At the top of King Street is the State House, one of the oldest standing stone structures in the Western Hemisphere. It was built by Governor Nathaniel Butler in 1620 after the Italian style, as he conceived it. When St. George's was the Capital, the House of Assembly met here and so did the principal court...and in between it was sometimes used for dances. Now the building is rented to a Masonic Lodge which pays a rent of one peppercorn a year in a ceremony which has become one of the great occasions of the Town's year.