Fenwick Island
RG# 7080 Fenwick Island is named for Thomas Fenwick who owned the land at the turn of the eighteenth century. It was, at the time, actually an island due to inlets through the narrow strip of barrier land which currently makes up much of the Delaware coastline. These inlets were deep enough that ships could […]
Ellendale
RG# 7060 1900 – 1949 Ellendale was laid out in the latter half of the nineteenth century by Dr. John Prettyman, whose wife, according to The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States, was the inspiration for the Town’s name. The Town of Ellendale was first incorporated in 1905. Its town limits […]
Dewey Beach
RG# 7055 A community called Rehoboth City was shown on an 1868 map at the location where The Town of Dewey Beach now sits. It was plotted as a Town in the early twentieth century, but because it was difficult to reach, extensive development did not take place until after World War II when […]
Bridgeville
RG# 7030 Bridgeville, whose settlement dates to the early eighteenth century, is the oldest community in western Sussex County. In 1730, a settlement formed here when a bridge was built over a branch of the Nanticoke called Bridge Branch, a name which the settlement also was known by. In 1810, its name was changed […]
Blades
RG#7020 1900 – 1949 Blades was named for James Blades who, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, purchased the land around the current intersection of Market and High Streets just across the Nanticoke River from Seaford. The Town of Blades was incorporated and its boundaries established in 1915. It was not immediately […]
Bethel
RG# 7010 1900 – 1949 Throughout the nineteenth century, a community called Lewisville was prospering as a trading and shipbuilding community along Broad Creek. When a post office was established in 1880, the name was changed to Bethel. In 1907, five men were appointed to engage a surveyor who would establish the limits of […]
Bethany Beach
RG# 7000 1900 – 1949 Established as a Christian campsite, lots were laid out in the area that would become the Town of Bethany Beach by 1901, but it was not until 1909 that the Town was incorporated. Named in its incorporating Act as “The Commissioners of the Town of Bethany Beach,” seven Commissioners […]
Harrington
RG# 6060 In the 1780s, Benjamin Clark established a tavern where the road from Milford intersected with the road from Frederica. A community grew at this location, called Clarke’s Corner. When the north-south line of the Delaware Railroad was being laid out in 1856, this stagecoach stop became a junction stop on the railroad. […]
Frederica
RG# 6050 At a place where Spring Creek branched off the Murderkill River, a community called Johnny Cake Landing was established by the mid-eighteenth century and it became well known as a shipping and shipbuilding center. In 1772, land in this area was laid out into town lots, and by 1796, it was known […]
Felton
RG# 6040 1850 – 1899 In 1856, as the railroad was being pushed south through Delaware, a “whistle stop” was created at the point where the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad line intersected with the road between Frederica (formerly Johnnycake Landing) and Berrytown (a community located west of Felton). Farmers would bring goods that […]
