Construction on the Cochise County Courthouse began in 1882, with a kiln built and brick makers hired to produce bricks for the new building. Its cornerstone was laid on August 11, 1882, and the Victorian building was completed by January 1883 at a cost of $43,000. It served Cochise County until 1930, after Cochise County voted in 1929 to move the county seat to Bisbee and the official courthouse moved in July 1930. In 1948, work began to convert the building into a hotel, but the hotel was never completed. In 1952, the Tombstone Restoration Commission began restoring the building; the first floor was completed in 1957 and work had begun on the second floor. The City of Tombstone and the Restoration Commission donated the courthouse to the Arizona State Parks Board as a museum in 1959, and it became Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park in 1960.