Lewes historic panel chair honors earliest inhabitants

As chair of the Lewes Historic Preservation Architectural Review Commission, Kevin Mallinson keeps his eye on the city’s historic houses.

But Mallinson is also keenly aware of Lewes history that goes back thousands of years before the first wooden homes popped up on Pilottown Road.

Mallinson begins every HPARC meeting by reciting a tribute to the earliest Indigenous inhabitants of Lewes.

“We respectfully acknowledge that we gather on the traditional lands of the Siconese, the Native Americans who were the original stewards of the Cape Henlopen area, prior to the arrival of the Europeans. Their respect for the natural environment continues to inspire our efforts to honor and protect this territory we call the City of Lewes today.”

Mallinson said HPARC will also include the statement at the beginning of its updated guidelines.

He said his acknowledgement is meant to bring more awareness to the city’s history.

“I’ve read about Lewes history, and it all starts in 1631, but Native Americans were here thousands of years before Europeans arrived,” he said. “The Siconese were the ones who were really here in the area. They are a proper part of our history.”

Daniel Griffith, a historian with the the Archaeological Society of Delaware, said the Siconese in Lewes can be traced back to 1000 A.D. He said many other Native American cultures lived in the area before that, going back 12,000 years.

Griffith said the English called the town where the Siconese lived Checonesseck. 

“One could argue that the first name for the place that became Lewes is Checonesseck,” Griffith said.

He said the Native American community was likely a series of dispersed family homesteads that stretched for more than a mile on both sides of Canary Creek, close enough to Lewes Beach that they could fish and gather oysters and clams.

A 3,000- to 4,000-year-old axe head was found on a 20-acre New Road field property the city plans to reforest. Council says plans will respect archaeological and Indigenous sites there.

The City of Lewes recognized November as Native American Heritage Month with a proclamation read by Mayor Amy Marasco at the Nov. 10 council meeting.

The proclamation paid tribute to the contributions of the Lenape and Nanticoke people who called Sussex County home.

The city’s Native American history is also now depicted in a mural on the Margaret Rollins H. Community Center. The work by artist Michael Rosato was dedicated in October.

The mural is a timeline of Lewes history that begins with Native Americans and travels through history with the arrival of the Dutch, through to the town’s shipbuilding industry.