George Gordon constructed a tobacco inspection house along the Potomac in approximately 1745.
2.
The site was already a tobacco trading post when the inspection house was built.
3.
Warehouses, wharves, and other buildings were then constructed around the inspection house, and it quickly became a small community.
4.
The design consists of a circular structure with an " inspection house " at its centre, from which the manager or staff of the institution are able to watch the inmates, who are stationed around the perimeter.