Brandywine Springs County Park was a popular amusement park in the rural countryside outside Wilmington from approximately 1890 to 1923. A hotel was created on the site of the amusement park by combining three houses on the site that had been built twenty years earlier. This hotel enjoyed limited success until 1886, when Philadelphian Richard Crook (1850-1948) was brought in to manage it. To draw patrons to the hotel, Crook added small amenities to the hotel grounds, like a picnic grove, tennis courts, and a small merry-go-round. Over the next fifteen years, the site added new attractions including a dance hall, a roller coaster, two theaters, a restaurant, a larger carousel, and a boardwalk. There were many other rides and games. In 1900, Crook started the People's Trolley to bring visitors to the park.

The park enjoyed its heyday from about 1900 to 1915, and then began its gradual decline. In 1915, Crook retired and sold the park and the trolley line to the Wilmington and Philadelphia Traction Company (WPTC). The WPTC owned the other major trolley line in Wilmington, as well as their own amusement park, Shellpot Park. Over the next few years Shellpot got more attention in terms of upkeep and advertising than did Brandywine Springs, which fell into disrepair. The park never reopened after the 1923 season.