🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: New Castle Court House Museum

(Explore the history and landscape of the United States with us as we approach the 250th anniversary of American Independence. Get out your atlas and almanac and follow along!)

Delaware is our homeschool state-of-the-week (as the new school year begins), so why not spend a few minutes today with your students learning about one of Delaware’s most important historical places: the New Castle Court House Museum, which preserves and commemorates Delaware’s first state capitol building.

“The New Castle Court House was built in 1732, and served as Delaware’s first court house and eventually state capitol. It was in this historic structure that the representatives of the people of Delaware voted in 1776 for independence from both Pennsylvania and Great Britain.”

The New Castle Court House operated as the General Assembly and the courts for the Three Lower Counties of Pennsylvania. In the second floor Assembly room on June 15, 1776, thirteen delegates voted and declared their independence from Pennsylvania and Great Britain thus becoming the Delaware State. This town served as the capital of Delaware until 1777 when it was moved to Dover in fear of being easily captured due to its proximity to the Delaware River. This building continued to operate as a court on the State and Federal level until 1881 when the courts moved to Wilmington. Over the years, it has been expanded to allow for more record storage and offices. Similar to most other historic buildings, it has seen a variety of uses such as a store, police station, jail, mayor’s office, restaurant, school rooms and much more. Through guided interpretation and exhibits, visitors will learn about Delaware’s history through the eyes of the Native Americans, the first European settlers, law makers, prisoners and judges, runaway slaves and the freed African-American community. (nps.gov)

You can find a wealth of additional information about the Court House’s history, landscape, location(s), and visitor facilities on the webpage for the New Castle Court House Museum from the National Park Service, and also on the Museum’s page on Wikipedia.

Explore America’s National Parks, National Historical Parks, National Historic Sites, National Monuments, and more via Wikipedia and via the U.S. National Park Service’s website today.

What American treasures will you and your students be exploring in your homeschool this Cygnus Term? 🇺🇸

❡ The great globe itself: This is one of our regular Homeschool Geography posts featuring important natural and historical sites in the United States. Print your own copy of our River Houses American Heritage Calendar and follow along with us, and add your name to our weekly mailing list to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🌎

❡ We set to-day a votive stone: If you want a great long-term history and geography project for your homeschool, explore the Historical Marker Database online (hmdb.org) and make a plan to find all the markers that are listed in your local area. Add any new ones you know of that are missing, and add new photos or descriptions for the ones already included. Your students will gain a better appreciation for your local community and will learn a wealth of new information about history and geography. 🏛️

❡ Print this little lesson: Down at the bottom of this post you’ll find a special “Print” button that will let you create a neat and easy-to-read copy of this little lesson, and it will even let you edit and delete sections you don’t want or need (such as individual images or footnotes). Give it a try today! 🖨️

❡ Books in the running brooks: You can always turn to your River Houses atlas and almanac for more information about any of our homeschool states-of-the-week. The almanac has detailed profiles of all the U.S. states and territories, and the endpapers of the atlas are indexes that will show you where all of the individual national and regional maps may be found. 📚

❡ Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓️

❡ Support our work: If you enjoy our educational materials, please support us by starting your regular Amazon shopping from our very own homeschool teaching supplies page. When you click through from our page, any purchase you make earns us a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for helping us to keep going and growing! 🛒