Dover Green: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, First State National Historical Park
Hanna J. 2026. Dover Green: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, First State National Historical Park. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 976054. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
Dover Green is a small one-acre park located in the heart of Dover, the capital city of Delaware. The park is a unit of First State National Historical Park (NHP), originally established in 2013 as a National Monument to protect and manage significant sites related to the settlement of the region by the Swedes, Finns, Dutch, and English; the role that Delaware played in the establishment of the Nation; and the preservation of the cultural landscape of the Brandywine Valley. On December 7, 1787 at the Golden Fleece Tavern on the Dover Green, the Delaware convention ratified the Constitution of the United States, earning Delaware the accolade of “the First State.” Though the tavern no longer exists, Dover Green is the central area of the Dover Green Historic District that signifies this event and many others, including the mustering of a Continental Regiment during the American Revolution and the reading of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The Green has long served as a public gathering place for community assembly, public discourse, and passive recreation. Dover Green was part of the town layout developed in 1683 by William Penn and implemented in 1717 by Dover’s early settlers. Since 1849 the Green itself has been a rectangular-shaped area landscaped with mowed lawns and tall deciduous trees set out in a loose grid pattern. The space is bisected into east and west parcels by the two-lane State Street, which runs north-south through the city of Dover and is lined with brick sidewalks. The Green itself is ringed by a one-way, paved perimeter road named The Green. Facing the road and providing the Green’s enclosure are numerous one- to three-story civic, commercial, and residential buildings that chronicle the town’s eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth-century development. The most prominent buildings are the Old State House, built in 1792 on the east side of the Green, and the Kent County Court House, constructed in 1873-75 on the south side of the Green. The cupola towers of both brick buildings are focal points for the Green. Other features on Dover Green include non-permanent benches, replica light posts, directional and parking signs, and a stone memorial dedicated to Revolutionary War soldiers. In addition to Dover Green, First State NHP contains six other noncontiguous sites: the John Dickinson Plantation, also in Dover; Fort Christina and Old Swedes Church in or near Wilmington; New Castle Court House in New Castle; the Ryves Holt House in Lewes; and Beaver Valley five miles north of Wilmington.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Hanna, Jennifer
- Date of Issue
- 2026
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- FRST , NER
- Keywords
- Assembly Area, Brother’s Portion, Capitol, Colonial Exploration and Settlement, Community Planning and Development, Concession, Court House Square, Courthouse, Designed Landscape, Development of the Colonies, Dover Green, Dutch Exploration and Settlement, English Exploration and Settlement, Exploration – Settlement, Expressing Cultural Values, Historic Preservation, Landscape Architecture, Peopling Places, Physical Development, Politics – Government, Regional Planning., Shaping the Political Landscape, The American Revolution, The Declaration of Independence, The Green-Dover, Transforming the Environment, Urban Park, Urban Planning In The Nineteenth Century