Gallery of Shipcarpenter Square Homes
1 Shipcarpenter Square
Original structure is from 1820.
2 Shipcarpenter Square
The John Dill House. This Federal-style home, originally built in 1779, was found next to the post office in Frederica. In July 1983 it became the first home to be moved into Shipcarpenter Square.
3 Shipcarpenter Square
4 Shipcarpenter Square
Built circa 1810 by Daniel Burton on his Sunn Dyall Farm located at the head of Love Creek near Rabbit's Ferry. The home was moved to its current location in 1984. Research during restoration indicated that the parlor and loft to the right constitute another house circa 1830-1840 which was joined to the the earlier structure. The sections to the rear of these front rooms were added when the house was moved. .
5 Shipcarpenter Square
This home was originally an 1830s fisherman's cottage on Pilottown Road. It was moved to Belltown and used as a laundry-speak easy-general store before being moved to its current location, It has undergone several significant expansions.
6 Shipcarpenter Square
The oldest home on Shipcarpenter Square, Mount Pleasant, the manor house of one of the earliest William Penn land grants in Kent County, Delaware, was built in 1720 by either Matthew Manlove or his daughter and son-in-law, Mary Manlove Brinckloe and Curtis Brinckloe. Around 1760 the estate passed into the Beswick family who continued to live in the home for the next 200 years. Mount Pleasant was moved to its current location in 1983 and painstakingly restored.
The interior of the home is characterized by a huge corner fireplace, indicative of early Swedish influence, and a magnificent barrel-backed cupboard with a dome carved in a single piece of a tree trunk.
7 Shipcarpenter Square
This home was built around 1830 and moved to its current location in 1985 from the Angola Neck area. It's an early farmhouse with eyebrow windows and an original, hand hewn frame.
8 Shipcarpenter Square
9 Shipcarpenter Square
This home was originally the Caveneck Schoolhouse, dating to the early 19th century.
10 Shipcarpenter Square
The Shepard P Houston House once sat across the road from the intersection of Clay Road and King's Highway, just north of the Townsend Barn. Mr. Houston, a grandson of Shepard Prettyman of Tower Hiil Farm on New Road, served as Justice of the Peace for Sussec County from 1837-1846, and was a clerk for the Levy Court. He was a member of the Delaware House of Representatives in 1832 and 1833. In 1865, he was elected again and served as Speaker. He continued service in the House from 1869-1881,
The house was moved to its current location in 1985 and restored to the beauty it is today.
11 Shipcarpenter Square
This circa 1840 barn was moved to Shipcarpenter Square from a farm in the country just eight miles north of Milton, Delaware. The barn has post and beam construction.
12 Shipcarpenter Square
A barn built in 1855 was moved to this location in 2000. It was originally located on what is now Del. 1. After being purchased at auction for $200, it was disassembled and moved to its current site where it was renovated and expanded into a beautiful home. A second renovation was done in 2007, including the addition of a bedroom to the second floor loft area, a screened-in porch and an expanded dining area.
13 Shipcarpenter Square
14 Shipcarpenter Square
The Clampitt-Joseph House. This Victorian home was originally built in 1880 by John A. "Gus" and Mary Clampitt on Fourth Street across from Chestnut Street on land bought from the heirs of William A. West. A "C" can still be seen carved in the newel post. In 1898, Capt. John W. and Abbie Joseph bought the home. Joseph was a Delaware Bay and River pilot. The home has had multiple owners and has undergone several significant alteration.
The Brick House had to be moved brick by brick.
15 Shipcarpenter Square
The Brick House. This lovely colonial home was reassembled, brick by brick, at the head of the Shipcarpenter Square Commons. Its restored features include a formal entrance hall with original panelled staircase and a parlor with original panelled chimney breast and arched cupboard with butterfly shelves. This home also has an English basement with brick walls and floor, fireplace and exposed beams.
16 Shipcarpenter Square
This home was originally built in 1879.
17 Shipcarpenter Square
18 Shipcarpenter Square
19 Shipcarpenter Square
This home, known as the Masten Barn, dates back to the early 1800's.
20 Shipcarpenter Square
This home, built in 2004, is a replica of the Mispillion Lighthouse that was located in Milford, Delaware. It is based on the original plans for the lighthouse and used what was left of the structure of the old lighthouse, During its construction, the owners made a substantial addition. The beacon sitting atop the home is a replica of the original lighthouse's beacon.
21 Shipcarpenter Square
22 Shipcarpenter Square
23 Shipcarpenter Square
The Irons Landing House, located on the Commons in the center of Shipcarpenter Square, features an elegant Greek Revival period facade and faithfully restored interior woodwork. The Irons family settled on the southern shore of Indian River Bay in the mid 1700's, in what was then considered part of Maryland. The site became know as Irons Landing, and is so indicated on early maps.
The home contains some timbers dating back to the 18th century, but its interior woodwork dates from a major renovation the 1840's. It was restored in the Greek Revival style of that time.
24 Shipcarpenter Square
This home was newly constructed in 201X. While not an historic home, it is a copy of a 19th Century Sussex County house. Specifically, the home was designed based on a group of houses in Milton that were built approximately from 1850 to 1870 and called "Folk Victorian". The overall proportions of those houses and their fenestration were copied. On the interior, an atrium sun space was added to bring more light into the main floor. Foundation walls are brick, as they would have been, and standing seam metal roofing was used, as it would have been.
25 Shipcarpenter Square
"Lookout" Plantation House has had a long and varied history. The center section of the home is the oldest, built sometime around the Revolutionary War by Joseph Vaughn, a farmer. The Vaughn family added a large two story addition around 1815. An attached kitchen was added around the time of the Civil War, completing the house as it looks today. The Vaughn family fell on hard times, losing the home and accompanying farm. The home eventually became a tenant house for imminent destruction until it was acquired and moved to its current location and rehabilitated in 1987.
26 Shipcarpenter Square
The Dodd House. A longtime landmark for travelers along the coast road to Rehoboth Beach, this large farmhouse was home to the locally prominent Dodd family, who arrived in the area in the early 1700's. The house itself dates from the late 1700's, and had been altered and expanded many times before it was moved to Shipcarpenter Square.
The heart of the home is the 18th century Great Room, which features an enormous cooking fireplace, exposed ceiling beams with bead moulding, and a built-in cupboard. The Great Room is flanked on one side by the 19th century entry hall and dining room, which also features built-in cupboards, and on the other side by a master bedroom-bathroom suite.
27 Shipcarpenter Square
28 Shipcarpenter Square
29 Shipcarpenter Square
30 Shipcarpenter Square
The Customs House, originally located on Front Street near the intersection of Market Street, was used for many years by the federal government to monitor commerce involving the mouth of Delaware Bay. It housed the offices of the Deputy Collector of Customs for the Port of Philadelphia, a position that existed up until the early 1970s by which time it had moved to an office in the Lewes Post Office building. The building was originally known as the Lewes Federal Building because it housed a number of federal offices including customs, quarantine and mail services.
32 Shipcarpenter Square
This two-story log house was built circa 1795 and is typical of log cabins built in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s by German and Scotch-Irish settlers in the mid-Atlantic and Southern states. Originally located in Frederick, Maryland, it was moved to Shipcarpenter Square in 1988. Each log was tagged and replaced in its same location, making the reconstructed cabin as original as possible. Cut marks created by axes and hatchets from the 18th century construction are readily visible on the logs, especially on the inside of the house. As was typical for the era, all the logs were hand-hewn and no nails were used on the logs which were held together by notched joints stacked on top of each other.
34 Shipcarpenter Square
Originally know as the Hunter House, this home was built in Harbeson, Delaware in 1740. It was moved to its current location in 2002 by Jim and Carol Decatur.
36 Shipcarpenter Square
The Nathaniel Luff House was built around 1835 by Nathaniel Luff on his farm located northeast of Milford, Delaware, on a branch of the Mispillion River not far from where it enter the Delaware Bay. Luff built the house largely from local materials. The frame is built of oak and hard pine. The front hall has a newel post hand-carved from a cedar log, and the banister is of poplar. Most of the floors are hard pine which grew in abundance in the area. The rear of the house was added by Luff's son Joshua, who inherited the house in 1859 and lived there until 1904.
The house was moved to its current location in 1986, where it was restored, adding only two sheds, a downstairs bathroom and a sunroom. During its relocation, cypress boards were taken from the attic used for the kitchen floorboards. A 2018 renovation included a side addition, new siding, roof and windows, and a kitchen renovation.
38 Shipcarpenter Square
The Hearn House, originally built around 1820, is a simple, charming farmhouse. It was constructed in the 1820's by on John Hearn, on a 200 acre farmstead just north of the Delaware-Maryland near Delmar. It was moved to its current location in 1986.
The Hearn House's most prominent and interesting feature is its panelled walls, Two ground floor rooms are panelled wiht random width, vertical beaded pine boards, suggesting that the Hearns in their remote location, did not have access to a plasterer's services.
40 Shipcarpenter Square
This residence is the Rehoboth Beach Life Saving Station, which was originally located on the ocean at the end of Dagsworthy Street in what is now Dewey Beach.
It was built in 1878; in 1921 the U.S. Coast Guard was formed and took over all Life Saving Stations. The Station was decommissioned in the late 1940's (1947 or 1948) and moved by the last Captain to serve in the Station to the "Forgotten Mile" on Rt. 1, just south of the entrance to Rehoboth Beach.
It was moved to Shipcarpenter Square by its current owners in 1998. The move required that the structure be cut in half horizontally at its midsection to make the trip to Lewes. The home has the original floors, woodwork and interior colors.
42 Shipcarpenter Square
The Postles House. This large, gracious five bay house was built around 1850 on a farm north of Milford, Delaware. One wing of the house, built in the late 1700's, was structurally unsounds and had to be destroyed. However, the best of its woodwork was saved and incorporated into the new addition.
The center entry hall with its splendid walnut railed curving stair is the focal point of the original house.