Old Statehouse
The Green, Dover, DEThe Old State House is the most significant unit, both architecturally and historically, of the Capitol Buildings Complex which collectively comprises the Capitol of Delaware. With its immediate environs, it is associated directly with most and indirectly with all of the legislative and executive decisions of this State since 1777. From 1792 to 1932 it was the sole seat of State government, while from 1722 until 1873 it served also as Kent County Court House. Before it the Declaration of Independence was read and King George's portrait was ceremonially burned in July 1776. On or very near this site Delaware became the First State by ratification of the Federal Constitution on December 7, 1787. Within the building, the General Assembly of this northernmost slave state expressed "unqualified disapproval" of secession on January 3, 1861. Other incidents of almost comparable significance which have occurred in the Old State House, or nearly because it was there, might be drawn from almost any decade of Delaware history.
Local significance of the building:Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.