including political rallies, weddings, Christmas events, and county celebrations, and for more than a century it has served the people of Live Oak County while embodying historical and architectural distinction.