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NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE: A WALK THROUGH TIME.
Benson, Barbara E. and Carol E. Hoffecker
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New Castle, Delaware: A Walk Through Time traces the evolution of one town from its seventeenth-century settlement to the leafy, beautiful, and well-preserved small city of today. The historic arc begins in the conflicts of European exploration and colony building that pitted the Netherlands against Sweden and then Great Britain. New Castle slowly developed under the flags of those three countries from a small settlement of wood into Delaware's jewel-like brick colonial capital. Today New Castle has retained its beautiful historic town center, with outstanding examples of colonial and federal architecture that surround its preserved village center, called the Green, which dates back to Peter Stuyvesant.
Yet New Castle is more than a town frozen in the Colonial and Federal eras, for its history continued through time to mirror the economic opportunities and challenges of an expanding nation. Railroad, factories, and automobiles brought expansion that trans-formed it from its role as a county seat into a small industrial city. Neighborhoods east and west of the town center developed to house the shopkeepers, factory workers, owners, and managers brought by industrialization. Those neighborhoods remain today as the physical examples of changing architectural styles and evolving standards of urban planning and preservation.
The New Castle of today presents a work-in-progress. It continues to evolve as a twenty-first-century city while protecting the historic fabric of its long, rich past. New Castle, Delaware: A Walk through Time is heavily illustrated with maps, drawings, and photographs that visually illuminate the city's past and present.
Barbara E. Benson, Ph.D., Indiana University, 1976, retired from the Historical Society of Delaware as executive director in 2003. At the Society, she oversaw the collection, exhibition, education, and publication programs as well as the protection of the organization's eight historic properties, including the George Read II House and Gardens in New Castle. Dr. Benson currently chairs the New Castle County Historic Review Board.
Carol E. Hoffecker, Ph.D., Harvard University, 1967, retired from the faculty of the University of Delaware in 2003 as Richards Professor of History and Alison Professor. In a career focused on the history of Delaware, she has written numerous books and articles that explore many aspects of the state, its government, its people, and its economy. Her two volumes on the history of Wilmington, Delaware, continue to provide perspective on the connection of urban and industrial development.
In addition to New Castle, Delaware, A Walk through Time, Dr. Benson and Dr. Hoffecker have collaborated on several projects in Delaware history, ranging from an expert report submitted by the State of Delaware to the Supreme Court of the United States in State of New Jersey v. State of Delaware (2008) to a textbook about the state entitled The Delaware Adventure.
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