Carolyn's Blog

 The Queen Theater in downtown Wilmington, Delaware, a five-story, two-tiered, 2,000-seat venue built in 1915 and closed since 1959 has had a lot of buzz in the news lately.  It is to become a live music venue run by World Cafe Live, which calls its home the Philadelphia campus of the University of Pennsylvania.

I had been on a hard-hat tour of the moldy, reeking Queen Theater several years ago, and there are actually some pictures of the pre-renovation on http://lightupthequeen.org/. A bunch of preservationists were called in for a photo shoot in front of the Queen Theater in support of historic preservation tax credits the other day, and I had a chance to see how the renovation is coming. As you can see from these pictures, the building is pretty much gutted today, which prompted a planner from the City to say that there was not much left of the Queen.  This will be interesting to watch.  Judge for yourself.

Wow!  That's a lot of sky between those new steel beams!  Watch this blog to see how it progresses.

Historic New Castle Day last Saturday went well, lots of activities, Colonial troops in uniform, people in 18th and 19th Century  costumes strolling around town, but today it was quiet.

New Jersey is visible in the distance in these scenes taken in Battery Park, so named for the hill which once held a gun battery to protect the town from pirates, who plagued New Castle, so they say. Between 1926 and 1951, a ferry operated across the river just north of this point and crossing into Pennsville, New Jersey.  It ran until the first of the Delaware Memorial Bridges opened in 1951.

But today, a different type of activity was being carried out by a man from Wilmington and his daughter. Every Thursday, winter or summer, they visit the park. The man, who says his name is Ozzie, brings his harmonica and a list of patriotic songs to play for people like me, who hear him work the song out on his instrument. It really reminded me of my Father, who also played the harmonica. Memories!  Anyway, Ozzie, a Marine veteran, wears his Semper Fi hat every Thursday in the park, and his daughter takes him for ice cream.

Another old timer in the park is this Paulownia or Empress Tree. The purple blooms have almost all faded away, but the tree tells a tale of 1700's ships full of Chinese export porcelain being unloaded in New Castle and the dried pods from the Paulownia used as packing material being discarded, only to later sprout and grow into these big, beautiful trees.  The wood is highly prized in China for dowry chests, and I remember many years ago hearing that the Chinese were trying to buy trees in Delaware to import back to China, because they could not get enough of the wood for their daughters' dowries!

Going to the annual 3 day Wilmington Flower Market has notoriously meant dealing with rain and muddy grounds. But this year, the sun shone down, and the winds blew on this combination carnival, display of local shops and food, and plants and flowers galore on May 7-9. Benefiting children's charities since 1921, this event is a great opportunity to bring the family and wander around on a hopefully sunny day, and I challenge locals to come and not see at least 5 people they know as either volunteers behind the plant tables or at the children's games. I have worn the red apron over white clothes many years either hawking plants or helping the vendors in the market, and always got a kick out of it.

For the last couple of years, the year round star of Rockford Park, Rockford Tower has been restored and open to anyone who cares to climb the 132 stairs that wind around the water tank and up to the observation room at the top. It is a fabulous view of Wilmington, from the "Rollins" building on Route 202 to the Delaware Memorial Bridges and downtown Wilmington to the south.

Built  between 1899 and 1902 as  "a large pavilion and observatory" Rockford Tower was located on what was called Mt. Salem Hill, the highest point in the city at 330 feet above sea level. Not only was it to be an attraction, but was to serve as a water storage tower for the city of Wilmington, Delaware. The half-million-gallon water storage tank and observatory is constructed of natural field stone and is an example of the Italian Renaissance Revival style. Rockford Tower is 57 feet in diameter at the base, 75 feet high to the floor of the observatory, and reaches a total height of 115 feet.

Here are a couple of pictures taken from the top of the tower, including a view of downtown Wilmington, Delaware.