Built after the fire that destroyed the capitol in 1747 to house the secretary of the colony and for “the Preservation of the Public Records and Papers,” this brick building served as Virginia's clerical center. The colonial chief clerk trained all future county clerks here and maintained the official records of land grants. The building's quality and construction parallel those of Virginia courthouses and Anglican churches of the same era. Its refined brickwork is punctuated with a gauged brick frontispiece matching those at nearby Carter's Grove.