Delaware Cape Region History in Photographs

A Sussex County public school classroom in 1926

6 days ago

With schools reopening in Sussex County, and new schools under construction in many different...

A soldier’s life isn’t all battle and glamour

1 week ago

This photograph from around 1944 shows U.S. Army soldiers, stationed at Fort Miles in Lewes,...

Delmar was one of the stops for the Delmarva Express

2 weeks ago

Pennsylvania Railroad invested heavily in passenger service during the first half of the 20th...

State-of-the-art food packaging in the early 1900s

3 weeks ago

This 1920s photograph from Waller Studios in western Sussex County’s Laurel shows workers at the...

Oak Orchard boardwalk scene from around 1915

1 month ago

Oak Orchard, tucked between Indian River Bay to the south and Emily Gut to the east, drew...

Horseshoe crabs at Bowers Beach for fertilizer

1 month ago

One of the great survivors of Planet Earth, horseshoe crabs have been roaming the sea floor for...

An early 20th century crossing of Broadkill River

1 month ago

Judging by the automobiles, this photo of the bridge over Broadkill River dates back to the 1930s...

Surfers at Indian River Inlet in the mid-1950s

1 month ago

This photograph from the middle of the 20th century gives a sense of the surfing scene at Indian...

Canning tomatoes in Seaford in early 1900s

2 months ago

Emanuel Greenabaum and brothers built a tomato and pea canning operation in Seaford in the late...

Resort restaurants long a part of local economy

2 months ago

Restaurants have long been an important part of the Delaware resort economy, and they have marketed...

Moonlight sailing on Rehoboth Bay in 1939

2 months ago

This romanticized illustration of a full moon sail on Rehoboth Bay graced a postcard that was...

One of Delaware’s earliest public transportation buses

2 months ago

Public buses are an increasingly important mode of transportation in Sussex County as our roads...

Threshing wheat when it took far more man and animal...

2 months ago

Wheat harvesting is in full swing across Delmarva. This photograph from the early 1930s shows a...

Hotel Carlton building on Rehoboth Avenue

3 months ago

This picture postcard from the 1920s shows the familiar red brick structure in the ocean block of...

Rehoboth’s Boardwalk was as popular in 1915 as it is...

3 months ago

The Boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach is usually capitalized because many properties fronting the...

Rehoboth Beach when its streets and beaches were...

3 months ago

This picture postcard from before 1907 shows the first block of Rehoboth’s Baltimore Avenue when...

Modern highway construction in Ellendale in 1918

3 months ago

Industrialist and philanthropist T. Coleman duPont financed construction of Rt. 113 in Sussex...

The first Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse lasted until 1925

4 months ago

This undated postcard photograph shows the first Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse at the southeast end...

Gov. Pete duPont during a visit to Millsboro’s NCR...

4 months ago

Delaware Gov. Pete duPont, who passed away recently after a long life of public service and...

Baseball game at Milton Colored School in 1952

4 months ago

This photograph from the spring of 1952 shows students and teachers at Milton Colored School...

One hundred years ago on the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal

4 months ago

Bill Heronemus sent along this photo, looking toward the northwest, of the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal in...

The lure of the beach continues, constant as the tides

5 months ago

The perennial simplicity, joy, and attractiveness of the beach, surf and waves are captured in this...

Cape Henlopen Lighthouse fell into the sea April 13,...

5 months ago

This photograph from 1925 shows the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse looking lonely and vulnerable on the...

Rehoboth had mass transportation once; maybe again?

5 months ago

Starting in about 1878, passenger train service began bringing summer tourists south from...

A friendly canal chat in Lewes in 1937

5 months ago

Bill Heronemus of Lewes sent along this old photo recently. He noted: “I believe it may have C.H...

A fashionable Rehoboth Beach Easter celebration in 1956

5 months ago

For many decades in the 20th century, Rehoboth Beach hosted a grand celebration of Easter and its...

Rehoboth Beach’s new sewage treatment plant in 1935

6 months ago

The Rehoboth Beach wastewater treatment plant was built in the farmland outside Rehoboth Beach in...

Green peas being planted now will be harvested in June

6 months ago

This photo from June of 1925 shows wagons heaped with green pea vines heading to hulling machinery...

Rehoboth Beach Post Office as it appeared in 1940

6 months ago

The United States Postal service has been in the news across the country recently. That timeliness...

Shad nets drying along the Delaware in early 1900s

6 months ago

This photo shows another form of net drying, different from the net reels used at one time by the...

Many Delaware eyes turn to Florida in February

7 months ago

Jackson and Sharp Company, according to an article in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, was an...

Community chimes in on last week’s photograph

7 months ago

The aerial picture published as the historic photo in the Feb. 9 edition of the Cape Gazette (...

A different era, a different time in Lewes

7 months ago

Few photographs provide a sense of the intensity of activity on the point of Cape Henlopen at Lewes...

Ploughing snow the old-fashioned way in 1921

7 months ago

While it’s been a relatively mild winter so far, there’s still plenty of time ahead for snow and...

What a Delaware football team looked like 118 years ago

8 months ago

It’s football time of year with NFL playoffs completed and Super Bowl LV on the horizon. The game...

Shipbuilding once flourished as a major Milton industry

8 months ago

This postcard from 1908 shows the riverfront in downtown Milton complete with at least two twin-...

A different brand of presidential inauguration...

8 months ago

Delaware and most other states in the nation joined in the festive parade on Jan. 21, 1957, when...

Aerial view of Rehoboth Beach showing rebuilt Dolle...

8 months ago

Last week’s historic photo showed damage from the March 1962 nor’easter that flattened the Dolle’s...

Storm of March 1962 destroyed the Dolle’s structure...

8 months ago

The infamous northeast storm of March 1962, with its strong winds and exceptionally high tides,...

A happy holiday message from a Delaware soldier in...

9 months ago

During the Vietnam war, Delaware Morning News journalist Nancy Lynch encouraged soldiers serving...

Delaware has seen tough winters in the past

9 months ago

Delaware is hardly known for its severe winters, but arctic conditions occasionally grip the state...

An inexpensive upstate winter getaway in mid-20th...

9 months ago

The Francis Drake Motel was located at the intersection of Routes 13 and 40, a few miles south of...

Christmas postcard from Beebe Hospital in 1928

9 months ago

With Christmas lights starting to show up throughout Delaware’s Cape Region, there’s no doubt that...

Farm at Carpenter’s Corner southeast of Lewes

10 months ago

This photograph from the late 1970s shows the farm buildings at Carpenter’s Corner southeast of...

Then as now, public health important in Delaware

10 months ago

At the Kent and Sussex Fair in Harrington in July 1932, the Delaware Board of Public Health set up...

Packing Sussex County apples for market in 1923

10 months ago

Almost all of Delaware’s 2020 apples have been picked, sold, stored and shipped as our unseasonably...

Enjoying the ox roast at mid-20th century Return Day

10 months ago

This picture postcard from the mid-20th century shows a Return Day throng crowded around the ox...

Ferrying across the Chesapeake to get to the beach

11 months ago

Gary Myers of Rehoboth Beach sent this photo in recently showing vehicles in 1952 getting off the...

Piling harvested Sussex pumpkins for canning in 1923

11 months ago

This photograph from Oct. 20, 1923, shows pumpkins piled on the grounds of the H.P. Cannon cannery...

It’s apple-picking season in Delaware

11 months ago

An old bluegrass song reminds us: “Peaches ripen in the summertime, apples ripen in the fall; if I...

Lewes High’s rifle club in 1967

11 months ago

Becky Carney sent this page from the 1967 Lewes High School yearbook after seeing a column in the...

South end of Rehoboth’s Boardwalk in 1957

11 months ago

Rehoboth Beach resident Gary Myers sent through an old photograph recently from his family archives...

Mid-1900s volleyball team in Sussex County

1 year ago

Summer has switched to fall. Schools are back in modified session due to COVID-19. Sports are now...

Wet Septembers can still bring plenty of mosquitos

1 year ago

In a state as wet as Delaware, mosquitos pose a constant threat, especially in active hurricane...

When Labor Day marked the end of Rehoboth’s summer...

1 year ago

This postcard from the middle of the 1900s captures the sense at that time of Labor Day’s...

Highway policing in Delaware à la 1931

1 year ago

Policing of the highways in Delaware looked a lot different in 1931 than it does today. This...

Lewes High School as it appeared in the 1940s

1 year ago

This postcard was mailed in 1946 and shows the Lewes School on Savannah Road as it appeared at that...

Another public health initiative - mosquito ditches

1 year ago

This photograph from 1945 shows a recently maintained Delaware Mosquito Control ditch dug to help...

Delaware State Fair back in 1914

1 year ago

We’ve just been through the Delaware State Fair season which is also typically the hottest time of...

An Amish crop of soybeans after wheat back in 1985

1 year ago

This photograph from 1985 shows an Amish farm near Dover in Kent County with a crop of soybeans...