Noted architect Charles L. Thompson designed the Woodruff County Courthouse. Thomas Hough, founder of Augusta in 1848, built his home on this location before the Civil War, and during the Federal occupation Gen. Frederick Steele headquartered here. Woodruff County, created in 1861, bought the Hough house in 1870 and used it as a courthouse until 1901. The present courthouse was built in 1902 on part of its foundation and used its entire north wall. On Dec. 22, 1982, the U.S. Department of Interior placed it on the National Registry of Historic Places.