Belltown predates Civil War

Belltown’s history dates back to the Civil War era, when African-Americans established their own self-supporting villages apart from white society. Motorists, busy to get to another destination, pass through the hamlet daily without a thought about its past.

Delaware Department of Transportation officials did an extensive cultural resources survey on the Belltown area in 1990. The Belltown Historic District was established as a small African-American community in the middle 1800s on land owned by Jacob “Jigger” Bell, a free black man. The district includes a school, church and 27 houses dating to before 1930. 

According to the survey, during the time when these structures were built, most of the residents were poor, earning a living by working on nearby farms or walking into Lewes to work. Many supplemented their income by raising vegetables, chickens and pigs in their small yards.

According to an Aug. 16, 1938, article in the Wilmington Morning News, Bell donated land for a church about 1840. He also sold lots to other African Americans. Among the first residents was Arnse “Orange” Maull. 

The Nassau School, which still stands today, was one of the 33 Black schools built in Sussex County with funding from philanthropist millionaire Pierre S. du Pont.

During the time of segregation, students attended first through eighth grade at the school until 1965.

The school was purchased by the Delaware Department of Transportation as part of the lands of the Best family and Bests’ Ace Hardware to make way for a new access road from southbound Route 1 to a new roundabout at Plantation Road and Beaver Dam Road. An effort is underway to renovate and preserve the school. 

The John Wesley Methodist Church also remains in Belltown; however, it’s been vacant for nearly two decades. It was built in 1946, with roots dating back to 1873. The church closed in 2007, when the congregation merged with two other churches into Faith United Methodist Church.