In 1807 fifteen wagons, escorted by troops, left Louisville, the former capital, carrying the treasury and public records of the state. The new statehouse, though unfinished, was able to accommodate the legislators. Over the next thirty years the building was enlarged with a north and south wing. Its pointed arched windows and battlements marked it as America's first public building in the Gothic revival style.

The new capital was a rather crude frontier community with simple clapboard houses, a multitude of inns and taverns, law offices, bordellos, and hostelries. The town attracted several blacksmiths, whitesmiths, apothecaries, dry-goods merchants, and even booksellers. Travelers to the town were generally unimpressed, noting the ill-kept and overcrowded inns, the gambling, the dueling, and the bitter political feuds.

Georgia Military College says:

This magnificent building is a silent witness to the history of Georgia. With construction beginning in 1805, the building was sufficiently completed by 1807 to host the first legislative meeting in the new capital city, Milledgeville.

Between 1803 and 1868, the beautiful city of Milledgeville was the seat of Government for the State of Georgia. During this sixty-five year period, twenty-one men served the State of Georgia as Governor. Their portraits have been assembled and are hanging in the first and second floor rotundas of the Old Capitol.

One of the most significant events to take place in this building was the Secession Convention, held in the Legislative Chambers, January 16-19, 1861. In what has been termed one of the most controversial convocations ever held in Georgia, the Convention concluded with a vote of 160 in favor, and 130 against, Georgia seceding from the Union. Milledgeville remained the Capital, and lawmakers continued to meet here, until the state government relocated to Atlanta in 1863.

After the Civil War, the Old Capitol housed the records and courtrooms of Baldwin County. In 1879, the building and the surrounding Government Square became the home of Middle Georgia Military and Agricultural College, an institution that, in 1900, was renamed Georgia Military College.

The college has maintained its stewardship of the property for more than a century and has performed major repairs of the original structure on three occasions. The 1998-2000 restoration, by Georgia Military College and the State of Georgia, is the latest preservation milestone for this extraordinarily beautiful, Early Gothic Revival-style historic landmark.

The Old Capitol currently houses classrooms, faculty offices, and administrative offices for Georgia Military College, as well as the restored legislative chamber where the 1807-1862 legislative branch of government for the state met. Georgia’s Old Capital Museum, a repository for regional history, occupies the ground floor of the building.

It is fitting that the Old Capitol continues to serve the people of Georgia in the twenty-first century. Today, as a place of education for the public, it combines the history of our past with the unlimited prospects for our future.