Delmarva Back Roads

  A delightfully detailed gable window in South Milford  Milford has so many historical gems that it has not one, not two, but three separate historic districts. I’ve talked about the Shipyard Historic District in this blog post and North Milford Historic District in this blog post . We also explored  South Milford Historic District , also known as Victorian Historic District. Milford first developed on the north side of the Mispillion River, then spread to the south side in the mid-1800s. So many of South Milford’s buildings were built in the mid to late 1800s.  Unlike some other towns along the Delaware Bayshore Byway. Milford’s economy boomed in the late 1800s. One reason is that its shipbuilding industry continued until the early 20 th century. Another reason is that, unlike most towns along the Delaware Bayshore Byway, Milford had a railroad running through it. Milford was a major shipping point for peaches until they were hit by a blight  in the very ...

The main section and right wing of Parson Thorne Mansion in North Milford Milford is the largest town along the Delaware Bayshore Byway, so big that it has not one but three historic districts: North Milford, South Milford, and the shipyards. We explored the shipyard district when we wandered Milford’s Mispillion Riverwalk . We recently returned to explore North Milford Historic District. I quickly realized that, with about 100 historic buildings, North Milford Historic District has far too many interesting buildings to cover in a single blog post. So we focused on just two blocks of NW Front Street, between North Walnut Street and North Church Street. North Milford developed before South Milford, and this was once Milford’s main business district. But a fire in 1891 destroyed many buildings here, so quite a few buildings here are from the late 1800s or early 1900s. Central-New Windsor Hotel at 24 NW Front Street was built in 1892, replacing a hotel built in 1808 that burned in...

Looking east at the Mispillion River and Riverwalk from downtown Milford Milford  is different from other towns we’ve seen so far along the Delaware Bayshore Byway. First, it’s a lot bigger—there were far too many historic buildings here for us to see during our half-day visit. Second, while many individual buildings have been preserved, overall it’s not a preserved town like Port Penn, Odessa, Leipsic or Little Creek. Everywhere you look, there are modern buildings next to historic ones. So, while you can learn what life was like here 100-200 years ago, you won’t feel transported back in time as you might in other Delaware Bayshore Byway towns. Like all towns along the Delaware Bay, Milford historically made its living from the water. Here plenty of giant white oak trees in the 1700s and 1800s plus a navigable river meant the major industries were sawmills and shipbuilding. Shipbuilding was already thriving here by the 1780s, when the Reverend Sydenham Thorne built a dam across ...