Soon after the town of Eutaw was surveyed in 1838 and laid out as the newly established seat of Greene County, John V. Crossland began construction of a two-story courthouse which was completed in 1839.
The 1839 courthouse building was destroyed by fire on the night of March 28, 1868. Historians generally agree the fire was a deliberate act of arson. At the time, the Radical Reconstruction government had brought roughly 1,800 legal suits and indictments against local planters on behalf of freedmen. The fire effectively destroyed these records, halting the legal proceedings.
Construction of the new courthouse building began in 1868 and it was completed the following year. Surviving walls of the first courthouse were taken down to the first-story windowsill level and as much of the materials of the old courthouse were used to build the new building. The original plans were used with the exception of a much taller second level, three-sash windows, and wider, Italianate eaves and brackets.
Several other buildings on the courthouse square survived the 1868 fire, including the Grand Jury Building (built in 1842) and the Probate Office (built in 1856). The Probate Office is particularly notable for its original marble-tiled floors and iron shutters, which helped protect county records dating back to 1818.
In 1936, the Greene County Courthouse was photographed and recorded in the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on March 24, 1971. The building is also the center of the Greene County Courthouse Square District that was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 31, 1979. This building is located in the center of the courthouse square at downtown Eutaw (Google Maps: 32.840587, -87.887530).
B&W photographs provided courtesy of the U. S. Library of Congress (HABS), photographer: Alex Bush, date: 1936.
Sources: 1) GreeneCountyHistoricSociety.org; 2) NRHP “Greene County Courthouse” Nomination Form; 3) NRHP “Greene County Courthouse Square District” Nomination Form.