Georgetown was founded to supplant Lewes as the county seat, and this two-story cypress-shingled building with gabled roof was among the first to be erected in “James Pettyjohn's old field,” the tract upon which the new town grid was laid out. After being replaced in turn by the current courthouse, the structure was moved to a new location, where it served as a dwelling and, later, as a printing office. The state archives commission bought the abandoned and dilapidated building and heavily rebuilt it for the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976.