Old Claymont High School
NCC-099: Constructed 1924-25. Also known as the Green Street School. Prominent in United States history as the first public high school in the 17 segregated states to be legally integrated. In January 1951, eight black students applied for admission. Due to the “separate but equal” education system in place at that time, the Claymont Board […]
St. Joseph Church
NC-94: The cradle of African-American Catholicism in Delaware, St. Joseph Church was organized in 1889 by Father John A. DeRuyter of the Josephites. Services were first held in the basement of St. Mary’s Church on 6th and Pine Streets. Incorporated as St. Joseph’s Society for Colored Missions on March 4, 1890, the first church structure […]
South Wilmington – Cradle of African American Political Leadership
NC-86: William J. Winchester, after serving 16 years on Wilmington City Council, became the first of his race elected to the Delaware House of Representatives. He served from 1948 until his death in 1952. Herman M. Holloway, Sr., became the first African-American elected to the State Senate in 1964. Henrietta Johnson was the first African-American […]
Gravesite of Bishop Peter Spencer and His Devoted Wife, Annes
NCC-84: Born a slave, Bishop Peter Spencer was the father of Delaware’s independent Black church movement. In 1813, he founded the Union Church of Africans, presently known as the African Union Methodist Protestant Church. The mother AUMP church stood on this site from 1813 to 1970. The Union American Methodist Episcopal Church (UAME), formally organized […]
The Daniel Nichols House
NC-228: British General Sir William Howe embarked on a campaign to capture the city of Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War in 1777. While marching from Cooch’s Bridge to Kennett Square onward to the Battle of Brandywine Howe and his army passed through Mill Creek Hundred. The army ransacked farms taking livestock and supplies. The house […]
St. Josephs on the Brandywine
NCC-222: As early as 1813, Mass was celebrated in private homes throughout the area. St. Joseph Church was built in 1841 by a diverse community of Roman Catholic immigrants to meet the needs of the growing Catholic population. The nearby DuPont powder mills, where many parishioners worked, provided the stonemasons who built the walls of […]
One Love Park
NCC-216: Originally named Tatnall Street Playground in 1907, this park is located across the street from the home at 2311 Tatnall Street that singer-songwriter Bob Marley occupied with his mother in 1966. In order to raise funds to start his own record label in Jamaica, Marley assumed the alias “Donald Marley” and worked as a […]
Union Lodge No. 5, A.F. & A. M.
NC-214: Chartered on June 24, 1765 by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania A.Y.M., Lodge No. 5 at Cantwell’s Bridge (later known as Odessa) became the first Masonic lodge established in Delaware. The lodge was admitted to membership under the Grand Lodge of Delaware in January, 1816. Lodge No. 5 moved to Middletown in 1822 and […]
William “Judy” Johnson Park
NC-212: Regarded as one of the best third baseman to have played in the Negro Leagues, William Julius “Judy” Johnson (1899-1989) grew up nearby on the west side of Delamore Place. During his youth, Johnson played baseball at various sand lots in the city, including one located between 2nd and 3rd Streets and DuPont and […]
Christiana Public School #111C
NCC-205: Formal education for African American children in Christiana began in the 1880s with the construction of a one-room schoolhouse. Many African American schools in existence at this time were marked by dilapidated facilities, a lack of running water, insufficient lighting, and poor heating sources. In an effort to remedy these and other deplorable school […]
