The William Foote House

The William Foote House

There are a few different ways an old house can be situated. It can be prominently displayed along a 
major road. It can be set along a smaller road, or nestled deep within a modern development. Sometimes, it's now nothing more than some ruins in the woods. There's one house though, tucked deep into the Mill Creek Valley, that's not at all visible from the nearest roads. There have probably been times during its over 200 years when the area has been more open, but today, probably the only way you're likely to see it is in the pictures in this post. Its owners have been local families and "out of towners". And it has been owned by some of the poorest people in the area and by one of the richest to reside in the vicinity.

The William Foote House is located on the east side of Mill Creek and Mill Creek Road, surrounded on three sides by the development of Bella Vista, but not too closely surrounded. It currently sits on just under 15 acres of land -- a lot by today's standards, but far less than it used to oversee. The associated property around it went through many changes over the years, with land being acquired and then sold off. Honestly, the early history is a bit confusing, at least as far as determining which tracts contain the land on which the house now sits.

In 1753, William Tate acquired 80 acres of land, which he sold in 1762 to John Watt. Watt bought even more land in the area over time (including 134 acres from Uriah Blue in 1767). In his 1790 will, John Watt wrote, "I give and bequeath to my loving Brother Robert McFerson and my friend John McBath the plantation that is now in the tenure of William Montgomery lying and being in Millcreek hundred[...]". That's great, but there are a few details therein that aren't exactly clear. First of all, I've been unable to determine what the relationship was between Watt and McFerson. If the will is to be taken literally, then perhaps they were step-brothers. McBath (or more commonly, McBeath) and McFerson were definitely connected, as we'll see in a moment.

The other problem is that through all of these transactions and wills, it's never particularly easy (at least for me) to be sure exactly what piece of land we're talking about, or who is living where. For example, in Watt's will it's clear that the farm he's devising to McFerson and McBeath is a tenant farm. However, he owned other land around it, and so did McFerson and the McBeaths through the years. The William Foote House property we're about to focus in on is definitely linked to the Mendenhall-Pierson Farm and to the Foote-Pyle House properties slightly to the east. They were all once part of John Watt's considerable holdings in the area.

Robert McFerson's 1794 will

Robert McFerson did not own the half share in the land given to him by Watt for long. He died a few years later, and his 1794 will is interesting and informative, although not quite as much as I wish it were. In it, McFerson gives almost all of his estate to his son-in-law, John McBeath. That means that John McBeath then owned the whole of the plantation that came from Watt (his half and now McFerson's half). McFerson also gives to his grandson Robert McBeath (son of John), "all my old Plantation that I usually lived on." I'm not sure exactly what this was, but it's possible that this was a tract around the Foote-Pyle House, whereas the farm now controlled by his father contained the William Foote House.

In any case, things consolidated a bit more in 1808, when John McBeath sold to his son Robert 73 acres, which was either all or part of the former Watt land. Then finally, on April 2, 1810, Robert McBeath sold 107 acres to William Foote. The deed references it as being the land he got from his father, but since it's obviously more my guess is that it might be both the "old plantation" that Robert inherited from Grandpa Watt and the farm he bought from his father.

This, though, is the point at which we can be pretty sure of the rest of story. After a period of multiple ownership changes, William Foote and his descendants would now own the property for the next 110 years. Although like in most deeds of the time there's no specific mention of the house, it's reasonable to assume that much of the house that's there today was present when William Foote bought the property in 1810. The county lists the build date at 1790, which if true would mean that McFerson and/or McBeath were responsible for it. It may well have replaced an earlier, probably log, house, but again determining exactly where the farms were here in the 18th Century is difficult. However, it is clear that the house was greatly enlarged in the mid-20th Century, which we'll get to later.

The William Foote House was actually mentioned in a post almost ten years ago, as one of three houses owned by Feete Footes in the area. Even after all this time I'm still not exactly sure what the relationship was between William, John, and George, but I do know the William Foote (the first of three to own it in total) who bought 107 acres in 1810 was born in 1766 to William and Esther (Ball) Foote, probably on the farm around the Delcastle Rec area, just below Mill Creek Road. He married Kitty Matson in 1796 and lived the remainder of his life on the farm.

According to a biography of his grandson George, this William Foote was a cooper, and would have made barrels for nearby millers, like the Mendenhalls. In 1840, four years before his death, William, Sr. sold his farm to his son, William Foote, Junior. The elder William was 74 years old and presumably retiring from farming. On the deed is also listed his wife, Dinah. Although I can't find a record of it, I assume that Kitty (Catherine) had died and Dinah, 16 years his junior, was William's second wife.

Susan Foulk Foote, maybe in front of her house

William, Jr. and wife Susan had five children at the time, with one to come later. Susan was a Foulk, the daughter of John Foulk and granddaughter of William. Though originally from Brandywine Hundred (think Foulk Road), William Foulk had been the owner of the former Evans grist and later Fell Spice Mill on Red Clay Creek at Faulkland Road. I assume that William Foote, Sr. also made barrels for Foulk, and that the families knew each other. 

William and Susan lived most of their lives on their farm, and the 1850 and 1860 Censuses show the family there. In 1860, their son William (yes, another William) is listed as a teacher. It doesn't say where, but their district school would have been the Mt. Pleasant School on Old Wilmington Road. The following year (1861), Foote sold 30 acres of his land to Cyrus Pyle, very possibly land including the Foote-Pyle House on Sawin Lane. By 1870, the Foote family is listed in New Garden Township, PA, just above Hockessin (and now the younger William is a Postmaster). As best as I can tell, I think that another son, George Foote, is living on the home farm along Mill Creek...but not for much longer.

Later in 1870, the 38 year old William Foote, Jr. (Jr.?) moved his family out west, to the new town of Greeley, CO, about 50 miles north of Denver. Four years later his brother George followed suit, and would stay in the Rocky Mountain State, finally settling in nearby Loveland (and becoming quite successful there). Their father probably rented out the farm after George left, but then in 1879 sold the 107 acres (minus the 30 sold to Pyle) to William, who was still in Greeley at the time. Sometime between 1883 and 1891 William and family returned to Chester County, where his wife Rachel died in 1892. Five years later the 65 year old William remarried, to 24 year old Sarah Rash, with whom he'd have two more children.

West side of the house. To the right is the west end of the original house, as it would have
been in the 19th Century. From the break in the roofline back is a 20th Century addition

Also in 1897, William sold the old Mill Creek farm to his son Robert Ervin Foote. Robert was a machinist by trade, operating a shop in Avondale with his brother John. He presumably leased the farm for the next 23 years, until finally selling it out of the family in 1920. He sold the farm to William B. Sweeny of Wilmington, who was a plumber, not a famer. Sweeny may have been just been making some real estate deals or maybe "flipping", because less than a year later he sold the property (along with other recently acquired lots in Bellefonte, Brandywine Hundred) to James and May Nolan for a moderate profit. (Although to be fair, the Sweenys are described in 1920 deed as being "of Wilmington", but listed as "of Mill Creek Hundred" when they sold in 1921, so maybe they did move into the house.)

Nolan, who had emigrated from Ireland in 1906, was a laborer and also was likely just looking to make a profit off of the real estate (the Nolans were "of Brandywine Hundred" in both of their deeds). He did hold on the to the farm a little longer, selling in 1925 to Alexander and Antonia Brzoska. The Brzoskas were Polish immigrants who had been living in Wilmington, but do seem to have moved to MCH (the family, complete with 11 children, are listed here in the 1930 Census). Alexander is listed as a glazer, and not as a farmer, so they may have had someone else running the farm (or not).

In 1936 the Brzoskas sold the farm (still the entire 107½ acres, minus the 30 sold to Cyrus Pyle) to Philip Q. and Dorothy Sawin. Philip was an instructor at the Sunny Hills School just up the hill -- the school founded by his parents and later renamed to honor his father, Sanford Sawin. It doesn't appear that Philip Sawin lived in the house, because in early 1937 he leased (for 20 years, although it never went that long) part of the property including the house (but not the barn) to Donald and Anne Satterthwait. Donald Satterthwait, like his father before him, had been the president of the Remington Machine Company in Wilmington, and later (possibly at this time) was involved with the Crowell Tape Corporation in Yorklyn.

Close-up of the west end of the house

The 1937 lease stated that the Satterthwaits were to, "At their own cost and expense to repair and rebuild the dwelling house [...] into habitable condition, for use as a residence for themselves and family, and as a hostelry for paid guests." There were other stipulations, including not using the premises for kindergarten or school purposes (can't have competition right there), but this seems to have been the main part. I'm not sure whether this was some sort of a side B&B type venture on Philip Q. Sawin's part, or whether this was connected to the school in some way. In any case, it didn't go more than a few years.

In February 1941, Sawin sold about 66½ acres to a widower named Edward P. Mellon. If the name sounds familiar, you're right. Edward was the grandson of Thomas Mellon, founder of the Mellon banking empire. His uncle Andrew Mellon was the Secretary of the Treasury in the 1920's, and one of the most powerful men in the country. Edward himself was nationally-known architect. I have no idea what his connection with this area was, but on his retirement, Mellon bought the old Foote property and moved into the house, residing there until his death in 1953.

Soon after his passing, the property (and two other smaller, I believe adjacent, lots) was sold to William Duffy, Jr., who may well have been the most fascinating of all the home's owners. Duffy was born in Wilmington in 1916, was president of his senior class at Salesianum, attended the University of Delaware, got an appointment to West Point but soon after resigned and earned an economics degree from UD. He took flying lessons and when WWII came around he ended up as a bomber pilot, flying 35 combat missions over Germany in his B-24 Liberator. Capt. Duffy was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for safely landing his plane after taking heavy damage on one mission. In 1950, as a member of the 9498th Volunteer Air Reserve Training Squadron, he was promoted to Major.

The Duffy Family, 1962

In the meantime, Duffy had graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1948 and had joined a Wilmington law firm. In the early 1900's, William Duffy, Sr. had been an important figure in Democratic politics in the city, which may partially explain how his son met his wife, Mary Louise Raskob -- daughter of John J. Raskob, financier for Dupont and General Motors, the man behind the Empire State Building, and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Although "just" a lawyer when he bought the Foote farm, in 1961 Duffy would be appointed to the Superior Court, becoming that body's president judge the next year. He became Chancellor of the State of Delaware in 1966, and from 1973 to 1982 served on the Delaware Supreme Court. Not a bad career.

Views of the Foote House showing the "original" sections present in 1953,
looking north (left) and looking east (right)

More relevantly for us, though, is what he did with his home. As we saw earlier, it's likely that the original part of the house was built in the late 18th Century (or even earlier -- there may be a log house hidden inside it). But, like most homes of this age, it's had some additions put on it over the years. Few, though, have had additions like this. When Duffy bought the house in 1953, it consisted of the sections outlined in red above. This certainly includes earlier additions from the 19th Century, probably added by the Foote family. However, sometime in the 1950's or 60's, Justice Duffy added the northern wing (clad in stone to match the rest of the house) and the eastern wing.

The two-story, wood-paneled library
built by William Duffy

Among the unique additions built by William Duffy were a two-story library and a chapel. Besides all the other things that both William Junior and Senior did, they were Catholic and very involved in Catholic causes and charities. This too may have been a link with Raskob, who was also Catholic and whose former estate is now the campus for the Archmere Academy in Claymont. And when Justice Duffy was looking to move in 1982, he sold the house and property (now about 15 acres) to the Benedictine Sisters, an organization of Catholic nuns.

When the Sisters moved in, they renamed the property Innisfail, Irish for "A little bit of Heaven." They used it as a residence for themselves as well as a "spirituality and conference center", hosting retreats, conferences, and seminars there for 15 years. Finally, in 1997, the Sisters reluctantly had to sell the property. The old Foote house again became a private residence. In 2022 it again went up for sale (most of the photos on this page came from the real estate listing), and as of the writing of this post appears to be in the process of going to a new owner.

The William Foote House has stood for over 230 years, serving as a tenant farm, as a family farm, possibly as an inn or B&B, as a retirement home for a member of one of the wealthiest families in the country, as a home for a prominent jurist, and as a bucolic and spiritual retreat for a religious order. It may have started out as a small log house, then rebuilt or enlarged as a stone edifice. The fieldstone house was then expanded in the "usual" way in the 19th Century, then in a rather unusual way in the 20th. All the while it has sat quietly and gracefully in its spot along Mill Creek.