Built in 1896-97, the Denton County Courthouse was the fifth courthouse for Denton County. The first stood at Alton and the second at Pinckneyville. The third, in Denton, was burned in a crime charged to a member of the Sam Bass Gang of outlaws. Its walls are of native limestone and its columns of Burnet County marble. Its architecture is a free combination of Victorian styles, with French Second Empire pavilions and fanciful Ogival domes. The architect was W. C. Dodson, and contractor Tom Lovell is said to have built the Utah Capitol.