New Castle, Delaware
Community History and Archaeology Program
In numerous early Indentures for property fronting on present Delaware Street between present Second Street and the Strand, Delaware Street ss called "the Thwart Street". "the highway to the house of James Crawford" (1675). "street from the river to the market". "the market street", "street to market" and "the street to the Court House" (earliest date for this not yet determined). Indentures for properties west of present Second Street call Delaware Street "the street opposite the market". "the street opposite the green", "the merchant street", "the high street". "the market street". "the High Street alias Wood Street" and finally "Wood Street". The eastern end is not referred to as Wood Street until much later. Minutes of the commission appointed 1797 to survey the streets show that present Second Street between Delaware and Harmony was also called Wood Street so that Wood Street ran from Harmony to Delaware and there turned west until It became "the highway leading into the woods" or the "main highway" or the "King's Road." at some point beyond Fourth Street, and also the "street that goes to Maryland." During the whole of the eighteenth century and most of the nineteenth century, the buildings on Delaware Street west of Second Street were either dwellings or inns. An exception was the William B. Janvier property, #208, which was built as a large dwelling with store, replacing an earlier small brick dwelling during the first quarter of the nineteenth century; and except also that the "large brick house" (Hotel Louise) for some years between 1694 and 1723 had a merchant's store In or attached to it. All of the original buildings on this part of Delaware Street, of which there s record, were built of brick. The temporary frame offices or stores on the Booth house and Hotel Louise properties were late nineteenth century. The original houses on the north side of Third Street the Hotel Louise faced Third (Minquas) running back to Fourth. Drawings in early indentures and a court case in 1682 prove this. Also they were of wood, log or frame, until a brick house on the southwest corner of Third and Delaware is mentioned In an denture about 1735. (There may be earlier mention not yet