The blue marble-faced two story building has a five-bay diagonal section facing the roadway that forms its entrance.

It has a four-columned Corinthian Greek portico and is topped by a monumental cupola which rises 132 feet (40 m) above the structure.

The first courts in the county were held at Fort Butler, which was constructed as a holding area for the Cherokee Native Americans during the Trail of Tears.

In 1844 Archibald Russell Spence Hunter, a prominent merchant and the first postmaster in the area, had the first brick courthouse constructed on the current public square.

Right after the Civil War ended, Murphy’s courthouse was burned down on May 4, 1865, by the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry under the command of Union Col. George Washington Kirk.

An investigator concluded a janitor accidentally started the fire after lighting a match in the ladies’ room to look for supplies.

[4] On September 7, 1963, Cherokee County Sheriff Claude Anderson was shot three times at the courthouse and was critically wounded.

[6] The courthouse served as an overnight shelter for residents when a deadly F4 tornado devastated the Murphy area during the 1974 Super Outbreak.