Farnhurst, Delaware

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Farnhurst, Delaware
Unincorporated community
Farnhurst is located in Delaware
Farnhurst
Farnhurst
Coordinates: 39°41′35″N 75°34′39″W / 39.69306°N 75.57750°W / 39.69306; -75.57750Coordinates: 39°41′35″N 75°34′39″W / 39.69306°N 75.57750°W / 39.69306; -75.57750
CountryUnited States
StateDelaware
CountyNew Castle
Elevation
43 ft (13 m)
Time zoneUTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-4 (EDT)
Area code(s)302
GNIS feature ID216946[1]

Farnhurst is an unincorporated community in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. The site of two historic hospitals (one now gone) and a number of cemeteries, the community once had a post office, school, and rail station.

Geography[]

Farnhurst is located at the junction of Interstate 295, U.S. Route 13, and U.S. Route 40 2.2 miles (3.5 km) north-northwest of New Castle.[2]

History[]

Late 1800s[]

Farnhurst is the site of the Delaware State Hospital, a psychiatric institution, originally opened in 1889, and often called Farnhurst.[3] The New Castle County Almshouse/Hospital also operated in Farnhurst from 1884 to 1933; these two large institutions were on adjoining plots.[4]

A post office opened at Farnhurst on January 15, 1890. According to historian Harvey Cochran Bounds, the 1890 opening of the post office in Farnhurst "had more than a little to do" with the closure of the nearby Hares Corner post office. The Farnhurst post office was moved to the psychiatric hospital grounds in the 1930s.[5]

In 1898, a stagecoach line ran three times per week between Wilmington and Farnhurst; a trolley system connecting Farnhurst to Wilmington was proposed in the Wilmington Evening Journal.[6] At that time, a round-trip coach between Farnhurst and Wilmington cost twenty cents.[7]

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Farnhurst Asylum had its own baseball team which played against teams like the Wilmington Actives.[8][9]

Early 1900s[]

Farnhurst in northern New Castle County, Delaware, in 1902

In 1901, newspapers announced the creation of a village at Farnhurst. This village housed workmen on the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad. The 25 new buildings, at that time described as sheds, were built overnight.[10] That same year, the P.B.& W. rail line in Farnhurst was altered, easing the curves of the railroad and leveling the steep grade; there was also a beautification project, with rail workers adding flower beds and landscaping to the rail station.[11]

In 1904, Farnhurst was described as a post village on the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad.[12] The station opened largely to service the hospital and the nearby almshouse.[13]

In 1912, Delaware courts ruled that the old soldiers living in the Farnhurst almshouse would be allowed to vote. The Wilmington Journal reported that "the court decided the old soldiers have a right to vote and the people will see that the men get their votes in the box and are counted."[14]

In 1920, Farnhurst's population was 332.[15] Around this time, the population of the State Hospital was 541,[16] and the New Castle County Almshouse's population was 220.[17]

In 1934, Gracelawn Memorial Park, a cemetery, opened[18] across the highway from the two hospitals.[19]

In 1939, a new chapel was completed at the State Hospital. A project of the Works Progress Administration, the building was completed in September of that year.[20]

Late 1900s[]

The older cemetery on the grounds of the hospital and almshouse, which served as a potters field for New Castle County, was mostly obliterated in the 1950s/1960s by highway construction of the Farnhurst interchange providing access to the Delaware Memorial Bridge.[21][22][3][23][24]

The Farnhurst post office closed in 1958.[25] In 1961, the hospital/almshouse, renamed the New Castle Building after its 1933 closure, burned to the ground.[4]

In 1960, Farnhurst's population was 350.[26]

The Farnhurst School was still intact in the 1980s.[27] Since 1978, this building has been the Howard J. Weston Senior Center,[28][29] now a part of the Wilmington Manor census-designated place.

References[]

  1. ^ "Farnhurst". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
  2. ^ Delaware Department of Transportation (2008). Delaware Official Transportation Map (PDF) (Map). Dover: Delaware Department of Transportation.
  3. ^ a b "History of the Delaware State Hospital". Farnhurst, Delaware.
  4. ^ a b "New Castle County Almshouse/Hospital (1884--1933)". Farnhurst, Delaware. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  5. ^ Bounds, Harvey Cochran (1938). A Postal History of Delaware. Press of Kells. p. 51.
  6. ^ "A Trolly to Farnhurst". Wilmington Evening Journal. 1898-10-06. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  7. ^ "Hack to Farnhurst". Wilmington Daily Republican. 1898-06-03. p. 4. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  8. ^ "Wilmington Evening Journal Archives, Sep 21, 1901, p. 3". 1901-09-21. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  9. ^ "Wilmington Evening Journal Archives, Aug 19, 1898, p. 6". 1898-08-19. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  10. ^ "Out Near Farnhurst, Village Has Sprung Up in a Day". Wilmington Evening Journal. 1901-02-19. p. 4. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  11. ^ "Abolition of the Farnhurst Grade". Wilmington Delaware Gazette And State Journal. 1901-10-24. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  12. ^ Gannett, Henry (1904), A Gazetteer of Delaware (Issue 230 of Geological Survey bulletin), U.S. Government Printing Office
  13. ^ Federal Writers' Project (2013), The WPA Guide to Delaware: The First State, Trinity University Press (reprint), p. 328, ISBN 9781595342072
  14. ^ "Wilmington Evening Journal Archives, Nov 5, 1912, p. 18". 1912-11-05. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  15. ^ Premier Atlas of the World: Containing Maps of All Countries of the World, with the Most Recent Boundary Decisions, and Maps of All the States, Territories, and Possessions of the United States with Population Figures from the Latest Official Census Reports, Also Data of Interest Concerning International and Domestic Political Questions. Rand McNally & Company. 1925. p. 175.
  16. ^ "State Hospital Report". Wilmington Evening Journal. 1923-02-01. p. 14. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  17. ^ "Population of the "Poor House" Grows". Wilmington Evening Journal. 1919-01-29. p. 10. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  18. ^ "Gracelawn Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware - Find A Grave Cemetery". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  19. ^ Dettwyler, Katherine. "Flying Whispers, Forgotten Lives". Farnhurst.com.
  20. ^ "U.S. May Spend $90,000 for Work at Fort Du Pont". The Sunday Morning Star. Wilmington, DE. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  21. ^ Dettwyler, Katherine A. (2019), Remembering Farnhurst: Stories from the Delaware State Hospital, 1894-1920, Outskirts Press, ISBN 978-1977212603
  22. ^ "Delaware State Hospital, Farnhurst, Delaware, 1932 October 28 | Hagley Museum and Library Archives". findingaids.hagley.org.
  23. ^ Bureau, Public Roads; Library, United States Public Roads Administration (August 18, 1950). "Highways, Current Literature" – via Google Books.
  24. ^ Works, United States Congress House Committee on Public (August 18, 1947). "Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds of the Committee on Public Works, House of Representatives ..." U.S. Government Printing Office – via Google Books.
  25. ^ "Post Offices". www.postalhistory.com. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  26. ^ World Book Encyclopedia. Vol. D. Field Enterprises Corporation. 1960. p. 88.
  27. ^ Names, Geological Survey (U S.) Branch of Geographic (1980). Delaware Geographic Names. U.S.G.S. Topographic Division, Office of Research & Technical Standards, National Center. p. 12.
  28. ^ "Weston Howard J Senior Center - New Castle, DE". Yelp. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  29. ^ "RESOLUTION NO. 18-173". New Castle County Government Center. 2018.

External links[]

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