Lenni-Lenape Indians lived in the Wilmington area long before Europeans and Africans arrived on Delaware's shores. "Lenni" means pure or original, and "Lenape" means the people. Their control extended north into Pennsylvania and south to the Potomac; their customs and traditions resembled those of their neighbors, the Nanticokes and the Powhatans of Virginia. European settlers first encountered this tribe of "peacemakers" in the early seventeenth century.
Wilmington was the first permanent Old World settlement in the entire Delaware Valley. In March 1638, a Swedish expedition led by Peter Minuit entered Delaware Bay. They sailed up the river and entered the Minquas Kill (today's Christina River). Going 2 miles inland, they cast anchor opposite a natural stone wharf. Here at "The Rocks"—which are still visible today at the foot of Seventh Street—Minuit stepped ashore and made a treaty with the Lenni-Lenapes. The land he purchased was dubbed New Sweden, and Swedish soldiers soon began constructing a fort they named after their queen, Christina. Inside the fort they built the first log cabins in America. Before the ship left in June, the 24 original Swedes, Finns, Dutch, and German settlers were joined by Anthoni, "The Black Swede," a freedman from the Caribbean. All 25 were alive and well two years later when the ship returned. In all, Sweden sent 12 expeditions to the new world, but the fledgling colony received little support from Queen Christina and in 1656 was overtaken by the Dutch. Peter Stuyvesant, the Governor of New Amsterdam, laid siege to the tiny colony and ultimately the Swedes surrendered.
In 1664, as a result of a war between Holland and England, the colony along the Delaware was brought under English rule. Then, in 1681, William Penn received a grant from England's King Charles II for the largest tract ever given a commoner. "Penn's Woods," or Pennsylvania, was intended to be a haven for members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers. For the next fifty years, Penn and Lord Baltimore would vie for ownership of the three counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. As Pennsylvania added western counties, Delaware demanded home rule, and in 1704 the counties were granted their own assembly with Pennsylvania and Delaware sharing the same crown-appointed governor.
Around 1730, a large tract of land in what is now Wilmington was deeded to a man named Thomas Willing, who called the tiny settlement Willingtown. Willingtown was a farming community of 15 to 20 houses when prosperous Quakers began to arrive in 1735. Immediately they began investing in property and, simultaneously, the town began to grow. At this time there was no formal government; therefore, decisions were made by consent of all the townspeople. Then, in 1739, England's King George II granted a charter addressed to "the People of Wilmington;" the king is thought to have arbitrarily named the town after his friend Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington. The first election held under the borough charter took place on September 8, 1740. This same year the first vessel built for foreign trade, the Wilmington, sailed for Jamaica. A brisk shipping trade continued to benefit local merchants despite wars and privateers. Industries such as brick-making, pottery, tanning, and flour-milling (at mills along the Brandywine) began to flourish.
The summer of 1777 found the community of Wilmington in the center of the struggle for American independence from England. George Washington established Revolutionary army headquarters in Wilmington, as did General Anthony Wayne. After the British took Wilmington, following the Battle of Brandywine, the town became a British camp. The Presbyterian Meeting House was used as a prison, and residents' houses were requisitioned to care for the wounded. Wilmingtonians did not see the last of British troops until the end of October 1777. An economic slump followed the war, but soon Wilmington had a fleet of ships engaged in coastal, as well as European, trade. Many Irish passed through the Port of Wilmington at this time, as well as French refugees from Santo Domingo. Scarcely had these immigrants settled when hundreds more poured in from Philadelphia, where yellow fever was rampant. Until the epidemic, Wilmington merchants had depended on Philadelphia banks for financial support. Suddenly isolated from their neighbor, they realized the need for economic self-sufficiency and founded the Bank of Delaware in 1795.
Between the close of the Revolution and the War of 1812, Wilmington's population increased to 5,000, the town spread westward, and streets were widened to accommodate the flow of traffic. Five turnpikes built between 1808 and 1815 greatly increased Wilmington's trade. Steamboats ran regularly between the town and Philadelphia, as did stagecoaches carrying passengers and freight. One of the earliest railroads in the United States, the Newcastle & Frenchtown Railway, opened in 1831, and soon after came the Wilmington & Susquehanna. By 1831 Wilmington's population had grown so large that leading citizens petitioned the legislature to incorporate the town as a city. The charter was granted in 1832, and city officials were elected.
From 1832 until the Civil War, new enterprises sprang up on the shores of the Christina River, supplementing those already prospering along the Brandywine. Shipbuilding, paper milling, and the manufacture of machine tools, iron, railroad cars, and cotton joined the earlier industries of flour milling and leather tanning.
World War I kept all available industrial plants working full time; blast furnaces and shipyards operated round-the-clock. The conflict brought immense trade to E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, which had been producing gun powder in the area since 1802. After the war du Pont moved away from explosives to manufacture materials such as Nylon, Dacron, Orlon, and Cellophane. When other chemical companies moved into the region, Wilmington became known as "The Chemical Capital of the World." This industrial expansion brought great wealth to the area, and in the decades following World War II, a large increase in population.
Like many American cities, Wilmington has seen a steady flow of residents leave the city for the suburbs. The exodus of the middle class left the city to the urban poor, particularly to blacks and the elderly, creating new problems. Racial violence that broke out in the wake of Martin Luther King's assassination on April 4, 1968, required heavy patrol by the National Guard for many months. Today Wilmington is dealing successfully with the problem of urban safety. Teamwork by government and business leaders has focused on making public transit and the entire downtown area once again attractive to residents and visitors. The revitalization of downtown buildings and new housing construction and the redevelopment of the Christina Riverfront continue to be priorities for the city and state governments. The revitalization of the central business area continues to stimulate increased interest in Wilmington. Revitalization efforts include many new restaurants plus the construction of a new live performance theater, a baseball stadium, the First USA Riverfront Arts Center in 1998, a 1.7-mile Riverwalk and the Shipyard Shops along the riverfront, and the 2003 installation of a steel-rail trolley connecting the riverfront with the business area. Other cultural developments include a recent $12 million expansion of the Grand Opera House on Market Street, a $25 million expansion of the Delaware Art Museum on Grand Kentmere Parkway, and construction of Theatre N at Nemours, the first movie theater in the city since 1982.
Since the mid-1990s more than $1 billion, much of it in private funds, has been invested in major downtown redevelopment projects. The MBNA complex, after moving to downtown Wilmington in 1993 and undertaking a $32 million renovation of the former Daniel L. Herrmann Courthouse, now consists of seven buildings. In 2002 the huge former Delaware Trust Building, which had been destroyed by fire, was converted to the Residences at Rodney Square, a 278 unit luxury apartment complex.
Mayor James M. Baker, who took office in 2001, has seen positive developments in the city's ongoing fight with crime and blight. Overall crime rates have dropped, and the city has enforced stricter registration fees and building code violations on owners of vacant properties to encourage property rehabilitation.
Historical Information: Historical Society of Delaware Library, 505 Market Street Mall, Wilmington DE 19801; telephone (302)655-7171