The Reynolds-Janvier House at Delaware Park

The then du Pont House, under tenancy of the Banks
Family, c. 1860's (courtesy Steve Larrimore)

One of the most unique properties in Mill Creek Hundred (and, btw, one of the most useful when trying to orient yourself on an aerial photo) is the racetrack, casino, and golf course that I'll be referring to collectively as Delaware Park. Horse racing already had a long history in the culture in general, and in the area specifically (see the post about Brown's Track), by the time William K. du Pont, Jr., his brother-in-law Donald P. Ross, and their Delaware Steeplechase and Race Association (DSRA) opened Delaware Park outside of Stanton in 1937. The properties now consist of over 750 acres, and were purchased over the years from multiple owners, taking all or some of numerous farms. This is the story of one of those.

At the time the track opened in 1937, there were (at least) four old farmhouses standing on what was or would be DSRA property -- the Stroud House to the southwest, the Stopyra farm to the northwest, the Brown house near the track on its south side, and this house towards the eastern end, belonging then to James and Louise Cunningham. But they were the last of the private owners of the home, and they had only acquired it a year prior to selling to the DSRA in 1935. The house, however, dates back to the 18th Century (NCC lists it as 1790, although I can't confirm that), and the farm even further.

Since the area around the confluence of Red Clay and White Clay Creeks was one of the earliest settled in the region by the Swedes, it's no surprise that ownership of the property goes back quite far. The specific land on which the house would later be built was originally part of a 570 acre tract granted by Edmund Andros ("Lieutenant and Governor general under his royal highness James Duke of York and Albany") to Walraven Johnson Deffose and Charles Rumsey in 1676 (my guess is that they were already there, and just getting official ownership from the new English administration). The tract then went through a number of hands over the subsequent years -- John Watkins and Samuel Barker (1679), John Cann (1680), Richard Lewis (1710), John Lewis (Richard's son) (1725), and George Lewis (John's son) (1752), Charles Allford (1752), and John Hance (1754).