This is Delaware’s first permanent capitol building completed in 1791 on Dover’s historic Green. The State House was the home of Delaware’s General Assembly until 1933.

On the first floor of the Old State House you’ll see an 18th century-style courtroom while the second floor features the former chambers of the state legislature. When you are in the House chamber be sure and check out the notable portraits by Thomas Sully of Commodores Jacob Jones and Thomas Macdonough, heroes from the First State who served in the War of 1812. In the  Senate chamber, you can admire an imposing portrait of George Washington painted by Denis A. Volozan. It was commissioned with the instruction that Washington “was to appear as large as life.”

The Old State House also played a role in the struggle for black freedom and is a stop  on the Harriet Tubman Byway. Here you can learn more about the  “Dover Eight” – a group of freedom seekers who escaped from Maryland but were betrayed by an Underground Railroad conductor and imprisoned, but later managed to break out of jail.

If you’re following the Delaware History Trail the Old State House is one of the locations on it!