Delaware
Delaware history in The News Journal archives, March 29 to April 4
Hear about Winterthur’s historic 1890 train station gingerbread replica
Diana Anello reveals the artistry behind the Winterthur gingerbread train station by Bredenbeck’s Bakery & Ice Cream Parlor.
The Delaware history column features excerpts from The News Journal archives including The Morning News and The Evening Journal. See the archives at delawareonline.com.
March 29, 1926, The Evening Journal
Acclaim for high school national champion swim team
A self-appointed committee has started a movement to publicly honor the Wilmington High School swimming team, winner of the national inter-scholastic championship on Saturday at Northwestern University, Evansville, Ill., with a banquet in the Hotel duPont on Tuesday, April 6.
Reservations at $3 a plate can be made by sending a check for that amount to Herbert B. Mearns at Wilmington Trust Company, 10th and Market streets. Frank Ford Palmer, president of the Wilmington Swimming Association, and Councilman Alexander R. Abrahams, are the other members of the committee. …
Today is a holiday at Wilmington High School in celebration of the swimming team’s honor.
For several hours, the student body, headed by the school band as an escort to the championship team, paraded on Market and other streets of the city. …
The parade was the second within 24 hours, the boys having also paraded about the city upon the arrival of the team late last night.
Members of the team faced one of life’s proudest moments at the school this morning, when before their enthusiastic and cheering fellow students, they were eulogized by school teachers and officials for their achievements as mermen. …
The team includes Coach Leroy F. Sparks, Manager C.C. Gerow Jr., Captain Frank Holt, “Bus” Palmer, Sam Reese, Jim Frazer, Jack Spargo, Leon Syfrit, Charles Hartman, Bill Brown and Bill Briggs.
March 31, 1976, The Morning News
Wilmington plaque to honor slave escape route
A plaque to commemorate Delaware’s role in the Underground Railroad during slavery will be erected late this spring in the Peter Spencer Plaza on French Street, between 8th and 9th streets.
The two-foot-by three-foot bronze emblem will have pictures of Thomas Garrett, who helped more than 2,700 slaves escape, and of Harriet Tubman, who led hundreds of slaves from the south to their freedom.
The project is sponsored by the Wilmington branch of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History through a $5,000 grant from the Delaware Bicentennial Commission.
The plaque will be erected about 25 feet from the Father and Son Statue honoring Peter Spencer. The plaza was named after Spencer in 1974 to commemorate the site of the church he founded in 1813 that was the first in the country entirely controlled by blacks.
The plaza was selected as the site for “The Underground Railroad” memorial “to permanently commemorate the spirit of freedom, self-determination and camaraderie,” according to a resolution passed by the Wilmington City Council earlier this month.
Delaware became an important link in the Underground Railroad because it was usually the “last stop before freedom” for slaves on their way to Philadelphia and other northern cities. The chain of safe homes stretched from the South into the North and Canada before the Civil War. As they moved north to freedom, blacks fleeing slavery could be hidden in the houses of antislavery whites.
April 2, 2006, Sunday News Journal
Runaway development overwhelming Delaware
Look around Delaware. Tens of thousands of people have poured in from other states, enticed by an affordable suburban lifestyle in neighborhoods framed by farms and woods – all just a short drive to the beach.
But now, look-alike houses stretch from Bear to Rehoboth Beach, every year consuming an area of land larger than Wilmington. Kent County has so many new homes that Boyd White of Magnolia can’t tell where one town starts and another ends: “The charm is disappearing.”
In old farming communities, newcomers found a peaceful rural refuge. But now, that influx has forced Middletown High School to put students in trailers. …
Vacationers and retirees from all over the East Coast have migrated to the Delaware beaches to escape metropolitan life. But now, traffic is so bad on the two-lane road to Fenwick Island that retiree Jack Weston would “rather go out in a boat than a car.”
Indian River Bay, a magnet for boaters and fishermen, is so clouded by pollutants that if Stephen Callanen goes sailing, “You can’t see the bottom when there’s a lot of toilets flushing.”
Fifteen years of growth that has outpaced Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania – in fact most of America – has forever changed much of rural Delaware. Since 1990, about 84,000 new homes have been built statewide.
But with about 100,000 more homes planned, experts fear that unless government leaders do a better job controlling land use, the prosperity and qualities that make Delaware so appealing might be lost.
“It’s a rush to destruction,” said John Hughes, Secretary of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
Beyond the loss of scenic vistas, growth has created unprecedented traffic jams and air and water pollution, crammed classrooms and created a pressing need for public safety services. …
That is the legacy of decades of politicians promising strong land use reform but delivering weak policies that were often ignored. As a result, hundreds of farms have been transformed into one of the region’s top housing bargains. …
Maynard Esender, a cabinetmaker who has lived for nearly 20 years in the Sussex County town of Frankford, has watched growth steadily envelop the nearby beach areas. But last year, he was stunned after nearby Millville, which has about 270 people, approved a 2,700-home subdivision – the largest in state history.
“Soon the entire Delmarva Peninsula will be paved,” Esender said. …
When nurse practitioner Maltide Cruze moved to Middletown with her husband and two sons five years ago, they envisioned rural bliss. …
Both Maltilde, who commutes to Dover, and her husband Luis, who works at Christiana Hospital, now endure rush-hour backups as Middletown’s population has doubled to 12,000.
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
Saturday, July 11, 2026 1:40PM
MEDIA, Pa. (WPVI) — There is new information about what is being called a “sophisticated cybercriminal attack” against Delaware County.
According to officials, hackers were able to gain limited access to the county’s network and some of the data stored on it.
They are working with cybersecurity experts to learn the extent.
The sheriff’s office, district attorney, libraries and county council have all been dealing with disruptions since the attack on June 26.
The county’s internal networks are now up and running, and work is still ongoing to reinstate external-facing county services.
Copyright © 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.
DOVER, Del. (WPVI) — Delaware State Police are investigating a controversial traffic stop making the rounds on social media.
The video shows a trooper forcing a woman out of her car, slamming her to the ground, punching and tasing her.
It happened on July 7, in Dover, Delaware.
But Delaware State Police say the video doesn’t tell the whole story. They released a statement to provide what they call necessary context and clarity.
State police say the woman, identified as 38-year-old Sierra Hopkins, was initially pulled over in the area of S. Bay Road and Lafferty Lane in Dover for having suspended tags, no car insurance, and no driver’s license.
She was issued citations and let go, but then stopped again minutes later by the same trooper on E. Lebanon Road, who decided to follow protocol and have her car towed.
State police say he did this because Hopkins had been cited for the same violations five days earlier.
Things quickly escalated during this stop, with police stating she refused to leave her car, resisting, kicking and scratching the trooper in the face.
It all happened while several juveniles were in the car.
“This is such a vulnerable and tender moment… I’m sure her children were present, which brings another cause of concern because that’s trauma,” said Fleur McKendell, President of Delaware NAACP State Conference.
McKendell says her organization is pushing for a full and thorough investigation.
“It’s really deeply concerning. It’s evoked a lot of strong emotions from myself, my organization, as well as the public. I think it’s important to understand the full context of the content we have viewed before reaching conclusions, so I’m very eager to review available video footage and the circumstances that preceded and occurred during that incident,” says McKendell.
Delaware Governor Matt Meyer is also weighing in on this confrontation.
He released the following statement to Action News:
“Every law-enforcement officer is entrusted with a duty to protect, to serve, and to uphold the dignity and rights of every person, in every community. Policing relies on trust. That trust is not automatic; it is earned every day through mutual respect, integrity and transparency. The people of Delaware deserve transparency, and this administration will not turn away from that responsibility.”
Hopkins was later charged with assault of a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest; driving without a license, endangering the welfare of children and other registration violations.
State police did not mention the current status of the trooper.
Copyright © 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.
Watch the votes take place for the future of the Montchanin inn
Watch the New Castle County Board of Adjustment vote on whether the historic Inn at Montchanin should become a new neuro-rehab site, Dec. 18, 2025.
A medical group that wanted to create a brain injury rehabilitation center at the Inn at Montchanin Village & Spa but was denied by New Castle County’s Board of Adjustment has found a new location in Delaware City.
Delaware NeuroRehab has purchased the two-story Tilton Building at Fort DuPont, a facility that had been part of the Governor Bacon Health Center. The building has been listed for $3.15 million.
A subdivision was approved by the Delaware City Council in April.
The site at 2546 Colter Road will become the state’s first comprehensive post-acute inpatient brain injury rehabilitation center, according to the medical group. It will serve individuals recovering from traumatic brain injuries, strokes, neurological disorders, and other acquired brain injuries.
Construction and renovation for the 57,000-square-foot facility will begin soon, the group’s spokeswoman said. The 28-bed rehabilitation center is scheduled to open in 2027.
The historic Fort DuPont campus is along the Delaware River and the C&D Canal. The land had been a military installation dating back to the Civil War and is named for Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, a Civil War Naval hero. It became a training facility until the end of World War II.
Fort DuPont was acquired by the state in 1947 and hosted the Governor Bacon Health Center. In 1992, it became part of the state park system.
Plans for the 219-acre site include new homes, shops, and gathering spaces while preserving and adapting many of the former military buildings dating back to the 19th century.
The Tilton Building was originally constructed in 1909 and reconstructed in 1936 following a fire, according to a brochure from Emory Hill, a commercial real estate and property management group. It served as the barracks for the First Regiment of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stationed at Fort DuPont. The building housed up to 628 enlisted men and supported the regiment’s engineering operations at the fort.
Later, it was a hospital for children and elderly patients. It was named for Dr. James Tilton, a Delaware physician and the first surgeon general of the U.S. after the Revolutionary War in 1948. The medical facility closed in the 1990s.
Last summer, Delaware NeuroRehab, which has outpatient locations in Dover, Newark, and Lewes, revealed plans to purchase the historic Inn at Montchanin Village & Spa from LeDee Lickle Wakefield, an owner and trustee. The upscale hotel, owned by descendants of the du Pont family, is on a triangle-shaped plot bounded by Route 100 and Kirk and Rockland roads.
In July 2025, an attorney representing Haresh Sampathkumar of Delaware NeuroRehab Inpatient LLC contacted New Castle County’s Board of Adjustment and said the doctor planned to buy the historic Inn, which, in the mid-19th century, was home to laborers who worked at the nearby DuPont Co. powder mills and at Winterthur estate. Wakefield’s parents turned the site into a hotel in the early 1990s.
Sampathkumar wanted to repurpose the historic Inn at Montchanin, located about 10 miles northwest of Wilmington, as a 34-bed short-term recovery facility that would have provided brain-injured patients with physical, occupational, speech, and other rehabilitation services.
Sampathkumar said the rehabilitation center was needed and filled a gap in care for patients who often must leave the state to receive specialized post-acute rehabilitation services.
The doctor said he had no plans to change the exterior of the buildings on the site, other than installing ramps that would have made them compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. He said the 76-seat Krazy Kat’s restaurant, open since 1996 in a former blacksmith shop, and the Inn’s spa, located in a stone barn on the property, would continue to operate.
Delaware NeuroRehab needed a variance from the county Board of Adjustment because the more than 4-acre site is slightly smaller than the 5 acres required for an institutional residential building.
Residents of the affluent Montchanin area, which has million-dollar homes, opposed the plan, while the county’s Land Use Department had recommended its approval. The Board of Adjustment voted against the plan, with one member citing the property was too small for its planned use. The variance was denied in December 2025.
The Inn at Montchanin Village & Spa and the Krazy Kat’s restaurant went back on the market for $7 million this past February. According to a July 9 listing, it is still for sale. The listing said to contact the broker for the current sale price.
The Delaware City location for the Delaware NeuroRehab has the same goals as what were proposed for the Inn at the Montchanin site. Delaware NeuroRehab said the new rehabilitation center will provide an intensive program designed to help patients gain independence and transition back into their homes, communities, and workplaces.
“Too many Delaware families are forced to travel out of state during one of the most difficult times in their lives,” said Sampathkumar, founder and medical director of Delaware NeuroRehab, in a prepared statement. “Our vision is to provide nationally recognized brain injury rehabilitation close to home, allowing patients to recover while remaining connected to their families, caregivers, and support systems, and ultimately return to meaningful daily activities including work.”
The project is expected to create more than 60 healthcare and support positions.
Patricia Talorico writes about food, restaurants and Delaware history. You can find her on Instagram, X and Facebook. Email ptalorico@delawareonline.com. Sign up for her Delaware Eats newsletter.
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