Beaver Valley: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, First State National Historical Park
Hanna J and Foulds E. 2017. Beaver Valley: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, First State National Historical Park. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 976052. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
Beaver Valley is a National Park Service unit of First State National Historical Park which encompasses resources associated with settlement of the Delaware region, the role that Delaware played in the establishment of the nation, and the preservation of the cultural landscape of the Brandywine Valley. In addition to Beaver Valley, the park includes several noncontiguous sites within Delaware: Fort Christina and Old Swedes Church in Wilmington; New Castle Green, Court House, and Sheriff’s House in New Castle; the Green in Dover and John Dickinson Plantation in Dover; and the Ryves Holt House in Lewes. Formerly known as the Woodlawn Tract, the 1,105-acre Beaver Valley property is located approximately five miles north of the Wilmington city limits and twenty-seven miles southwest of Philadelphia, straddling the boundary of New Castle County, Delaware and Concord and Birmingham Townships in Pennsylvania. Beaver Valley features rolling agricultural fields and pasture, forested hillsides, and stream valleys characteristic of the cultural landscape of the larger Brandywine Valley of northern Delaware and southern Pennsylvania. Dotted with farmsteads and laced with winding roads, the property reveals evidence of eighteenth-century English Quaker settlement and the vision of nineteenth-century Quaker industrialist, William Poole Bancroft, to preserve Beaver Valley as future parkland. Beaver Valley Road, Ramsey Road, Beaver Dam Road, Brandywine Creek Road, Woodlawn Road, Creek Road, Smith Bridge Road, and Thompson Bridge Road comprise the primary transportation routes in Beaver Valley. An extensive pedestrian and bridle trail system based on former farm roads and twentieth-century constructed trails links fields, farms, and woodland. Sixteen residences and farmsteads, with accompanying agricultural structures, are located within the boundaries. The earliest extant farmhouse was built circa 1740, the latest by 1914. In addition, extensive stone ruins from nineteenth-century mills and factories are located near Beaver Creek. Some land in Beaver Valley is divided into leases held by the National Park Service with individuals and commercial agricultural companies. To the west of Beaver Valley is the area known as “Chateau Country” featuring public gardens, Winterthur and Mt. Cuba, which were former estates of the du Pont and Copeland families respectively. The early twentieth-century du Pont estate, Granogue, borders the western edge of Brandywine Creek and is visible from upland area farms on Ramsey Road and Thompson Bridge Road. To the south of Beaver Valley is Brandywine Creek State Park, established in 1965 from former du Pont family agricultural land. Immediately north and east of the park the landscape is very similar to the rolling agricultural land of Beaver Valley. Concord Pike to the east, however, is lined with commercial development. Densely platted subdivisions are located to the east of Concord Pike.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Hanna, Jennifer; Foulds, Eliot
- Date of Issue
- 2017-09-27
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- FRST , NER
- Keywords
- Agricultural Field, and Control (Surveying, Archeology-Prehistoric, Barn, Beaver Valley, Cartography, Chandler's Hollow, Colonial Exploration and Settlement, Community Planning and Development, Conservation, Conservation of Natural Resources, Developing the American Economy, Engineering, English Exploration and Settlement, Etc.), Expanding Science and Technology, Expansion of the Colonies and the United States, Exploration – Settlement, Expressing Cultural Values, Landscape Architecture, Leisure-Passive (Park), Manufacturing Facility (Mill), Measurement, Observation, Peopling Places, Politics – Government, Prehistoric Archeology: Topical Facets, Prehistoric Architecture/Shelter/Housing, Regional Planning, Scenic Preservation., Scientific and Topographic Surveys, Single Family Dwelling-Other, Single Family House, Technology (Engineering and Invention), The Woodlawn Tract, Trade, Transforming the Environment, Vernacular Landscape, Woodlot/Forest (Managed)