The Lee County Courthouse was designed by J. R. Gordon along lines similar to the New York State Capitol and several buildings at Harvard University. Classified as Richardsonian Romanesque style, after the Louisiana-born architect Henry H. Richardson, it was built by Sonnefield, Emmins and Abright of San Antonio in 1899. It replaced the first courthouse, which burned in 1897, and stands on the crest of the divide separating the Colorado and Brazos River basins.