WILMINGTON — Hard to believe, but the semi-detached stucco house in this village-like neighborhood in Wilmington started out as worker housing – for the man in the gray flannel suit.
During the early 20th century, the young publicly held DuPont Co. was going through a historic growth spurt as it supplied explosives to the European Allies with the company’s assets quadrupling during the war years, according to Adrian Kinnane in “DuPont: From the Banks of the Brandywine to the Miracles of Science.” The company needed to import managerial and professional talent, but Wilmington was experiencing a housing shortage.
Enter DuPont, the real estate developer. The company bought a parcel called Wawaset Park at the intersection of Greenhill and Pennsylvania that had been a horse-racing track and fairgrounds. It had the advantage of being well-located between the du Pont family estates in the Greenville area and the company’s new headquarters on Rodney Square in Wilmington, according to Carol E. Hoffecker in “Corporate Capital: Wilmington in the Twentieth Century.”
“This tract of land was ideally located for white-collar employees: a street car line for quick commuter transportation downtown was within easy walking distance,” according to the nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places.
Wawaset Park, a “suburb set within the city,” was born.
As happened with the development of Rodney Square, DuPont, which was then led by the du Pont family, worked behind the scenes to buy the land that became the housing community. John J. Raskob, the right-hand man of company president Pierre S. du Pont, bought shares in the Wawaset Park Co., the landowner.
DuPont executive Frank McCormick was given the job of figuring out what company employees needed and desired in their housing, according to the national register documents.
McCormick, who had lived in Roland Park in Baltimore in a house designed by Edward Palmer, was instrumental in getting Palmer hired as the Wawaset Park architect and planner, according to the register documents. The design of Roland Park was influenced by the ideas of Frederick Law Olmsted, the famous American landscape architect who believed a design should respect what is known as the “genius of a place.”
Palmer broke with the city’s grid pattern, designing curving streets that give the community its village-like feel. The architectural styles ranged from Tudor cottages to Georgian mansions. To keep the integrity of the design, the company drew up restrictions.
“The DuPont Building Corporation retained the power to enforce the deed restrictions until 1944, despite the fact that they did not own the property,” the national register document says.
Construction began on Wawaset Park in early 1918 with the first homeowners celebrating Christmas in their new homes, according to the register nomination. Initially, DuPont planned for about 100 houses in a variety of styles and priced for middle- to upper-income buyers, according to Hoffecker.
The smallest houses went for $6,000, plus $1,500 for the lot. The big, free-standing homes sold for up to $20,000, not including the cost of the land, according to national register documents. DuPont employees were required to put 10 percent down and they were given a 10-year 5 percent mortgage.
Garages were not included, but buyers could add at an additional cost, according to the historic register documents. DuPont’s sales material was careful to point out the community was served by trolley lines and was within walking distance of stores and schools, Hoffecker said.
“Wawaset was, in effect, a suburb within the city. Yet it was more closely linked to the trolley car era than to the emerging era of the automobile,” Hoffecker writes. “The roadways were so narrow as to almost preclude the parking of cars. In all of these ways Wawaset represented not the beginning of a new era of construction, but rather the end of an old one; for by World War I, Wilmington, like the rest of America, had gone automobile-mad.”
According to the national register document, the community didn’t sell like hot cakes and DuPont dropped the prices for the first 125 sold.
The community was enhanced by hundreds of elm trees, some over 60 feet tall, according to the register nomination. Although the majestic trees were decimated by Dutch elm disease, the streets are still tree-lined with oak and other mature trees.
By 1921, nearly all the original 95 homes were sold, according to the national register. That year, DuPont sold the remaining lots to another company, which then sold off lots to local builders.
The house for sale at 1 Crawford Circle was one of the original DuPont houses, built in 1919. The three-story semi-detached home is at the end of a row of three houses. Completely renovated by the current owner, visitors might wonder what the first owner, Ferdinand Gilpin, would think of it today.
The galley kitchen has been updated to have granite countertops and 42-inch cabinets. The bathrooms were gutted and renovated. The owners turned one of the three bedrooms on the second floor into a large dressing room and closet. The master suite is on the third floor.
Patsy Morrow of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox Roach talks about the house and Wawaset Park:
Q: The houses in Wawaset are older, but it’s still very desirable, isn’t it?
A: I’ve been selling real estate for 30 years and I lived here and it’s just as popular as it ever was.
Q: Why is that?
A: It’s eclectic, almost European. There are different size houses, different ages of homeowners, winding streets, it’s a community within the city. Yet, you’re close to shopping, schools, downtown.
Q: It looks like the owners did a lot to rehab this house, including the kitchen and bathrooms.
A: It’s in move-in condition. It’s going to be perfect for a person who can appreciate that although it’s not huge, there’s a lot of space – the sunroom, the living room. Even though it’s an attached house, you don’t feel like it is.
Q: I understand the owner took landscaping courses that was important in the creation of the yard.
A: Yes, (she) took classes at Longwood Gardens and that helped quite a bit in (the) selection and location of plant material.
To suggest interesting spaces contact Maureen Milford at (302) 324-2881 or mmilford@delawareonline.com.
THE PROPERTY
ADDRESS: 1 Crawford Circle
SIZE: About 1,400 to 1,600 square feet
BEDROOMS: 3
BATHS: 2 full
PRICE: $364,500
Speak Your Mind