BGuthrie Photos: DE -- Wilmington -- Riverfront Wilmington

DE -- Wilmington -- Riverfront Wilmington:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. RFRONT_110527_039.JPG: "We can save the Earth." -- Russ Peterson, former Governor of Delaware You are standing on what was once known as the Old Wilmington Marsh, also called Dravo Marsh. This 238-acre freshwater marsh on the Christiana River is now named for one of the foremost and accomplished environmentalizes in the nation, former Delaware Governor Russell W. Peterson, also known as "Rebel with a Conscience." The vision of Governor Peterson led to the redevelopment of this riverfront. Called "Russ" among friends, he was governor of Delaware from 1969 to 1973, when he championed the Coastal Zone Act. He is also a past president of the National Audubon Society. The people of Delaware and the nation will forever be indebted to him for the environmental leadership he has provided for more than fifty years. It is the conviction of Governor Peterson and countless others that this refuge can again become the teeming fish and wildlife area it once was. The tidal freshwater wetlands here can provide the diversity of vegetation that will make this area an attractive habitat for migratory waterfowl and other water birds including black ducks, pintails, green-winged teal, migrant Canada geese, and various heron and raptor species. An array of mammals, especially aquatic furbearers such as muskrats, beaver and otter will also benefit from this habitat. Russell W. Peterson Urban Wildlife Refuge
2. RFRONT_110527_091.JPG: "The whole damn war depends on something called an LST." -- Winston Churchill, just before D-Day, 1944 [The actual quote is apparently "Sometimes I think the whole war depends on some damned thing called an LST."] The Dravo Corporation was founded in 1891 by Francis Rouaud Dravo of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and specialized in the manufacture and sale of heavy machinery and ships. In 1941, the Navy designated Dravo as the lead shipyard for production of landing ships and destroyer escorts. In less than 11 months, Dravo built a shipyard, built and delivered a completely new concept in war ships, the LSM, and had five more ships under construction. The 10,000 Dravo workers at Wilmington primarily built destroyer escorts (DEs), landing ship tanks (LSTs), and landing ships medium (LSMs). You are standing where the nation's very first LSM was built and launched on February 26, 1944. The timely production of these amphibious ships provided a major tactical advantage for the Allied forces. In total, the Dravo Wilmington Boatyard's contribution to the war effort was an astonishing: * 34 Landing Ships Medium * 5 Landing Ships Tanks * 15 Destroyer Escorts * 6 Anti-submarine Patrol Craft * 17 Gate Vessels Right: Undaunted by yet another rainy day, workers and dignitaries gathered for the launching of DE 106, the Senegalais, on November 11, 1943. Destroyer escorts, designed to counter the threat of torpedo ships, and later submarines, were, in the words of one seaman, "small, expendable and supremely seaworthy." They served as scouts for the fleet and attacked surface ships with guns and torpedoes, eventually becoming the general work horses of the world's navies. Above: Using huge cranes, like the ones preserved here on the riverfront, Dravo pioneered the assembly of prefabricated sections to speed ship production. Right: Dravo Corporation's innovations in shipbuilding -- welded steel and "upside down" construction that allowed less experienced welders to work from above -- attracted the Navy's attention as American began to prepare for war.
3. RFRONT_110527_108.JPG: "Build 'em right, fit to fight." -- SM Alexander, Commander USN, October 2, 1943 On June 4, 1999, fifty-five years after the Wilmington-built LSTs assisted in the Normandy invasion, the Riverfront Development Corporation of Delaware dedicated Dravo Plaza to the thousands of Wilmington boatyard workers. The Plaza's "Points of Remembrance" compass rose is inset with names of destroyer escorts and landing ships built at Wilmington. Above: The National Archives caption reads, "Out of the gaping mouths of Coast Guard and Navy Landing Craft, rose the great flow of invasion supplies to the blackened sands of Iwo Jima a few hours after the marines had wrestled their foothold on the vital island." Closely following the initial assault waves, these specially designed landing craft carried tanks, trucks, heavy ordnance and supplies in support of the attack. The nation's very first Landing Ship Medium, LSM 201, had been built by Wilmington Dravo workers and launched on the Christiana River on February 26, 1944 in an icy driving rain, a portent of the ships' stormy combat future. Left: LST 21, built in Wilmington and named "Blackjack Maru" by her crew, served as a flagship for group of ten LSTs. Her Captain Charles M Brookfield recalled "[We] cruised over 25,000 miles, operating in all three theaters of war. We ... earned two Bronze stars on our ribbons, visited eight countries, four continents and sailed through seven different seas." During the Normandy invasions, the LST 21 was fitted with rails on her tank deck to carry railroad cars across the English Channel. At the beachhead, soldiers and cargo poured out through doors and on a ramp in the bow of the ship. LST 21 was decommissioned in 1946 and scrapped in 1948.
4. RFRONT_110527_128.JPG: "I worked 7 days per week, 12 hours per day, 65 cents per hour." -- Stewart McNutt, Dravo Wilmington Boat yard worker The Dravo Wilmington boatyard workers were heroes on the home front. At one point, they delivered five LSMs in a 16-day period -- an average of one ship every 3.2 days. They met and often exceeded the ambitious production targets set by the Army and Navy in their "E for Excellence" program. Stars were added to flags and pins (shown above) were awarded, as production soared. When adversity and shortages, also came employment for women and minority workers in the wartime factories and shipyards of Wilmington. Dravo workers found many ways to help their loved ones on the frontlines. Besides the rationing required by law, of everything from gasoline to butter, they gave blood, wrote letters, shared rides, took in boarders, and when asked to "Buy Bonds", they lined up to try for 100 percent participation. "... I loved my job, which was a wonderful challenge... it was also very satisfying that I, Thelma Anderson, was personally contributing to the war effort... I was the first female crane operator on the East coast." -- Thelma Anderson "My best memories were the good people I worked with... The Brock's Lunch Truck would come and I'd get a box lunch for 25 cents -- a sandwich, fruit, a cookie and a small drink. One time there was this big girl from the South who smoked a corncob pipe... She was welding something overhead on the DE walking backward..> She fell off the DE onto a raft in the water! They had to get her up with one of the cranes. She was okay." -- Albert L Nai "... Before coming to Delaware and working for Dravo, I lived in Arkansas and worked on a farm... My husband, Cornell Parker, was a member of the 10th Cavalry during the war... He was a part of the Buffalo Soldiers." -- Bertha L Parker Their electrical shop coworkers chose Emma Maccari, second from left, and Mabel Lanyon, with a bouquet, to represent them in the ceremony honoring Dravo women shipbuilders at the launch of a Navy gate vessel on May 5, 1943. The Wilmington Morning News reported "Miss Lanyon swung her bottle of champagne, and the ship slipped sideways into the Christina River."
5. RFRONT_110527_164.JPG: "Nothing is too Good for their Friends." -- William Penn, speaking of the Lenni Lenape Indians of the Delaware Valley More than 10,000 years ago, the earliest settlers of Delaware arrived from Asia emigrating across the Bering Straits. After the Ice Age, it was the "original people," ass the Lenape called themselves, who summer-camped on the river called Minquas, after the Susquehanni Valley tribe that had brought the beaver trade to this area. It was this river that the the [sic] Swedes later named Christina after their child queen. The Lenape fished the streams, hunted game in the forests and tidal marshes, and gathered wetland plants for food and weaving. The Lenape, who were greatly respected by other area tribes for their skills at peacemaking befriended the new settlers from Sweden. The Swedes and the Lenape established a level of peaceful coexistence unusual in the New World. The Swedes settled Wilmington and began a lucrative trade in beaver pelts and other furs. But the beaver population was soon exhausted, and settlers had to rely on farming. It was the Lenape who taught the Swedes to grow maize, the staple grain of the New World that we call corn, and tobacco, which became the cash crop of the settlement. Today, few people realize that the log cabin, that most "American" of building types, was introduced to the New World by European settlers. The cabin which now stands near Fort Christina resembles the one built in 1638 by Swedish-Finns in the colony of New Sweden. As Americans migrated to settle the south and west, the log cabin continued to provide shelter on land cleared for trees for farming. The Kalmar Nyckel, the flagship of the first expedition to bring European settlers to the shores of Delaware in 1638, is shown here in the upper right. A sister ship of the expedition to New Sweden, the Fogel Grip, sailed on to trade in the Caribbean. When the Fogel Grip returned to New Sweden, Antoni Swart (Black Anthony) was aboard. He was the first black inhabitant of Delaware, and ultimately became an assistant to Johan Printz, who was Governor of New Sweden from 1643 to 1653. On September 28, 1997, three hundred and fifty-three years after the first Swedish vessel landed on the Christina River, the replica ship Kalmar Nyckel was launched. During the summer months, the ship is frequently moored at Riverfront Wilmington.
6. RFRONT_110527_181.JPG: "Quality Time", by Brad Vanneman
7. RFRONT_110527_235.JPG: "This is the great art -- the modern triumph of skill and labor There go the ships." -- Harper's New Monthly Magazine, April 1878 The Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation purchased the Harlan & Hollingsworth shipyard in 1917. The shipyard was then immediately commandeered by the United States Shipping Board-Emergency Fleet Corporation for a massive effort to aid the European Allies in World War I. Called the "bridge of ships," the program required a huge buildup of equipment including the giant cranes seen here lining the riverfront. The yard operated three shifts a day, seven days a week, and turned out nine tankers, fourteen cargo ships, and forty-seven various other vessels. So much building caused a glut of ships after the War, and a year after this photo was taken in 1925, all shipbuilding on the site had ceased. Bethlehem sold the shipyard to the Dravo Corporation in 1927. Wooden Boats: From workboats built for sailing the coastal waterways to schooners for overseas trade, the first ships built in Wilmington were made of wood. The brig Nancy was said to be the first to fly the US flag in a foreign port. Iron & Steel: The Bangor, built by Harlan & Hollingsworth, was America's first ocean going iron-hulled propeller steamship. Powered by twin screw propeller engines, the Bangor also had three schooner-rigged masts. Early Navy War Ships: During the Civil War, the Union Navy used Wilmington-built ships as blockade gunboats, troop transports and supply vessels. Harlan & Hollingsworth built three Monitor-class warships like this one shown in the 1864 bird's eye view. America's Cup Yachts: The Volunteer, built by Pusey & Jones, was the first America's Cup boat built entirely of steel. She easily defeated the Mayflower in 1887 and the British Thistle in 1888. Ferryboats & Steamers: At the end of the 19th century, there was a strong market for ferries, both side wheelers and stern wheelers. The excursion steamer Brandywine was built in 1885 for the Wilson Line. World War I Ships: Among the warships protecting American convoys were submarine chasers like #345, above, built at the Jackson & Sharp Plant of the American Car & Foundry Company in 1917. World War II Ships: The SS Cape Corwin was one of 15 type C1-A cargo vessels built in Wilmington by Pusey & Jones during World War II.
8. RFRONT_110527_244.JPG: Tidal Wetlands "Conservation is a state of harmony between man and the land." -- American wildlife conservationist, Aldo Leopold Wetlands systems on the river's edge are an important part of the river's ecosystem. Wetlands filter out pollutants and provide important habitat for many birds, fish, small mammals, reptiles and other living things. Wetlands also provide runoff areas that help control flooding. Both natural wetlands, such as the cattail (typha) marsh across the river, and the manmade wetlands like those planted on this side, can help make the Christina River a cleaner, better place for animals and people. This tidal wetland was created as part of the development program of Riverfront Wilmington through the cooperative efforts of the Riverfront Development Corporation, the Delaware Department of Transportation, and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Wetlands plants filter and slow the water flowing past them, allowing particles and solids carried by the flow to settle on the river bottom. Contaminants such as pesticides, heavy metals, and petroleum products, and excess nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous are trapped in the sediment of the river. Wetlands plants absorb some of these chemicals and excess nutrients, filtering and removing them from the water as they grow, while other contaminants are broken down through chemical and physical processes in the sediment.
9. RFRONT_110527_249.JPG: Wetland Plants "The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: 'What good is it?'" -- American wildlife conservationist, Aldo Leopold Plants that have adapted to wetlands provide protection and food for small fish and aquatic organisms. Deer, waterfowl, and other aquatic animals such as beavers and otters are attracted to the marshes where these plants grow.
10. RFRONT_110527_253.JPG: "Our Clyde, a noble waterway for the fleets of nations." -- Harper's New Monthly Magazine, April 1878 You are standing on the waterfront where the American iron and steel shipbuilding industry was born and grew to maturity in the shipyards of Harlan & Hollingsworth and Pusey & Jones. Harlan & Hollingsworth launched their first iron steamboats in 1844, Pusey & Jones in 1849; by 1857, the tonnage launched by these two companies exceeded the combined total of the rest of the nation. By 1870, the area's waterway, the Delaware River, with its great shipbuilding centers of Wilmington, Philadelphia, Camden and Chester, was known as the "American Clyde" and compared to the great British shipyards of the River Clyde in Scotland.
11. RFRONT_110527_262.JPG: Historic Shipyards: "Iron Steam Ships, Steam Boats & Iron Sailing Vessels Completed in Every Particular" -- Harlan & Hollingsworth & Co, Wilmington, Delaware, 1878 To comply with federal law protecting historic sites, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Delaware State Historic Preservation Office, and the Riverfront Development Corporation worked together on the Riverfront Wilmington project from 1998 through 2000. Archeological excavations at several key points along the Riverfront revealed significant information about Wilmington's historic waterfront industries. Selected areas of the Harlan and Hollingsworth Shipyard site were stripped, uncovering remains of several launchways as shown below. The remains were sampled to help answer questions about materials and methods used by the shipbuilding industry.
12. RFRONT_110527_269.JPG: In memory of the Delawareans who gave their lives in the Korean War, 1950-1953 ... Relocated & Dedicated in 2003 by the Korean War Veterans Assoc.
13. RFRONT_110527_283.JPG: Bird's Eye View: "Wilmington .. a first-class city in every respect." -- Richard Edwards, Editor & Publisher, Industries of Delaware, Historical and Descriptive Review, 1880 This view of Wilmington, published in 1864 and reprinted in 1986, is one of the City's great treasures. Labeled below are many important landmarks and manufacturing facilities of that time. River traffic includes one- and two-masted schooners, sidewheeler steamboats, the schooner-rigged steamboat Wilmington, several small sailboats, river rafts, a tugboat and a monitor-type battleship. Numerous banks, hotels, leather factories, and machine shops were thriving. How many Union flags can you count flying in this Civil War era town?
14. RFRONT_110527_304.JPG: The Industrial Revolution: "Wilmington is the natural outlet for the great iron industry of the Atlantic Coast." -- William Lawton to the Wilmington Board of Trade, 1898 In 1837, the PW&B Railroad laid down its tracks beside the Christina. With land and water distribution connected, the riverfront -- anchored by Harlan & Hollingsworth upstream and Pusey & Jones downstream -- began to boom with industry: a block and pump maker; a planing mill; a sail maker; a sash and door manufacturer; and sellers of lime, plaster, cement, lumber, and coal. The heavy industry that employed so many in the late 1800s had its origins in the machine shops set up in the 1840s. The J Morton Poole Machine Works evolved from general machine shop to specialization in machinery for grinding grain, and making paper, cloth, sheet rubber and linoleum. The company received an Award of Excellence from the 1878 Exposition in France. Four hotels -- the National, the Steamboat & Railroad, the United States, and one at the railroad depot -- offered accommodations. And James L Cox ran an oyster saloon. The great shipbuilders survived boom and bust cycles because they attracted expert machinists who could shift from building ships to whatever the market demanded. When shipbuilding declined, Harlan & Hollingsworth built railroad cars that were famous for their luxury and beauty. Pusey & Jones' paper-making machinery, which by the turn of the century could produce fine quality paper in 112-inch wide rolls, was acclaimed and sold all over the world. Above: The Kent Building, topped by twin watertowers, has been a warehouse for most of its first 100 years and was renovated in 2000 for office space. The Blumenthal Company stored its inventory of skins and finished leather goods in the long low building in the foreground, now the Riverfront Market. Left of the Kent Building are the machine shops of the J Morton Poole Company, whose smokestack once towered above the Wilmington skyline. Above: In 1794, Quaker brothers John and William Warner formed a partnership that prospered through many generations. By 1888, the company operated steamers to New York and Philadelphia from its wharves at Market Street. This view from about 1875 looks north up Market Street from the bridge and shows freight wagons lined up at Warner's offices on the riverfront.
15. RFRONT_110527_323.JPG: The Underground Railroad: "I write to let thee know that Harriet Tubman is again in these parts..." -- Thomas Garrett to William Still, December 1, 1860 The Underground Railroad was a network of people -- whites, free blacks, fugitive slaves, Native Americans -- and religious groups, such as Quakers, Methodists and Baptists, organized to provide safety and comfort to slaves escaping to freedom. It was dangerous work and over the years dozens of "agents" were jailed for aiding escaping slaves. Though Delaware was by law a slave state, more than fifteen Underground Railroad "stations" have been identified in the state, testimony to the extraordinary moral courage of many of its citizens. Harriet Tubman and Thomas Garrett -- one, a black fugitive slave "Conductor" and the other, a white Quaker "Stationmaster" in the Underground Railroad -- were critical links in the Wilmington area. As a key transportation hub to points north, Wilmington was one of the most dangerous passages for fugitive slaves. Frederick Douglass, recalling his own escape to freedom reported, "The last point of imminent danger, and the one I dreaded most, was Wilmington. Here were left the train and took the steamboat to Philadelphia." Crossing the Market Street bridge was especially dangerous. As the only public roadway across the Christina River into Wilmington, it was an ideal check point to look for runaway slaves. On one occasion, Tubman and her fugitives hid south of the river while Garrett sent two wagons loaded with straw and a team of bricklayers over the Market Street bridge to meet them. Hours later, the wagons crossed back into Wilmington with Tubman and the fugitives hidden under the straw, while the bricklayers shouted and laughed as though they had been "celebrating" all day. Once again the "conductor" and her "passengers" had avoided capture. Right: Thomas Garrett, a Wilmington iron merchant, decided in the year 1820 to devote his life to the abolition of slavery. Over the next four decades, though often threatened with physical violence, he helped more than 2,000 blacks reach freedom in his capacity as "Stationmaster" in the Underground Railroad. Even when, in 1848, a US circuit court fined him so heavily that he lost all his property, Garrett declared to presiding judge and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger B Taney, "... thou has left me without a dollar, ... I say to thee and to all in this courtroom, that if anyone knows a fugitive who wants shelter... send him to Thomas Garrett and he will befriend him." Below: After escaping from slavery in Maryland in 1848, Tubman made 19 trips into the South over the next decade to lead nearly 300 slaves to freedom. She was one of several Southern agents who became spies for the Union Army during the CIvil War while continuing to aid the growing number of runaway slaves. She eluded capture despite the large bounty on her head. Thomas Garrett, a Quaker "Stationmaster," was honored by blacks with a parade following the Civil War. Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad's most famous "Conductor," earned the nickname "Moses." William Still, a Quaker "Stationmaster" in Philadelphia, worked closely with Tubman and Garrett.
16. RFRONT_110527_332.JPG: South Market Street Bridge "...the undertaking has resulted in great convenience to the traveling community..." -- Reminiscences of Wilmington, by Elizabeth Montgomery, 1851 Market Street has long been a major gateway into the city of Wilmington, but there has not always been a South Market Street Bridge. In the early days, Market Street ended as a dock and boat slip (shown left) that served both commercial ships sailing the inland waterways and the ferryboats that carried goods and people back and forth across the Christina River. In 1808, a wooden "turn bridge," the first at Market Street, was sponsored by a group of private citizens who raised $15,000 for its construction. Then, as now, the bridge had to be movable to allow ships to travel up and down the Christina. The heavy traffic, both on the bridge and on the river, necessitated a full-time bridge tender, whose job it was to rotate the toll swing bridge to allow ships to pass and then rotate it back to reconnect for wagon traffic. Excavations conducted in 1999 along the waterfront adjacent to the Market Street bridge revealed large timber construction with beams 32" thick and dating back to the mid-1700s. Cut from "first growth" trees, these timbers were selected for their exceptional strength, actually hardening over the years rather than decaying. This construction demonstrates the advanced technology of the earliest commercial developers of the waterfront. The current South Market Street drawbridge pivots vertically at both sides, rising to allow ships to pass and lowering again to reconnect for cars and trucks. Earlier bridges at Market Street would swing or pivot horizontally to allow ships to pass, then reconnect for road traffic. The second South Market Street Bridge, a truss swing span built in 1883, is shown in this 1926 view. Note the tender's booth above the central pivot point and the Kent Building on the right. This view of the same bridge, also taken in 1926, looks north into Wilmington. The posted speed limit was eight miles per hour. Note the B&O Freight Station on the left. The current bridge (Delaware Bridge #688), the Senator John E Reilly, is a double-leaf trunnion bascule ("movable") bridge completed in 1927. This 1939 view north shows the B&O Freight Station to the west and the Operator's Houses at both ends.
17. RFRONT_110527_346.JPG: Freedom Lost By the late 1700s the institution of slavery was declining in Delaware. A changing economy and the active efforts of Quakers and Methodists had led to the manumission of many slaves and dramatic growth of the state's free black population. Though Congress outlawed importation of slaves in 1808, demand for slave labor in the expanding states of the Deep South continued to grow. A nefarious criminal element sought to fill this need by kidnapping free blacks for sale into slavery. Such was the case in Delaware, where countless numbers of innocent persons were abducted and sent to the South via secret networks operated by criminal gangs. The Abolition Society of Delaware worked tirelessly against the practice, and many brave men and women, both black and white, actively opposed the gangs. Among these was Wilmington resident Thomas Garrett, the legendary Underground Railroad conductor who dedicated his life to the abolition of slavery after the abduction of a woman employed by his family. Despite the efforts of Garrett and others, and the enactment of harsh punishments for kidnappers, Delaware's black residents continued to live in fear for their safety until the Civil War. This memorial is dedicated to the victims of this evil enterprise, and those who struggled against it.
18. RFRONT_110527_353.JPG: Freedom Lost By the late 1700s the institution of slavery was declining in Delaware. A changing economy and the active efforts of Quakers and Methodists had led to the manumission of many slaves and dramatic growth of the state's free black population. Though Congress outlawed importation of slaves in 1808, demand for slave labor in the expanding states of the Deep South continued to grow. A nefarious criminal element sought to fill this need by kidnapping free blacks for sale into slavery. Such was the case in Delaware, where countless numbers of innocent persons were abducted and sent to the South via secret networks operated by criminal gangs. The Abolition Society of Delaware worked tirelessly against the practice, and many brave men and women, both black and white, actively opposed the gangs. Among these was Wilmington resident Thomas Garrett, the legendary Underground Railroad conductor who dedicated his life to the abolition of slavery after the abduction of a woman employed by his family. Despite the efforts of Garrett and others, and the enactment of harsh punishments for kidnappers, Delaware's black residents continued to live in fear for their safety until the Civil War. This memorial is dedicated to the victims of this evil enterprise, and those who struggled against it.
19. RFRONT_110527_358.JPG: B&O railroad station
20. RFRONT_110527_366.JPG: South Market Street Bridge Dedicated in Honor of Senator John E. Reilly, Sr. "... when he was called on to speak he just shifted that cigar and spoke from the heart." -- Columnist Bill Frank on the death of his friend, Senator John E. Reilly, Sr. , Wilmington Evening Journal, February 28, 1963 In many ways, John F. "Jack" Reilly, Sr., was the quintessential Wilmingtonian, working his way, with seemingly boundless energy, through several distinguished careers. Born and raised on South Claymont Street, he and his wife Alice made their home at 436 South Heald Street until his death in 1963. In this home they raised eight children. Reilly first worked right here on the Riverfront as a machinist with the Morton J Poole Company and then with the Dupont Company. From 1921 until his retirement in 1942, he served as an engineer with the Wilmington Bureau of Fire -- an era later recalled by newsmen reporting on his legislative activities, when they referred to him as "the fire-eater." In 1942, he retired from the Bureau of Fire and resumed his machinist trade on the Riverfront, this time with Harlan and Hollingsworth. But in 1944 he entered the Delaware State House of Representatives and found his true calling: advocate of the working men and women of Delaware. From 1948 until his death in 1963, he represented the Second Senatorial District (encompassing all of Wilmington south of 8th Street) in the roles of State Senate Whip, Majority Leader, and Senate Pro Tempore. Reilly chaired or served on major committees such as Labor, Judiciary, Executive, Public Welfare, Corporations and Elections, and sponsored or supported volumes of legislation to improve police and fire services, state parks, school construction, teachers' salaries, unemployment benefits, worker compensation, consumer protection, and minimum wage increases. He championed all these causes long before it was fashionable. Right: Senator Reilly holding the shillelagh, an Irish fighting stick, presented to him by Lieutenant Governor Alexis I. Dupont Bayard, a fitting tribute to this legislative champion of the working class. Through legislation, Senator Reilly fought for the rights of older workers, people with mental and physical disabilities, orphaned children, veterans and recipients of public assistance. He consistently opposed state sales taxes, believing that the poorest citizens would be the hardest hit. Senator Reilly respected all peoples. While serving on the Judiciary Committee, he worked to promote judicial appointments that fairly represented everyone in Delaware's diverse population.
21. RFRONT_110527_399.JPG: The Great Railroad Boom "Passenger service to Philadelphia and New York. All aboard!" In the latter half of the nineteenth century, rapid growth of the economy and demand for shipping and passenger service created a boom in railroads. Great fortunes were made which led to battles for control and consolidation of railroad lines. The boom inspired ever grander architectural and engineering projects. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad competed for control of Wilmington's first rail line, the old PW&B *(Pennsylvania, Wilmington & Baltimore) which had been completed in 1837. In 1881, as the B&O prepared to move its competing passenger services to the west side of Wilmington, the Pennsylvania Railroad built a grand new station at Front and French Streets. This building (above left) in the French Renaissance style served the City for about twenty years. By 1905, the demand for passenger service had increased to much that a new larger facility was needed and the officials also decided to elevate the tracks to eliminate the dangerous at-grade crossings. This Romanesque Revival building (above right), built on the same site, still serves Wilmington as the Amtrak passenger station. The station building and the 3-1/2 mile long viaduct are on the National Register of Historic Places. Right: This Pennsylvania Railroad passenger station, built in 1881, was designed by Frank Furness of the Philadelphia Firm of Furness, Evans and Company. This view taken about 1898 shows the at-grade crossing, which was hazardous for pedestrians, carriages and wagons crossing the tracks. Only the crossing gates in the foreground of the picture controlled street traffic to prevent collisions with oncoming trains. Far Right: In 1905, Frank Furness was again engaged to design a new station on the same site, this time in the Romanesque Revival style. This style related to the massive stonework of the viaduct constructed at the same time to raise the tracks and eliminate dangerous at-grade crossings. Below: PW&B Locomotive #1 and its crew stopped to pose for this portrait in the 1860s. Note the Harlan & Hollingsworth Shipyard in the background. Above: Taken around 1860, this photo shows the simple PW&B passenger station erected in 1848 on Walnut Street between French and Walnut. For the first ten years of operation, passengers boarded and detrained directly to and from the street.
22. RFRONT_110527_406.JPG: The Big Quarterly "For the sake of peace, love, and nothing but that..." -- referring to the break with Asbury Methodist Church of Wilmington, Reverend Peter Spencer The August Quarterly, originally known as the Big Quarterly, is the oldest continuously celebrated African American festival in the nation. First celebrated in 1814, and every year since, the festival commemorates the founding of the first African American church to be independently incorporated in the United States, the Union Church of African Members. In the early years, the festival became a kind of "independence day" for black s of the Delmarva Peninsula. On condition that they return at the end of the weekend, slaves were permitted to gather once a year to celebrate the freedom to worship in their own unique way, free from discrimination. Relatives and friends separated by slavery were reunited to spend the weekend worshiping, showing off their finest clothes, telling stories, and sharing African music, dance, humor and food. Eventually, delegates from over 600 churches representing more than 25,000 members in the United States and Canada assembled annually in Wilmington during the last weekend in August. It was this quarterly meeting, open to all church members, that became known fondly as the "Big Quarterly." Prior to the Civil War, the gathering provided a forum for slaves and free men and women to publicly discuss colonization and other issues of slavery. For a few, it offered the chance to escape. Many runaways were aided along the Underground Railroad in Delaware by "conductors" and abolitionists of the stature of Thomas Garrett, Harriet Tubman, John Hunn and Samuel D Burris. Suspicions were aroused when a few of the elders in the black community referred to the festivals as "big excursions on the Underground Railroad." After slavery ended, the August Quarterly tradition continued. The Wilmington Morning News of August 31, 1885, reporting on the annual gathering stated, "The incoming trains of Saturday and yesterday up to noon brought large numbers of colored persons from points along the lines of the different railroads. The steamers Champion and Delaware brought excursions from Camden and Salem, NJ respectively. The steamers Wilmington and Brandywine also brought a goodly number of persons from Philadelphia, Chester and Marcus Hook, most of whom returned by rail." Today the festival continues to draw people from around the nation. This painting by Simmie Knox, a former resident of Delaware, depicts the August Quarterly around 1950. In the background is the Mother Church as it stood in the 800 block of French Street before it was razed in 1971 under a program of urban renewal. In the foreground is the Church's founder, Rev Peter Spender. In 1805, Spencer, who had been born a slave and purchased his own freedom, led a group of forty followers out of the white Asbury Methodist Church of Wilmington to establish their own congregation. It was not until 1813 that Spencer, with his associate William Anderson, was finally able to found the Union Church of African Members. Now, as in every year following Spencer's death in 1842, the festival includes a wreath-laying ceremony to honor the Church's founder.
23. RFRONT_110527_425.JPG: The Great Railroad Boom "...every convenience that could be thought of has been secured." -- reported about the car built for Henry M Flagler, in Every Evening, Wilmington, January 4, 1887 Wilmington manufacturers found that the craftsmen who could fit out the interior of a luxury yacht or a steamer could do equally well with railcars. When Florida real estate developer and railroad baron Henry M Flagler wished to have his own private railroad car built in 1886, he contracted with the Delaware Car Works of Jackson & Sharp. The car shown above, which he named The Rambler, contained a parlor, bedroom, dining room and kitchen. The restored car is displayed at Flagler's Palm Beach mansion, now the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum. Entire new industries grew out of the demand for railroad equipment. Around 1830, Jonathan Bonney and Charles Bush began making machinery castings and railroad car wheels at Second and Lombard Streets. George Lobdell soon joined them and became the head of the firm called the Lobdell Car Wheel Company. In 1844, they moved to the banks of the Christina. By 1912, over 300 people worked at the plant turning out wheels for railroad cars and streetcars. The company thrived through the First World War but went into decline about 1926 and never recovered.
24. RFRONT_110527_453.JPG: Steamboats & Ferries "The Exodus shook the conscience of the world and brought forth the state of Israel." -- David C Holly, author of Exodus, 1947 Following its long hard service in World War II, the formerly elegant luxury steamship President Warfield was sold for scrap in July of 1947. Within days, the ship was purchased for $40,000 by the Jewish underground military organization, Haganah, whose leaders hoped to relocate Holocaust survivors from refugee camps in Europe to Palestine. The ship was gutted and refitted with wooden bunks to accommodate some 4,500 passengers, who crowded aboard at Sete, France, and then steamed toward Palestine with British warships in pursuit of the illegal expedition. The ship, renamed Exodus 1947 and sailing under the Mogen David flag, was rammed by two British destroyers in a battle 20 miles off the coast of Palestine. The refugees were forces to board three British vessels and return to France. Suffering for a month in wretched, unsanitary conditions and scorching heat, they began a hunger strike to focus world attention on their plight. Eventually, they were sent to displaced persons camps in Germany and were allowed to leave only after the State of Israel was established by United Nations mandate a year later. Just blocks from Wilmington's earliest Jewish neighborhood, Pusey & Jones shipyard workers had built the ship that helped launch a nation. The President Warfield, renamed Exodus 1947, was photographed by the British Admiralty in July 1947, as she steamed into the port of Haifa with some 4,500 Jewish refugees aboard and the Mogen David flag hoisted to the masthead following their desperate attempt to reach Palestine. Far Left: The steamship President Warfield was built by Pusey & Jones for the Baltimore Steam Packet Company (The Old Bay Line), and launched at Wilmington, on February 6, 1928. Named for the Old Bay's former president, S. Davies Warfield, who died just months before the ship's completion, this 330 foot "Queen of the Bay" with its 170 staterooms, elegant dining rooms and salons, and a yacht-like grace, was so lavishly furnished that its final cost was nearly a million dollars. The ship's speed and maneuverability may not have been fully appreciated in 1928, but became important during World War II when it was requisitioned, first as a troop and supply ship to aid the British, and then as a US Navy ship in the Normandy invasion at Omaha Beach.
25. RFRONT_110527_465.JPG: Steamboats and Ferries "Forty miles for 30 cents." -- Last of the Steamboats: The Saga of the Wilson Line by Richard Elliot, 1970 By the late 1880s, the Wilmington shipyards were doing a brisk trade with both South American steamship lines and operators of the vastly popular excursion liners in the US. Working folks not only took a keen interest in the racing yachts built in Wilmington, but could also enjoy day long cruises on sleek, beautifully appointed steamboats. J Shields Wilson, a shipyard engineer from Camden, became president of Wilmington Steamboat Company, later known as the Wilson Line, and helped design some of the fastest and most beautiful steamboats on the Delaware River. Right: The State of Pennsylvania, built for the Wilson Line by Pusey & Jones, was launched on the Christina River in 1923. Her maiden voyage was a moon-light cruise to Riverview Beach for a fare of 50 cents. Designed for maximum deck space, the ship featured a 3000 square-foot ballroom where a live orchestra played dance tunes. Here we see her with thousands of celebrants taking part in the Swedish tercentenary celebration on June 27, 1938. Below: Brazilians proudly pose with the iron sidewheeler, Apurinan, built by Pusey & Jones for service on the Amazon River in the nineteenth century. Bottom: The Rio Branco, built by Pusey & Jones for the Alto Amazonas Compannia of Brazil, is shown at anchor on the Christina River in 1870.
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