The Jackson and Sharp Company, a manufacturer of railroad passenger cars, was incorporated in Delaware on February 24, 1869, as the successor to the partnership of Jackson & Sharp. Job H. Jackson (1833-1901), a tinsmith and mechanic, and Jacob F. Sharp (ca. 1815-1888), an experienced car builder, opened a small car-building shop in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1863. Wilmington was a major center for the manufacture of railroad passenger cars prior to the development of Pullman, Ill., in 1881. After the incorporation, Sharp retired in 1870, and Jackson erected the larger Delaware Car Works at the foot of 8th Street. A shipyard was added in 1875. By the late 1880s, the company was turning out about 400 cars per year, as well as streetcars, sash-work, and panelling for buildings.

The Jackson and Sharp Company was purchased by the American Car & Foundry Company in 1901. American Car & Foundry, incorporated in New Jersey in 1899, was a typical late-nineteenth-century merger of many small car-building companies. The Jackson and Sharp plant was then used primarily for export orders until around 1920. From the end of World War I to 1938, the plant was kept open by building small pleasure boats, and it was devoted to the production of minesweepers during World War II. The plant was closed around 1945.