Finding Aids

The Delaware Construction Company was a building company, constructing residential houses in downtown Wilmington, Delaware. It was founded in 1909 as a subsidiary of the National Real Estate Trust Company, which provided loans and financing for the properties. This small collection consists of five blueprints of houses by E. Olney Sherman, dated 1910 for Delaware Construction Co.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company commonly known as the DuPont Company. It was established in 1802, and began by manufacturing gunpowder, later moving to chemical compounds. The foundations for the Engineering Department were laid in 1902. The department’s purpose was to design and construct high explosives plants, design powder machinery, and create extensions to existing plants. These records consist of seven large blueprint maps showing property lines, utilities, and buildings in the area of the company's Brandywine Works in Wilmington, Delaware.

The Electric Hose and Rubber Company (EHRC) was a manufacturer of braided rubber hoses in Wilmington, Delaware, from 1900 to 1978. The company specialized in the manufacture of consumer-grade garden hoses, as well as industrial-grade hoses for pumping gas and military functions. This collection includes accounting ledgers, tax information, payroll books, advertisements, company newspapers, employee records, and stockholder information. The collection materials date from 1904 to 1978, with the bulk of the materials dating from the 1920s to the 1960s. This collection would be useful to researchers interested in the history of manufacturing in Delaware, particularly in regard to rubber hoses.

Homes on Breck's Lane were owned by William Winder "Chick” Laird Jr. (1910-1989), and served as workers' housing. Laird was the director of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. The record is a single sheet listing the houses on Breck's Lane near Wilmington, Delaware, that were originally workers' housing attached to the Brandywine Works of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company.

James W. Flaherty Inc. was a general contractor company in Wilmington, Delaware that operated between 1949 and 1983. Consists of drawings and plans for various local properties, including du Pont family estates.

This collection consists of photographs and maps depicting the property of the Brandywine Works of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. The maps and blueprints show how the property of the Brandywine Works was divided among du Pont family members for estates after the works closed. A small series of large-format photographs depict various scenes and events from the Brandywine Works and the city of Wilmington in general.

The Pusey & Jones Corporation were shipbuilders, founders, and machinists of Wilmington, Delaware, which later expanded into papermaking machinery manufacturing. The collection is a plat of the property around Pusey and Jones Company plant in Wilmington, Delaware.

Wawaset Park was a planned community, commissioned by the DuPont Company for its company executives. The records describe the park, its residents, and history through corporate records, maps and deeds of the property, lists of corporate officers and residents, as well as histories of the park, the City of Wilmington, and the state of Delaware.

The Wilmington Savings Fund Society was established in 1831 as a "safe depository for the earnings of working people" which also promoted the opportunity for homebuilding and lending money for home mortgages. Their records consist primarily of minutes and account books.

The Woodlawn Trustees, Incorporated, is a non-profit real estate development firm incorporated in Delaware on December 12, 1918, by textile manufacturer William Poole Bancroft (1835-1928). Their records include charters, minutes, officer lists, directors' correspondence, real estate records, property maps, reports, drawings and specifications and newspaper and journal articles on the history of the Trustees and of the Bancroft family.