1 Delaware Creates a Park at Brandywine Springs By Gene Castellano The park pavilion and ball fields at Brandywine Springs that local residents enjoy today have their roots in the mineral springs resort and amusement park that once enticed visitors to the property. Officially dedicated on July 29, 1956, Brandywine Springs was Delaware’s first grassroots effort to create a state park. This is a surprise to many in northern Delaware who now know it as a New Castle County park. When Clinton Weslager published his famous book Brandywine Springs: The Rise and Fall of a Delaware Resort in 1949, he rekindled the memories of many locals who had spent fun filled hours down at the amusement park. He also awakened a better appreciation for the famed mineral springs hotel and the chalybeate springs, which had long faded from memory after it burned in 1853. With the closing of the amusement park in 1923, the property quickly grew over and turned to fields and woodlands. The family of Franklin Fell eventually sold it to Charles Richards, a prominent Wilmington lawyer, who recognized its heritage and kept it from residential development. After Weslager’s book gained popularity, a group of area residents came together to form the Brandywine Springs Association in the hopes of encouraging the state to develop a park on the site. Their first meeting was held on February 19, 1950 at the home of Carl Denison, who would become the first president of the group. Also active in organizing the association was Eldred Hoiriis, who lived in the Fell Mansion and hosted meetings there. The process for creating the park moved slowly but steadily. Governor Elbert N. Carvel was a supporter of the plan and, in 1951, he approved a bill to acquire the 60 acre property from Richards for $45,000. Eventually the money to buy the land was appropriated but it would take two more years to secure funding for ball fields, a park office and a pavilion. The state appropriated $67,000 in 1953 to commission a master plan for the park. Including Brandywine Springs, Delaware had three state parks on the planning board in 1951. By year end, the state assumed operation of Trap Pond, a U.S. Department of Agriculture facility, and would eventually acquire it in 1955. Fort Delaware was also on the list as a park candidate but it lay abandoned and in disrepair. Funds were appropriated in 1951 to prevent its further vandalism however it would be three more years before visitors could take weekend boat trips to the island in the summer. Restoration and regular access would take much longer. Early in 1954, the architectural firm of F. Ellwood Allen in Bennington, Vermont was selected to create the master plan for Brandywine Springs Park. Allen’s company was already known for similar facilities that they had designed around the country. A plan and map was developed that summer which looks much like the upper park that we know today. It called for a baseball field, a softball field, “multiple use” areas for basketball or tennis, a children’s play area, a picnic shelter, an office and attached rest rooms. Ground breaking for the project took place on Sunday, November 14 at the park. Governor Caleb Boggs gave the dedication speech and the state’s first park commissioner, Nathan Miller, assisted in turning the spade. About 100 people turned out for the event. The bid package for the proposed facilities, as well as photographs of the upper park prior to the ground breaking, are in the collections of the Delaware Public Archives. The photos show how densely overgrown the area around the original hotel had become. The Wilmington firm of DiSabatino and
2 Raniere won the bid and agreed to complete the work by April 1, 1955 for a cost of $32,070. The worked moved ahead although weather affected the timetable and the park wasn’t completed until the summer of 1956. The official dedication ceremonies were held on Sunday, July 29, 1956 with Governor Boggs once again giving the dedication speech. Three hundred attended the ribbon cutting ceremony and the park’s first friend’s organization took pride in what they had accomplished. Although technically not Delaware’s first state park, it was Delaware’s “maiden effort” to conceive and create one from scratch. The dedication program from that day aptly describes Brandywine Springs’ credentials as “the first such park in Delaware purchased and developed from funds assigned to the State Park Commission of Delaware by the General Assembly.” In April, 1963, the Brandywine Springs Association officially disbanded and the funds in their treasury, which totaled $57.82, were used to buy “as many pink dogwood trees as can be obtained” for planting around the park. Later that year, the superintendent of Delaware’s state parks recommended that Brandywine Springs be sold to New Castle County for its ongoing management. The primary reasons were that the size and location of the park were better suited for local use by residents. All agreed that the park attracted visitors from the immediate area rather than Kent and Sussex counties. There was even discussion of adding a swimming pool given the high density of neighborhoods in the area. On October 29, 1963, the State Park Commission approved the concept of shifting ownership of Brandywine Springs to the County. After further consideration, the idea of actually selling it was dropped in favor of a land transfer, although it would take many more years to work out the details. In a small footnote to this decision, the county agreed to “trade” a parcel of land northwest of Middletown for the eventual creation of Lum’s Pond State Park. Operation and ownership of Brandywine Springs were officially assumed by the County in May, 1970. In 1993, author Mark Lawlor published his book Brandywine Springs Amusement Park, which further detailed the history of the property between 1886 and 1923. The book created new interest in the archaeology and preservation of the lower park along Hyde Run, which had been largely ignored by the State when creating the original park. The original mineral springs site and amusement park ruins were never part of the 1955 master plan and languished during early State and County ownership. The state had hoped to fully restore the entire tract one day but that effort was never funded. Fortunately, renewed interest from Lawlor’s book led to the formation in 1993 of a new private organization, the Friends of Brandywine Springs (FOBS). They took on the mission of finishing the work in the lower park and assisting the County in preserving the park’s heritage. Since then, FOBS has initiated many park improvements through its successful partnerships with New Castle County government, the nearby Wilmington Western Railroad and the Historic Red Clay Valley Association. What has been accomplished at Brandywine Springs over sixty five years serves as a model for sustaining other parks across the United States. The pattern is simple and clear: historians invoke memories of the past which can energize volunteer groups into action. Those groups then partner with local government to preserve, interpret and protect our parklands.
3 Surveyors begin the process of planning a new parking lot and facilities at Brandywine Springs Park (1953‐courtesy of Delaware Public Archives) Park facilities ca. 1964 (courtesy of the Delaware Public Archives)
4 View of the park office and restrooms (left), picnic shelter (right‐rear) and barbecue grille (right‐front) (ca. 1964, courtesy of Delaware Public Archives) Acknowledgements: Much of the research material for this paper came from a scrapbook of letters, photos and newspaper articles kept by Mrs. Emily Claire, whose husband had been the treasurer of the Brandywine Springs Association. The scrapbook found its way to park historian Mark Lawlor, who then passed it on to Bob D’Onofrio, its current owner and an active member of the Friends of Brandywine Springs. Lawlor also provided a copy of the 1956 park dedication program. Randy Voss of the Delaware Public Archives helped with obtaining photographs of the early park and Jim Hall of the Cultural Resources Unit, Delaware State Parks, assisted with information on the development of Trapp Pond, Fort Delaware and Brandywine Springs in the 1950s. Gene Castellano April 28, 2015