Historic Structures in Delaware

The University of Delaware Library has or provides access to a number of resources for information on historic structures. Strengths are for the State of Delaware, particularly New Castle County.

Start with these resources to determine whether the structure of interest has already been identified as “historic.”

Maynard, W. Barksdale. Buildings of Delaware. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2008. LOCATION: Morris Library - Reference (Ref NA730 .D3M39 2008): An overview of Delaware’architectural history from every period. ... Coverage is heavier for New Castle County.

National Register of Historic Places: The National Register of Historic Places, including more than 71,000 listings, is the Nation’s official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. The National Register Information System (NRIS) is the official database of the National Register of Historic Places. You can look up historic places by state and county. The information you retrieve, however, is minimal. An alternative to the online Register, you can also check the printed National Register of Historic Places (Ref E159 .N34), but the latest edition in that of 1994. After you determine that a property is on the National Register, you may be able to use the following resource.

National Register of Historic Places, Part I. (Microfiche no. 1490): Reproduces the Inventory-Nomination Forms which contain information about each property, photographs, and maps. The University of Delaware Library holds the National Register for all states. Arrangement for all states is by county and then by locality. The microfiche edition includes properties determined eligible for inclusion in the National Register through December 1982. For information on properties later than this date, contact the State Historical Preservation officer or the National Register of Historic Places, Interagency Resource Management Division, National Park Service, U. S. Department of the Interior.

Cultural Resource Survey (Microfiche no. 2003): Delaware Historic Preservation Office. Constitutes an inventory of historic sites in the state of Delaware. “The images on this microfiche are unaltered photocopies of the material contained in the survey files, Bureau of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.” Each site is on a separate microfiche. The microfiche are arranged by county and keyed to master maps held by the Bureau of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.

DelDOT Archaeology Series [separately cataloged]: Over 100 reports on archaeological investigations undertaken by the Delaware Department of Transportation have been published to date. Most are represented by copies in both the Delaware Collection and the State Documents collection. Do a “title begins with” search in DELCAT under “deldot archaeology series” to get a complete listing of titles in this series held by the University of Delaware Library.

Historic American Buildings Survey (Microfilm no. 3464): These are the measured drawings of the buildings surveyed for the Historic American Buildings Survey. The drawings for Delaware buildings are on Reel 9.

Historic American Buildings Survey. Delaware. (Microfiche no. 425): The photographs and written historical and descriptive data, reproduced from photographs located in the Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. The Library has microfiche for all fifty states.

Built in America: One of the Library of Congress’ American Memory digitized collections, Built in America includes the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record. This first release adds digital images to the searchable on-line catalog records, including images of the pages of written histories for all HAER surveys and about 25% of HABS surveys, 17% of the HAER survey photographs and a small sampling of the HABS and HAER measured drawings.

If not listed in these sources, you may have to do more extensive research in a variety of sources, including land records, probate records, directories, and maps. This publication outlines the process:

Research Guide: How to Research the History of Your Home (Spec folio NA7235 .D3 R47x 1995): Prepared by the New Castle County Department of Planning, Historic Preservation Section ; with the assistance of a grant provided by State of Delaware, Division of Historical & Cultural Affairs, State Historic Preservation Office. Also available in digitized format at the Delaware State Web site.

Title Search

A review of the land records to determine the ownership and description of the property. The history of a property’s title (“chain of title”) reveals all parties who have a legal interest in the property and the nature and degree of their interest. Land records are registered and maintained by county recorders. They generally have indexes to sellers (“grantors”) and purchasers (“grantees”). In public land states, additional indexes exist for specific tracts of land. Deeds usually do not provide many details of structures on a property, but can provide clues as to when property was sold or purchased, divided or developed, and possibly when buildings were erected. The researcher must know names of owners of the property.

The University of Delaware Library has copies of deeds for New Castle County through approximately 1850 on microfilm, as well as grantor and grantee indexes (Microfilm S 334, Microfilm S 334.1, and Microfilm S 334.2).

New Castle County Recorder of Deeds has land ownership records for New Castle County. The documents on file in the New Castle County Recorder of Deeds office date back to the 17th century and include such historical items as the land grant assigning William Penn the area that has become the State of Delaware.

For other Delaware land records held by the University of Delaware Library, see Genealogy: Delaware Land Records.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps: The University of Delaware Library has these maps for Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. The Delaware maps are at Microfilm no. 3333 and no. 5690. A digitized collection of 140 map sets for Delaware is available as Digital Sanborn Maps: Delaware. Coverage is 1884-1958. Check the availability of a map at Digital Sanborn Maps: Map Sets for Delaware.

D. G. Beers. Atlas of the State of Delaware. 1868.: (Folio+ G1265 .B44 1980; Ref G1265 .B44 1980; Spec folio+ G1265 .B44x 1868)

Franklin Survey Company. Property Atlas of City of Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware: Showing the Entire City: Compiled from Official Records, Private Plans and Actual Surveys. Philadelphia, 1936.: (Spec folio+ G1269.W54 F72)

City Directories: City directories provide street addresses and names of residents. Directories can be useful for tracing previous owners of a property and the first occurrence of a street/house number. The University of Delaware Library has city directories for Wilmington, Newark, and other areas in the state in both print and microform. Check DELCAT, browsing, for example, the subject wilmington del--directories.

Resources for Newark, in addition to those above, include:

Newark, Delaware: Selected Primary Resources

The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Newark include maps dated September 1891, June 1907, May 1915, September 1922, July 1929, and a “correction record” for the July 1929 map, incorporating changes through 1945 and 1958. (These are sample images of the intersection of Main and Chapel Streets from the various editions.)

Documents in the University Archives may provide information about historic structures on the University of Delaware campus.