The records of the Woodlawn Trustees include charters, minutes, officer lists, directors' correspondence, real estate records, property maps, reports, financial records, photographs, drawings, and newspaper and journal articles on the history of the Trustees and the Bancroft family. Subjects covered include the development of the city park system and the Bancroft Parkway, the building and maintenance of the "Woodlawn Flats," the Citizens Housing Corporation, historic properties, the development of post-World War II suburbs, the Quaker beliefs of the Trustees and discussions withing the Society of Friends over their development activities and the disputes over racial discrimination in housing and segregation in the suburbs, and the personal papers of William Bancroft and the Bancroft family.

The Woodlawn Trustees, Inc. archives are a valuable resource for understanding various historical aspects of social progress and the documentation of the organization's approach to its huge undertaking of real estate development in Delaware. Researchers interested in suburban planning, preservation and conservation of natural resources, and racial segregation and discrimination in Delaware's early suburban and urban land development will find these materials useful. In addition, researchers will find significant material related to private-public partnerships focused on urban planning, Woodlawn's legal issues, the Bancroft family, and Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company.

The Administrative records series is organized into nine subseries: Corporate vision and mission; Evolution of the corporate structure; Directors and officers; Directors' and trustees' meeting minutes; Correspondence; Organizations of interest to Woodlawn; Special reports; Committees; and Woodlawn Trustees-PENNA, Inc.

Corporate Vision and Mission subseries is a file that contains William P. Bancroft's vision for urban and suburban planning, recreational parks, and affordable housing. These documents record Bancroft's own words and subsequent writings by his successors. This subseries contains Bancroft's letters and speeches, remembrances of him and his original mission for Woodlawn by his colleagues and successors, reports, brief histories by contemporaries, notes from the board of directors, and news articles articulating the mission of the Woodlawn Company and the Woodlawn Trustees, Inc.

Evolution of the Corporate Structure subseries is a set of files that reports the need for Bancroft to incorporate as The Woodlawn Company. Then understanding the benefit of a non-profit company, he formed Woodlawn Trustees, Inc. in 1918, and finally dissolved the Woodlawn Company in 1926. As Bancroft's property holdings grew, a company was formed to manage a corporate approach to the additional huge acquisition of lands for low-cost housing and future parks. In 1901 he named the new organization the Woodlawn Company. This subseries is also comprised of records that report the dissolution of the for-profit Woodlawn Company in 1918 and the creation of a new non-profit, Woodlawn Trustees, Inc., with the stockholders of the old company contributing all shares to the new organization. The original Certificate of Incorporation, its revisions, new company by-laws, and all its amendments through 1976 are included here.

Directors and officers subseries is comprised of a list of directors and officers of the Woodlawn Company and the Woodlawn Trustees, William Bancroft's annual report on Brandywine Hundred lands, Board officers' research, board mailings, correspondence from 1901 to 1981, and board retreats. This subseries incorporates a list of trustees and officers in Theodore Beck's report "The Story of Woodlawn" and miscellaneous records about various subjects such as property holdings, open housing, financial information, and other records provided by directors of Woodlawn.

Directors' and trustees' meeting minutes subseries consists of records of the minutes of the Woodlawn Company and Woodlawn Trustees, Inc. The materials include references to actions that affirm the Company's original mission, minutes discussing significant Woodlawn property holdings and events, correspondence, financial statements, and reports and updates about important Woodlawn endeavors. It also includes the papers of Elke E. McGinley, Woodlawn's executive secretary, and Lynn W. Williams, former President and Chairman of the Woodlawn Board of Directors, that further contain directors' and trustees' meeting notes, reports, proposals, financial statements, and correspondence.

Correspondence subseries contains correspondence with trustees and seven letter books. Three letter books contain correspondence of the Woodlawn Company; three contain correspondence of the Woodlawn Trustees, Inc.; and one contains a letter book of Charles Beck, dating from 1912 to 1926. The notes and letters to/from the directors and officers of the Woodlawn Company and the Woodlawn Trustees. Letter books of Woodlawn, from 1901 to 1928, and correspondence of directors and officers also appear in this subseries.

Organizations of interest to Woodlawn subseries contains information about various agencies and institutions that had an impact on Woodlawn's mission or that was a charity that Woodlawn supported. Interest also extended to people who influenced Woodlawn and its employees.

Woodlawn collected information about organizations in which they were interested for various reasons. Organizations that might be competitors for real estate acquisitions or with the same interests in the conservation and preservation of open space were of interest. Or if an organization shared Woodlawn's goal of enhancing people's social, educational, and recreational quality of life or which might impact the welfare of city and county residents. Information about those organizations is collected here.

Special reports subseries contains reports from the board of directors and trustees, including a brief description of Woodlawn, twenty-five-year plans, and the "Status of the Flats" report. There are also reports to the board of directors, such as the President's and Chairman's annual reports.

Committees subseries contains information about committees within Woodlawn made up of multiple members of the board of directors and trustees, including the executive committee, the finance committee, the investment committee, the property committee, and the audit committee. Information about these committees incorporates meeting minutes, proposals, financial statements, correspondence, deeds, and reports.

The Woodlawn Trustees-PENNA., Inc. subseries consists of information about Woodlawn Trustees-PENNA., Inc, which was incorporated in 1971 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Woodlawn Trustees, Inc to hold real estate for investment. It includes the certificate of incorporation; by-laws; correspondence; deeds; tax information; and annual meeting materials such as meeting minutes, financial statements, property information, and directors' actions.

The Real estate and housing series is arranged into five subseries: Flats; Citizens Housing Corporation (CHC); Brandywine Hundred; Parks; and Leases and deeds.

The Flats subseries includes applications for rental properties and responses from Woodlawn, data about rents, lists of expenses for each building; lists of bidding specifications; furnishings; information about construction, lists of tenants, Bancroft Parkway, and Wilmington ordinances. Also contains information about the construction, renovation, furnishings, supplies, and maintenance projects for houses in the "Flats" area of Wilmington. Oversize drawings and maps are arranged by date and placed as close as possible to the subjects of the construction and renovations.

Citizens Housing Corporation (CHC) subseries is comprised of records about the beginning of the CHC to provide low-cost housing in Wilmington's African American community. Major investors, financing, and all correspondence are included. In addition, there are descriptions of the types of houses owned by the CHC, lists of addresses and rents, expenses for maintaining the houses, information about repairs and heating of CHC houses, expense ledgers, check stubs, bills collected by Tatnall and Wensing, investment records, City and County tax statements, events leading up to Woodlawn's purchase of CHC assets, Wilmington historic district information, Kirkwood Properties Inc., and Park Theatre/Revival Fellowship Church property information.

Brandywine Hundred subseries include survey books and descriptions of farms. There are records indicating that in 1922 William Bancroft commissioned noted civil engineer, landscape designer, and urban planner Charles Wellford Leavitt to develop a master plan for future communities and thoroughfares in Brandywine Hundred. This subseries also includes lists of properties purchased, properties of interest, historic properties, Pennsylvania properties, properties no longer owned by Woodlawn, farmland assessments, expenses for construction and renovation, and communities later developed by the Woodlawn Trustees: Alapocas, Woodbrook, Edenridge, Tavistock, Sharpley, and Village of Rocky Run. Monies from property sales and rental fees were used to maintain and renovate the low-cost housing originally constructed in Wilmington's "Flats" area. Also contains files about property development and expansion, such as the development of the west side of Concord Pike, the Brandywine Commons Retail Center, and miscellaneous photographs and maps.

Parks subseries contains files about all parks developed in the City of Wilmington and New Castle County by William P. Bancroft, the Woodlawn Company, and the Woodlawn Trustees. This includes reports; studies; research papers; and information about Northern Delaware Greenways, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Division of Parks and Recreation, State Parks, Brandywine Creek State Park, New Castle County Parks, Delaware County Planning Department, and the Jessup Moore/St. Joe's Paper Company tract.

This subseries includes several reports and lists of the lands transferred to the City of Wilmington for parks beginning with the purchase of Brandywine Park in 1886 to 1887. There is evidence in Scharf's History of Delaware of an unsuccessful attempt to create a park in Wilmington earlier in 1868 when funds for a park were not a priority. Much information is included on the development of a park system during the subsequent ninety-three years in the city. Bancroft's creation of the Wilmington Board of Park Commissioners in 1883 is recorded, as well as his subsequent transfer of lands to Wilmington, followed by Woodlawn's later gifts. Also included is Woodlawn's donation in 1981 of 500 acres to the State of Delaware as an addition to the already existing Brandywine Creek State Park. Records are included about the dedication ceremony for BCSP and plans for developing greenways throughout New Castle County. There are records here also regarding park maintenance, funded by a trust fund in Wilmington created in 1935, and another trust fund for maintaining Brandywine Creek State Park.

Leases and deeds subseries include deeds written between 1862 and 1915, as well as deed restriction documents for the communities constructed in Brandywine Hundred. A Woodlawn lawyer later suggested the deed restrictions for communities constructed by Woodlawn for seventy-five years to be unenforceable once the properties were sold.

Financial records have been arranged into three subseries: Ledgers and journals; Financial records, journal entries, audits, and check stubs; and Staff wages and benefits.

Ledgers and journal subseries include segments of time between 1904 and 1985 with information about trial balances, rent accounts in the "Flats," the Citizens Housing Corporation, and the Brandywine Hundred farms. In addition, expenses for buildings in each of the three housing areas are part of this subseries. The trustees also kept records of labor distribution per housing cost estimates, general journals for properties in Pennsylvania, and analyses of net profits and quarterly income comparisons.

Financial records, journal entries, audits, and check stubs subseries contain handwritten financial records, computer-generated journal entries, audits, check stubs, stock and bond history, Woodlawn contributions, and denied contributions. In addition to audit reports, there are confirmation letters to banks to release account information, Woodlawn's tax information, land transaction lists, quarterly financial reports for select months, and information on tax credits for rehabilitating low-cost housing. Investment Statements and bank statements are included. Contains files leading to an agreement with Loomis-Sayles & Company to manage Woodlawn's assets, periodically report and monitor investments, and to project future trends.

Staff wages and benefits includes records for salaries, benefits, and labor distribution in select years of employment. The development of a pension plan for employees appears in the form of restatement of the plan to comply with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1976 (ERISA). Also included is information about staff bonuses, officers' compensation, Delaware's work safety program, labor costs as part of site expenses, and bank statements for pension assets.

Legal issues series is arranged into three subseries: Woodlawn's Tax Exemption Revoked; Woodlawn's Housing Policy Challenged; and du Pont v. Woodlawn Trustees, Inc.

Woodlawn's Tax Exemption Revoked subseries: In April 1966, the Woodlawn Trustees received a notice from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service stating that Woodlawn owed the IRS $103,466 for back taxes. Woodlawn responded that their Corporation was tax-exempt and would not pay the taxes. A long process ensued to determine Woodlawn's tax status and finally ended with Woodlawn suing the United States to recover back taxes. The following records begin with the original claim from the IRS and then all of the evidence and exhibits collected by Woodlawn during the hearings and trial.

In 1927 the U.S. Internal Revenue Service determined that Woodlawn was exempt from paying taxes. In 1963 the IRS revoked the tax exemption, declaring that the Trust was violating the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 by receiving revenues from a business unrelated to its original purpose--namely, profits from real estate rentals and sales. The revocation was made retroactive to 1951, with more than $1,000,000 owed to the federal government. This subseries contains lengthy records filed with the IRS about Woodlawn's original mission, proof of prior tax exemptions, the testimony of officers of Woodlawn, the company's historical documents proving that Woodlawn's history is one of a philanthropic nature, and finally, the decision of the IRS in 1972. Having first paid the amount owed to the IRS and the IRS having decided in Woodlawn's favor in the tax exemption issue, Woodlawn sued the U.S. Government for rebates on their payments and won. However, as a result of the tax law of 1969, a portion of which pertained to restrictions on non-profit institutions, Woodlawn decided to avoid the restrictions which would prohibit the company from doing its work and decided to pay all future taxes. Woodlawn continues to pay taxes today.

Woodlawn's Housing Policy Challenged subseries contains files about Woodlawn's housing policy and the need to integrate the "Flats," as well as their properties in New Castle County. In September 1963, the Wilmington Monthly Meeting sent a letter to Philip G. Rhoads and other Woodlawn Trustees who were members of the Monthly Meeting. The letter proclaimed a need to end discrimination in all housing. The Meeting also established an Open Housing Committee, presumably to discuss open housing with the Woodlawn Trustees.

Concurrent with the 1963 revocation of its tax exemption, Woodlawn Trustees, Inc. was challenged by the Wilmington and Philadelphia Friends Meetings to adhere to the original aims and purposes of William Bancroft. Wilmington and Philadelphia Friends Meeting claimed that Woodlawn's expansion to residential and commercial real estate activities in Brandywine Hundred was never intended by their founder. The Friends Meeting in Wilmington was also concerned that Woodlawn's housing policy was too restrictive and did not permit integrating African American families with Caucasians in Woodlawn's developed communities. Correspondence, newspaper clippings, minutes of meetings, and final agreements with the Delaware Human Relations Commission are included here.

Du Pont v. Woodlawn Trustees, Inc. subseries: As the issue of integrating Woodlawn's urban housing became more heated in 1972, the State Human Relations Commission, the City of Wilmington, the New Castle County Housing Division, and the local media insisted that Woodlawn also look toward integrating Brandywine Hundred and provide homes for African Americans. Woodlawn, at one point, had even considered selling off all their suburban properties due to the pressure of building upscale homes in Brandywine Hundred, which they knew would either be too expensive to buy or to lease by those for whom they were intended. They decided to prepare a study to determine the feasibility and cost of building homes up to their then-current standards in Brandywine Hundred to serve an eager African-American population. The study, coupled with a new Master Plan, confirmed that building homes in New Castle County to satisfy the County's housing needs would be too costly and not feasible. As the integration issue was still burning, and as the Wilmington Monthly Meeting seemed more uncomfortable with the current business dealings of the Woodlawn Trustees, a third concurrent legal issue arose. Mrs. Martha Verge du Pont attempted to purchase a home from Woodlawn in the upscale county neighborhood of Tavistock for use as a home for needy children. When Woodlawn refused to sell the property for that purpose, Mrs. du Pont sued Woodlawn for discriminating against African American children who might inhabit the house. The files in this subseries describe the lawsuit of du Pont v. Woodlawn Trustees, Inc.

Woodlawn offered the Tavistock house for sale at $75,000, and Mrs. Martha Verge du Pont sent a deposit for $7,500 as a 10% down payment, thereby accepting Woodlawn's offer. Woodlawn, after a discussion with Mrs. du Pont, who planned to open a home for needy children, changed their mind and rescinded the offer. Legal action by Mrs. du Pont ensued.

Woodlawn's housing policy was again challenged in 1972 by Mrs. William du Pont, who sued Woodlawn for discrimination in its housing developments. All the records filed in the lawsuit are included in this subseries, including testimony, newspaper clippings, and correspondence. In 1974 the suit was dismissed with prejudice.

Public relations and communications are organized into two series: Presentation scripts; and Newspaper clippings, brochures, and accolades.

Presentation scripts subseries consists of images used for the orientation of new Trustees or for educating the Board of Directors about the progress of an ongoing project. Frequently the slides would be used with scripts for speeches at events at which the Trustees would publicize the long-term efforts of Woodlawn to preserve open space or to tell the story of the vision of their founder William Poole Bancroft. Boxes 29, 30, and 31 contain slides, photographs, and slide show scripts that would have been used for all the aforementioned purposes. The slides are arranged by title as much as possible and by the date on which the photos were taken. Only the highlights are listed.

Contains slides used for educating the Board and civic organizations. Also contains photographs of Woodlawn's properties in the City of Wilmington and New Castle County.

Woodlawn's propensity for detail was outstanding. As soon as the technology was available, the Trustees commissioned as many aerial and ground pictures of potential sites for construction and construction-in-progress as necessary to satisfy their penchant for perfection in planning. There are slides, photographs, and collages depicting most of their construction projects beginning in the 1940s, especially later in Brandywine Hundred. In addition, when renovating the "flats," Woodlawn took full advantage of the use of photography to report progress at Board Meetings and for presentations to the general public. Historical pictures include reproductions of a painting of William Bancroft, painted in 1906.

Newspaper clippings, brochures, and accolades subseries consist of major events, people, and places of interest to the Bancrofts and Woodlawn and their employees. Also included are records acknowledging Woodlawn's work in providing affordable housing, conservation and preservation of open space, and their donations of parkland to Wilmington, New Castle County, and the State of Delaware.

Reports, studies, and pamphlets series is arranged into three subseries: Research and comments about Woodlawn and studies prepared for the Woodlawn Trustees; Materials relevant to conservation and preservation of open space; and Material relevant to conservation and preservation.

Research and comments about Woodlawn and studies prepared for the Woodlawn Trustees subseries contain print materials that Woodlawn commissioned to chronicle important people, places, deeds, and events in the history of Woodlawn. Board members and Woodlawn's "neighbors," from time to time, needed chronological clarification of Woodlawn's mission and future expectations. There are reports written by professional information specialists, using board minutes, letter books, and historical correspondence to tell the story of Woodlawn for the company's future officers and employees. This subseries includes materials about the Quaker faith written by those who influenced early trustees. Additionally, there is the inclusion of a forestry study by Thomas White commissioned by Woodlawn in which White examines the forests of Woodlawn property and produces an economic analysis and other reports.

Materials relevant to the conservation and preservation of open space subseries are documents that would enhance the Woodlawn Trustees' understanding of better ways to preserve and conserve open space for the benefit of the general public. This subseries comprises print materials best describing various aspects of the preservation and conservation of open space and orderly urban and suburban planning.

Materials pertaining to zoning and miscellaneous reports subseries consist of documents about the New Castle County Department of Planning, development and zoning plans, Hagley Museum and Library archival information, and history of specific landmarks in Delaware.

William Bancroft records series is arranged into nine subseries: Genealogy and biographies, William P. and Emma C. Bancroft correspondence, William P. and Emma C. Bancroft philanthropy, Financial records, William P. Bancroft and Joseph Bancroft & Sons, William Bancroft and the Religious Society of Friends, Bancroft family residences, Miscellaneous records, and Artifacts.

The papers of William Poole Bancroft, Emma C. Bancroft, and their children include family genealogies; pedigrees; and biographies, including material on the family's antecedents in England, personal correspondence, letterbooks, the material on their charitable activities, particularly their interest in African American education and Quaker schools and colleges, and Samuel Bancroft Jr.'s interest in collecting Pre-Raphaelite art, which he bequeathed to the Delaware Art Museum. William P. and Emma C. Bancroft's philanthropy also significantly consists of the construction plans and opening of the Woodlawn Branch Library and Pedestrian Bridge in Wilmington. In addition, Financial records and William Bancroft and Joseph and Sons subseries generally contain bank statements, check stubs, credit statements, tax information, balance sheets, annual reports, and board correspondence. Other subseries in the William Bancroft records include information about the history of Thomas Garrett and Quakers in Delaware, William Bancroft's residences, and some miscellaneous records and artifacts about both William Bancroft and Woodlawn.