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.

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

7 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

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

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

7 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

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

Graphic testimony to Dutch heritage in 1927

7 years ago
Kill in Dutch can be translated as river. So when the new drawbridge across the Broadkill River...

Lewes Yacht Club in its early days

7 years ago
Lewes Yacht Club, located at the end of Cedar Street in Lewes, fronts on Delaware Bay, Roosevelt...

Lewes Beach an auto destination in 1930

7 years ago
This photograph from September of 1930 shows that then, as now, Lewes Beach and its public parking...

The Circle in Georgetown from the air in 1970

7 years ago
This aerial photograph from March of 1970 shows downtown Georgetown and its Circle, and the streets...

Autumn hurricane in 1944 drove Thomas Tracy tanker...

7 years ago
This postcard mailed from Rehoboth Beach in the summer of 1945 shows the freighter Thomas Tracy...

Work in Lewes in 1915 meant fishing for menhaden

7 years ago
More in the spirit of the Labor Day holiday: In 1915 when this postcard was mailed, hundreds of...

The heart of Dewey Beach a half century ago

7 years ago
This aerial photograph from the 1950s shows the heart of Dewey Beach, from sea to bay, with its...

The Main Downtown Area Of Broadkill Beach In The...

7 years ago
The main road running parallel to the beach is paved now, and there are more beach cottages, but...

Ocean City Charter Fishing fleet in the mid-1900s

7 years ago
Many eyes were on the Ocean City, Md. annual white marlin fishing tournament last week - a cash-...

“Peaches ripen in the summertime, apples ripen in . ...

7 years ago
". . . the fall. If I can't have the one I love I don't want no one at all." This verse from a...

Beach scene in Rehoboth more than 100 years ago

7 years ago
This picture postcard was mailed in August of 1914 and shows swimmers enjoying the ocean at...

Cornstalk shocks on a Dover field in the early 1900s

7 years ago
Across Sussex County, corn in fields without irrigation was beginning to burn up in July. Some of...

Fort Miles Battery 519 in earliest days of Cape...

7 years ago
This photograph was posted recently on the Fort Miles Historical Association's website. It shows...

Recreation and religion in mid-20th century

7 years ago
This picture postcard from the George and Irene Caley Post Card Collection dates back to the mid...

Hotel at Rosedale Beach in the mid-1950s

7 years ago
From the 1900s to the 1970s, the pre-integration era of the United States, the hotel and resort...

Slaughter Beach waterfront in the early 20th century

7 years ago
This postcard from about 1905 shows waterfront houses built just back from the dunes and on the...

Oak Orchard bathing scene from early 1900s

7 years ago
Through the early to mid 1900s, Oak Orchard on Indian River was a popular summer resort complete...

Lewes industry in the mid 1930s

7 years ago
Everett Bryan was a pharmacist in Lewes in the first half of the 20th century who also had an...

Taking strawberries to market in Selbyville in 1925

7 years ago
We're at the peak of the strawberry season in Sussex County. The crop has provided a nice spring...

Rehoboth’s Silver Lake Bridge on a 1929 Postcard

7 years ago
This postcard showing the Silver Lake Bridge in Rehoboth Beach was mailed in 1929, so the bridge at...

Railroad crossings in Lewes in the 1930s

7 years ago
Since the decommissioning of the railroad line between Cool Spring and Lewes, the state has been...

White House Farm on Long Neck in mid-1900s

7 years ago
This postcard from the mid-1900s shows the manufactured housing development known as White House...

Headquarters for the Coleman DuPont Highway...

7 years ago
When the Coleman DuPont Highway was being built from north to south through Sussex County in the...

Fisher-Martin House long before it was preserved

7 years ago
This photograph shows what preservation is all about. Cortland Hubbard made the image in October of...

Silver Lake fishing pier before the 1950s

7 years ago
On April 27, Rehoboth's Village Improvement Association will commemorate its 1963 Lake Gerar...

An idealized photograph of pre-1950s Rehoboth Beach

7 years ago
One date associated with information included with this postcard in the Caley collection indicates...

Rehoboth’s Lake Gerar in the mid 1900s

7 years ago
This postcard shows the Children’s Fishing Pier at Lake Gerar in Rehoboth Beach sometime in the...

Seining for fish at Bowers Beach in 1917

7 years ago
There was a time in Delaware when people hauled long nets along the shoreline to catch trout, blues...

Rehoboth Beach with a train in the early 1920s

7 years ago
We have railroads on the mind this week. Crews have been pulling up the crossing equipment related...

Public schools have to be replaced from time to time

7 years ago
With schools in the news this week because of the Cape referendum, here’s a reminder that schools...

Rehoboth Beach Easter Promenade winners in 1953

7 years ago
Ginnie Savage Caras sent us this photo recently. Shown are winners of the Easter Promenade in...

A new sign for Lewes posted during 1976 Bicentennial

7 years ago
Esthelda Parker-Selby brought in this clipping recently from a 1976 edition of The Whale newspaper...

The marina at Indian River Inlet in mid-1950s

7 years ago
This picture postcard from the mid-1950s shows the marina on the north side of Indian River Inlet...

Milton and the Broadkill River in 1913

7 years ago
This postcard with a postmark dated 1913 shows downtown Milton looking westward from a point on the...

Rehoboth’s Park Avenue in the early 1900s

7 years ago
Park Avenue in Rehoboth Beach, one of the city's last dirt streets, was in the news recently...

Delaware football 116 years ago

7 years ago
It’s a footbally time of the year across the nation with National Football League playoffs in full...

Early 1900s winter ice threatening boardwalk and...

7 years ago
Lewes Historical Society Executive Director Mike DiPaolo sent along this photograph showing another...

A graphic reminder of what January cold snaps can bring

7 years ago
This National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellite image shows the mid-Atlantic...

The Circle in Georgetown when it was still called...

7 years ago
This image of the center of Georgetown - Sussex County's seat of government - appeared on a picture...

A holiday card from Beebe when the hospital was 12

7 years ago
In 1928, when Beebe Hospital in Lewes was 12 years old, Drs. James and Richard Beebe and their...

Island Field site archaeological work in late 1960s

7 years ago
Nick Roth’s article, “ Unearthing the past ,” detailed historic gravesite finds at the 17th century...

Installing sewer in Lewes in 1928

7 years ago
With water and wastewater infrastructure replacement work underway in Lewes, it’s a reminder of how...

Drawbridge over the canal in Lewes in 1933

7 years ago
There has been a lot of discussion recently about spending millions of dollars to refurbish the...

Sussex County drive-in theater from the past

7 years ago
With the debut of the Movies at Midway's new Cube theater using the latest in film technology, here...

A flock of Sussex County turkeys ready for the holidays

7 years ago
This photograph from the mid-1900s shows that Sussex County agriculture isn't just about growing...

In 1970, pilots operated from their offshore...

8 years ago
This photograph from the Delaware Project shows the pilot ship Philadelphia at anchor near the...

Watching for forest fires in Sussex in 1970

8 years ago
The West Coast isn't the only part of the country that has been concerned about forest fires...

Corn harvesting in Delaware before combines

8 years ago
This photograph from the Delaware Economic Development Collection shows a Delaware farmer picking...

Early efforts at preserving remains of HMS DeBraak

8 years ago
In 1985, salvagers used emerging sidescan sonar technology to sleuth out the location of the sunken...