Delaware Trivia & Tidbits - Page 5

Looking for Delaware trivia? Try our list Delaware little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The DuPont Highway (U.S. Route 113) was completed in 1924 and runs the entire length of the state. Built by visionary industrialist T. Coleman DuPont at no cost to taxpayers, the road benefited farmers and merchants by linking them to northern markets.

first appeared: 7/16/2006

Gibraltar, a mansion built in 1844 on a rocky outcropping in Wilmington, was purchased in 1909 by preservationist and horticulturist Hugh Rodney Sharp and his wife Isabella du Pont Sharp, who greatly expanded the structure. Marion Cruger Coffin, one of the nation's best-known landscape architects, designed the mansion's restored garden. In 1998, the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

first appeared: 7/2/2006

The Schoonover Studios, built in 1905 in Wilmington, provided workspace for a group of artists that included renowned illustrator and teacher Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972). Over the course of his career, Schoonover created thousands of illustrations for books and magazines, as well as landscapes of the Brandywine and Delaware River valleys.

first appeared: 6/25/2006

The Appoquinimink Friends Meeting House in Odessa (pop. 286) was a stop on the Underground Railroad prior to the Civil War. Runaway slaves would escape capture by hiding in the loft of the Quaker meeting house.

first appeared: 6/4/2006

The Fourteen Foot Bank Lighthouse, built in 1886 three miles offshore from Bowers Beach (pop. 185), remains an active navigation aid for shipping interests and fishermen in Delaware Bay.

first appeared: 5/21/2006

The Bellanca "Miss Veedol," the first airplane to fly nonstop across the Pacific Ocean, was built at Bellanca Field in Wilmington. The plane, piloted by Clyde Panghorn and Hugh Herndon, flew in 1931 from Tokyo to Wenatchee, Wash.

first appeared: 5/14/2006

The first American Legion ambulance service was launched in 1924 by the David C. Harrison American Legion Post #14. Its 18 founding members were World War I veterans who volunteered to transport the sick and injured to hospitals in Wilmington, Dover, Milford and beyond.

first appeared: 4/23/2006

George Alfred Townsend, a Civil War newspaper correspondent, journalist and author, was born in Georgetown (pop. 4,643) on Jan. 30, 1841. His attachment to his native region is reflected in some of his novels. In The Entailed Hat, he writes about Patty Cannon, the notorious slave runner of the Eastern Shore.

first appeared: 4/9/2006

The Stone School in Claymont (pop. 9,220) was built in 1805 on land donated by patriot and statesman John Dickinson. The building housed a school until 1925 and a library until closing in 1988 due to structural concerns. Restored recently by a private group, the school is a venue for civic events.

first appeared: 3/26/2006

Completed in 1699, Old Swedes Church in Wilmington is the nation’s oldest church standing as originally built. Through the years, its churchyard has accommodated 15,000 burials. Old Swedes is now known as Holy Trinity Church.

first appeared: 3/12/2006

Delaware Memorial Bridge was built at a cost of $44 million to connect Delaware and New Jersey. When the bridge opened in 1951, it was named the most beautiful large steel span by the American Institute of Steel Construction.

first appeared: 2/26/2006

William Julius "Judy" Johnson, a third baseman from Wilmington, belonged to some of the greatest Negro league teams of the 1920s and ’30s, including the Pittsburgh Crawfords. He was a two-time All-Star and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975.

first appeared: 2/12/2006

Wilmington native Creighton Miller, a Notre Dame All-American halfback, helped the Fighting Irish to the 1943 national college football championship. As an assistant coach with the Cleveland Browns, he helped organize the NFL players’ union.

first appeared: 1/29/2006

William McGowan of Wilmington was an American League umpire from 1925 to 1954 and worked a record 2,541 consecutive major league games without missing an inning. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992.

first appeared: 1/15/2006

MISS DELAWARE 2006—Rebecca Bledsoe, who once auditioned for TV’s American Idol, plans to pursue a master’s degree in musical theater. She also is the Delaware Ambassador for the Verizon Wireless HopeLine Program, which refurbishes used cellular phones for use by victims of domestic violence.

first appeared: 1/8/2006

Dionna Harris of Wilmington, a two-time college All-American, played outfield for the 1996 gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic softball team, leading the team with a .406 batting average.

first appeared: 1/1/2006

Vicki Huber of Wilmington was an eight-time individual champion in track and cross-country at Villanova University. She placed sixth in the 3,000-meters at the 1988 Olympics.

first appeared: 12/18/2005

The Trees of the States Arboretum sprouted in 1976 when California’s College of the Redwoods donated a redwood tree to Delaware Technical & Community College in Georgetown (pop. 4,643). The gift inspired the college to solicit tree seedlings from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

first appeared: 12/4/2005

The 1751 Transpeninsular Marker, a carved stone near the Fenwick Island (pop. 342) Lighthouse, marks the eastern end of a 70-mile long survey line between the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay.

first appeared: 11/20/2005

A popular exhibit at the Zwaanendael Museum in Lewes (pop. 2,932) is the "Merman," or monkey-fish, made years ago by attaching a monkey’s head to the body of a fish and loaned to the museum in 1941.

first appeared: 11/6/2005

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