Samuel Hale was a potter who used White Clay Creek to transport his wares. In 1772, he sold the riverside house to Daniel Byrnes, a miller, who enlarged it. Flemish bond brick-work on the front facade (unfortunately sandblasted) contrasts with mingled English and common bonds on sides and rear. General George Washington convened a council of war with the Marquis de Lafayette and others here in September 1777. By 1961, the house was boarded up and about to be demolished for a highway realignment, but Mrs. Harry C. Boden of the revived Delaware Society for the Preservation of Antiquities successfully campaigned for its preservation. Her group restored the house (with G. Morris Whiteside II and Albert Kruse; landscape by Edward Bachtle), giving it to the state in 1971. The gnarled sycamore outside may be as old as the house. Nearby stands abandoned Stanton Bridge (1940–1942), unique in Delaware as a C-shaped concrete “rainbow arch,” with a span of 119 feet.
You are here
Hale-Byrnes House
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.