Webster Springs has been considered a town since 1852, when the first postmaster was appointed to Fork Lick, its earlier name. After it was chosen as the county seat, resident Addison McLaughlin donated the courthouse land, and the town was officially renamed Addison in honor of that gift; although commonly called Webster Springs, it still legally bears the name Addison. The first courthouse on this site was a wooden frame building erected in 1865/1866, which burned in 1888. In 1895, the first part of the present courthouse was built, the sheriff's office and jail were added in 1902, and renovation in 1939 connected the two sections. A single block of coal mined from Curtin was placed here in the mid 1930s as a reminder of Webster County's coal history. A sulphur well, originally drilled at this corner of Court Square in 1937, preserves the salt sulphur water associated with the tourist boom of the late 19th and early 20th century. When the well was drilled, the structure at the corner of Court Square was dedicated as a veterans memorial by the Secretary of War in 1938; the well was renovated in 2001, and a wall was erected and etched with the names of Webster County residents who served in the military.