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Delaware » Lower New Castle County » Middletown Vicinity » Achmester

Achmester

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1829, alterations through c. 1850. Marl Pit Rd., 0.5 miles east of U.S. 71, north of Middletown
  • Achmester (HABS)

When agricultural reformer General Richard Mansfield lived here, this low-slung, single-story frame house looked Georgian, as recorded in a rare oil painting of the estate. After his death in 1846, his son-in-law added stylish jigsaw work along the eaves and the dormer windows, giving it a Gothic-cottage-like flavor. Mansfield kept account books for eighteen years that record construction of the house by carpenters named McFarlane in the summer of 1829, as well as scientific farming practices, such as liming the clover and grain fields with plaster dust. According to his will, Mansfield owned an extensive library. Huge ornamental trees shade the lawn. At the rear of the dwelling stand a frame granary, smokehouse, and v-notched log granary (c. 1820), the last a rare survival. Achmester stands vacant and weathering.

Writing Credits

Author: 
W. Barksdale Maynard
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Data

What's Nearby

Town of Parkside
Academy Building
North Cass Street Houses
St. Anne's Church
Old St. Anne's Church

Citation

W. Barksdale Maynard, "Achmester", [Middletown, Delaware], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/DE-01-LN11.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Delaware

Buildings of Delaware, W. Barksdale Maynard. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008, 215-215.

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