Historic Sites In Delaware. I taught American history for more than twenty-five years before I started visiting these places, and the First State packs a lot into a small footprint. This is where Swedish, Dutch, and English colonists landed, where Delaware became the first state to ratify the Constitution, where the du Pont family built an industrial empire, and where Civil War prisoners were held on an island in the Delaware River.
Below are the 15 historic sites in Delaware I recommend most, ranked from a colonial plantation up to the national park that finally gave Delaware its place in the National Park System. I have noted who manages each one and what you will find when you arrive.
Historic Sites In Delaware At A Glance
| Site | Type & Manager | Location |
|---|---|---|
| First State National Historical Park | National Historical Park (NPS) | multiple sites |
| Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library | Museum & estate (nonprofit) | near Wilmington |
| Fort Delaware | State Park | Pea Patch Island |
| Delaware Art Museum | Art museum (nonprofit) | Wilmington |
| Kalmar Nyckel | Tall-ship replica (nonprofit) | Wilmington |
| Hagley Museum and Library | Museum (nonprofit) | near Wilmington |
| Fort Miles | Historic WWII fort (state park) | Cape Henlopen |
| New Castle Historic District | National Historic Landmark district | New Castle |
| Captain John Smith Chesapeake Trail | National Historic Trail (NPS) | Nanticoke River |
| Biggs Museum of American Art | Art museum (nonprofit) | Dover |
| Nemours Estate | Mansion & gardens (nonprofit) | Wilmington |
| Lightship Overfalls | Museum ship (nonprofit) | Lewes |
| Delaware Agricultural Museum | Museum (nonprofit) | Dover |
| Barratt’s Chapel | Historic church & museum | Frederica |
| John Dickinson Plantation | State site / part of First State NHP | Dover |
15. John Dickinson Plantation
I start near Dover at the boyhood home of John Dickinson, the “Penman of the Revolution,” whose widely read essays helped rally the colonies against British taxation. The restored 1740 brick mansion sits on a tidal plantation, and the site does important work telling the full story of the place, including the lives of the enslaved and tenant farmers who worked this land. The plantation is a Delaware state site and is also one of the units of First State National Historical Park.
14. Barratt’s Chapel
Near Frederica stands a plain brick church known as the “Cradle of Methodism in America.” Built in 1780, Barratt’s Chapel is where Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke met in 1784 to plan the organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. It is the oldest surviving church built by Methodists in the country, and a small museum next door tells the story. It remains a quiet, significant stop for anyone interested in American religious history.
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13. Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village
In Dover, the Delaware Agricultural Museum preserves the farming heritage that shaped the state for centuries. The grounds include a recreated 1890s village with a one-room schoolhouse, a gristmill, a blacksmith shop, and a farmhouse, along with exhibits on the broiler-chicken industry that transformed Delaware’s economy. It is a nonprofit museum and a hands-on look at rural life.
12. Lightship Overfalls
In the historic town of Lewes, where Delaware was first settled, the Lightship Overfalls is a floating lighthouse you can board. Built in 1938, lightships like this one anchored over dangerous shoals where building a fixed lighthouse was impossible, marking the way for mariners. It is one of only a handful of surviving U.S. lightships and a National Historic Landmark, restored and run by a volunteer nonprofit.
11. Nemours Estate
In Wilmington, Nemours is a 300-acre estate built by Alfred I. du Pont in 1909 and 1910. The 77-room French neoclassical mansion is surrounded by the largest formal French gardens in North America, modeled on the gardens of Versailles. Du Pont named it for his family’s ancestral home in France. It is a nonprofit estate, and guided tours take you through the opulent mansion and grounds.
10. Biggs Museum of American Art
On the historic Dover Green, the Biggs Museum of American Art holds a fine collection of American paintings, furniture, and silver spanning three centuries, including works tied to Delaware and the mid-Atlantic. Founded on the collection of Sewell Biggs, it is a free nonprofit museum and a quiet gem in the state capital, well worth pairing with a walk around the colonial-era Green.
9. Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail
The Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail is a network of water routes tracing the explorer’s 1607 to 1609 voyages around the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. A Delaware connecting trail, designated in 2012, follows the Nanticoke River in the southwestern part of the state, linking Delaware’s waterways to the larger trail. It is administered by the National Park Service, and the best way to experience it is by paddling the quiet Nanticoke.
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8. New Castle Historic District
The riverfront town of New Castle is one of the best-preserved colonial towns in the country, a National Historic Landmark district. Founded by the Dutch in 1651 and later a key port, its cobblestone streets are lined with brick homes and public buildings from the 1600s and 1700s. William Penn first set foot in America here in 1682. The New Castle Court House, where Delaware declared its independence and separation from Pennsylvania, is now part of First State National Historical Park.
7. Fort Miles
At Cape Henlopen, where Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic, Fort Miles was a World War II coastal defense post built to guard the entrance to the Delaware River and the vital industries upstream. Concrete bunkers, gun batteries, and the distinctive fire-control towers still dot the dunes within Cape Henlopen State Park. After the war, the fort took the surrender of a German U-boat. A museum in a restored battery tells the story.
6. Hagley Museum and Library
Along the Brandywine River, Hagley Museum preserves the original du Pont black-powder works, where the family began in 1802. The company that grew into the chemical giant DuPont started here, milling gunpowder using waterpower from the river. The site includes the restored mills, the workers’ community, and Eleutherian Mills, the first du Pont family home. It is a nonprofit museum where you can watch a working waterwheel and powder demonstrations.
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5. Kalmar Nyckel
In Wilmington, the Kalmar Nyckel is a full-size sailing replica of the Swedish ship that brought the first European settlers to Delaware in 1638, founding the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina. The original made four crossings of the Atlantic, more than any other colonizing ship of its era. The modern replica, launched in 1997, serves as Delaware’s seagoing ambassador and a floating classroom. You can tour it dockside or sail aboard on scheduled voyages.
4. Delaware Art Museum
The Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington holds a distinguished collection, including the largest holding of British Pre-Raphaelite art outside the United Kingdom and a deep collection of works by the illustrator Howard Pyle, the Wilmington-born “father of American illustration.” The nonprofit museum also has a sculpture garden and rotating exhibitions. It is a rewarding stop for anyone who loves art and the history of American illustration.
3. Fort Delaware
On Pea Patch Island in the middle of the Delaware River, Fort Delaware is a massive stone fortress completed in 1859. During the Civil War it became a Union prison camp that held thousands of Confederate soldiers, and conditions there were grim. Today it is a state park reached by ferry, with costumed interpreters who bring the 1860s garrison to life. The island is also home to one of the largest wading-bird nesting colonies on the East Coast.
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2. Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library
Winterthur, the former country estate of Henry Francis du Pont, holds the premier collection of American decorative arts in the world, some 90,000 objects displayed across a 175-room mansion. Du Pont was a passionate collector and horticulturist, and the surrounding 1,000-acre naturalistic garden is one of the finest in the country. It is a nonprofit museum near Wilmington, and you can tour the house, ride a tram through the gardens, and explore the research library.
1. First State National Historical Park
My top pick is the park that made Delaware whole within the national park system. For nearly a century, Delaware was the only state without a National Park Service unit. That changed in 2013, when President Barack Obama proclaimed First State National Monument, and in 2014 Congress redesignated it First State National Historical Park.
Rather than a single place, the park is a collection of seven sites across the state that tell the story of Delaware’s early settlement and its role as the first state to ratify the Constitution in 1787. They include the New Castle Court House, the Dover Green, the Old Swedes Church and Fort Christina in Wilmington, the Ryves-Holt House in Lewes, the John Dickinson Plantation, and the Woodlawn property in the Brandywine Valley. The National Park Service manages it in partnership with the state. Start at the welcome center in New Castle to plan your route.
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More Things To Do In Delaware
These 15 sites pair well with the rest of the First State. The Brandywine Valley near Wilmington clusters Winterthur, Hagley, and Nemours within a few miles, the colonial towns of New Castle and Lewes are walkable and full of history, and the beaches at Cape Henlopen combine WWII bunkers with dunes and trails. For nearby trips, our roundups of historic sites in Pennsylvania and Maryland connect across the state lines.
We do not make this up out of thin air. More Than Just Parks is a family operation. My sons Will and Jim have spent their adult lives exploring America’s national parks and public lands destinations, working with the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, the USDA, and the U.S. Forest Service on films about important places. In 2018, after a career teaching history, I joined them to help tell the stories behind these places.
