Discover 4 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Camden (United States). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Camden Friends Meetinghouse, Star Hill AME Church, and Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church. Also, be sure to include Camden Historic District in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Camden (Delaware).
Table of Contents
Camden Friends Meetinghouse
Building. Camden Friends Meetinghouse is a historic Quaker meeting house located on Delaware Route 10 in Camden, Kent County, Delaware. It was built in 1805, and was still in operation as a Quaker meeting house when it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. A modern Camden Friends Meeting and Social Hall has been built behind the historic building, which now serves the meeting, and was designed to be energy-efficient and architecturally respectful of the historic building.
Camden was a center of Quaker population; the town itself was laid out by Daniel Mifflin, a member of the Society of Friends, in 1783. The Camden Monthly Meeting, or Camden Meeting, was established in 1830, as a merger of the 1828-founded Motherkill Monthly Meeting and the Duck Creek Meeting, and met alternately at this building and at a Little Creek Meetinghouse until 1865, after which it met just here. In 1973, it was the only active Quaker meeting in southern Delaware, and was "under the jurisdiction of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting."
The meetinghouse is a two-story, gambrel-roofed, brick building. The roof is punctuated by two shed roofed dormers. The second floor housed a school that operated from 1805 to 1882.
Numerous members participated in the Underground Railroad, including John Hunn who was a conductor and in fact "Chief Engineer" of Delaware operations.
The Meetinghouse's cemetery, which has notably tall gravestones, contains the remains of John Hunn and his son, Delaware Governor John Hunn.
The 2,864 square feet (266.1 m2) new meetinghouse won the 2011 Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA)'a "Zero Net Energy Building Award, was one of the 2010 Real Estate and Construction Review's "Best New Green Projects in the Northeast Region", and won the "2010 Preservation Award of the Year" of the Friends of Old Dover.[1]
Star Hill AME Church
Church in the Kent County, Delaware. Star Hill AME Church, also known as Star of the East Church, is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church building and cemetery located in Dover, Delaware near Camden, Kent County, Delaware. It was constructed about 1866, and is a one-story, three-bay by three-bay, gable roofed, frame building in a vernacular Gothic Revival-style. It features a small bell tower at the roof ridge. Interments in the adjacent cemetery are believed to begin with the founding of the church in the 1860s, but the earliest marked grave dates from the early 1890s.
The church is an important focal point of the community of Star Hill, an early community of African American settlement in Kent County.
Star Hill AME Church was founded in the 1860s and is a daughter church of nearby Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
Today the church is home to the Star Hill Museum, which features exhibits about African American history in Kent County, slavery and the Underground Railroad.[2]
Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church
Methodist church in Camden, Delaware. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church and cemetery located at Camden, Kent County, Delaware. It was originally built in 1845 and re-built after a fire in 1889. The one-story, gable roofed frame Classical Revival-style church rests on a brick foundation. It measures 28 feet, 3 inches, wide and 36 feet, 2 inches in length. The ground around the church has been used as a cemetery since the church was established. The church is an important focal point of the community of Star Hill, an early community of African American settlement in Kent County. Zion was the first African Methodist Episcopal church in Camden, and is the mother church of nearby Star Hill AME Church.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.[3]
Camden Historic District
Camden Historic District is a national historic district located at Camden, Kent County, Delaware. It encompasses 65 contributing buildings in the crossroads community of Camden. At least 18 of the contributing buildings date between 1780 and 1820, with the remainder dated to the 19th century. Notable buildings include the Greek Revival style "Spruce Acres", Georgian style Mifflin House, the 1856 Whatcoat Methodist Church, Amity Lodge Building, Gov. George Truitt House, and a number of Italianate style dwellings.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.[4]