The Clarnen-Armor House

The Clarnen-Armor House

One of the things that initially helped to spark my interest in local history was when I discovered how
many old houses were sitting in the middle of mid-to-late 20th Century developments. It's fascinating to me to drive down a neighborhood street and see split level, ranch, split level, ranch, HOLY CRAP 18TH CENTURY STONE FARMHOUSE! And most of the time it's very easy to tell the old houses from the new. Once in a while though, there's a historic house that for some reason seems only slightly out of place amongst its newer neighbors, and I'd bet that most people who pass it by don't realize the history behind it.

One home like this is in the development of Highland West, on the northwest side of McKennans Church Road and Mill Creek Road, across from Red Clay Creek Presbyterian Church (and below McKean High School, for all you former Highlanders). With a brick façade on the front covering its frame construction, the house is different from the surrounding 1960's homes, but not too different. Except for the fact that it sits further back from the street, you might not even notice it. But in reality, this home was here, all by itself, a century before its neighbors.

The house's story begins more than 30 years before its construction with a young couple -- one a local native and the other a recent arrival. The new arrival was James Clarnen, and I only know a little about his early life. He was born in Pennsylvania, and it was in a Pennsylvania regiment that he served briefly in the War of 1812. His father presumably had died, because his mother Jemima remarried to William Whaley, who took James on as his son. I can't find exactly when Whaley bought his property, but I know where it was and what he did on it.

The Fredericks of Mt. Cuba and Beyond

Location of Peter Frederick's Mt. Cuba property

It's not unusual for me to be contacted by someone, asking if I have more information about their historic home (and I'm deeply grateful to everyone who's done that). What's less common is for someone to ask about an historic home that used to be on their property, but that's just what happen not long ago in regards to a property near Mt. Cuba. The owners recently moved into a beautiful mid-20th Century home in one of the most scenic sections of the Red Clay Valley. They have a wonderful property with something unusual toward the back -- the remains of a much older house.

The property in question is located in the western edge of Christiana Hundred, in the roughly triangular area between Mt. Cuba, Pyles Ford, and Creek Roads. They knew that the house had belonged to the Frederick family, and that they had been butchers. Turns out that was true. That's all, thanks for reading folks, see you next time!

Ok, actually there was more to the story than that, as I'm sure you were hoping(?) there was. It began with a pair of German immigrants, Georg Peter Friederich and his wife, Catherine. They had come from Hesse-Darmstadt in western Germany in 1857, and were married in Philadelphia the same year. They soon made their way down to Delaware, where their first child, daughter Emma, was born in 1858. The 1860 Census has Peter (as he went by) working as a farm laborer, possibly for Samuel Armstrong on the farm that's now the Delaware Nature Society's Coverdale Farm. The Frederick family (the name was Americanized) is listed directly after the Armstrongs in 1860.

Seven more children would follow for Peter and Catherine over the next two decades or so, but their next big move came in 1862, with the purchase of some nearby land from farmer Otley Vernon. This first purchase was for about 3 acres, nestled along Pyles Ford and Mt. Cuba/Creek Roads, and includes the property that the current owners have. It seems that this was just land carved out of Vernon's larger tract, so the Frederick's house was probably built just after the 1862 sale. Ten years later, in 1872, Frederick purchased another 11 acres from Vernon. This land was across on the north side of  Pyles Ford Road.