The first court held in Beaver County after its formation by the state on March 12, 1800, was in the tavern and home of Abner Lacock, later a United States Senator, and also one of the first three judges in Beaver County. This was located on the north side of Third Street nearly midway between Insurance and Market.
The County, then including what is now the southern half of Lawrence County, was formed by legislative act on March 12, 1800, and its first court organized for judicial purposes on April 2, 1803.
The court moved from the Lacock Tavern in 1804, when the commissioners appointed to locate and erect a court house, jail, public offices and depository for public records did provide such a building, with a jail on the first floor and court on the second, on the site of the present law offices of Wilson and Orr on Quay (then Harmar) Square.
At the time of its founding, Beaver County was part of the Sixth Judicial District and its judges rode circuit. Among their number were such distinguished jurists as a future justice of the United States Supreme Court, Henry Baldwin, and a future Chief justice of the Commonwealth, judge John Bannister Gibson.
The first court house was also a place for general meetings and public worship until 18 10, when a new court house was erected at a site to the east of the present building. One story wings were added in 1840 and in 1848.
In 1875 this was replaced by a new court house which was partially destroyed by fire in 1933, with only a small portion of the front and lower walls remaining. These were rebuilt and the court house restored to its recent appearance before an addition was built to the rear toward Fourth Street, 1972.
A bombing of the addition to the court house on September 11, 1972, required further repairs at a cost of over $200,000.