The Stephen Mitchell House, aka North Star Farm

The Stephen Mitchell House

There are several different ways in which an old home can be considered "Historically Significant". It can be particularly old. It can be unique to its area, or very typical. It can have an association with important people or events. Sometimes, though, you find a house that ticks multiple boxes. Such is the case with a beautiful stuccoed stone house on North Star Road, just south of the Woodside Creamery. The Stephen Mitchell House, or North Star Farm, is definitely one of the older homes in the area, dating to at least the early 1800s, and probably quite a bit earlier than that. The house and property are in the unique position of having been associated with one of the biggest family names in the area from each of the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st Centuries. On top of that, in the mid-20th Century the property was involved in what I believe was a unique experiment in home ownership.

The origins of the property along North Star Road go back to the early 1700's. When and with whom, exactly, I'm not quite sure. There are several tracts in this area and few good landmarks to use in identifying their precise location. The "large white oaks" and "dead black oaks" used as markers are not exactly helpful nearly three hundred years later. However, I do know that a Scotch-Irish immigrant named Archibald McDonald did buy land in what would become the North Star area. The McDonalds were the first of the major families associated with the house, and I've come to understand them a bit more now. I had been familiar with Bryan McDonald, who had purchased land in the Brandywine Springs area as early as 1689. I also knew that the McDaniel family eventually owned land in the Paper Mill Road/North Star area. I had a pretty good idea -- since McDonald was alternately spelled as McDonnell, McDannell, and McDaniel in various documents -- that those McDaniels were connected with the earlier McDonalds. I assumed, as it turns out incorrectly, they were descendants of Bryan McDonald.

What I didn't know at the time is that there was another McDonald in the area early on -- Archibald McDonald. I have no direct evidence, but it appears that Bryan McDonald, Sr. and Archibald, Sr. were brothers. It was Bryan, Sr. who originally bought the land at Brandywine Springs, then left it to his son, Bryan. The younger Bryan and his siblings seem to have eventually left the area. Archibald, Sr. appears to have lived in MCH, but I'm unsure where. The first land purchase I can find is for Archibald, Jr. in 1737, when he purchased 150 acres from William Thomas. When Archibald died in 1749, the property passed to his son Thomas.

My best guess now is that Thomas lived closer to this property, perhaps in this house. One of his sons -- James -- built his home just to the south. This is the house we know today as the McDaniel-Peach House. I'm not sure where another son -- Thomas, Jr. -- lived, but Thomas, Jr.'s son John McDaniel built his house nearby, too. Another of Thomas, Jr.'s sons -- Springer McDaniel -- moved a little south and ran the Stanton Hotel for several decades. It seems, though that it was Thomas, Sr.'s son Archibald who remained on the home farm after his father's death in 1797. The next major transfers occurred just before and after Archibald's passing.

Joseph Mitchell (1784-1876)

In 1823, Archibald McDannell sold 30 acres to Joseph Mitchell. Three years later, Archibald's estate (through his son Samuel McDaniel) sold another 63¼ acres to Mitchell. (I've spent more time than I should have trying to precisely map these lots, unsuccessfully. I'll have a better guess at the next one.) Joseph Mitchell had moved to MCH in 1796, when his father Thomas purchased what is now known as the Woodside Farm Creamery. It remains in the Mitchell family to this day. By the 1820's, patriarch Thomas was getting old, and Joseph was presumably taking over the business. One thing he was likely doing was setting up farms for his own sons. In 1844, he sold just under 80 acres (most of those two previous lots) to his second son, Stephen Mitchell. Stephen was 30 at the time, and may well have already been living there. I wouldn't suggest wagering your stash of hand sanitizer on it, but I think the lot was something close to what's shown below. The lot looks about like Pennsylvania to me, and the house is near Pittsburgh (or, the north side of the west end of Neptune Drive).

Best estimation of the lot Stephen Mitchell
purchased from his father Joseph in 1844

In 1859, Stephen bought another 22 acres from his brother Thomas. This lot adjoined his main property, but sat on the west side of North Star Road. In 1875 he acquired the former estate of Samuel Taylor (his father-in-law), another 64 acres adjoining to the east. He didn't quite buy as many properties as his brother John did, but Stephen Mitchell was by all accounts a prosperous farmer. In his later years in the 1880's, Stephen retired to a home in Hockessin, leasing his North Star farm to tenant farmers. He had been married twice. First to Elizabeth Taylor (no, not that one -- they only married once), with whom he had a son, Taylor S. Mitchell. After Elizabeth died in 1855, he married her sister, Lydia, with whom he had daughter Mary. Elizabeth and Lydia were the daughters of Samuel Taylor. They were literally the girls next door.

Approximate extent of Stephen Mitchell's North Star
property at the time of his death (1895)

After Stephen's passing the farm stayed in the family, with son Taylor buying out Lydia and Mary. Taylor S. Mitchell was not a farmer, though, and he continued to lease out the land. Taylor was actually a physician in Hockessin and built for himself the home on Old Lancaster Pike that came to be known as Gateway. After Taylor died in 1914, it was owned for a time by Fr. James Grant of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, and used for parish events. Taylor was also part owner of the paper mill at Wooddale, which had previously been the Delaware Iron Works.

After Taylor S. Mitchell's death, the North Star farm again remained in the Mitchell family, until Taylor's widow Mary sold it in 1930. At the top of the post I said that the property had gone through some of the biggest families in each of the last few centuries. So, any guesses as to what family acquired the farm in the 20th Century? If you said "du Pont", you'd be correct. Technically, Mary Mitchell sold the farm to the Nemours Corporation, which was really a holding company for Junius Simpson and Paulina du Pont Dean. Paulina was the daughter of William Kemble du Pont. Her brother Samuel Hallock du Pont would end up buying much of the land between there and Newark.

However, J. Simpson and Paulina Dean only owned the land here for about ten years. In 1940, they sold Mitchell's 165 acres along with another 62 they had acquired to another du Pont -- Ellen du Pont Wheelwright. Wheelwright was an artist and the daughter of T. Coleman du Pont. (Coleman was a former Dupont President, two time US Senator, and builder of the Dupont Highway (Rt. 13).) As with her cousin, this was a country home, not her primary residence. Ellen Wheelwright's main home was the estate known as Goodstay, located on Pennsylvania Avenue across from Tower Hill. She received the home from her father, and in turn donated it to the University of Delaware in 1969.

Datestones, old and (comparatively) new

And it's here that we run into two fascinating artifacts that, I believe, have confused many about the history of the North Star farm. At the house (but not built into it) are two date stones. One has the date of 1723 and the initials "SWD". The other says "REBUILT T.C. du P 1909". This has led some to assume that the house was built in 1723 and that T. Coleman du Pont owned and renovated it. The story goes that he then gave it to daughter Ellen. I think that most if not all of that is incorrect, although understandable given the presence of the stones. I have another explanation for the date stones, although unfortunately it doesn't help much with the house on North Star Road.

The key is actually the newer of the two stones. From my own research into the property records, I can state that Coleman did not own this home, and certainly not in 1909. The chain of ownership stated above is derived from primary documents. However, there was a property that Coleman bought and rebuilt in 1909 -- The Old Mill. This was an estate in Christiana Hundred that du Pont purchased as a summer home, and had a new house built in 1909. It was on the site of an older structure. I believe that this is where these stones originated. Being in ill health at the time, Coleman donated the property to the City of Wilmington in 1929 for use as part of the new reservoir to be constructed. Coleman died in 1930 and the house was demolished in 1932. It was Ellen who eventually donated what was left of her father's property in that area for use as Valley Garden Park. I think Ellen saved the stones from the Old Mill house and took them to North Star when she bought the home. There they've remained ever since.

As for the age of the North Star house, I'm less sure. I would not be at all surprised if at least part of it dates to the McDonalds in the 1730's. Beyond that, I would only be guessing (even more). Although it's not impossible that the house dates to 1723, I'm fairly certain that the date stone there was taken from a long-gone structure whose site is now at the bottom of Hoopes Reservoir. It's also unclear when the name "North Star" became attached to it, or what the precise origins of the name were. The nearby North Star School was opened in about 1847, but I'm unable to determine whether the area was named for the school or vice versa. No deeds from the 18th or 19th Centuries that I've seen mention it as an estate name.

The next chapter in the property's story is probably its most unique. It involves new owners who are not members of the du Pont family, but rather employees of the Dupont Company. In 1952, the company was set to open its newest facility, the engineering site at Milford Crossroads it called Louviers. Most of the employees scheduled to move to the new site lived either in Wilmington or close to it, often on the north side of the city. Many of them were interested in finding an alternative to a long daily commute -- namely, new housing closer to the Louviers complex. To that end, a group of Dupont engineers banded together and formed the North Star Corporation. In 1952 they purchased 440 acres from Ellen Wheelwright, with the intention of building their homes on it and selling lots to others to do the same. The community of North Star was born.

Property owners were shareholders in the corporation. $2500 bought a lot and ten shares of common stock. There were several building restrictions placed on the lots, such as mandating houses being 50 feet from the road, a minimum floor plan of 1000 square feet, and banning commercial building and multifamily dwellings. Since North Star was still relatively isolated then, there were numerous community organizations and events held, especially in the early years.

Stephen Mitchell's old house was sold separately from the surrounding land, and in 1972 was purchased by a young New Castle County Councilman named Joseph R.Biden, Jr. It was here that Biden lived when he experienced the greatest highs and lows of his young life - his first election to the US Senate and the tragic accident that claimed the life of his wife and young daughter. The two occurred within weeks of each other in late 1972.

Biden sold the house in 1975, and it has gone through several hands since then. I'm happy to say that it's in good hands with the current owners, whose reaching out to me prompted this post and this investigation. Inquiries and studies into the house's age and history are still ongoing, and if any new information arises I'll be sure to pass it along. I still find it intriguing how this one property has seemed, each century, to pass through the hands of some of the biggest-named families of the era, whether that be the McDonalds, the Mitchells, the du Ponts, or the Bidens. Then throw on top of that the ownership of the (as far as I know, unique in this area) North Star Corporation, and the Stephen Mitchell House has certainly had an interesting history.