A 1758 act of the North Carolina colonial assembly required the court for the Northampton, Edgecombe, and Granville districts to be moved from Enfield to Halifax. On this lot, the colony constructed a new courthouse, along with a jail, stocks, and pillory, in 1759. Little is known of its appearance or design, and the building originally contained the clerk of courts office. In 1833, the courthouse was enlarged and a new fireproof building was constructed for the clerk of court. The Fourth and Fifth Provincial Congresses met in the courthouse, although much of the work of the committees charged with drafting the Halifax Resolves and the first North Carolina state constitution probably took place elsewhere. Perhaps the first public proclamation of the Declaration of Independence in North Carolina occurred in front of the courthouse on August 1, 1776, when Cornelius Harnett read the document to an assembled crowd. By the 1840s, the courthouse had outlived its usefulness, and the county replaced it with an antebellum structure on Pitt Street in 1849. In 1910, with the exception of the vault, that building was torn down and replaced by the structure that stands on the site, now Pittsylvania Street. In 1987, the county built a new courthouse on Ferrell Lane.