WILMINGTON, DELAWARE THEN AND NOW --
          A CITY IN VINTAGE AND MODERN IMAGES
                    Copyright, 2003 Donata Lewandowski Guerra, B.A. Swarthmore College
Visit my literary journal at
http://rhel.journalscape.com/theWilmingtonian/ and my website A VIEW OF WILMINGTON, DELAWARE IN THE NEW CENTURY -- ON ANTIQUE POSTCARDS http://pages.ivillage.com/oldwilmington/

" . . . the concreteness of history in our minds solidly attaches to our imagination and memory, to certain unique places and times."  - historian John Lukacs



    After long remove from this city where I grew up, my antique postcard views of its well-known places helped me  better "remember" the past.  Happily, on a recent trip to Wilmington, Delaware, I found myself again strolling Delaware Avenue, contemplating Market Street's architecture,  revisiting Franklin Street, ambling along the Brandywine River, and making a first visit to the new Christiana Riverwalk.  My digital images of this sojourn now join vintage postcard views so that together you and I might "reconsider" past and present in a city we both love.. -- Donata Lewandowski Guerra
The Soldiers and Sailors Monument, dedicated in 1871, sits at the heart of "old" Wilmington.  Initially, Wilmingtonians considered this area "the country", but its accessibility due to the trolley line made it a desirable venue for the Queen Anne, French Empire, and Italianate houses that still reign where Delaware Avenue and Broom and 14th Streets form a triangle.
1909 Postcard View printed in England
1922 Postcard published in Philadelphia
The City Reservoir along Franklin Street abuts Ursuline Academy, whose refined collegiate Gothic architecture rose in the early 1920s. Ursuline now occupies the former site of Grantt Lodge and later of a John J. Raskob estate (the other being in Claymont, the site of today's Archmere Academy). The houses opposite Ursuline's port-cochere facing Franklin were home to smart Wilmington families, several of whom sent their daughters to the Academy. 
One little-known fact is that Ursuline Academy also offered a boarding school option for out-of-state students, some of whom were from political families in South America.
Part of the Ursuline complex occupying prime Pennsylvania
Avenue real estate with its
ennobling architecture typical
of the school's "ethos"...
It appears from the title of this 1909 postcard (right) that the Cool Springs Park area was once called "Cold Spring".  But I believe a mistake was made when printing the card, as "Cool Spring" was the name given to Ceasar Rodney's house at 11th and Broom.
Cool Spring Reservoir was completed in 1877.  Another reservoir occupied what is now Rodney Square.
Page 2 - More Wilmington Views
Write me: OldWilminton@nc.rr.com