The land for the first courthouse was offered to the county supervisors by Frank Freeman, one of Woodland's founders. He offered an entire city block with the boundaries of Court, North, Second, and Third Streets. Albert Bennett, an architect from Sacramento, who also worked among other architects on the California State Capitol building, was hired by the Yolo County Board of Supervisors to design one of the city's first major landmarks. A builder named P. McManus was chosen for the construction and was hired on June 26, 1863, for $24,250, and was to have it built by October 1, 1864. The final result was a two-story brick Italianate style edifice, $27,858 in the making. Not only was the dollar amount more than what was expected, but the construction also took longer than planned. Subsequent earthquakes in 1892, 1904, and 1906 weakened the structural integrity of the building and damaged the ventilation system. In 1908 one judge moved his court out of the building due to odor in the building. The Yolo County Grand Jury, Board of Supervisors, and the California State Board of Health found the building "unsanitary and unfit for the transactions of the court" on January 4, 1911.