Share: 

DNREC's First State Heritage Park to highlight transportation innovation Jan. 6

January 1, 2018
As the Delaware Department of Transportation celebrates 100 years, the First State Heritage Park will celebrate the new year with a look at how people have managed to get from here to there and back again with First Saturday activities set from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Jan. 6.

At the John Bell House on the Green, visitors will learn about The Hard Road to Freedom: The Underground Railroad, and some of the heroic men, women and children who made the journey. 

At the Biggs Museum, children will make their own horse puppets and learn more about how people traveled before automobiles during the Biggs Kids program. 

The Johnson Victrola Museum will take to the sea and present the story of Victor Talking Machine Co. founder Eldridge Reeves Johnson's beloved yacht, The Caroline. Named for his mother who died when he was a child, it was the second-largest private yacht in America at one time. Used for scientific expeditions in the Caribbean, this vessel even had its own song written and recorded. The song will be heard on original 78-rpm records played on authentic talking machines.

Admission is free. Free parking is available at the First State Heritage Park Welcome Center and Galleries at 121 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. North. For more information, call 302-739-9194 or go to www.destateparks.com/heritagepark.

The First State Heritage Park is Delaware's first urban park without boundaries, linking historic and cultural sites in the city that has been the seat of state government since 1777. The park is a partnership of state agencies under the leadership of DNREC's Division of Parks and Recreation, working in collaboration with city and county government, nonprofit organizations and the private sector.

Subscribe to the CapeGazette.com Daily Newsletter