Cultural Landscape Report for Brandywine Valley, First State National Historical Park, Parts I and II

Quinn Evans; Brenda Williams; Megan Zidar; Dustin Smith; Adjoa Kennedy; Rebecca Huffman; Rebekah Lawrence; Strata Architecture, Inc. (Prime); Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation (Jennifer Hanna, COR)

This Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) is for the Brandywine Valley (BRVA) unit (formerly known as the Woodlawn Tract and then Beaver Valley) of First State National Historical Park (FRST), located along the Delaware-Pennsylvania border about five miles north of Wilmington, Delaware. The park unit is situated in Brandywine Hundred, a legal division of New Castle County in Delaware, and in Concord and Birmingham Townships in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The CLR presents historical documentation, an existing condition assessment, an analysis of historical significance and integrity, and treatment recommendations for the overall cultural landscape, as well as design concepts for the site at 405 Ramsey Road. The report provides direction for effective vegetation management, identifies improvements for public access and accessibility, informs the protection of contributing landscape characteristics and features, and serves as a resource to enhance interpretation. The contents are intended for use by the National Park Service and its partners to guide the management and development of landscape treatments according to The United States Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. The study boundary of the Brandywine Valley CLR is coterminous with the park’s legislative boundary and includes approximately 1,359 acres of federal land owned in fee simple. The unit consists of 32 land parcels owned by the National Park Service; 675 acres are leased, of which approximately 641.5 acres are in agricultural use, and 20 residential properties are subleased through a master lease agreement. The legislative boundary also includes three parcels held as private inholdings, which were not addressed in the treatment section of this CLR. The Brandywine Valley unit features rolling hills, creeks, and streams overlaid with a patchwork of open fields and enclosed wooded areas, creating a landscape that typifies the rural character of the valley. Roads and trails define the edges and provide opportunities for park visitors to enter, traverse, and view the landscape. Structural remnants of historic industrial mills, along with traces of mill races, can be found along the creek corridors. Small farmsteads, composed of groups of buildings closely associated with agricultural and domestic landscape features, are distributed throughout the valley. These recognizable farmsteads typically include a farmhouse, driveway, barn, spring house, sheds, garage, shade trees, tree lines, ornamental plants near the residence, fences, fields, fencerows, and woods. Each farmstead is unique while also serving as a tangible representation of the valley’s historic character. The landscape is the homeland of the Delaware Tribe of Indians and the Delaware Nation, both federally recognized Lenape tribal nations. European immigrants became solidly established in the Lenape homeland in 1681 when William Penn was granted a 4,120-acre land patent, leading to settlement in the area primarily by British Quaker descendants, which resulted in devastation and dispossession for the Lenape people, culture, and land. In 1907, William Poole Bancroft purchased a large portion of the property to preserve the beauty of the Brandywine Valley for future generations. Bancroft established the Woodland Trustees to manage the land, which they did until they gifted it to the National Park Service in 2013. The Brandywine Valley unit of First State National Historical Park is nationally significant under the National Register of Historic Places Criteria A, C, and D. Under Criterion A, the park unit is significant in the area of Exploration and Settlement for its association with eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century agricultural and industrial development. Early settlement patterns are evident in the landscape through the farmsteads and associated structures, patterns of field and forest, and remnants of quarries and mills. Additionally, under Criterion A, the park unit is significant in the area of Community Planning, Development, and Conservation for its relationship to Quaker industrialist William Poole Bancroft and his vision of a socially progressive and well-planned community integrated with natural open spaces and recreational opportunities that preserved the area’s beauty for future generations. Under both Criteria A and C, the Brandywine Valley unit is significant in the areas of Politics/Government and Engineering for its relationship to Delaware’s role as the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution and its inclusion of the arced survey boundary demarcating the division between Pennsylvania and Delaware. The Brandywine Valley unit is further significant under Criterion D for its potential to yield information related to Lenape culture prior to European exploration and the valley’s ability to inform us about early industrial development in the East. Lastly, the Brandywine Valley unit is recommended as significant at the local/state level for its association with the themes of Agriculture and Industry as a Rural Historic Landscape District and Conservation, representing the work of the Woodlawn Trustees in the Brandywine Valley unit area from 1928 to 1973. The period of significance at the national level for the Brandywine Valley unit begins in 1681 with the acquisition of the Pennsylvania patent (including land within the Brandywine Valley unit) by William Penn and ends in 1928 with the death of William Bancroft. A period of significance at the state/local level is recommended to begin in 1928 with the alterations made by the Woodlawn Trustees to Bancroft’s master plan and to extend into 1973, relating to the Woodlawn Trustees’ conservation of land within the current boundary of the Brandywine Valley unit.

Cultural Landscape Report for Brandywine Valley, First State National Historical Park, Parts I and II

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