The Trolleys of Brandywine Springs -- The Kennett Trolley

A Kennett trolley passing by Lake Washington
at Brandywine Springs Amusement Park

In the last post, we looked at the Peoples Railway Company, formed by Brandywine Springs Amusement Park manager Richard W. Crook with the main objective of providing the residents of Wilmington and beyond with easy, cheap, quick access to the park. It did a fine job of that, and allowed the park to flourish during its decade and a half heyday from about 1901-1915. That being said, it actually barely made its way into Mill Creek Hundred, with the exception of the Marshallton spur, and even that was barely in the hundred. There was, however, another trolley line built to service the park, and this one had well over five miles of track in MCH.

In May 1899, the West Chester, Kennett, and Wilmington Electric Railway Company (WCK&W) was chartered with ambitions not quite as grand as its name, and a future that would be even less so. It never ended up getting anywhere near West Chester, and only made it to Wilmington for a very short time and with the help of the Peoples Railway. The original plan was to connect to the Peoples Trolley at Brandywine Springs, build a line northward through Kennett Square to Unionville, and connect with a proposed extension of the West Chester Street Railway. Only part of that plan actually happened.

The WCK&W first had to wait for the Peoples Railway to be built, and as we saw in the last post that did take a few years. Once they knew it was "on", the first proposal was to build a line from Kennett Square through Avondale and West Grove, terminating in Oxford. Long story short, by 1906 the line had extended to West Grove, but never made it any further west, and never got anywhere near Oxford. The line that interests us was completed in 1903, with service first being available from Kennett Square to Yorklyn in May 1903. By August, trolleys were running from Brandywine Springs all the way to Toughkenamon. In contrast to the Peoples Trolley's 5 cent fare, the ride from Kennett to the park would cost you 20 cents.

Even with the higher fare, with no park ridership over the winter the company ran into financial difficulties and spent about a year in receivership. When it was finally sold in April 1905, the new owners added freight service to the line, which turned out to be a profitable enterprise. The passenger service, however, was never as big a money-maker as had been hoped. For about two months in late summer/early fall of 1906, WCK&W cars did run over Peoples Railway lines into Wilmington. After being discontinued for the winter, the service never restarted. Passengers could still switch cars at the park and continue on to the city as before, however.

The path that the Kennett Trolley (as it was called, especially by Delawareans) took through MCH mostly avoided traveling on roads, instead using private right-of-ways negotiated with the many farmers through whose fields it would ride (some deals included special provisions for the landowners). In the mid-1970's, Mel Schoenbeck did fantastic work in tracing the path of the line through MCH, finding evidence of it along the way in the form of still-visible roadbeds and bridge abutments. He went back and did it again about 25 years later. Mel found many of the same sites, although some had been lost in the interim to "progress".

The Kennett trolley at Auburn Heights near Yorklyn

As noted earlier, the trolley entered Delaware near Yorklyn, on what's now actually the roadbed for Creek Road. The first trolley stop was on the Marshall family's property, just above their Auburn Heights mansion. This stop, along with a siding for their mills and free transportation for the family were all specified in the deed allowing the tracks to cross the property. According to Mel, the fare from the Marshall stop to Kennett Square was only 5¢, while at the next stop in Yorklyn it was 10¢. Anyone wanting to save some money could just walk up to the Marshalls' and hop on there.

After leaving the Marshalls' property, the tracks ran southeast towards Yorklyn and the mills there. The line then turned to run parallel with the Wilmington & Western Railroad tracks towards Hockessin. They diverted northward around the Golding clay pit (the pond near Yorklyn and Old Wilmington Roads) in order to cross the railroad alongside Old Wilmington Road. It quickly rejoined the railroad tracks (now on the south side) for a short distance, until heading southward between where Lancaster Pike is now (was not there then) and Old Lancaster Pike (then just Lancaster Pike). After another trolley stop on the pike, it ran along the north side of where the Gateway Townhomes are now and then angled south toward Mill Creek Road. The map below (and the other two further down) shows the approximate path of the line in blue. While not accurate to the foot, it gives a pretty good idea of where the trolley line went.

The route from the state line to Hockessin

The trolley line then headed south along the east side of Mill Creek Road, then east of Mill Creek itself, crossing Brackenville Road and beyond. It crossed over Mill Creek Road just before Graves Road, running then on the west side of Mill Creek Road for a few hundred yards. The line next turned eastward, heading up the hill toward McKennans Church Road. Due to the grade of the hill and the distance from the trolley's power source, the cars would go slowly enough that boys would sometimes jump off and run alongside the trolley, jumping back on near the crest of the hill.

The route from Hockessin to just above Hercules Road

The tracks ran briefly alongside Oak Ridge Road, then angled southeasterly, crossing McKennans and Newport Gap Pike. It came down through what's now the development of Westminster, crossing Hercules Road with a stop. Here it was basically following Hyde Run, which it continued to do behind Sunnybrook Cottage, then in front of Brandywine Springs Manor. The tracks crossed Newport Gap Pike about where Hyde Run does. They kept going south, crossing Faulkland Road again about where Hyde Run does. The trolley went behind where houses are now, then turned eastward toward Newport Gap Pike and Brandywine Springs, its ultimate destination. Here now is where we reach the only place where the path changed.

The final leg of the WCK&W trolley into Brandywine Springs. Red indicates the
1908 entry into the park. The Peoples Trolley route is in green

When originally built, instead of just continuing across Newport Gap Pike into the park, the tracks paralleled Newport Gap Pike, traveling south in front of the Cedars and past Milltown Road. It then turned left onto Washington Avenue, making a gradual turn using the then-empty corner lot. This allowed the trolleys to navigate what would have been a tight turn, and maintain speed as there are inclines in both directions at that point. The tracks continued up Washington Avenue, then down the back side of it and across Hyde Run into the park, joining the Peoples Trolley tracks near the park's entrance archway. Why, you ask, would the WCK&W build this extra half-mile or so of track?

WCK&W tracks visible in the distance, heading across Newport Gap Pike into the park

The answer can likely be found on the other side of Washington Avenue, in the large home that recently operated as the White House Bed and Breakfast. This Victorian beauty was the home of Richard W. Crook, manager of Brandywine Springs and owner of the Peoples Railway. It seems likely that Crook made the WCK&W extend their line past his house for one of two reasons. One is that it would provide him with an easy and convenient ride into the park. The other possibility is that by 1903 he was already contemplating extending his trolley line with a spur into Marshallton that would exit the park in this direction. And lo and behold, when the spur was built in 1908, he did use the Washington Avenue section of the WCK&W.

At that point, the Kennett Trolley did build a shorter route coming across Newport Gap Pike and entering the park between the lake and the hillside. It originally ran between the park's boathouse and a set of stairs, but when the Rooftop Garden theater was later built, the trolley line ran directly through the ground floor of the structure. The photo below shows a WCK&W freight car about to pass by the boathouse. And as mentioned earlier, the freight service was really the only thing keeping the line anywhere near afloat. Passenger service was never profitable on its own, and as the park and attendance to it diminished in the later teens and early 20's, the line suffered even more. Finally the company could take no more, and in April 1923 the last WCK&W trolley completed its run. Unlike with the other lines, its route would not be replaced with busses and the rights of way would generally revert to the original landowners. Pretty soon, only memories and a few, mostly hidden, clues would remain of the West Chester, Kennett & Wilmington Railway.

Kennett freight car passing next to the boathouse at Brandywine Springs

The Roof Garden Theater, with trolley access visible