River Side of Strand Between Delaware and Harmony Streetsincludes #27-29-31-33, now owned
#27 Elizabeth C. B. Siner;
#29 James B. White;
#31 Henry W. Hargadine;
#33 Mrs. Phillip Laird
The first Dutch owner of record for the Strand property facing
bank lot 7, on the west side of the street, was Jan
Andriessen, to whom the Strand plot, 62' by 300', was confirmed
by a patent in 1657, as a lot for a house and garden. How much
earlier he owned the plot is not known, but he had this ground
when the adjoining plot to the south was confirmed to Andries
Hudde in 1656. Bernard Ekon bought or inherited the property.
When it was confirmed to him in 1669, the patent described it as
a house and garden then in his tenure end occupation, in his own
right, the plot being 60' wide. Ekon's only daughter, Margaret,
who was his heir, was married to Reynier Vanderculen; Margaret
and Reynier in 1693 sold house and lot to John Cann. Heirs of John
Cann sold to Jacob VanGezell, in 1701, the south part, and the
north and larger part to Richard Halliwell the same year. All of
the foregoing owners, who had the use of the water lot opposite
their dwelling, were prominent in the business and affairs of
the early town.
The whole of the 60' bank or water lot opposite, now #27-33, was
granted to Richard Halliwell In 1701; the deed recited that he
had bought the "greater part" of the Strand property opposite,
"together with the right to all the bank lot." Halliwell was the
prominent merchant who left tract of land north of the canal to
Immanuel church for a glebe, by his will proved 1719. In his will,
Richard Halliwell left his Strand properties first to his brother
Thomas in London, next to his brother's son Thomas if the brother
should die before Richard.
Thomas Halliwell of London being dead, the New Castle property
went to Thomas Jr., who came over from London to settle his
uncle's estate. Thomas Halliwell Jr., conveyed the Strand
property to his cousin, niece of Richard Halliwell, Sarah
Needham, wife of John Potts. Sarah and John divided the 60' bank
lot, keeping the north half and selling the south 30' to Joseph
Hill in 1726. Joseph Hill was the wheelwright, who at this time
with Isaac Janvier owned the large property on Delaware Street
that became #126 to #206 inclusive. Mary Hill, wife of Joseph,
inherited the property upon Joseph's death in 1762. She was Mary
Alrich, sister of Harmanns, Peter, and Wessels, judging from the
indentures and wills searched. (Either by descent or marriage,
there seems to have been a family connection between Joseph and
Mary Hill and the Janvier family.) Mary Hill, died in 1776,
leaving numerous heirs; her 30' wide bank lot property continued
in the name of her heirs until 1794, when William Alrich as
executor, sold this south half of the former Richard Halliwell
bank lot to William Lees, the London (See summary of #25.)
As part of William Lees estate, it was sold to James McCullough Jr. in
1818, and after the great fire of 1824 which destroyed
the frame store house on this site, James McCullough built #27 and
#29 (as well as #31 and #33), four two-story brick dwelling houses
in a solid row.
#27
William Janvier bought #27 along with the adjoining properties on
each side, in 1847, and sold this house the next year to James
Crippen. The site of this house which adjoins the property next to
Packet Alley, had been connected with the important mercantile and
importing business of Bond and Lees, of Clay and Bond, of James
McCullough, and after the fire, of James and William McCullough,
of Crippen and Lambson, Cleland and Doughton, and then of James
Crippen alone. In 1860 Crippen sold the house to Mrs. Fidelia
Stockt tory brick house and lot., 16'-2" wide, for $1,450. It
descended to Nancy C. Stockton, 1871; and to Fidelia R. Stockton, 1901.
Subsequent owners were Elizabeth Moore, Fanny M. Dupree, Daniel H.
Dupree, Catherine S. Kimball. It was sold to James T. Mullin in
1936, to ______ Bailey 1937, and to Elizabeth Siner in 1947.
#29
The two-story brick house, #29 built by James McCullough along
with the others In this row, between 1824 and 1827, had the same
history as #27 through the year 1847-48 when it was in
possession of William Janvier. In the latter year, William
Janvier sold #29 to Samuel T. Truss for $800 the lot, 16'-4"
wide. Truss sold to Henry D. Turner of Maryland in 1862 for
$1,450. That same year Henry Turner bought #31 next door, from
John Cleland. Descendants of Henry Turner and John Cleland whose
families intermarried, continued to own #29. It was owned by the
heirs of Margaret Cleland in 1925. The present owner is James B.
White.
From the records searched, few occupations of owners of these
houses have been found and the numerous conveyances give the
properties as "dwelling houses". The depth of the lots varies.
When #27 was sold by James Crippen to Fidelia Stockton, the
depth is given as 94'-8". The depth of #29 when sold by Samuel
Truss to Henry D. Turner was 180"-6". This depth was to an alley running
parallel to the river behind the wharves. The alley extended from Packet
Alley to the division line between #29 and #31.
# 31 and # 33
John Potts and his wife, who retained the site of #31 and #33 the
Strand in 1726, when they sold the site of #27 and #29 to Joseph
Hill, sold their north half 30' x 600' to Richard Grafton,
merchant, in 1729. Grafton's wife, Mary, and daughter Mary, inherited the
lot. Mary, his only daughter, married Walter Dulaney, and in 1794 -
Mary Grafton Delaney sold the 30' x 600' lot to William
Lees. On the site James McCullough built two of the four
two-story brick houses in the row constructed by him after the
fire of 1624.
When the sheriff sold the property of James McCullough in 1847,
Thomas Robinson bought #33 for $725. The next year, he bought #31
from William Janvier. In 1857, Robinson bought the wharf lots
behind #31 and #29 for $300, and in 1860 he sold #31, without the
wharf lot at the back, to John Cleland for $1,200. From this time
#31 and #33 do not again belong to the same owners.
#31
In 1862, John Cleland, "of Ireland" sold #31 to Henry Turner of
Maryland for $1,200 - 16'-4" in breadth and running back only to
an alley parallel to the river behind the wharves. This was the
same Henry Turner who bought #29 next door from Samuel Truss
that same year. The Clelands and the Turners intermarried. In
1924, the executor of Margaret Cleland's estate sold #31 to
Raleigh Hill for $1,500, and the following year Hill sold to
Josephine McCarty for $2,350. Josephine McCarty died in 1932,
leaving #31 to her niece., Edna Roetz. Edna Roetz and her husband
William Roetz sold the property in 1936 to Ellen Pyle Lawrence
for $3,700. The present owner, Henry W. Hargadine, inherited #31
from Ellen Pyle Lawrence in 1941.
#33
Thomas Robinson who bought #33 from the estate of James
McCullough at sheriff sale in 1847, for $725, 16'-4" wide x 600'
deep; and in 1857 bought the adjoining wharf lots behind #31 and #29
for $300, sold the whole property in 1864 to David Sevil for $2,300.
In 1892, Henry duPont owned house, lot, and wharves extending back of
the three properties #33, #31 and #29. He sold
to the Wilmington and Northern Railroad Company for $2,700.
The property was bought by Mrs. Philip Laird, the present owner, in
1926.
This document was prepared by scanning a copy of the typed notes
at the New Castle Public Library and converting the scan to a pdf by Adobe
Acrobat (Standard
version) with optical character recognition (OCR) enabled,
Since the pdf is not easy to read and many words were not recognized, and thereby
would not be indexed, I converted the pdf to text and manually edited it. Mistakes
occur both in the pdf creation or text editing stage. For greater reliability,
consult the pdf (below) or
the original in the library.
James Meek 2008
PDF
