 The building was designed by architect L. Phillips Clarke of West Palm Beach and built by Chalker & Lund of poured concrete walls with terrazzo floors in the Art Deco style for the WPA as a northern addition to the first Martin County courthouse, which had been built in 1908 as a Palm Beach County public school building and converted to courthouse use after Martin County was created in 1925.The four words, Martin County Court House, were prominently etched into the front of the addition, where they still remain.Because of this, both the National Register and the Cultural Center have retained the two-word spelling of courthouse even though the one-word version is the preferred one.