Built in 1801, this house is where the then sitting Vice-President of the United States, Aaron Burr, stayed while fleeing arrest after his infamous duel with Alexander Hamilton in 1804!

Hamilton was one of the Founding Fathers of our country. As Treasury Secretary in President George Washington's administration, he was the architect of the nation's financial system. When Thomas Jefferson and Burr both ran for President in 1800, Hamilton supported Jefferson, and was instrumental in defeating Burr – a slight which Burr never forgave.

Burr was the Vice-President during Jefferson’s first term, but upon learning that Jefferson intended to drop him from the ticket in the reelection campaign of 1804, Burr ran for Governor of New York. Hamilton despised Burr and criticized him publicly, which led to Burr's loss, the resulting duel, and Hamilton’s death. Burr fled south to the home of his friend Archibald Clark in St. Mary's, Georgia – this very same house that’s now The Federal Quarters!

The Federal Quarters has been known as "the Archibald Clark house" for the past 219 years due to the prominence of Major Clark. Clark served as the mayor of the town, and President Jefferson appointed him as the Customs (tax) Agent to collect revenues from the ships that frequented the port of St. Mary's. During the War of 1812, the British commandeered the house as their headquarters, and General Winfield Scott later enjoyed a stay here enroute home from the Indian Wars in Florida.

As initially built, the house had two rooms on the first floor which served as Clark's law office (and is now the Proprietor, Judge Keegan Federal’s, law office), plus the family suite upstairs. Clark enlarged the home in 1802-03, and the original upstairs suite is where Aaron Burr stayed for approximately three months in 1804, until he wore out his welcome and Mrs. Clark invited him to leave.

Now 219 years old, the house is the oldest residence still standing in St. Mary’s