Portersville was established in 1836 and became Valparaiso in 1837, the current county seat of Porter County. This location stands approximately in the middle of the original 1836 plat. The Central District reflects the town's development from 1850 through the 1950s, and most of its homes were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Victorian style. The house at 102 Washington St., the Sarah Porter Kinsey Memorial, was formerly a home with a nursing school in the basement. In 1892, part of Jefferson Street and the south end of Locust Street a few blocks east were paved with brick as the first paved streets in the city.