The hilltop courthouse was built in 1883 and is fronted by a street-level stone entryway and retaining wall constructed in 1938 by the Works Progress Administration.

They were extant in 1985 when the complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Todd County Courthouse, Sheriff's House, and Jail, but have been demolished since.

The county was organized in 1867 and government business was conducted in various private homes until a frame building atop a prominent hill in Long Prairie was donated for use as a courthouse in 1870.

[3] Ten years after the second courthouse was completed, Todd County officials commissioned the building which still stands today.

[4] Around the year 1900, architect Fremont D. Orff was hired to convert the sheriff's quarters at the rear of the courthouse into regular offices.

[3] The courthouse complex was modified again in the 1930s, when the county received federal New Deal funds to create jobs during the Great Depression.

A crew under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) enlarged the courthouse basement and built an elaborate stone entry with street-level doors and stairs up to the original hilltop entrance.

[6] With the aging building used merely for storage, the Todd County board of commissioners decided in 2009 that the courthouse had to be rehabilitated or demolished.

It contains facilities for several government departments, including the county administrator, tax assessor, watershed district, and board of commissioners.