You are here

Delaware » Eastern Sussex County » Lewes » Lewes Historical Society Complex

Lewes Historical Society Complex

-A A +A
18th and 19th centuries. 3rd St. and Park Ave.
  • (Dave Tabler)

The outdoor museum mostly consists of frame properties moved here in the 1960s, to the yard of the Hiram Rodney Burton House (c. 1780). They include the Thompson Country Store (c. 1800, in use until 1962) and a temple-form Greek Revival doctor's office (c. 1850). Lewes's best Federal building is the Burton-Ingram House (1789, moved here 1962), a cypress-shingled building of side-passage plan that originally stood on 2nd Street; it was narrowly saved from destruction. The woodwork is excellent, as is the stair that rises free through three stories. A rear wing was brought from Milton in 1967, replacing one that burned c. 1922, and the whole was restored by architect George F. Bennett. The shingled Rabbit's Ferry House (1740s, kitchen section; moved here 1967) was scheduled for demolition on its original site at Robinsonville Road, southwest of Lewes. It is one of the few Delaware buildings on which dendrochronology has been carried out, the trees that form the kitchen wing having been felled after the 1741 growing season. Midway School No. 178 (c. 1890) was moved to the complex in 1998.

Writing Credits

Author: 
W. Barksdale Maynard
×

Data

What's Nearby

The Early Plank House (Swedish Log Cabin)
Ryves Holt House
Shipcarpenter Square
St. Peter's Episcopal Church
Robert Scott's Block

Citation

W. Barksdale Maynard, "Lewes Historical Society Complex", [Lewes, Delaware], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/DE-01-ES16.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Delaware

Buildings of Delaware, W. Barksdale Maynard. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008, 268-270.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,