Delaware Cape Region History in Photographs

Delaware Cape Region History in Photographs, published every Tuesday in the Cape Gazette, features historical photos from Delaware's Cape Region - particularly - and from throughout Sussex County and Delaware generally.

Readers are invited to submit photos of historic interest. They can be mailed to the Cape Gazette at PO Box 213, Lewes, DE 19958, or via email to newsroom@capegazette.com.

Football playoffs time: Blue Hen gridiron back in 1954

5 years ago
Football was a tougher game back in October of 1954 when this photograph was made at a University...

Lifesaving crew coming back to the beach

5 years ago
Winter and its storms could be a tough time for the U.S. Lifesaving Service and its crews stationed...

Holiday decorations at Lewes’ 1812 park

5 years ago
The 1812 Park in Lewes looked much different in the middle part of the 20th century, but someone in...

Seine fishing for trout near Milford in the early...

5 years ago
Fishermen along the coast have been picking up a few migrating striped bass in recent weeks - some...

Boosting Delaware’s holly industry in the 1950s

5 years ago
It’s the Christmas parade time of the year and this photograph from the 1950s shows that the parade...

Christmas is in the air, especially in this postcard

5 years ago
This is a week full of parades in Delaware’s Cape Region, and Christmas is in the air. This...

Some of Sussex County’s earliest chicken exports

5 years ago
The recent announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that China is resuming its imports...

Veterans and ironworkers meet at Edgemoor in 1943

5 years ago
This photograph from March of 1943 shows a group of veterans meeting with ironworkers at the...

Three prominent Rehoboth Beach hotels a century ago

5 years ago
This postcard mailed from Rehoboth Beach in December 1912 shows three of the most prominent hotels...

Loading Sussex pumpkins bound for Thanksgiving pies

5 years ago
Pumpkins have long been a cash crop for Sussex County farmers. This photograph from the mid-20th...

Musicians doing their thing in the 1930s

5 years ago
Delaware’s Cape Region was alive with jazz music this past weekend between the Rehoboth Beach Jazz...

Nassau Colored School at Belltown in 1922

5 years ago
Delaware’s schools were very much segregated in 1922 when this photograph was made for Delaware’s...

A Dewey Beach scene from 1959 along Rehoboth Bay

5 years ago
This scene from 1959 show’s Wilson’s Pier along the upper reaches of Rehoboth Bay. It was a simple...

Lewes Drawbridge Beautification Project in the 1920s

5 years ago
This DelDOT photograph from the early 1920s shows the Savannah Road drawbridge looking westward...

Traffic wasn’t as heavy back then

5 years ago
All over Delaware, digital signs remind motorists that school is back in session now and it’s time...

Rehoboth Public School as it appeared in 1913

5 years ago
The existing, but no longer used, sand-colored Rehoboth High School is slated for demolition this...

Harvesting Sussex soybeans in the 1920s

5 years ago
Mechanical crop harvesting was just coming on the Sussex scene when Georgetown native Harold WT...

The early days of public education in Milton

6 years ago
With school starting back up for the 2019-20 year, we thought it would be interesting to take a...

Rehoboth’s lifeguards during the Coach Coveleski era

6 years ago
They’ve been keeping the beaches of Rehoboth safe for decades, and this summer is no different than...

Judging Delaware corn production in 1930

6 years ago
Cornfields across Sussex County and throughout Delaware are maturing now, ahead of the harvest...

DelDOT no stranger to working on Five Points messes

6 years ago
Delaware’s Department of Transportation continues to work on engineering solutions to make traffic...

Summertime is beach time: in Lewes now and then

6 years ago
This picture postcard from the George and Irene Caley Collection was postmarked 1909 and was sent...

Picking Delaware peaches in the mid 20th century

6 years ago
This photograph from the Delaware Economic Development Office Collection shows a group of...

The latest in farm equipment, mid-20th century

6 years ago
If it’s the last part of July and it’s hotter than blazes, it must be State Fair time in Delaware...

A scene of Lewes Creek and downtown Lewes in 1906

6 years ago
This postcard, mailed in 1906, features a photograph taken from the Lewes Beach side of Lewes Creek...

An Amish wheat field west of Dover in 1985

6 years ago
The 2019 barley and wheat harvest in Sussex County and throughout the rest of Delaware is mostly...

A Repurposed Railroad Car in Rehoboth Beach in 1922

6 years ago
This picture postcard, postmarked 1922, shows a repurposed railroad car set up as a cottage on the...

A prominent destination in Lewes in 1907

6 years ago
This postcard from 1907 shows the Hotel Rodney at the corner of Front Street and what is now known...

Hospital gardens are important for healing

6 years ago
Maybe it has something to do with the Garden of Eden but we sure do like gardens and Delaware is a...

The early days of Cape Henlopen State Park

6 years ago
This photograph from the 1960s shows the earliest entrance to Cape Henlopen State Park, just after...

One photo, two things to worry about

6 years ago
Delaware’s General Assembly goes back into session this week for its final run leading up to its...

Picking strawberries on a Bridgeville farm

6 years ago
Memorial Day Weekend means honoring those dead who have served in our armed forces, the beginning...

Milton-Ellendale segment of Queen Anne’s Railroad...

6 years ago
In January 2019, Delmarva Central Railroad took over operation of the railroad spur line between...

Early manufactured housing in Delaware

6 years ago
This postcard from the early 1950s shows the Dover Air Force Base Henry Massey family outside of...

Rehoboth’s Hotel Bellhaven as it appeared in 1913

6 years ago
The Papajohn Family in Rehoboth Beach has proposed construction of a new four-story hotel at its...

Route 14 bridge over Lewes-Rehoboth Canal in 1970

6 years ago
Lloyd Teitsworth and Dee Andrews made thousands of aerial photographs in the spring of 1970 in an...

Artist Howard Schroeder and his family back in 1982

6 years ago
Famed Delaware artist Howard Schroeder and his wife, Marian, celebrated their 40th wedding...

The state of public education in Harbeson in 1926

6 years ago
All of the school construction underway in Cape Henlopen School District and roadwork in full tilt...

Season coming for relaxing in the shade

6 years ago
This postcard from the mid 1900s is a reminder of how long there has been camping - and people to...

Shad nets hanging for cleaning and drying in New Castle

6 years ago
This picture postcard from the early 1900s shows nets for the annual spring spawning season hanging...

Here’s a Seaford baseball scene from the early 1920s

6 years ago
The Major League Baseball season is about to begin. Players have been stretching their muscles and...

A painting of the Carpenters’ Shell House from the...

6 years ago
A recent Barefootin' column focused on the Carpenter family’s Shell House, built in the early 1920s...

One of the Green Book’s stops in Sussex County

6 years ago
The Green Book recently earned the Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year from the Academy of...

Cape’s state championship girls basketball team in 1973

6 years ago
Cape Gazette Sports Editor Emeritus Dave Frederick published this photo on March 11, 2011 when the...

A Dewey scene familiar to Alice Walsh in the mid 1900s

6 years ago
An explanation on the back of this postcard from the 1950s reports that the view is looking toward...

Rehoboth Airport from the air in the 1960s

6 years ago
A recent historic photograph in the Cape Gazette showed the Rehoboth Airport - in black and white...

Interior of Groome Methodist Protestant Church in 1945

6 years ago
Most people are aware of Groome United Methodist Church because of the land its congregation has...

Rehoboth Airport as it looked from the air in 1949

6 years ago
Dave Kenton, via his son Casey, passed along this aerial photo of the Rehoboth Airport in 1949...

Road builders, tree planters in the 1930s

6 years ago
Trail-building work underway in Delaware’s Cape Region brings forth memories of work done in the...

Rehoboth’s Silver Lake Bridge when it was fairly new

6 years ago
Delaware’s Department of Transportation recently completed repairs to Rehoboth Beach’s Silver Lake...

Kiwanis, Key Club refurbished Rehoboth nativity

6 years ago
The removal of the Rehoboth Beach nativity scene from the Bandstand property stirred a lot of...

Rehoboth Public School valued at $251,305 in 1941

6 years ago
For insurance purposes, the State of Delaware photographed and appraised the value of all state-...

Sending Christmas greetings home from Japan

6 years ago
After World War II ended in 1945, American armed forces occupied defeated Japan for a number of...

Notched-log corn cribs from the early 1900s

6 years ago
This 1955 photograph from the Ernest Collection of Country Store Photographs shows a pair of corn...

Rehoboth Beach vacationing in the 1940s

6 years ago
Jeanne Smith of Lewes found this photograph in some family files. It shows her mom mom and pop pop...

Thanksgiving a time to celebrate the harvest

6 years ago
This photograph from 1914 shows a steel-wheeled Moline tractor supplying leather-belt-driven power...

A Return Day float from the mid-20th century

6 years ago
This picture postcard from the 1950s shows that Return Day traditions haven’t changed much through...

Stirring Up Support For Prohibition In 1917

6 years ago
Pro-prohibition organizations distributed this postcard in Wilmington before the November election...

Beebe Hospital As It Had Evolved In Mid-20th Century

6 years ago
This postcard from the mid-20th century shows Beebe Hospital when its main entrance was in the Shaw...

The Schooners Of Milton In The Early 20th Century

6 years ago
This postcard was mailed from Milton in 1908. It shows wharves in the Broadkill River in downtown...