Discover 35 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Wilmington (United States). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Delaware Art Museum, Hagley Museum and Library, and Equestrian statue of Caesar Rodney. Also, be sure to include Chase Center on the Riverfront in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Wilmington (Delaware).
Table of Contents
Delaware Art Museum
The Delaware Art Museum is an art museum located on the Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington, Delaware, which holds a collection of more than 12,000 objects. The museum was founded in 1912 as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in honor of the artist Howard Pyle. The collection focuses on American art and illustration from the 19th to the 21st century, and on the English Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood movement of the mid-19th century.
The museum building was expanded and renovated in 2005 and includes a 9-acre (36,000 m2) Sculpture Park, the Helen Farr Sloan Library and Archives, studio art classes, a children's learning area, as well as a cafe and museum store.[1]
Address: 2301 Kentmere Pkwy, 19806 Wilmington
Hagley Museum and Library
Technology museum in New Castle County, Delaware. The Hagley Museum and Library is a nonprofit educational institution in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, near Wilmington. Covering more than 235 acres along the banks of the Brandywine Creek, the museum and grounds include the first du Pont family home and garden in the United States, the powder yards, and a 19th-century machine shop. On the hillside below the mansion lies a Renaissance-revival garden, with terraces and statuary, created in the 1920s by Louise Evalina du Pont Crowninshield.[2]
Equestrian statue of Caesar Rodney
A statue of Caesar Rodney is installed in Wilmington, Delaware, United States. The statue was erected in Rodney Square in downtown Wilmington on July 4, 1923. It was designed by New York sculptor James Edward Kelly. The Gorham Company in Rhode Island cast the statue and its two bronze plaques. The memorial was removed in June 2020. Its current location, preservation status, and plans for future display are currently unclear, and its removal has generated controversy.[3]
Chase Center on the Riverfront
Convention center in Wilmington, Delaware. Chase Center on the Riverfront is a 92,000 square foot convention center in Wilmington, Delaware. It hosts various local concerts, conventions, and banquets for the Wilmington area.[4]
Ebright Azimuth
The Ebright Azimuth is the point with the highest benchmark monument elevation in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is marked with a geodetic benchmark monument and has an elevation of 447.85 feet above sea level. The only state high-point with a lower elevation is Britton Hill in the state of Florida at 345 feet above sea level.[5]
Wilmington State Parks
State park in Wilmington, Delaware. Wilmington State Parks is a state park located in Wilmington, Delaware. Open year round, the park is approximately 345 acres of land mostly situated along the Brandywine Creek. The state park is made up of a group of smaller parks that are administratively managed as a single unit.
Although much of the land comprising Wilmington State Parks is owned by the city of Wilmington, the park is operated and maintained by the Delaware Division of Parks and Recreation, a branch of the state's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. The state park was created in 1998 when the Delaware Division of Parks and Recreation assumed management responsibilities, though the individual parks are much older, with the oldest dating back to 1886.
There are numerous statues, monuments, and memorials in Wilmington State Parks, including war memorials as well as statues and memorials to historically significant Wilmingtonians such as Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, U.S. Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard, conservationist William Poole Bancroft, and shipbuilder William H. Todd. There is also a memorial to President William McKinley and a memorial bridge dedicated to George Washington near a parade ground where the general reviewed his troops during the Revolutionary War.
Admission to the parks is free, with the exception of admittance to the zoo.[6]
Delaware Museum of Natural History
Museum in New Castle County, Delaware. The Delaware Museum of Nature & Science became the Delaware Museum of Nature & Science on January 1, 2022. The museum was founded in 1957 by John Eleuthere du Pont near Greenville, Delaware; it opened in 1972 on a site near Winterthur, Delaware. It is known for its extensive collections of seashells, birds, and bird eggs. The latter is the second largest collection in North America. It is the oldest natural history museum in Delaware.[7]
Address: 4840 Kennett Pike, 19807-1827 Greenville
Rockford Park
Park in Wilmington, Delaware. Rockford Park is a historic public park located in a residential area of Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware. It is characterized by a large, grassy meadow which slopes gently upward to a large knoll overlooking the Brandywine River.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The park is a unit of Delaware's Wilmington State Parks.[8]
Address: Park Dr, Wilmington
Delaware History Museum
The Delaware Historical Society began in 1864 as an effort to preserve documents from the Civil War. Since then, it has expanded into a statewide historical institution with several buildings, including Old Town Hall and the Delaware History Museum, in Wilmington and the historic Read House & Gardens in New Castle.
The society participates in joint marketing with the Delaware Tourism Office, the Greater Wilmington Convention & Visitors Bureau, and the Brandywine Museums & Gardens Alliance.[9]
Address: 504 N Market St, 19801-3005 Wilmington
Alapocas Run State Park
State park in New Castle County, Delaware. Alapocas Run State Park is a state park, located in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, along the Brandywine Creek and its Alapocas Run tributary. Open year-round, it is 415 acres in area. Much of the state park was created from land originally preserved by William Poole Bancroft in the early 1900s to be used as open space parkland by the city of Wilmington as it expanded. The park also includes the Blue Ball Barn, a dairy barn built by Alfred I. du Pont as part of his Nemours estate in 1914. In addition to walking trails, athletic fields, and playgrounds for children, one of the park's primary features is a rock climbing wall. The rock climbing wall is part of an old quarry across from historic Bancroft Mills on the Brandywine, and the quarry is also used for school educational programs centered on earth sciences.[10]
Address: 1914 W Park Dr, 19803-3652 Wilmington
Rockwood
Museum. Rockwood is an English-style country estate and museum located in Wilmington, Delaware. Built between 1851 and 1854 by banker Joseph Shipley, Rockwood is an excellent example of Rural Gothic Revival Architecture. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.[11]
Address: 610 Shipley Rd, 19809-3609 Wilmington
Old Swedes Church
Church in Wilmington, Delaware. Holy Trinity Church, also known as Old Swedes, is a historic church at East 7th and Church Street in Wilmington, Delaware. It was consecrated on Trinity Sunday, June 4, 1699, by a predominantly Swedish congregation formerly of the colony of New Sweden. The church, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, is among the few surviving public buildings that reflect the Swedish colonial effort. The church is considered part of First State National Historical Park. The church, which is often visited by tourists, remains open for tours and religious activities.[12]
Address: 606 N Church St, 19801-4421 Wilmington
Grand Opera House
Opera house in Wilmington, Delaware. The Grand Opera House, also known as The Grand or Masonic Hall and Grand Theater, is a 1,208-seat theater for the performing arts in Wilmington, Delaware, United States. The four-story building was built in 1871 by the Delaware Grand Lodge of Masons to serve as a Masonic Temple and auditorium. The construction cost was $100,000. It was designed in Second Empire style by Baltimore architect Thomas Dixon and incorporates symbolism from Freemasonry into the cast-iron facade. Its central pediment contains an Eye of Providence.
Historically, the Grand hosted a variety of operas, symphonies, Victorian melodramas, minstrel shows, burlesque, vaudeville, and other exhibitions, including performers such as Ethel Barrymore, "Buffalo Bill" Cody and "Texas Jack" Omohundro, and John Philip Sousa. For most of the twentieth century the Grand was operated exclusively as a movie theater, run by Warner Brothers from 1930 and eventually closing in 1967. It was reopened four years later and returned to programming emphasizing classical music, partnering with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, OperaDelaware, and the First State Ballet Theatre.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 with assertions of both architectural and historical significance. It was argued it is "one of the finest remaining examples of 19th century cast iron architecture in America" and that it has important association with events and persons in Delaware's history.
In 1973, management was turned over to a non-profit organization and the building underwent extensive restoration, which was completed in 1976.[13]
Address: 818 N Market St, 19801-3087 Wilmington
Brandywine Creek
Tributary in Delaware. Brandywine Creek is a tributary of the Christina River in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware in the United States. The Lower Brandywine is 20.4 miles long and is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River with several tributary streams. The East Branch and West Branch of the creek originate within 2 miles of each other on the slopes of Welsh Mountain in Honey Brook Township, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles northwest of their confluence.
The mouth of the creek on the Christina River in present-day Wilmington, Delaware, is the site of the New Sweden colony, where colonists first landed on March 29, 1638. The Battle of Brandywine was fought around the creek near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 1777, during the American Revolution. Water-powered gristmills in Brandywine Village, near the creek mouth, and the nearby DuPont gunpowder mill were important in developing American industry before the introduction of steam power.[14]
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church
Greek orthodox church in Wilmington, Delaware. Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church is a Greek Orthodox Church in Wilmington, Delaware. Established in 1934, the church is an important part of the Greek community in Wilmington. The church complex also contains a Greek community center, and is the site of the church's annual Greek festival.[15]
Address: 808 N Broom St, 19806-4625 Wilmington
Nemours Mansion and Gardens
Museum in New Castle County, Delaware. The Nemours Estate is a 200-acre country estate with jardin à la française formal gardens and a French neoclassical mansion in Wilmington, Delaware. Built to resemble a French château, its 105 rooms on four floors occupy nearly 47,000 sq ft. It shares the grounds at 1600 Rockland Road with the Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware, and both are owned by the Nemours Foundation.[16]
Address: 850 Alapocas Dr, 19803-4544 Wilmington
Old First Presbyterian Church
Old First Presbyterian Church of Wilmington is a historic Presbyterian church located on West Street on Brandywine Park Drive in Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware.
Built in 1740, the one-story brick structure measures 30 feet by 40 feet and has a gambrel roof. Originally located on the east side of Wilmington's Market Street between 9th and 10th Streets, the building was used during the American Revolution by British troops as a prison and hospital during the occupation of Wilmington after the Battle of Brandywine, September 12, 1777. It remained a house of worship until 1840. A cemetery on the site was the final resting place of many noted Wilmingtonians which were reinterred to Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery.
It was moved to its present site in 1916. In order to move it, it was dismantled and rebuilt with its re-dedication in 1918. It was given to the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Delaware to maintain and restore. They currently use it as their headquarters and have it open to the public on 2nd Sundays, April–October, 2-4pm.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America restored the interior to its original condition in 1981.[17]
Address: 1420 N West St, 19801-1030 Wilmington
St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church
Catholic church in Wilmington, Delaware. St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church is a Roman Catholic church in Wilmington, Delaware. Named in honor of Anthony of Padua, it falls within the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington and is operated by the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. It is situated in Wilmington's Little Italy neighborhood, where the parish includes St. Anthony's School and Padua Academy.
Every June, the church runs an Italian Festival, a week-long event which celebrates the Feast of Saint Anthony. This festival features four outdoor cafes, each with their own live entertainment, and unique food selections. The Festival is the second-largest of its kind in the United States. Admission fees were established for the first time in 2008.
The Romanesque revival architectural style owes its inspiration to the Basilica di San Zeno in Verona, Italy. Italian immigrants who settled in the area took seven years to construct the building. Construction was led by Ernesto DiSabatino who later founded EDiS Company and received the Papal Cross of Honor Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice for his efforts for the construction of the church.
The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.[18]
Address: 901 N Dupont St, 19805-5310 Wilmington
St. Hedwig's Roman Catholic Church
Church in Wilmington, Delaware. St. Hedwig's Roman Catholic Church is a historic Roman Catholic church located at Linden and S. Harrison Streets in Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware. St. Hedwig's serves as the only architecturally visible anchor or centerpiece for the Wilmington Polish community. The parish operated St. Hedwig's High School from 1960 to the 1970s. It was built in 1904, and is a cruciform shaped church constructed of soft gray brick with details in limestone. It is in the late Gothic Revival style. The front facade features a set of three double doors flanked by 80' spires terminating in cross gable spires. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.[19]
Address: 408 S Harrison St, 19805-4050 Wilmington
Mount Lebanon Methodist Episcopal Church
Church in New Castle County, Delaware. Mount Lebanon Methodist Episcopal Church, also known as Mount Lebanon United Methodist Church, is a historic Methodist Episcopal church located at 850 Mount Lebanon Road in Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware. It was built in 1834, and is a stuccoed stone structure in a Late Gothic Revival style. It measures 60 by 40 feet, and has a steep gable roof and frame vestibule added in 1873. Adjacent to the church is a contributing cemetery containing approximately 150 tombstones dating from 1840.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.[20]
Address: 850 Mt Lebanon Rd, 19803-1611 Wilmington
Trinity Episcopal Church
Church in Wilmington, Delaware. Trinity Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located at 1108 N. Adams Street in Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware. It was designed by architect Theophilus P. Chandler, and built in 1890. It is constructed of grayish white "Avondale" limestone laid in random coursed rock-faced ashlar blocks in the Gothic Revival style. It features pointed arch windows and doors, a high spire, the additional pinnacles on the side of the building, and buttresses. The parish house and rectory were added to the church in 1911 and the chapel was added in 1949. An adjacent brick three story rowhouse, known as Harris House, is attached to the complex by a second story walkway.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
Trinity Parish operates two church buildings in Wilmington, both listed by the NRHP: the main building on North Adams, and Holy Trinity Church (Old Swedes), built in 1699, at East 7th and Church Streets.[21]
Address: 1108 N Adams St, 19801-1327 Wilmington
Mount Pleasant Methodist Episcopal Church and Parsonage
Cemetery. Mount Pleasant Methodist Episcopal Church and Parsonage is a historic Methodist Episcopal church and parsonage located at Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware. It was built in 1838, and is a one-story, stuccoed stone structure with a gable roof. It measures approximately 50 feet by 40 feet, and has a gable-roofed vestibule added in 1893. Adjacent to the church is the parsonage built in 1894. It is a 2+1⁄2-story, four-bay L-shaped frame dwelling in the Queen Anne style. It sits on a fieldstone foundation and features gray-green fish-scale shingles. Adjacent is the contributing church cemetery with burials dating back to 1841.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. It is now part of Bellevue State Park, a Delaware state park.[22]
Delaware Children's Theatre
Company. The Delaware Children's Theatre is a community theatre in Wilmington, Delaware, United States. The theatre company occupies the historic New Century Club building.[23]
Address: 1014 Delaware Ave, 19806-4704 Wilmington
Friends Meetinghouse
Friends Meetinghouse is a historic Quaker meeting house at 4th and West Streets in Wilmington, Delaware in the Quaker Hill neighborhood. The meeting is still active with a membership of about 400 and is part of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. It was built in 1815–1817 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.[24]
Address: 401 N West St, Wilmington
The Delaware Contemporary
Art museum in Wilmington, Delaware. The Delaware Contemporary is Delaware's only contemporary art museum. Founded in 1979 as the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts it rebranded to its current name in 2015. It is a non-collecting museum focused on work by local, regional, as well as national and international artists.
The Delaware Contemporary moved to the Riverfront in Wilmington, Delaware in 2000. The 33,000-square-foot building includes seven galleries, 26 art studios, an auditorium, a classroom, a museum shop, and administrative offices. In 2008, it ceased charging admission to view the galleries to offer families more affordable cultural choices during the recession.[25]
Address: 200 S Madison St, 19801-5110 Wilmington
Bellevue Range Rear Light
Lighthouse in Wilmington, United States of America. Bellevue Range Rear Lighthouse is a lighthouse in Delaware, United States, on the mouth of the Christina River on the Delaware River, Wilmington, Delaware[26]
Delaware Memorial Bridge
Suspension bridge in New Castle County, Delaware. The Delaware Memorial Bridge is a dual-span suspension bridge crossing the Delaware River. The toll bridges carry Interstate 295 and U.S. Route 40 and is also the link between Delaware and New Jersey. The bridge was designed by the firm known today as HNTB with consulting help from engineer Othmar Ammann, whose other designs include the Walt Whitman Bridge and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. It is also one of only two crossings of the Delaware River with both U.S. Highway and Interstate Highway designations, the other being the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
The bridges provide a regional connection for long-distance travelers. While not a part of Interstate 95, they connect two parts of the highway: the Delaware Turnpike (Interstate 95 in Delaware) on the south side with the New Jersey Turnpike (later Interstate 95 in New Jersey) on the north side. They also connect Interstate 495, U.S. Route 13, and Route 9 in New Castle, Delaware with U.S. Route 130 in Pennsville Township, New Jersey (at the settlement of Deepwater, New Jersey).
The bridges are dedicated to those from both New Jersey and Delaware who died in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf War. On the Delaware side of the bridge is a War Memorial, visible from the northbound-side lanes. The toll facility is operated by the Delaware River and Bay Authority.
The Delaware Memorial Bridge is the southernmost and the largest fixed vehicular crossing of the Delaware River. It is also the only fixed vehicular crossing between Delaware and New Jersey. However, at Fort Mott, New Jersey, there is a small amount of land on the New Jersey side of the river that is part of the State of Delaware, and thus there are pedestrian crossings in between those states, but not spanning the river. The Cape May–Lewes Ferry provides an alternate route between travelers from New Jersey and the Northeastern states to southern Delaware.[27]
Wooddale Bridge
Bridge in Hockessin, Delaware. Wooddale Bridge is a covered bridge over Red Clay Creek at Wooddale in New Castle County, Delaware. It is one of three covered bridges in the state of Delaware along with the very similar Ashland Covered Bridge and the Smith Bridge. It and the Ashland bridge remain, of the thirteen bridges along the Red Clay Creek that were marked on an 1868 map.[28]
Gibraltar
Gibraltar, located at 2505 Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilmington, Delaware, is a country estate home dating from c. 1844 that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It takes its name from the Rock of Gibraltar, alluding to the high rocky outcrop on which the house was built. It is located just inside Wilmington's city limits and originally stood at the center of a much larger estate which has over time been reduced to the present area of about a city block in size. The house was originally built by John Rodney Brincklé and inherited by his brother's wife and children, before being bought in 1909 by Hugh Rodney Sharp, who was linked to the Du Pont family through marriage and work. Sharp expanded and remodeled the house, as well as commissioning the pioneering female landscape designer Marian Cruger Coffin to lay out the gardens.
The gardens are now owned by a local preservation trust which acquired it in the 1990s after it was threatened with demolition and redevelopment. They have since been restored and opened to the public. The estate was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1998 in recognition of its importance as a well-preserved example of the Country Place era of art and design. The mansion, currently owned by a local developer, has not been occupied for many years and its condition has significantly deteriorated.[29]
Address: 2505 Pennsylvania Avenue, Wilmington
Cathedral of Saint Peter
Catholic cathedral in Wilmington, Delaware. The Cathedral of Saint Peter is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington. Located on West 6th Street in Wilmington, Delaware. the cathedral is in the Quaker Hill Historic District of the city.[30]
Chester-Bethel Church
United methodist church in New Castle County, Delaware. Chester-Bethel Methodist Church is a Methodist church built in 1873 in Wilmington, Delaware, United States. The congregation, which dates to 1780 is the oldest Methodist congregation which has continuously gathered in the state of Delaware.[31]
Brandywine Park
Park in Wilmington, Delaware. Brandywine Park was the first city park established by the city of Wilmington, Delaware. It is located on the banks of Brandywine Creek, between Augustine Road and North Market Street. The park was established in 1886, and was designed by Samuel Canby, the city's parks commissioner, in consultation with Frederick Law Olmsted. Although initially laid out as a bucolic park with winding paths and roadways, it has since expanded to include active recreation facilities.
The park is approximately 178 acres and it spans both the north and south banks of the Brandywine. Much of the park has been preserved as a mix of wilderness and open space with walking trails and scenic views of the creek and surrounding woods. The open space section of the park includes two formal gardens, a rose garden and a cherry blossom garden. The Brandywine Zoo was created in 1905 and now occupies 4.75 acres of the park. Brandywine Park also includes active recreational facilities including playgrounds, athletic fields, and Baynard Stadium.
The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. It is a unit of Delaware's Wilmington State Parks.[32]
St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church
Building in Wilmington. St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception is a historic Roman Catholic church located at 600 E Sixth St. in Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware. St. Mary's is the only active church in Delaware founded by Saint John Neumann, Bishop of Philadelphia 1852–1860, who consecrated it on October 31, 1858. The church and adjacent St. Mary's school were the principal institutions for worship and the education and integration of thousands of Irish immigrants in Wilmington, most of whom lived in the parish upon first arriving. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.[33]
Old Asbury Methodist Church
Old Asbury Methodist Church is a historic Methodist church located at Walnut and 3rd Streets in Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware. It was the first Methodist church in Wilmington. The church is a two-story, three bay, "L"-shaped stuccoed stone structure in a vernacular Italianate style. The original section was built in 1789, and subsequently enlarged in 1820, 1825, 1838, and 1845. The chapel wing to the north was added in 1875.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.[34]
Address: 226 N Walnut St, Wilmington
St. Joseph's Catholic Church
Church in Wilmington, Delaware. St. Joseph's Catholic Church is a historic Catholic church located at 1012 French Street in Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.[35]
Address: 1012 N French St, 19801-3392 Wilmington