It replaced an older timber frame courthouse near the current site, which served what was at that time the entire Holland Purchase, the vast tract that is today Western New York.

The courthouse is located in the west corner of the triangular lot with Main on the north, Ellicott on the south and Court Street to the east.

West of the courthouse, at the fork of Main and Ellicott, is the large granite Soldier's Monument, with a statue of General Emory Upton.

The post office, old county jail and Batavia's old city hall, all also contributing properties to the historic district, are to the north, across Main.

[2] The lower tier of the cupola has clapboard siding with corner pilasters and a frieze and projecting molded cornice of its own.

Atop that is a balustrade surrounding the top tier, where each face has two Doric pilasters flanking a louvered vent.

[2] Stone steps with center and side iron guardrails rise to the deeply recessed main entrance.

[4] Joseph Ellicott supervised the building of the first courthouse in 1802 on behalf of the Holland Land Company, for which he was agent.

He had chosen what became Batavia for his headquarters due to its location at the convergence of major Iroquois trails through the region, two of which became Main and Ellicott streets and the state highways that follow them.

After taking delivery, he hung it from a pole between two trees and proceeded to ring it in the early hours of one morning, awakening the entire village.

[2] The county's Board of Supervisors had petitioned the state legislature for money to build a new courthouse, which was authorized that same year.

Its Greek Revival design, typical for public buildings of the period, was an expanded version of the original courthouse, later to serve as town and village hall.

The wall stones came from nearby Le Roy, already emerging as a center for that material, and the pillars and capitals from Lockport, the seat of Niagara County to the northwest.

The front, originally a recessed full-width porch with freestanding columns, was enclosed to create more office space.

[2] A more extensive 1975 project spent $155,000 ($878,000 in contemporary dollars[5]) to add a fire alarm and sprinkler system, lightning protection, gutter downspouts and cleaned the outside stone again.