King Street was once famed for retail, with 240 stores and businesses in 1900. From 1863, this corner was the site of the Farmer's Market. Twentieth-century urban renewal swept it all away, creating barren parking lots. Relocating the county courthouse here formed part of a larger effort in the 1990s to shift downtown activities toward the riverfront. At 572,000 square feet, the fourteen-story tower in a chilly modernist idiom was the largest nontransportation building project ever undertaken in Delaware. Architect Simpers had earlier been a National Guardsman patrolling this area after race riots in 1968.