Established | 1931 |
---|---|
Location | 102 Kings Highway, Lewes, Delaware, 19958USA 302.645.1148 |
Coordinates | 38°46′29″N75°08′21″W / 38.774729°N 75.139124°W |
Type | History |
Public transit access | Cape May−Lewes Ferry |
Website | Official State Website |
In Lewes, Delaware the Zwaanendael Museum was created to honor the 300th anniversary of Delaware's first European settlement, Zwaanendael, founded 1631. The museum models the former City Hall in Hoorn, Netherlands. It has 17th century Dutch elements such as stepped facade gable, terra cotta roof tiles, carved stonework, and decorated shutters. The top of the building's front features a statue of David Pietersen de Vries, leader of the expedition that founded Swanendael.
The building was designed by Wilmington architect E. William Martin and completed in 1932. [1]
The museum's exhibits represent the history of Sussex County by revealing the history of those who lived in Delaware's southeastern coast. Exhibits include local history, shipwrecks and lighthouses, Cape Henlopen Lighthouse, the bombardment of Lewes by the British in the War of 1812, pilots of the Delaware River and Bay, and the ever-changing Delaware coastline. It also has a feejee mermaid on display, originally from China but purchased by a local family and donated on loan before [2]
The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a large peninsula on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the vast majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Eastern Shore of Virginia.
Sussex County is located in the southern part of the U.S. state of Delaware, on the Delmarva Peninsula. As of the 2020 census, the population was 237,378, making it the state's second most populated county only behind New Castle and ahead of Kent. The county seat is Georgetown.
Lewes is an incorporated city on the Delaware Bay in eastern Sussex County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2020 census, its population was 3,303. Along with neighboring Rehoboth Beach, Lewes is one of the principal cities of Delaware's rapidly growing Cape Region. The city lies within the Salisbury, Maryland–Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. Lewes proudly claims to be "The First Town in The First State."
Hoorn is a city and municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the largest town and the traditional capital of the region of West Friesland. Hoorn is located on the Markermeer, 20 kilometers (12 mi) east of Alkmaar and 35 kilometers (22 mi) north of Amsterdam. The municipality has just over 73,000 inhabitants and a land area of 20.38 km2 (7.87 sq mi), making it the third most densely populated municipality in North Holland after Haarlem and Amsterdam. Apart from the city of Hoorn, the municipality includes the villages of Blokker and Zwaag, as well as parts of the hamlets De Bangert, De Hulk and Munnickaij.
Keweenaw National Historical Park is a unit of the U.S. National Park Service. Established in 1992, the park celebrates the life and history of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a federal-local cooperative park made up of two primary units, the Calumet Unit and the Quincy Unit, and almost two dozen cooperating "Heritage Sites" located on federal, state, and privately owned land in and around the Keweenaw Peninsula. The National Park Service owns approximately 1,700 acres (690 ha) in the Calumet and Quincy Units. Units are located in Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw, and Ontonagon counties.
David Hall was an American lawyer and politician from Lewes, in Sussex County, Delaware. He was an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, and member of the Democratic-Republican Party, who served as Governor of Delaware.
Caleb Rodney was an American merchant and politician from Lewes, in Sussex County, Delaware. He was a member of the Federalist Party, who served in the Delaware General Assembly and as Governor of Delaware.
Pieter Corneliszoon Plockhoy was a Dutch Mennonite and Collegiant utopist who founded a settlement in 1663 near Horekill on the banks of Godyn's Bay, near present-day Lewes, Delaware. The settlement was sacked during the English conquest of New Netherland in 1664. He was a longstanding advocate of equality and unrestricted religious toleration, and influenced Franciscus van den Enden, who taught Spinoza Latin. He is now considered a kind of proto-socialist.
Cape Henlopen Light was a lighthouse near Lewes, in present-day Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware, United States. The lighthouse was on the north side of the Great Dune on Cape Henlopen, Delaware. It was the sixth lighthouse built in the colonies.
David Pieterszoon de Vries was a Dutch navigator from the city of Hoorn.
Vriessendael was a patroonship on the west bank of the Hudson River in New Netherland, the seventeenth century North American colonial province of the Dutch Empire. The homestead or plantation was located on a tract of about 500 acres (2.0 km2) about an hour's walk north of Communipaw at today's Edgewater. It has also been known as Tappan, which referred to the wider region of the New Jersey Palisades, rising above the river on both sides of the New York/New Jersey state line, and to the indigenous people who lived there and were part of wider group known as Lenape. It was established in 1640 by David Pietersen de Vries, a Dutch sea captain, explorer, and trader who had also established settlements at the Zwaanendael Colony and on Staten Island. The name can roughly be translated as De Vries' Valley. De Vries also owned flatlands along the Hackensack River, in the area named by the Dutch settlers Achter Col. Parts of Vriessendael were destroyed in 1643 in reprisal for the slaughter of Tappan and Wecquaesgeek Native Americans who had taken refuge at Pavonia and Corlears Hook. The patroon's relatively good relations with the Lenape prevented the murder of the plantation's residents, who were able to seek sanctuary in the main house, and later flee to New Amsterdam. The incident was one of the first of many to take place during Kieft's War, a series of often bloody conflicts with bands of Lenape, who had united in face of attacks ordered by the Director of New Netherland.
Zwaanendael or Swaanendael was a short-lived Dutch colonial settlement in Delaware. It was built in 1631. The name is archaic Dutch for "swan valley." The site of the settlement later became the town of Lewes, Delaware.
Samuel Godin, Godyn or Godijn was a wealthy merchant, originally from Southern Netherlands, trading on Spain, Brazil and the Levant. He was one of the administrators of the Noordsche Compagnie, involved in whaling, and of the Dutch West India Company. From 1620 he traded on New Netherland. His name was at first given to the Delaware Bay and he was one of the main investors in Zwaanendael. The colony did not last very long as it was plundered by Native Americans soon after its founding.
Lightship Overfalls (LV-118) was the last lightvessel constructed for the United States Lighthouse Service before the Service became part of the United States Coast Guard. She is currently preserved in Lewes, Delaware as a museum ship.
Lewes Historic District is a national historic district located at Lewes, Sussex County, Delaware. The district includes 122 contributing buildings and 6 contributing sites encompassing most of the 17th-century town of Lewes, together with part of Pilot Town. The district is primarily residential with resources ranging from small working-class houses to large and ornate houses from the Victorian period in a variety of popular styles including Queen Anne and Second Empire. Also included in the district is the Market Street commercial area, including three frame store buildings and the elaborate Smith Block. Other notable buildings include St. Peter's Episcopal Church, the Ellis Marine Complex, Cannonball House, Governor Ebe W. Tunnell House, Walsh Building, Zwaanendael Museum (1932), Cornelius Burton House, Lewes Historical Society enclave, and the De Wolf Houses. The contributing sites include the site of an 18th-century fort and the 1812 Park.
De Vries Palisade, also known as DeVries Palisade of 1631, is an archaeological site located at Lewes, Sussex County, Delaware. It is the site of the Zwaanendael Colony, the first permanent European presence on the Delaware Bay in 1631, settled by a group of settlers under David Pietersz. de Vries. The settlers landed near this spot to form a whale hunting station and agricultural settlement. A monument was erected on the site; it was dedicated on September 22, 1909.
Otto Wolgast was one of the first settlers of Lewes, Delaware in the United States. He was an early magistrate and follower of Mennonite reformer Pieter Corneliszoon Plockhoy at the Dutch colony of the Zwaanendael in the New Netherlands. He would later serve as justice of the peace under the English colonial authorities.
E. William Martin was a Scottish-born American architect in practice in Wilmington, Delaware from 1926 to 1965. In part through personal and political connections to members of the wealthy du Pont family Martin was architect of many important public works in Delaware, including public schools, the Zwaanendael Museum and the Delaware Legislative Hall.
Shipcarpenter Square is an historic residential neighborhood located in Lewes, Delaware. The neighborhood has well-preserved Colonial and Victorian-era houses, said to provide a bucolic setting and charm to the seaside community while preserving the architectural heritage of the region. A distinctive feature of the neighborhood is that all of the homes have been relocated to the neighborhood from elsewhere.