Delaware
Inside Kelly’s Logan House, the oldest, continuously operated Irish family bar in America
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When it comes to the best place to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, you’d be hard-pressed to find a location with deeper history than Kelly’s Logan House in Wilmington. The oldest, continuously operated Irish family bar in America is now owned by the family’s fifth generation.
John D. Kelly bought the tavern with his wife, Hannah, in 1889 after the pair met in America and discovered they had lived 5 miles apart in Ireland. It quickly became a popular gathering spot for Irish immigrants, who were guided into their new lives by the tavern’s owners. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Irish immigrants to America had to list their destination on their passports. Many indicated they were relocating to the Kelly’s Logan House. A passport can be seen even today on the walls along with other family pictures.
The structure was named after Union General John A. Logan, who ran for vice president with William Blaine in the 1884 election. The tavern in the center of Wilmington’s Trolley Square was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Their great-granddaughter, Mary Ann Kelly MacDonald, said Hannah was the brains behind the business.
“She owned several properties around there and became like the landlady for [the immigrants], and [the tavern] was like the basis of the whole Irish Catholic community to come to that area, predominantly from County Cork,” said MacDonald, a former trustee of the Delaware Historical Society. She and her husband had five children, MacDonald said. All were college-educated, and one became an Ursuline nun.
MacDonald grew up in a Wilmington rowhouse owned by her great-grandmother. It was a block away from the tavern. She asked her father if they could move, and he told her they lived in the perfect location: one block from the Logan House and one block from the church.
“So we all grew up in a rowhouse and I’m proud of that,” added MacDonald, who managed the business from 1985-91.
For many years, the tavern had hotel rooms. It was close to a B&O Railroad station, the gateway to the West. Al Capone, John L. Sullivan, Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok were among its guests.
Today, it’s owned by brother and sister Joanna and Patrick Kelly, great-great-grandchildren of John and Hannah Kelly. They inherited the tavern from their father, Michael Kelly, who passed away in 2022.
“I mean, it is very weighty to have that many generations of ancestors, who kept the Logan House running and made it such a staple of the neighborhood, and so there’s a fair amount of pressure, but I feel very grateful to be able to do it, and really excited to kind of carry on that legacy,” Joanna Kelly said.
“I think that my brother and I feel there’s so much intergenerational effort and love that’s gone into this business and this building,” she said. “I mean, my great-grandfather was born in the building that the Logan House is in. It carries so much significance for our family. There have been weddings there, engagement parties, birthday parties. Everything you can think of has happened there and so it holds so much importance to the Kelly family. My brother and I feel a lot of pressure to continue, leading it in a successful way, a way that continues to incorporate the values of our family and our community.”
The pressure of that legacy is magnified as both Joanna and Patrick Kelly have full-time jobs outside of the tavern. She’s an attorney, and he’s a high school teacher.
The Delaware Police Officer Standards and Training Commission recently announced that the Dewey Beach Police Department and Rehoboth Beach Police Department have both earned state accreditation from the Delaware Police Accreditation Commission.
As part of the rigorous process, a team of DPAC assessors ensured all accreditation standards were met by completing comprehensive, on-site inspections of each agency, reviewing their policies and procedures for compliance, and conducting interviews with department members.
“This milestone represents a significant step forward for public safety in Delaware. The initial state accreditation of these police agencies reflects a strong commitment to professionalism, accountability and excellence in law enforcement. I commend each department for their dedication to serving their communities with integrity and for upholding the highest standards,” said Joshua Bushweller, Department of Safety and Homeland Security secretary and DPAC chair.
Dover, Del. – Three farms, one from each of Delaware’s counties, were inducted into the Century Farm Program by the state Department of Agriculture on Thursday at the Delaware Agricultural Museum.
Each of the family farms has been owned and operated for at least a century. Each received a sign for their farms, an engraved plate and legislative tributes.
In addition to Secretary of Agriculture, Don Clifton, and Deputy Secretary Jimmy Kroon, state Senators David Wilson (R – District 18) and Kyra Hoffner (D – District 14) were also in attendance.
Wright Family Farms are located in Harrington in Kent County. In 1919, the farm was purchased by William Wright. Over a century later, William’s grandson, Ronald, is the owner and his great-grandson, Greg, said he hopes to continue the family legacy by buying the farm from his father.
Although the event celebrated each family for their hard work and resilience, it also highlighted the challenges farmers have to surmount to stay in business today, let alone for a hundred years.
“The price of equipment, the price of fertilizer, the price of seed, everything is just gone up,” Greg said. “So, you know, everything’s going up that we gotta purchase just to stay in business.”
Clifton, Kroon and Wilson also echoed difficulties in balancing the need to preserve agricultural land with the need to develop housing and sustainable energy projects like solar power.
“I know housing is very important, and we want people to always have good housing, but at some point, I think you’re going to saturate the area with more houses than you have food to feed these people,” Wilson said.
Kroon also said there are difficulties in keeping future generations motivated to stay in farming.
“When you think about it in the context of multi-generational farm families, there’s a real long-term challenge where a new generation may think twice about whether they want to keep farming if it’s always a struggle,” he said.
Clifton said farming has always been a challenging way of life, but it has been so since time immemorial.
“These families, their experience shows that they have an appreciation for the way of life and perseverance and that’s to be honored and emulated to the greatest extent possible,” he said.
Greg said he hopes to pass down the way of life so that his family legacy can live on for another hundred years, as well as for other families.
“A hundred years as the same family tilling the land, that’s, you know, that’s an honor right there,” Greg said. “And I hope that more farmers who are close to 100 years old will be doing the same thing. You know, keep it in the family.”
An investigation is underway after police said a man’s body was pulled from the Delaware River in South Philadelphia.
According to police, around 9 a.m. on Friday, April 17, 2026, emergency responders pulled an unidentified man from the Delaware River, near the Navy Yard. Medic’s pronounced the man dead at 9:11 a.m.
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SkyForce10 flew above as police and other first responders were on the scene.
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Police are working to determine the circumstances of the incident and identify the man.
This is a developing story; check back here for updates.
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