Established in 1706 and incorporated in 1870, Upper Marlboro is the county seat of Prince George's County. As a center for both agriculture and county administration, the town stood at a crossroads of travel and trade. The Western Branch of the Patuxent River along the town's southern edge carried tobacco shipments until the early 19th century, and roads and later the railroad connected the town to markets. By the 1800s, Upper Marlboro had stores, a bank, an academy, three churches, prominent attorneys' law offices, and a new courthouse completed in 1801 near the eastern edge of town. British troops marching to and from Upper Marlboro in August 1814 during their campaign to invade the nation's capital would have noticed that courthouse. After the Civil War, local African Americans bought land on the south edge of town for a Methodist meetinghouse and worked with the Freedmen's Bureau to establish an African-American school. New courthouses rose in 1881 and 1991 as the community's role shifted from agriculture toward supporting county courts and administration, while a historic district, Darnall's Chance House Museum, and Main Street preserve Upper Marlboro's 300-year history.