Court House Museum

One of the highlights of our visit to New Castle was the historic Court House, one of the oldest surviving courthouses in the United States. Standing before this building, it is easy to appreciate that it was much more than a courthouse. For nearly a century, it served as the center of government for Delaware, where important decisions were made that shaped the future of both the colony and the new nation.

Constructed in 1732, the building served as Delaware’s first statehouse and was the meeting place for the colonial legislature and, later, the state’s General Assembly. It also housed the courts, making it the political and judicial heart of colonial Delaware. Its distinctive cupola became the center point from which the twelve-mile circle defining part of Delaware’s northern boundary was measured, a unique colonial boundary that still exists today.

The courthouse witnessed one of the defining moments in Delaware’s history. On June 15, 1776, meeting within these walls, Delaware’s Assembly voted to sever all ties with both Great Britain and Pennsylvania. That decision declared Delaware to be an independent state, free to govern itself. Nearly a month later, Delaware joined the other colonies in supporting the Declaration of Independence, but it was here that Delaware first chose its own independent path.

Today, the courthouse stands as one of the finest preserved colonial public buildings in America. Walking through New Castle, we quickly realized that this was not a recreated colonial village but an authentic eighteenth-century town. The Court House remains at the center of that story, reminding visitors that Delaware, though our second-smallest state, played an outsized role in the birth of the nation.