Photography By Ryan Hulvat
Every couple of days, shopkeeper Dotty Pharis gets a sense for just how well-kept a secret her beloved New Castle remains. Visitors appear in her store, Gifts-n-Stuff, on Delaware Street with their jaws hanging open in wonder and their mouths muttering superlatives about how pretty the town is. “I never knew this was here!” they’ll cry. Then Pharis will ask where they’re from. And they’ll say, “Wilmington.” Or “Newark.” Or some other town that’s practically within spitting distance. Pharis herself has lived in New Castle for thirty years. The shop she and her husband, Bob, took over five years ago used to be a little grocery store. Now and again, a New Castle native will pop in to reminisce about long ago holiday seasons, when neighborhood children huddled around the store’s pot-bellied stove to keep warm. The stove isn’t there anymore, but the timeless feeling remains--not just in Gifts-n-Stuff but throughout the historic district. There is something of a still-life quality about Old New Castle, especially this time of year, when so many of the homes and stores get all gussied up for the holidays in postcard-pretty streetscapes. “Coming in off of Seventh Street in the morning, it’s like walking into a Norman Rockwell painting,” Pharis says.
Historical Tug-O-War
There are moments when New Castle’s story will make your head spin. Just note the four flags flapping in a smart row in front of the old Court House.
The saga of how it came to pass that four different countries ruled this corner of the East Coast is full of so much intrigue and contention that it can be relayed here only in a Cliffs Notes version. Briefly put, the tale opens in 1638, when some Swedes landed nearby and claimed the whole area along the Delaware River for their king. This ticked off some Dutch explorers who responded by building Fort Casimir where New Castle stands today. The Swedes won the turf back and re-christened the post Fort Trinity. The Dutch re-re-won it and established a settlement called New Amstel. When the English stormed in, New Amstel became New Castle. Then those persistent Dutch re-re-re-won the city in 1673, only to promptly re-re-re-lose it the next year, and New Castle finally settled into a century of British control. (Still unsettled, though, was the question of what colony New Castle belonged to; Pennsylvania and Maryland both claimed it, while Delaware didn’t yet exist.)
Got all that?
Good. That means you’re braced for the only frustrating moment you’re likely to spend in this cozy colonial hamlet graced with cobblestone streets, expansive parks, a gorgeous riverfront, and stately, centuries-old homes.
A Different Kind of Destination
Travelers used to the showy bustle of Williamsburg or Annapolis will find that a different kind of colonial destination awaits them here. Old New Castle has only a dozen or so shops. They’re all pretty much tiny, and they all sit along just a few blocks of a single street. There are only a handful of B&Bs to choose from and even fewer downtown restaurants.
Some folks hear facts like that and start fretting that they’re going to get bored. Don’t worry. In the first place, even in the unlikely event that you do manage to run out of things to do, you’ll be just a short drive from the Brandywine Valley. And in the second place, you’ll find that New Castle has a way of filling your days.
I spent two days there a few months back and ended up wishing for a third. I stayed at the Armitage Inn, which dates to 1732 and stands on the edge of Battery Park, within sight of the Delaware River and just across the street from the spot where Quaker William Penn first set foot in the New World. Innkeeper Steve Marks took the building over after his career in commercial printing ran its course. ("This just happened to be next on my list of things to do before I grow up,” he explained.)
Once I dropped my bags in the colorful Gardenia Room, I headed out for the first of my four tours of historic buildings. The Amstel House, one of three buildings maintained by the New Castle Historical Society, is an expansive Georgian-style structure built in the 1730s by a prominent physician, John Finney. A few decades later, George Washington showed up here for the wedding of the governor’s daughter. Guide Ellen Sidbury walked me through an impressive array of colonial-era treasures, from a Sheraton breakfront to a Santo Domingo maple chest to an eighteenth-century grandfather clock still running on original parts.
“I always find it a little sad,” Sidbury said, “when that clock starts chiming and school-age children taking our tour don’t know what it is. All they know nowadays is digital clocks and watches, I guess.” One of the Historical Society’s other properties, the steep-roofed Dutch House, stands on Third Street and probably dates to the late 1600s. A more modest abode than Amstel, it’s the best surviving example of what New Castle might have looked like during its Dutch heyday. There’s lots of Delftware and other treasures inside, but I found myself most taken with a Dutch family Bible dating all the way back to 1714.
The twenty-two-room Read House is the most elegant of New Castle’s open-to-the-public homes. Built in 1801 by George Read II, the son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the house covers twenty two rooms and 14,000 square feet. It’s filled with incredible displays of punch-and-gouge woodwork and features a state-of-the-art kitchen for 1801--it includes a roasting oven and steaming tables. Our amiable guide, Roberta Stevens, led us through several rooms set up in Roaring ‘20s finery in honor of Philip and Lydia Laird, the Gatsby-esque couple who moved in during the 1920s and helped spur early historical renovation in New Castle. She then invited us outside to stroll through the two acres of formal gardens added by another former owner, William Cooper.
The aforementioned national flags wave in front of the New Castle Court House Museum, which opened in 1732 and served in its original capacity for nearly 150 years. Its oddest claim to fame involves its role in the story of how Pennsylvania and Delaware became the only states in the nation that share a curved border. That dispute over whether Delaware belonged to Pennsylvania or Maryland was eventually settled in Pennsylvania’s favor, but almost immediately Delaware began clamoring to separate from William Penn’s colony. Eventually, in 1704, Penn acquiesced, and the new border between Pennsylvania and Delaware was defined by a sweeping 12-mile arc drawn due north from the Court House. Renovated in the 1950s, the Court House is now operated as a free museum. In addition to touring the building, you can also view a fascinating exhibit detailing the story of one family’s flight to freedom on the Underground Railroad.
Holiday Shopping
Of course, those are only the professionaly guided tours. There are also self-guided history tours and architecture tours and church tours and more to occupy your New Castle days. And this time of year, it’s hard to imagine a trip without shopping. Shopkeepers along Delaware Street told me they started getting their first bits of holiday merchandise back in August. (The town’s big holiday celebration, A New Castle Christmas, to be held December 2, will feature candlelight tours, musical performances, and more.)
Dotty Pharis’ store specializes in decorative items. She usually has more than two dozen different varieties of teeter-totters on display, along with nearly as broad a selection of spin-shade nightlights. New Castle’s biggest stores--Opera House Antique Center, Lauren Lynch, Raven’s Nest--all specialize in antiques, while shops like Stitches That Count and White Swan Rubber Stamps attract myriad crafts afficionados.
The most unusual shop in town is one of the newest, Betsy Martino’s Common Goodes and Embellishments. She calls it “an eighteenth-century shoppe” that offers “needful items for common folk and gentry alike.” She stocks clothing and pottery and tools, much of it made by modern-day “sutlers” supplying groups of eighteenth-century re-enactors. The antiquated garb runs from simple hats to elaborate gowns, and the tools range from basic gardening implements to blacksmithing supplies. Martino herself is a veteran re-enactor. She’s lived in New Castle for only a couple of years, but she’s already quite a presence downtown, thanks to her penchant for doing business clad in period clothes and speaking in period accent. It wasn’t so long ago that Martino and her husband were Philadelphians who’d never been to New Castle before.
“We drove in, and that was that,” Martino says. “We were both like, ‘Oh my God, will you look at this place?’”
New Castle is freelance writer Jim Duffy’s favorite Delaware town.
Locals’ Guide to Historic New Castle
Spot for a quick lunch and a cup of coffee: Cellar Gourmet, 208 Delaware St., 302-323-1290. Fat sandwiches, hearty soups and hot java.
Best old-world atmosphere: The Victorian Tea Room at the Opera House serves an elegant high tea, with sandwiches, scones, Devonshire cream, and desserts from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. 308 Delaware Street, 302-326-1211.
Restaurant for a splurge: Arsenal at Old New Castle, Market Street, 302-328-1290. Perfectly prepared steaks, chops and seafood in an elegant, candlelit setting.
Place to tip a pint of ale: Jessop’s Tavern, 114 Delaware St., 302-322-6111. Excellent “colonial cuisine,” too.
How to look like a local: Go for a fitness walk on the trail through Battery Park.
Most unusual shop: The Velocipede, purveyor of old bicycles and tricycles. 414 Delaware St.
Hollywood movies filmed on location: “Beloved,” “Dead Poets Society”
Tour-guide trivia: Court House guide Brian Cannon can tell you what Shirley Temple had for lunch during her 1939 visit to New Castle. (A chicken salad sandwich on rye with a strawberry milkshake.)
New Castle Visitors Bureau
800-758-1550
http://www.visitnewcastle.com
New Castle Historical Society
2 E. Fourth St.
302-322-2794
Read House and Gardens
42 The Strand
302-322-8411
New Castle Court House Museum
211 Delaware St.
302-323-4452
Dutch House
E. Third St.
302-322-9168
Armitage Inn
2 The Strand
302-328-6618
Gifts-n-Stuff
124 Delaware St.
302-322-7970
Common Goodes and Embellishments
204 Delaware St.
302-328-4416
