A History of Westwood Manor and Forwood - Part 1 “19th Century Farms Become 20th Century Neighborhoods” Most of the original owners of homes in Westwood Manor and Forwood have moved on, both physically and spiritually. As a result, most owners probably have little more than a title search from their lawyer to document the history of your home. Such was the case when my wife and I moved into 1400 Forrest Road in 1983. I was eager to learn how our house had changed over the years and what had become of its previous owners. This article evolved from research and recollections from the earliest owners of our home. Both Westwood Manor and Forwood were legally recorded as new developments in 1939. Though the timing is coincident, the evolution of ownership for the two areas was quite different and involved unrelated parties. A convenient starting point for this evolution is to roll back the clock 100 years and look at some of the landowners from that time. There are wonderful maps of the Brandywine Hundred in 1897 at the Delaware Historical Society that show the location of each house in the area, who owned it, and and their property lines. Believe it or not, there were only four households in the area bounded by what is today Silverside Rd., Harvey Rd., Veale Rd. and I-95! At the time, Veale was called Bird Road, Silverside was called Lodge Road, Harvey was called Grubb Road and I-95 would come to be definted by the railroad tracks that still run next to it. The road names in use derived from significant landowners in the area during the mid 1800’s. All were farmers. However, with the start of the 20th century, more contemporary road names came into use and have not changed. Jacob Veale, who owned 100 acres at what is now Scottsdale Farm next to Marini’s Produce, eventually gave his name to Bird Road. Silverside Road would take its name from the elegant ‘Silverside’ Train Station that stood at the edge of Green Acres, near the rail road overpass. Harvey Road likewise drew its name from ‘Harvey’ Station, which stood across the tracks from the Montessori School in Arden. Postcard photos of the old Harvey Station still surface from time to time in area bookstores and at the Arden Fair. Both are gone now, victims of the automobile. In 1905, James S. Conly bought 110 acres of land across the road from Jacob Veale for dairy farming. Little did Conly know at the time that he would be the last to farm the fields which would eventually make way for Westwood Manor, Hilton, Meriden, and Northfield. Conly lived in the large house that is now the Brother’s Home at St. Edmund’s School on Veale Road. You can still see it behind the new auditorium that was built in the 1990s across from Marini’s Produce. With the exception of a parcel that now makes up 4 homes at the corner of Veale and Silverside, Conly owned all of the land that now runs from St. Edmund’s to Silverside Road, and from Veale Road to the Delmarva Power Lines. Across Silverside Road from what was then referred to as “Conly Woods”, another large farm operated that eventually evolved into Forwood, Northwood and Winterhaven. Joseph Forwood owned and farmed these 124 acres, which had been in his family for over a century. It ran from Veale Road down to what is the edge of Carrcroft today. Surrounded by other relatives who lived in homes that now stand behind the Shoppes of Graylyn, Joseph lived in a large stone home built by his grandfather in 1797. It stood in the middle of the dense woods that are New Castle County parkland at the intersection of Marsh and Veale Roads. (behind what is now the Sage Diner).
Just to save you the trip, all that remains of that property are a few foundations hidden by weeds. The tragic tale of that land is a serial in itself that will be relayed in a future article. The economic hardship brought on by the Great Depression of the ‘30’s drove a great many farms in the Brandywine Hundred to housing developments. By 1935, Jim Conly was having a difficult time earning a living from his farm. His wife had died, his two sons, Robert and Jim Jr, were grown with their own jobs and he couldn’t afford to hire help for the farm. Joseph Forwood had passed away by that time and his heirs, likewise, had no interest in farming. In 1937, they sold the house and 17 acres at the corner of Veale and Marsh to a young doctor and put the rest of the land into a corporation that would eventually develop single family homes. In 1939, Conly sold his land to his sons, one of whom had a talent for tractors, bulldozers, and construction. Shortly thereafter, they filed a development plan for Westwood Manor which led to the creation of Forrest, Trevalley, Woodbrook, and Greenbrier Roads. Additional plans would have to wait for more financing, a more assured supply of building materials, and a resolution to the growing conflicts in Europe. Across the way, the Forwood Corporation also filed its plan in 1939 and established Greenway Road, Beechwood Drive and Stony Run Lane. It called for a small bridge over Stony Run Creek that would connect Beechwood to Stony Run Lane but never got built. Alas, the invasion plans of Nazi Germany never took into consideration two tiny developments in Northern Delaware! In the next chapter, we’ll learn more about the man who created Westwood Manor and how World War II affected those plans. Gene Castellano September 1997
Ó Copyright Gene Castellano, Wilmington, Delaware. January 14, 1998. www.genecastellano.com Farms Into Neighborhoods Between two days in October of 1929, the stock market lost 24% of its value and wiped out countless personal fortunes across America. This collapse of wealth started a domino chain that would lead to the Great Depression. Across the country, many banks were no longer willing to extend risky farm loans. This was especially troublesome in the Brandywine Hundred, where dairy farming was the dominant business. For Jim Conly, Sr., who farmed the land now running from St. Edmund’s School to Westwood Manor, the 1930’s were a time of despair . His wife had passed away and his grown sons couldn’t make enough money from the farm to stay with it. Instead, Jim Conly, Jr. took a job at the Sun Oil Refinery in Marcus Hook to help his father pay the bills. Across Silverside Road, the old Forwood farm was in more dire straits. Joseph Forwood had farmed 124 acres of ancestral lands running from Wilson Road to the edge of Carrcroft until his death in 1910. His wife continued the operation with the help of a son until she died in 1930. Estate taxes and the ensuing Depression prompted her children to cease farming altogether. In 1937, they sold the house, outbuildings and 17 acres around it to a doctor from Wilmington by the name of John Allen. The rest of the land was organized into the Forwood Corporation with the intent of eventually dividing it for single homes. The old Forwood homestead, built in 1797, stood at 1617 Marsh Road just behind the Pizza Hut, in the New Castle County parkland across from Mellon Bank. All that remains today of the area that would become known as“Allenville” are a few stone walls and obscure foundations in an undeveloped tract of county parkland. Jim Conly, Jr. started building homes as a sideline business. Having learned carpentry and bulldozing while growing up on the farm, he built his first house on property inherited from his mother. It was 5 Hillcrest Avenue, just off Penny Hill near the Philadelphia Pike. His intent was to rent it out for a second income but before it was finished, a woman by the name of Jeannette Edwards insisted on buying it. Conly refused but Mrs. Edward’s had her heart set on that little white house with green shutters so she offered him $2,000 in cash; no bank loans, no complications! Conly relented... given the times it was an offer he couldn’t refuse. Mrs. Edwards lived in that house until she passed away in 1989 at the age of 99. Little did Conly know that this wise negotiator was an accomplished artist and poet who had studied under Carl Sandburg and N.C. Wyeth! Jeannette Edwards became Delaware’s second poet laureate and an important force in developing Delaware’s fine arts. As for Jim Conly, he took the money and built another house nearby. He offered quality construction and the house sold quickly. With that and $250 profit, he built another and then another until he had built most of Hillcrest Avenue. He then continued up Weir Avenue, which he named after his mother’s family. By its completion in 1939, Conly had another housing development in mind. It was on the west end of his farmland, which the locals called “Conly Woods.” He would call it Westwood Manor.
Ó Copyright Gene Castellano, Wilmington, Delaware. January 14, 1998. www.genecastellano.com In the next chapter, World War II interrupts development plans for Westwood Manor and Forwood. Contentment Look for a low house Shingled wide before the door a bench beside All white and clean on an upland hill Green shutters and some land to till - Jeannette Edwards* * From Fox Point Remembered by Gertrude Dunlap, 1990.
1939: Westwood Manor and Forwood Break Ground In 1937, the old Forwood farm was reduced to a “farmette” called Allenville and the remaining 112 acres were put into a family partnership called the Forwood Corporation. In 1939 they registered a development plan with the Recorder of Deeds that led to the birth of Greenway Road, Brookside Lane, Stony Run Drive and 30 housing lots on the east side of Stony Run Creek. The Forwoods planned to sell the 30 lots before developing the remaining land which ran down to Carrcroft. Little did anyone know that World War II would erupt in 1941 and completely change the economics of housing development in the Brandywine Hundred. It would also dramatically alter the character of the homes built in Forwood and Westwood Manor after 1945. A number of the Forwood lots are still undeveloped today, existing as double lots for the homes that were eventually built. The connecting road between Brookside and Greenway still shows on County maps but was never completed. It was absorbed into County parkland that now borders the creek. The second phase of Forwood was also never completed; it gave way to the development of Northwood in the 1950’s. The Conly family also filed their plan for Westwood Manor in 1939. On April 27, they officially recorded the deed restrictions that deemed the land to be used expressly for private residences1 . The only buildings to be allowed were dwellings, private garages, and “necessary” outbuildings such as tool houses and greenhouses. They also contained offensive clauses which restricted ownership by race. The first deeds in Forwood also contained nearly identical stipulations to those of Westwood Manor. A year later, Jim Conly Jr. acquired the farm from his father and brother. At that point, he was newly married, lived in Claymont, and working for Sun Oil. His goal was to create a neighborhood comparable to Wilmington’s Westover Hills, a project much greater in scope than his first homes off Penny Hill. By May 1941, Conly had sold about 10 new homes and had developed enough of a reputation to encourage articles in Wilmington newspapers.2 They described the area, and model homes at 1401 Trevalley Road and 1901 Silverside. He also ran two large, full page ads on May 3 and May 10. It doesn’t appear that Forwood advertised to the same degree. With Conly’s visible efforts across the way as a drawing card, it probably wasn’t necessary. Those first ten homes sold for $10,000 to $20,000. Most of the prewar development took place on the blocks between Silverside Road and Greenbrier. One of the articles talked about how carefully the wooded landscaping had been preserved to 1 New Castle County deed numbers H 41 569 and H 41 576. 2 Wilmington Morning News, May 3, 1941. Page 10. and the Journal Every Evening, May 10, 1941. Page 5.
create “a pleasing harmony with the natural surroundings. The roads are wide, well paved, with concrete gutters and storm sewers.” Lots ranged from a minimum of 1/4 acre to estate size parcels of 2 to 7 acres! Although the homes were considered distant from Wilmington, the idyllic charm of nearby Arden added to its appeal. Lot sales were slow at first but activity spurted in the summer of 1941. The strangling conditions of the Depression had loosened only to be challenged by the growing uncertainty of war in Europe. The US had sent more aid to Great Britain to defend itself from Germany thereby creating a shortage of housing materials. New homes were hard to find and prices began to increase. By October 1941, Conly had sold about 20 lots but concluded that he wouldn’t be able to complete any more homes due to a lack of building materials. He turned over management of Westwood Manor to a real estate company that offered installment financing of the lots over 2 to 3 years3. This way, buyers could at least have their lots paid for when times returned to normal. However, 10,000 miles away an invasion was in the final planning stages that would forever change the course of Conly’s life and make life for millions anything but normal... ÓCopyright Gene Castellano, Wilmington, Delaware. May 1, 1998. www.genecastellano.com 3 Wilmington Morning News, October 4, 1941. Page 4.