Local Postal Customer High Tide News July 2015 Local news for the people, by the people Vol. 03 Num. 7 www.hightidenews.com The Building of the DuPont Highway 50 Years ExperienceT. Coleman DuPont’s “Grand Boulevard” By Sandie Gerken At the turn of the 20th cen- weather. The eighteenth to Delaware through Snow tury, roads in Sussex County century route that linked Hill, Berlin, Selbyville, Dags- and most of Delaware were the counties and towns was boro, up to Georgetown, ROUTE 54 SHOWROOM deeply rutted, narrow dirt a “post road” used by mail Milford and Dover, then on paths that became nearly carriers. This mail road con- ultimately to Wilmington. impassable, muddy quag- nected the eastern shore This route did not follow Grand Boulevard Vision Permission of Delaware Archives mires during inclement of Virginia and Maryland continued on page 2 Express your unique sense of style. ROUTE 50 SHOWROOM This is Augmented Reality (AR). It allows Scan the article or ad wherever you see Scan to Bring digital content – videos, images, links – to be this blue box with the mobile phone and AR BRING THIS NEWSPAPER to LIFE! This Adbring connected to items in the physical world, like symbol and WATCH THE MAGIC! We are ToPrint Life to Life! Download the free app at www.get.layar.com this page of High Tide News! proud to share this new technology with you! Hours: Mon-Sat: 9am-5pm Sunday: 11am-3pm (Rt. 50) 11am-4pm (Rt. 54) Free Local Delivery and Set-up Complimentary In-home Design Service A watermanwww.casualdesignsfurniture.com since his early teens, [email protected] Chet Townsend knows about local shery & how to cook it! The Amazing FISHKILLER’S LOBSTER SHACK High Tide News is honored to present FISHKILLER’S LOBSTER SHACK “A lifelong resident of Dagsboro, DE, I have could work together with my family has been Captain Chet Townsend (aka “Fishkiller”) of Captain Chet Townsend, owner been a waterman since my early teens.... realized. My son, daughter and wife have FISHKILLER’S LOBSTER SHACK! He tells [email protected] almost 40 years. Starting as a charter boat been with Fishkiller’s since its inception, grad- his story here (in his own words) of his dream mate, then gaining Captain status, I shed ually adding the help of close family friends 302.448.5078 (Thursday-Saturday) of starting a business where he could work in the sport shing industry for more than over the years. God has blessed us with a together with his famly doing the things they 32805 Vines Creek Road 10 years before crossing over into the com- great crew who take pride in their work, and all love to do. Dagsboro, DE 19939 mercial sheries. Since then (early 1980’s) amazing customers who love our food! I participated in almost every local shery, “We have had several news articles featur- including conch, eel, crab and our current ing the shing/lobstering end, as well as the sea bass and lobster venture. restaurant highlights. We were featured in “Catching all of the great seafood inspired 2014 as the Delaware Retailer in National many of my own recipes and my love for Retail Federation’s ‘50 States, 50 Stories: Retail cooking grew. In June 2009 we opened our Across America’. “ red trailer on a small borrowed square of grass and expanded to the current location What makes FISHKILLER’S in 2012.” LOBSTER SHACK50 Years Experience so successful? “Serving food that I would want to eat Have dreams been realized, or myself! Serving fresh, quality products in ...is Fishkiller Beer on the horizon? a clean, tropical, casual environment where “Our experience thus far has been families are welcome is key. People love to humbling as so many or our wonder- hear about my shing background as it is not ROUTE 54 SHOWROOM ful customers return on a regular basis. your typical profession and folks are always Other than, as a child, cooking alongside surprised to learn that lobsters are caught my mother (a great cook), I am a self- here locally. “ Express your unique sense of style. taught chef. In the future, I am research- SeafoodROUTE lovers 50 SHOWROOM of all ages looking for a fun, ing the small brewery industry and would casual, beachy environment BringScan article to love to experiment with a Fishkiller’s beer. will love Fishkiller’s Lobster Thisbring Ad Captain (Left to right) Captain Chet Townsend and his wife Shirley with daughter, Veronica, and son Ches. ToChet Life to LIFE! “My dream of starting a business where I Shack! Hours: Mon-Sat: 9am-5pm Sunday: 11am-3pm (Rt. 50) 11am-4pm (Rt. 54) Free Local Delivery and Set-up Complimentary In-home Design Service www.casualdesignsfurniture.com [email protected] The Building of the DuPont Highway continued from page 1 Author, Sandie Gerken lives in the current path of the DuPont Highway, the length of the state. Bypassing smaller Sussex County. Both men wished to show Dagsboro, DE. As but was a series of roads connecting most towns would avoid having to purchase as quickly as possible the economic value a native Sussex towns. In 1908, Thomas Coleman du Pont, town properties and would alleviate traf- of the highway to the county. While farmers Countian, local great-grandson c congestion in towns. He planned to and related industries had believed that history is one of of the founder of form a nonprot corporation to purchase the railroad was sucient transportation, her passions. Re- the DuPont Com- or claim the right of way for a 200 ft. wide it became evident that the road linked the tired now, she devotes her time to pany, offered to corridor for his “grand boulevard”. He felt entire state in a way the railroad could not genealogy research (her greatest build a “straight that the highway could be self-supporting do. John G. Townsend had been able to passion since 1978), watercolor as an arrow”, dual . After the initial phase was completed, the secure a 200 ft. right of way for the rst painting, grandchildren, soccer highway the entire as-yet unused right of way could be leased construction phase in Baltimore Hundred for kids with disabilities, books, length of Delaware, to public utilities to run electric or water through his partnership in Peninsula Real and things creative and historical. financed entirely lines and/or to commercial franchises or Estate Company. This strip ran through the She recently authored the book with his own farmers as revenue to maintain the road. land of Captain John Long of Frankford. Memories of the Clayton Theatre money. In 1911, he convinced the Delaware leg- As some court battles ensued to settle as a fundraiser to help the Clayton T. Coleman du islature to approve the right of way issues, construc- go digital. She is now exploring Pont (1863-1930) project, advising that he tion continued on separate her writing skills with local history was born in Ken- would nance it entirely. strips where the right of articles for High Tide News. tucky, received a civil engineering degree He stated that he would way had been secured. It from M.I.T. and eventually moved to Dela- build “a monument a took until 1924 to nally SOURCES: ware to run the family explosive company hundred miles high and complete the “monument Clearing New Ground, The Life of John G. with his cousins A.I. and Pierre S. du Pont. lay it on the ground”. He on the ground” to the South Townsend, Richard B. Carter, 2001. Pp 159-179. Coleman loved automobiles and often trav- promised to donate the Market Street Drawbridge in The DuPont Highway, Images of America eled the length of the state on primitive completed road to the Wilmington where it joined Series, Willliam Francis and Michael C. Hahn, roads to visit his estate on the lower Eastern state. an existing city street. The 2009. Shore of Maryland. On such trips he noted Despite the great Coleman DuPont Road later “ Delaware’s Mother Road”, It Happened in the economically depressed Kent and economical advantages merged with the existing Delaware, Judy Colbert, 2013 Pp.51-54. Sussex Counties. He conceived an idea of that the new road would Philadelphia Pike, thus com- “The New State Road”, Wilkes-Barre Record, a grand highway of the future to transform create, there was opposi- pleting the DuPont Highway Wilkes-Barre, PA, 20 June 1942. P. 21, www.news- the state and revitalize the industrial and tion. The railroad compa- T. Coleman du Pont the full length of the state. papers.com agricultural economy of Delaware. He was nies were not happy, argu- In 1916, the U.S. Congress certain that motor vehicles would become ing that the project infringed on their busi- had passed the Federal Highway Act to extremely important in the years to come ness. Most land owners readily accepted the provide assistance to states with a high- and a modern highway system would be revitalization idea but, farmers, especially in way department. The Delaware State necessary. Sussex County, were suspicious of the road. Highway Department was formed in 1917 High Tide News is published monthly, year Coleman had been abroad, studied Slow to embrace progress in general, they and assumed control of du Pont’s road for round, and delivered weekly by the U.S. Post Oce to homes throughout road design, and was inspired by a grand did not want to give up their land, feeling its maintenance, negotiating with du Pont Sussex County, Delaware. boulevard in Paris. He envisioned the that the “rich guy” would certainly prot by to continue funding the construction.