Robertson County was established on April 9, 1796, during the first session of the General Assembly of Tennessee, which provided commissioners to organize county government and raise money for a courthouse and jail. Early court meetings were held in the homes of Jacob McCarty and Benjamin McIntosh and then at George Bell’s store until the first courthouse, a log structure, was completed on July 15, 1799. A February 1805 court order called for a frame addition on the west end with two jury rooms, windows, and fireplaces, and in November 1806 stocks were ordered for the public square, where punishments included lashes and days in the stocks. Special taxes collected from 1818 through 1820 totaled $6842.29, and the old log courthouse with its addition and attached brick and rock were sold to fund a second courthouse, built in 1819 as a two-story square brick building on a stone foundation with walls 44 feet long and 30 feet high above the foundation. In July 1847 a committee was appointed to investigate digging a well near the courthouse on the public square. After the fall of Fort Donelson in February 1862 during the War Between the States, Union forces occupied the city and county, delaying much courthouse business, and Chancery Court was closed from November 1861 to May 1865. In 1878 a civil engineer reported that the building was liable to fall in hard wind and heavy rain, so in January 1879 a committee was appointed to plan a new courthouse. The third courthouse was built in 1879 at a cost of $20,959.40 in the Second Empire style, forming the center section of the present building, and an iron fence, gate, and posts were added in January 1881 before being removed and sold in October 1918. The building originally included four small rooms intended as water closets; after the sewer was completed in 1906, these were finished as restrooms at a cost of $200, and in April 1911 approval was given to wire the building for electric lighting. In July 1928 a committee found the courthouse sound but too small, leading to construction in 1929 of north and south wings and a clock tower at a cost of $106,685.12, with sand-colored brick added throughout and the style changed to Italian Renaissance Revival. A 1940's-era photograph showed early signs of water infiltration in the 135-ton tower, and engineers reported continuing deterioration from the 1960's through 1980's; repairs were made and a major restoration was completed in 1982, but structural problems remained. From 2005 through 2007 nearly four million dollars was spent to replace damaged material, improve the steel structure for longevity, and renovate the building for continued court use. The Robertson County Courthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.