Frank E. Schoonover Studios
NC-113: The Frank E. Schoonover Studios were constructed in 1905 by Wilmington philanthropist Samuel Bancroft, Jr. Plans were provided by architect E. L. Rice, incorporating a Queen Anne design with four contiguous units. The original occupants were Frank E. Schoonover, N. C. Wyeth, Henry Peck, Harvey Dunn, and Clifford Ashley. All were former students of […]
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 […]
First Presbyterian Church (Wilmington, DE)
This church originally stood at the corner of 10th and Market Streets and was the first Presbyterian church in the city. It was constructed in 1740, just after Wilmington received its charter from King George II. Following the Battle of the Brandywine on September 2, 1777, the British used the building as a hospital. After […]
Wilmington
NC-67: originally installed in 1938. Founded by Swedes at Fort Christina, the First Permanent settlement in Delaware River Valley. Called Altense by Dutch 1655. Known as Willingtown 1730-1739 and as a City 1832. Washington’s headquarters here in 1777. Became County seat of New Castle County in 1881. […]
Gunning Bedford, Jr.
1747-1812. Member of Continental Congress and of Annapolis Convention. A framer of United States Constitution, which Delaware was first to ratify. Appointed first District Judge of Delaware by President Washington. Purchased this property 1793 as country home, naming it “Lombardy”. Buried at Tenth and Market Streets, Wilmington. Reinterred 1921 at Masonic Home. NC-6. Installed in […]
The Tilton Mansion
NC-234: The Tilton Mansion was constructed in 1802 by the nation’s first Army Surgeon General, Dr. James Tilton (1745-1822). Throughout his lifetime Tilton advocated for increased hospital sanitation and was the founder and first President of The Medical Society of Delaware. Tilton served as a delegate in the Continental Congress of 1783 and 1784. This […]
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 […]
St. Michaels Day Nursery
Founded in 1890, St. Michael’s Day Nursery is one of the oldest early childhood education programs in Delaware. Originally located on Washington St., the school offered working-class parents childcare at a time when it was typically unavailable to them. In 1899 the General Assembly designated the school a guardian of young children under the jurisdiction […]
