This article attempts to list the oldest extant buildings surviving in the state of Delaware in the United States of America, including the oldest houses in Delaware and any other surviving structures. Some dates are approximate and based upon dendrochronology, architectural studies, and historical records. Sites on the list are generally from the First Period of American architecture or earlier. To be listed here a site must:
Building | Image | Location | First Built | Use | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Block House | Claymont, Delaware | 1654 | Defense | Possibly the oldest building in Delaware, however, some date the building to ca. 1723 | |
Ryves Holt House | Lewes, Delaware | 1665 | Residence | Likely the oldest house in Delaware | |
Town Point | Dover, Delaware | 1677 | Residence | ||
Lombardy Hall | Wilmington, Delaware | 1683 (earliest part) | Residence | National Historic Landmark (NHL), home to Gunning Bedford Jr., a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and a signer of the U.S. Constitution. | |
Belmont Hall | Smyrna, Delaware | 1685 (earliest part) | Residence | large Georgian addition built about 1753 by Thomas Collins, who would become the sixth governor of Delaware. | |
Hendrickson House | Wilmington, Delaware from Chester, Pennsylvania | 1690 | Residence | Moved from Chester, PA to Wilmington, DE in 1958 | |
Holy Trinity Church (Old Swedes) | Wilmington, Delaware | 1698 | Religious | Oldest Swedish Church in the United States | |
Brecknock | Camden, Delaware | ca. 1700 | Residence | ||
Dutch House | Newcastle, Delaware | 1701 | Residence | Built either in the mid 1690s or 1701. Historic home and museum | |
New Castle County Court House | New Castle, Delaware | 1732 | Government | One of the oldest continuously used courthouses in America | |
Prince George's Chapel | Dagsboro, Delaware | 1755 | Religious | Episcopal chapel of ease | |
Barratt's Chapel | Frederica, Delaware | 1780 | Religious | Oldest Methodist church building in the U.S. | |
Pratt House | Milford, Delaware | 1785 | Residential | Former home of the influential Pratt family. |
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and community outreach. Considered the first learned society in the United States, it has about 1,000 elected members, and by April 2020 had had only 5,710 members since its creation. Through research grants, published journals, the American Philosophical Society Museum, an extensive library, and regular meetings, the society supports a variety of disciplines in the humanities and the sciences.
Cape May consists of a peninsula and barrier island system in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is roughly coterminous with Cape May County and runs southwards from the New Jersey mainland, separating Delaware Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. The southernmost point in New Jersey lies on the cape. A number of resort communities line the Atlantic side of the cape, including Ocean City, the most populous community on the cape, The Wildwoods, known for its architecturally significant hotel district, and the city of Cape May, which has served as a resort community since the mid-1700s, making it the oldest such resort in the U.S.
American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English (late-medieval), French Colonial, Spanish Colonial, Dutch Colonial, and Georgian. These styles are associated with the houses, churches and government buildings of the period from about 1600 through the 19th century.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site preserves the Ansley Wilcox House, at 641 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo, New York. Here, after the assassination of William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office as President of the United States on September 14, 1901. A New York historical marker outside the house indicates that it was the site of Theodore Roosevelt's Inauguration.
Gloria Dei Church, known locally as Old Swedes', is a historic church located in the Southwark neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at 929 South Water Street, bounded by Christian Street on the north, South Christopher Columbus Boulevard on the east, and Washington Avenue on the south. It was built between 1698 and 1700, making it the oldest church in Pennsylvania and second oldest Swedish church in the United States after Holy Trinity Church in Wilmington, Delaware.
Holy Trinity Church, also known as Old Swedes, is a historic church at East 7th and Church Street in Wilmington, Delaware. It was consecrated on Trinity Sunday, June 4, 1699, by a predominantly Swedish congregation formerly of the colony of New Sweden. The church, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, is among the few surviving public buildings that reflect the Swedish colonial effort. The church is considered part of First State National Historical Park. The church, which is often visited by tourists, remains open for tours and religious activities.
Barratt's Chapel is a chapel located to the north of Frederica in Kent County, Delaware. It was built in 1780 on land donated by Philip Barratt, owner of Barratt Hall, and a prominent local landowner and political figure. Barratt, who had recently become a Methodist, wanted to build a center for the growing Methodist movement in Delaware.
First State Heritage Park is Delaware's first urban "park without boundaries" linking historic and cultural sites in Dover, Kent County, Delaware, the city that has been the seat of state government since 1777. It is a partnership of state and city agencies under the leadership of Delaware State Parks. Delaware was the first state to ratify the United States Constitution. The sites of the park highlight Delaware's role as the First State. First State Heritage Park is open year-round, with special tours of the sites given the first Saturday of each month.
The architecture of Quebec, was characterized in the beginning by the settlers of the rural areas along the St. Lawrence who largely came from Normandy. The houses they built echoed their roots. The surroundings forced enough differences that a unique style developed, and the house of the New France farmer remains a symbol of French-Canadian nationalism. These were rectangular structures of one storey, but with an extremely tall and steep roof, sometimes almost twice as tall as the house below. This roof design perhaps developed to prevent the accumulation of snow. The houses were usually built of wood, though the surviving ones are almost all built of stone. Landmarks in the rural areas were the churches and the mansion of the seigneurs. The seigneurs built much larger homes for themselves, but rarely were the manors ornate. Each parish had its church, often smelter copies of major churches in Quebec City or Montreal. A unique style of French-Canadian homo church thus developed.
The Philadelphia Lazaretto was the first quarantine hospital in the United States, built in 1799, in Tinicum Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The site was originally inhabited by the Lenni Lenape, and then the first Swedish settlers in America. Nearby Province Island was the site of the confinement of the Christian Moravian Indians who were brought there under protective custody from Lancaster, PA in 1763 when their lives were threatened by the Paxton Boys. The facility predates similar national landmarks such as Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital and Angel Island and is considered both the oldest surviving quarantine hospital and the last surviving example of its type in the United States.
The Architecture of Buffalo, New York, particularly the buildings constructed between the American Civil War and the Great Depression, is said to have created a new, distinctly American form of architecture and to have influenced design throughout the world.
Hendrickson House is one of the oldest houses in the U.S. state of Delaware and one of the oldest surviving Swedish-American homes in the United States.
Mortonson–Van Leer Log Cabin, is an historic cabin and one of the last historical dwellings in Swedesboro, Gloucester County, New Jersey, United States. It stands on the grounds of the cemetery of the Trinity Church. It is one of the oldest original log cabins of early Swedish-Finnish architecture in the United States.