The Old State House
Step from Dover’s Green into a restored courtroom and legislative chambers in the state’s first permanent capital building.
Artwork inspired by Howard Pyle
Completed in 1791, the Old State House held both Kent County government and Delaware’s legislature. Its first-floor courtroom and upper chambers make an unusually compact lesson in how local justice and state politics once shared a building. The structure changed appearance and function over time before restoration; what visitors see is an interpretation of an earlier period, not a room frozen untouched since the founding era.
A guided tour gives the chambers context that the portraits and furniture cannot provide alone. The site also belongs to the larger story of Dover’s Green, where public life, markets, arguments, and constitutional memory intersect. Spend a little time outside before or after the tour: the relationship between square and building explains why this civic location mattered.
- Completed
- 1791
- First floor
- Courtroom
- Upper floor
- Legislative chambers
Quick guide
- Start at the Green
- See how the square frames the former seat of government.
- Join a tour
- A guide connects the courtroom and chambers to Delaware’s changing politics.
Know before you go
- See shared power
- County justice and state legislation occupied one small building.
- Study the portraits
- Ask whose presence the chambers chose to preserve.
- Question the restoration
- Different generations altered the building before its present interpretation.
- Walk the square
- The Green was a civic gathering place, not just a lawn.
Good to know
There are no public restrooms inside the Old State House, and the second-floor rooms do not share the first floor’s accessibility. Plan for both before arriving.
Notice these
- Georgian brick facade
- Eighteenth-century-style courtroom
- Former legislative chambers