Crooked Billet
NCC-247: In 1684, William Penn deeded this property to Adam Stedham, who built a small two-room stone house on the land. Stedham’s son, William, expanded the house into the Crooked Billet Tavern in 1702. George Washington and his troops stopped at the tavern on September 9, 1777, before facing the British at the Battle of […]
Former Site of ILC Dover
KC-86: Makers of the Apollo Moonsuit In 1947 the International Latex Corporation established a specialty products division and chose this site for its location. The company’s rise to prominence as a supplier of aeronautic and aerospace equipment began in 1952 when it was contracted to produce high altitude pressure helmets for the military. By the […]
Jacobs School #143
SC-131: In 1863 the Sussex County Levy Court formally approved the creation of a new school district to serve the needs of local citizens. A frame schoolhouse was built on this site on land provided by Thomas Jacobs, measuring twenty feet in width and thirty-two feet in length. A single teacher was responsible for teaching […]
Mason Dixon Crownstone
Responsible for making boundaries of Maryland and Pennsylvania (including the “Three Lower Counties” of Delaware). Mason and Dixon began their survey of the North-South of Tangent Line at the southwestern corner of present-day Delaware in June 1764. Proceeding northward, they arrived here on July 30, forty-five miles from their starting point. They later returned to […]
Rodney Square
NCC-226: Rodney Square, named for Caesar Rodney, has been the symbolic center of Wilmington since the early 20th century. The area served as a reservoir from 1827 to 1877, and as the site of the New Castle County Courthouse from 1877 to 1919. Pierre S. du Pont envisioned a landscape adjacent to the DuPont headquarters […]