In 1977, when the building of the current county courthouse was being planned, one option was to raze the existing courthouse and build on the same site. Bids were even solicited at this time for its removal, but only one was received and it was deemed too low.Old Courthouse Receives Reprieve; Ozarks Today; June 22, 1980; Page 18 So the building was spared, in part due to its role in the 1939 Jesse James film. So that same year, the county court instead purchased a lot two blocks north of the city square for $10,000 with the intention of building a new courthouse. The firm of Hood-Rich, architects and consulting engineers from Springfield, Missouri, designed the one-story 72-by-84-foot masonry building and in December 1977 R. E. Smith Construction of Joplin, Missouri was chosen to building the building. The groundbreaking for the new, 5,000-square-foot building took place on December 21, 1977. The Local Public Works Capital Development and Investment Act of 1977, as amended by the Public Works Employment Act of 1977, under the U.S. Department of Commerce, provided a grant of $145,000 for construction of the building with local contributions of about $20,000 completing the funds. The dedication and open house for the new courthouse took place in July 1978, coinciding with the town's annual Jesse James Days festival, which celebrates the 1939 film that was shot in the town. At that time, it was the only new county courthouse in the state built purposely offsite to preserve its predecessor for posterity.
