Old Statehouse is a historic

state capitol This is a list of state and territorial capitols in the United States, the building or complex of buildings from which the government of each U.S. state, the District of Columbia and the organized territories of the United States, exercise its ...

building located on The Green at

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

Kent County, Delaware Kent County is a county located in the central part of the U.S. state of Delaware. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851, making it the least populous county in Delaware. The county seat is Dover, the state capital of Delaware. It i ...

. It was built between 1787 and 1792, and is a two-story, five-bay, brick structure in a

Middle Georgian Georgian (, , ) is the most widely-spoken Kartvelian language, and serves as the literary language or lingua franca for speakers of related languages. It is the official language of Georgia and the native or primary language of 87.6% of its p ...

style. The front facade features a

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. Th ...

over the center door and above it a

Palladian window Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

at the center of the second floor. It has a shingled side gabled roof topped with an octagonal

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

. A number of attached wings were added between 1836 and 1926. From 1792 to 1932 it was the sole seat of State government, while from 1792 until 1873 it served also as Kent County Court House. and ' The state house was remodeled in 1873 to reflect a

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

style and restored in 1976 to its original appearance. Extensive renovations of the State House also took place in 2007. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1971. It is located in the

Dover Green Historic District Dover Green Historic District is a national historic district located at Dover, Kent County, Delaware. It encompasses 79 contributing buildings centered on The Green and including most of the inhabited part of 18th century Dover. Notable build ...

. It is now part of the Delaware National Historic Park and a museum run by the Delaware Division of Historic and Cultural Affairs. It can be toured Monday–Saturday 9–4:30 and Sundays 1:30–4:30 free of charge.

Gallery

File:Old Delaware State House 1.jpg, The building's exterior in 2010 File:Old State House, Dover, Senate chamber.jpg, Old State Senate chamber File:OLD STATE HOUSE, DOVER, KENT COUNTY, DELAWARE.jpg, Original courtroom

Description

The Old State House is an elegant brick building constructed in the late Middle Georgian style. It boasts five bays and is laid in Flemish bond at the front and Liverpool bond on the sides, both displaying excellent craftsmanship. The windows are topped with

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...

s, while the

water table The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...

is also adorned with marble. A

can be seen above the door, and at the center of the second-floor fenestration is a beautiful Palladian window. The building is crowned with a shingled-hipped roof and an octagonal cupola. The State House underwent a complete reconstruction between 1787 and 1792, incorporating the hard brick and other reusable materials from its predecessor, a courthouse built in 1722. Except for unfortunate changes in 1873-1875, which substituted a

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

and bricked in most of the Palladian window, exterior alterations to the State House have been in the form of attached wings, added between 1836 and 1926. In 1910 the original roof line and five second-floor windows were restored to their pre-l873 appearance. The enlargements are a brick two-story and

basement A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...

addition to the east, built in 1836 and extended in 1895-1897; a pillared rotunda and south wing in 1910; and an annex to the east in 1925-1926. In 1968-1969 the rotunda was removed, leaving an inconspicuous single-story recessed structure between the original Old State House and the remodeled former south wing, now a separate Supreme Court Building. The interior of both the oldest section and the successive additions has been repeatedly altered to meet changing needs. Research to determine the nature and dates of these changes is far advanced. Restoration of the original 1787-1792 State House is scheduled for the near future. The State House stands on The Green, centrally located in the Colonial portion of Dover. It faces west, occupying, the Supreme Court Building, all the east side of the small eighteenth-century square. The State House shares The Green with Kent County Courthouse, private homes, several of them handsome, and former private homes converted to State or professional office use. A four-lane street, widened for extra parking in front of the State House, separates the tree-shaded grass plot from the buildings, nearly all of which open directly on the

sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English), footpath in Australia, India, New Zealand and Ireland, or footway, is a path along the side of a street, street, highway, terminals. Usually constructed of concrete, pavers, brick ...

. Many are of eighteenth-century date, some with Victorian facades. State Street, a portion of U.S. Alternate 113, bisects The Green parallel with the front of the State House. To the east of The Green, adjacent to the newer rear additions to the State House, is a large open space laid out circa 1930. About it are centered additional small and medium sized State buildings erected in and after 1932 but of Georgian design to harmonize with the original structure. Together with the public buildings fronting on The Green, they comprise a Capitol Buildings Complex.

Significance

The Capitol Buildings Complex in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

comprises several important units, but none are as architecturally and historically significant as the Old State House. Since 1777, this building and its surrounding area have been directly or indirectly linked to almost all legislative and executive decisions of the state. It served as the sole seat of the state government from 1792 to 1932 and also functioned as Kent County Courthouse from 1722 to 1873. The Declaration of Independence was read here in July 1776, and King George's portrait was ceremonially burned. Delaware ratified the Federal Constitution on December 7, 1787, making it the First State, at or near the same site. On January 3, 1861, the General Assembly of this northernmost slave state expressed its "unqualified disapproval" of secession within the Old State House. Throughout Delaware's history, other noteworthy events have occurred in or near the Old State House, demonstrating its significance.

References

External links

Old State House
– official site * {{National Register of Historic Places in Delaware Historic American Buildings Survey in Delaware Former state capitols in the United States Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Delaware Georgian architecture in Delaware Government buildings completed in 1792 Buildings and structures in Dover, Delaware Museums in Dover, Delaware History museums in Delaware National Register of Historic Places in Dover, Delaware Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Delaware

Gallery

Description

Significance

See also

References

External links