Site of Milford’s First Methodist Church
KC-65: The beginning of Methodism in this community can be traced to the organization of a local “society” in 1777. Early meetings were held in the homes of its members. On December 3, 1787, Joseph Oliver conveyed a lot of ground at this location for the purpose of “building a preaching house or church” for […]
Vinyard Shipbuilding
SC-255: Founded in 1896 by Wilson M. Vinyard, the Vinyard Shipbuilding Company was the first Milford shipyard to build motorized vessels. The shipyard built numerous ships for the government including Navy subchasers and Coast Guard patrol boats. In 1927, the company began manufacturing world class yachts. Construction of new vessels ceased in 1951 and the […]
Milford
SC-26: Town laid out by Joseph Oliver 1787. Village was located on tract then called “Saw-Mill Range.” Named Milford from fording place near mill-dam erected by Rev. Sydenham Thorne across Mispillion Creek, 1787. First incorporated 1807. Old town in Kent County, new town in Sussex County. Home of Governors Rogers, Tharp, Causey, Burton, and Watson. […]
Parson Thorne Mansion (Silver Hill)
Sponsors: The Honorable F. Gary Simpson, Delaware State Senate, 2005 KC-92: This historic building lies within a 1,750 acre Duke of York land patent called Saw Mill Range granted to Henry Bowman in 1680. The first known resident of this portion of the tract was Joseph Booth, who purchased 510 acres from the Bowman family […]
Milford
RG# 6140 Milford was formed from two communities, one on the north side of the Mispillion Creek and one on the south linked by a bridge over the creek near its headwaters. On the north, the establishment of a town was spurred by the Reverend Sydenham Thorne who had built a dam and established […]
Yearbooks at DPA
The Delaware Public Archives has a small collection of yearbooks researchers can use to learn about academic life through the 20th Century.
Milford Photograph Exhibit
Delaware Public Archives Digital Archive
The Milford School Desegregation Crisis of 1954
In honor of African American History Month, the Delaware Public Archives will present a special program to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education case on Saturday, February 1, 2014, 10:30 a.m. Following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in the Brown v. Board of Education in May 1954, Milford High School […]
Sailing Along The Mispillion
We typically do not collect private papers, but we do have some. One of the collections of private papers we have in our Small Manuscript Collection is the Florence Lewis Papers. There are several series within this collection, from newspapers to genealogical research notes. But the one I want to talk about today is the […]
