A 2014 textbook estimated that there were "roughly 17,000 courthouses" in the United States.

Early American courthouses were very simple, with "plain furnishings and finishes". By the middle of the 19th century, courthouses increasingly evolved into "imposing, grandiose" structures featuring "formal architectural elements such as columns, domes, clock towers, and grand entrances". Courthouses often have entrances which require visitors to climb "an excessive number of steps that lead to a single set of doors through which all people