Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, the district includes the Shackelford County Courthouse and a number of surrounding Victorian buildings dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Sixteen lots with 25-foot (7.6 m) frontages were platted on each side of the courthouse square, which became the center of the growing town.

In 1881 Albany became a terminus of the Texas Central Railroad, after which people and businesses moved to the county seat from surrounding settlements.

In 1883 one of the houses on the square was repurposed as Albany's first public school, and a two-story bank building raised that year later became City Hall.

[2] Since the early twentieth century, few alterations have been made to the structures in the courthouse district, with the youngest buildings dating to the 1920s.