With the construction of the jail and courthouse at the designated county seat beginning in 1785, a village began to grow up around the public buildings: first houses for the public officials, then a tavern, then a store, gradually other houses, and then other stores. By 1811 a school was established, then several churches and more houses. By 1826 South Carolina architect Robert Mills could describe Edgefield Courthouse village as "a neat little village ... between forty and fifty [houses. The buildings are neat, commodious, and generally painted . ... The population is estimated at 300."