Designed by noted New York City architect William B. Tubby in the Classical Revival style of architecture with a grand rotunda capped by a white dome, it was built of poured-in-place reinforced concrete.

Later additions and renovations were 1924-1928 under the supervision of architect William J. Beardsley, who had designed the Dutchess County Court House in Poughkeepsie.

[2] In the late 1930s and early 1940s, a new courthouse and other county buildings were built nearby.

Some interior alterations to the old building were done in the 1940s and 1950s, but by the time it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, it was in a state of neglect.

[2] In 2002 the firm of John G. Waite Associates restored the dome to its former glory.