The David W. Taylor House and Dilworth Farm

The David W. Taylor House

One of my dirty little secrets here is that although I was born and raised in Mill Creek Hundred, my family didn't arrive in MCH until the 1960's. So, unlike with many of you, there aren't many of these stories that intersect directly with my own past. This story here might be about as close as I get, as you'll see shortly. And as many of the recent investigations have, it started with a simple question from a reader of, "Do you know anything about this house?" At first I thought I didn't, but then realized that I had actually run across it before, though I hadn't done any deep research into it then.

The house itself is located in Christiana Hundred, though not far from MCH. It's on Ashland Clinton School Road, just off of Old Kennett Road (about a mile west of Centreville). It's a beautiful three story stone home, built in a somewhat plain Second Empire style. There is an old wooden shed and a large barn next to it. There are also stone foundations of another large structure, between the extant barn and the road. After a little research, I think I can shed some light on the history of the house and its surroundings.

The history of the area goes back further than we need to right now, but by the mid-1700's much of the land in the region between Ashland Clinton School Road and Way Road was in the hands of the Armstrong family. This included, among other things, the property that is now the Delaware Nature Society's Coverdale Farm. It's also the same Armstrong family that later migrated a short ways south to the Mt. Cuba area, as detailed in Donald Prather's posts. In 1792, Archibald Armstrong purchased two adjoining tracts totaling 132 acres -- one from his father John Armstrong and one from John and Lydia Philips. On this farm Archibald made his home, until his death in 1839. His will granted the property next to his son Nathaniel, who it seems resided in the same house. I believe this house was the one that still stands on the east side of Ashland Clinton School Road, near Center Mill Road. Only this house appears on the 1849 map, and not the one to the north (which we'll get to momentarily).

From the 1849 map, the Archibald/Nathaniel Armstrong House appears near the middle, above
the Hutchison farm. The map is actually in error, and shows the MCH/CH border along
Burrow's Run instead of Red Clay Creek

Nathaniel Armstrong never married, and passed away only a few years later, in 1842. The family held on to the farm, perhaps because Archibald's widow Sarah was still residing there, as Archibald's will specifically grants her a room in the house and space for her belongings. She died in 1850, and two years later the farm was sold by her sons John and Benjamin (executors of their brother Nathaniel's will) to a new owner -- David W. Taylor.

David Wilson Taylor was born in on his father's farm, northeast of  Hockessin, in 1819. He also happens to have been my wife's 3rd Great Grandfather. Much more about the Taylor family will come in an upcoming post. David held on to the full 136 acres he purchased for only a few years before selling off about half of it. There were a few small sales, and then in 1857 a larger one to Samuel Gamble of Chadds Ford. (Gamble's previous residence now houses the Christian Sanderson Museum.) Taylor sold to Gamble about 60 acres comprising more or less the southern half of the property. This included the old Armstrong house in which the Taylors presumably resided for those first five years. He could do that because, as you can see in the July 1857 newspaper clipping below, Taylor had a new house built for himself and his growing family.

Notice of David Taylor's new home, July 1857

This was a particularly exciting find, as we rarely see such specific information about the building of farmhouses. Even when a date stone is present, sometimes it's not clear whether it represents the original construction or a remodeling. This doesn't necessarily answer all our questions, as you'll shortly see, but it does confirm that my wife's Great-great-great Grandpa David did build a stone house here. Whether it's exactly what's here now is an open question.

The newspaper report also states that Taylor was to "shortly erect a large double decker barn." He did, but it was not the barn that stands beside the house today. Taylor's barn stood between the current one and the road. Only a few remains of the foundations and lower walls stand now, although the ramp is clearly visible which shows it was a bank barn, typical of the area. This barn stood until a fire claimed it in May 1972, apparently the victim of teenage love gone wrong. I have not yet found a pre-fire picture of Taylor's barn, but it's visible in the 1930's aerial below. Comparing it to the size of the very large barn there now (behind it), it was a massive structure.

1930's aerial showing the Dilworth Farm. David Taylor's barn is most visible

Remains of a wall of Taylor's barn, destroyed in 1972

David Taylor and family -- which included wife Elizabeth Jane Pyle, three sons, and one daughter -- only stayed in their new house for about ten years. They moved around a few times after that, purchasing a small farm in the northeast corner of Christiana Hundred, farming another property east of Centreville, and living near Little Baltimore in MCH by 1880. David Taylor died at his son's home in Hockessin in 1895. When Taylor sold his Centreville farm in 1867, he did so to a member of another family with deep ties in Delaware County -- Benjamin Franklin Dilworth.

David W. and Elizabeth Jane Taylor, with grandson David

Three Dilworth brothers -- B. Frank, James, and William Levis -- all bought farms in the area. Frank Dilworth farmed the 70 acres he bought from David Taylor, operating "a fine dairy farm", but eventually he entered into a venture unique in the area -- tobacco farming. In support of this, Dilworth erected a new barn to store and dry his tobacco. And although I haven't found any direct confirmation of it, it doesn't take a great leap to assume he was growing the tobacco for the nearby Garrett Snuff Mill. When Dilworth died in 1912, his obituary said he was, "believed to be the pioneer tobacco grower in this section of the country and was successful in the industry." His brother James, on the farm to the east, also grew tobacco.

Frank Dilworth's tobacco barn

After Frank's passing, his widow Mary, sons L. Earnest and William, and daughter Anna continued to run the farm. After Mary died in 1928, the remaining children sold the property to Eugene du Pont, who was extending his holdings in the area. In 1915 he had built Owl's Nest nearby, the site today of the Greenville Country Club. The three (unmarried) siblings remained on the Dilworth Farm, as caretakers of it for Mr. du Pont. After the Dilworths passed in the early-to-mid 1950's, the property presumably remained a tenant farm. When Eugene du Pont died in 1954, ownership passed to his son, Nicholas Ridgely du Pont. (For reference, it was Nicholas' sister Ethel who married Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. in 1937.)

Sometime around her marriage in 1966, the Dilworth Farm became home to Nicholas' daughter, Genevieve "Vivi" du Pont Gilmour and her husband William H. T. Gilmour. Soon after, she formed the Dilworth Pony Club, which held its horse show there annually from at least 1968-1973. The farm took a heavy hit though, on the night of May 6, 1972. That night, David W. Taylor's old barn was destroyed in a fire, although thankfully all the horses were saved. It was apparently quite a blaze.

From the News Journal, May 8, 1972

Vivi du Pont moved away a few years later, and in 1980 her mother (who still owned the farm) sold to another member of Delaware's First Family -- Irenee "Mac" du Pont III. Irenee and wife Eugenie resided a few farms to the south, and leased the property in 1984 to a millwright named Bob Taylor, who moved into the house with his young family. Bob (who as far as we can tell is unrelated to David W. Taylor) specializes in historic restorations and is uniquely qualified to make at least informed speculations about the age of the house. (Examples of Bob's work over the years can be found here.)

I've corresponded with him (thanks, Bob, for your help!) and he has both confirmed and cast doubts upon some of my suspicions. The first issue is the house's most striking feature -- the Mansard roof. We know that David W. Taylor built a stone house in 1857, but a Mansard roof would have been on the very edge of style for that time. It's not impossible, but they were much more common after the Civil War, in the 1870's and 1880's. Also, in his inspections of the house he found what he saw as evidence of a rebuilding or an incorporation of an earlier structure. Since it doesn't appear that there was anything on the site prior to Taylor's occupancy, and with the somewhat later style, it raises the possibility that Frank Dilworth may be responsible for some or all of what we see today. And Bob agreed that the barn does indeed appear to be later-19th Century, fitting in with the tobacco barn idea.

Although the 1857 report of Taylor's "beautiful stone mansion" could have been a generous overstatement, it seems odd to me that Dilworth would just tear down and replace a 20 or 25 year old house. Bob has floated the idea of a fire. I've found no reports of such, or of Dilworth building a new home, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. Perhaps Dilworth "updated" and enlarged Taylor's home, giving it a "modern style" roof. Right now we just don't know, but it is a beautiful house. And did I mention that it's currently (as of June 2020) for sale? The listing has even more photos. Just be warned that if one of you buys it, my kids will want to see where their 3rd Great grandfather grew up. (Don't worry, they're good kids.)

The David W. Taylor House...or the B. Frank Dilworth House...or the Dilworth Farm sits in a region once known for its agriculture, and now known for its du Ponts. This enigmatic home has been a part of all of it. For over 160 years, this house (probably?) has seen all of it come and go (including my wife's family, more on whom is coming soon) and will hopefully continue on for years to come.