Sussex headquarters was once a post office

Before becoming the home of the Sussex County government, the building at 2 The Circle in Georgetown was the town’s post office. This undated image, likely from the early 1990s, shows the building on the corner of South Bedford Street and The Circle, which looks pretty similar today. What’s missing, though, is the three-story addition that was built around the post office building. Prior to the opening of the new County Administration Building in December 1996, county offices and county council chambers were in the Sussex County Courthouse. As the county grew, so did the need for more space. A 1996 article in the Cape Gazette noted that council chambers were so small that standing-room-only meetings were common. If a controversial issue was on the agenda, council would move the meeting to a courtroom to accommodate a bigger crowd. The process to build the County Administration Building was years in the making. In June 1993, it was reported county council offered the federal government $200,000 for the post office property. After securing the property, the county sold the Sussex County Courthouse to the state for $4.3 million. It built the new administration building for $5.3 million. The portion of the building that was once the post office was built in 1932. The post office moved to 115 S. King St. in 1992.