New Castle DIGEST 🦋
Recent News & Media, Local Chat and Upcoming Events (April 28, 2023)
I. April News Round-Up 📰
Tree Commission Touts A Special Reason to Celebrate Arbor Day
Members of the city’s Tree Advisory Commission (TAC) gathered at the corner of Delaware and Market Street today - Friday, 4/28 - for a special ceremony on a grey and blustery Arbor Day. Joined by Mayor Blest, Council President Platt, city administrator Bill Barthel and others, they celebrated the completion of the Gateway Canopy Project.
Begun nearly five years ago, the project sought to restore the tree canopy downtown to provide shade, clean air … and more manageable arboreal maintenance for city workers. Now roughly two dozen new trees line Delaware Street, many of which have already bloomed beautifully over the past two weeks. At the event, members posed with one of two signs that will soon be used to designate New Castle as a ‘Tree City U.S.A.’ by the Arbor Day Foundation.
TAC Chair Carl Benson shared a brief statement about the Canopy Project, which he ended by looking forward. “Think about those coming next,” he said. “Even though we won’t be here to see these trees at maturity, we can remain hopeful that those coming after us will enjoy and replenish the main street, and hopefully other streets, with the 12 cultivars we have chosen to grow on our village sidewalks.”
Governor Carney Holds Town Hall at New Castle Public Library
On Tuesday, April 18, dozens of engaged citizens - and, among them, state and local officials - packed into the community room at New Castle Public Library to hear Delaware Governor John Carney discuss his priorities and take questions. The town hall event was part of a series Carney is conducting around the state to roll out his 2023 budget.
Backed up by local state lawmakers Nicole Poore and Melissa Minor-Brown, and armed with a slide show chock full of charts and graphs, Carney spent the first half of the roughly 90-minute event going over his administration’s spending proposals for the coming year. These include education, with the governor heavily emphasizing the need for better teacher pay, workforce development and affordable housing.
Questions from the public covered topics including marijuana legalization, retiree healthcare reform, development, population growth and many others. You can watch the full event online here to see how Governor Carney answered.
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New Castle Elects New Mayor, Three Members of City Council
Although he had reason not to expect any race at all, William Blest won the unexpectedly intense contest for Mayor of New Castle on April 15. Blest had seemed set to run unopposed until the 11th-hour filing of Valarie Leary - recently defended before the Board of Elections by new city solicitor and now state supreme court nominee Chris Griffiths days before the vote. (Listen to that discussion here.)
Expected or not, however, with a push from outgoing Mayor Quaranta, Council President Mike Platt and Trustee President Pete Toner - and perhaps the support of the ‘coalition’ mentioned here - Blest garnered 66 more votes in the race and will be New Castle’s mayor for the next four years.
The race for City Council produced three very clear winners, with incumbent Suzanne Souder and new members-elect Andrew Zeltt and Nermin Zubaca earning hundreds of votes each. Souder and Zubaca will serve four-year terms, while Mr. Zeltt will serve for two years before facing reelection. See below for the actual vote totals.
MAYOR … William Blest, 383 … Valarie Leary, 317
COUNCIL … Victor L. Bryson, III, 159 … Ethan A. Quirk, 161 … William Robinett, 178 … Rick Schiller, 134 … Suzanne Souder, 476 … Andrew Zeltt, 358 … Nermin Zubaca, 400
The newly elected (or re-elected, in the case of Ms. Souder’s resounding return to office) were sworn in at the Court House Museum on Wednesday, April 26.
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Unopposed, Corcoran to Join Trustees of the Common - Vote Cancelled
The Trustees of the New Castle Common were set to hold an election on May 15. However, only one resident stepped up to run for the open seat: Marsha Corcoran, a development and communications professional with long experience in several areas of the non-profit sector.
Because there is only one candidate, no polling will now be conducted. Instead, Mrs. Corcoran will be confirmed as qualified by the current board, receive a single, ceremonial vote, and then be sworn in on May 2. The ceremony will be held at Penn Farm House at 6:30pm, and will be open to the public.
City Topics has reached out to the presumptive Trustee to learn about her vision of the Common and goals for serving on the board, and looks forward to sharing that interview if the request is granted.
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‘The Flats at Rivers Edge’ Development Receives Crucial Support from Planning Commission, Positive Appraisals from Council Candidates
At a meeting so packed that residents were standing in the hall outside the Community Room of the New Castle Police Department, the Planning Commission this month voted to recommend that City Council adopt Ordinance 536. This ordinance would re-zone two parcels on Lukens Drive to Residential, paving the way for the much-discussed ‘Flats at River’s Edge’ mixed-use development proposed there by Greggo & Ferrara.
During the Council Candidates’ Forum hosted by City Topics on April 4, development was a major topic of discussion, with more resident questions submitted on it than any other issue. Asked outright whether they would vote to support the project based on what they knew about it at the time, most candidates - and all three of those who went on to win - indicated that they were inclined to do so, expressing a preference for more housing over more warehouses.
City Council will hold a Public Hearing on the Ordinance before its regular meeting this month, on Tuesday, May 9 at 6:30pm, at the Senior Center.
II. ICYMI: Local Media Spotlight 📸
“In case you missed it,” … April Was Very Busy!
With great events at the Court House, Hermitage, on the Green, and seemingly everywhere else, it’s been a very crazy month - starting with the Council Candidates’ Forum hosted by City Topics on April 4!
Then there was the Lions’ Easter Parade, a city election, the governor bringing a bustling town hall to the Library, and so much more, in addition to the usual beauty around this town. Check out some of the media from these events below, and links to more below that…
And your almost-daily dose of nature from the Hermitage, also on FB & Insta.
Lastly, did you see the gorgeous pics of the historic gardens recently posted by Arasapha Garden Club? Check out a few below and more @Arasapha.
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And finally, ICYMI, City Topics got a bit of recognition this month. In addition to winning five awards in the 2023 Professional Communications Contest by the Delaware Press Association, this little media project has been receiving shout-outs by elected officials, tags from major local organizations who value this audience, and a host of positive feedback for the team who put together the April 4 Forum.
The City Topics Page on Facebook also reached a milestone this month, gaining its 1000th ‘Like!’ (And nearly its 1200th ‘Follower’ - because Facebook has to have at least two ways of quantifying everything, lol.)
Thank you to everyone who Follows, Likes, Comments, Shares, etc., etc., on our social media, who recommends City Topics to friends and neighbors, and who just enjoys reading and scrolling along with what we find neat about New Castle!
III. Interview: Mike Connolly of NCHS
New Castle Historical Society (NCHS) is the official bastion of New Castle’s history and lore, a keeper of important artifacts from our past and a lens through which people today can learn about and make meaning of our shared story. On top of operating four museums, running a visitor center, and maintaining a busy schedule of popular programs, NCHS - a 501(c)(3) non-profit - recently unveiled the first stage of a website re-vamp that promises to make New Castle’s history more accessible than ever.
We reached out to executive director Mike Connolly, also known for his involvement in the local arts scene through the Arts Council and through his own Irish rock band, Seven Rings, to talk about the Society…
City Topics: Can you share some of the things you do each day as Executive Director?
Mike Connolly: As an executive director in a small museum, I do a huge variety of things, and every day is different. I’d say 80-85% of my job is business (i.e. not research, collections care, giving tours, etc.) Examples of tasks on any given day include website updates, responding to genealogical information requests, researching or writing exhibit or program materials, developing programs, reviewing bookkeeping and financial information, updating computer systems, fixing plumbing or other maintenance issues, managing the efforts of staff, volunteers and interns, researching and writing grant applications, recruiting volunteers, posting to social media, selecting merchandise for the museum store, special event planning, arranging group tours, assist with community events, manage donations of historic artifacts, dealing with contractors, maintaining gardens, promoting facility rentals…and the list goes on.
Is there an aspect of the job that’s your favorite? How about least favorite?
My favorite thing to work on is development of new history programs. My least favorite is trying to get everything done with the equivalent of only two full-time employees in the office.
With a small staff, I imagine volunteers are essential to NCHS being able to do a lot of what it does. What roles to volunteers play within the Society and what kind of training do they receive in order to fulfill them?
There are a wide variety of opportunities to volunteer with the Historical Society. I try to match people with volunteer opportunities that meet their interest, skills and schedule. Some people volunteer to help with special events for just one day a year, while others volunteer on a regular basis helping one or more times each week.
Among other things, volunteers assist us with taking care of our historic collections, planning and installing exhibitions, general maintenance and housekeeping of buildings, garden care, program planning and implementation, interpreting history for special programs like hearth cooking, leading walking tours of the historic district and office tasks.
Also, the organization is led by an all-volunteer board of directors. In addition to volunteers, we also work closely with the University of Delaware and other schools to bring their students into the organization as interns. Often the students are history or museum studies students but we’ve also worked with marketing, communication and other students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.
How does the historic physical space of the Arsenal work as a home for NCHS?
We’ve been in the Arsenal since January 2015. We’ve always worked in historic buildings (our office was located in the Amstel House before the Arsenal). We’re preservationists so we love historic buildings. Keeping a building occupied and in regular use is one of the best ways to preserve it. Vacant buildings, of any age, deteriorate very quickly.
Are there challenges to working in an older, preserved building? Or ways it enhances the mission of the Society?
Historic buildings are great, but they can pose challenges for modern office needs – accessibility issues, electrical and computer wiring challenges, lack of dedicated storage space, etc. The Arsenal was vacant for a couple years before we moved in so an immediate relationship to our mission is that we are here helping maintain the building (it is owned by the State of Delaware and managed by the Division of Historical & Cultural Affairs).
The building also provides a more central location than the Amstel House, and offers space that we can use to host our own public programs and events, or offer it to people and organizations in the community to host their events. It also provides more spacious storage for our collections and a place where we can welcome visitors to New Castle, and share the history of the town with them.
NCHS recently added a wealth of information to its website in a major update, the announcement for which teased more to come. What is your vision for that development?
Yes, we completed a major website project that expanded the amount of information available online. But it’s really just the first phase of the website. We plan to add more historical information to the site, make more of our historic collections available online (with more detail about individual objects), convert some previous exhibits into an online format, and provide more virtual content that people can enjoy from their home computer or a mobile device.
During the pandemic we started offering more virtual content, but it’s been difficult to keep up with now that our museums are open for tours again. We’ll continue to offer a mix of online and in-person content. The emphasis will remain on the in-person experiences. Online content is not a substitute for being at a historic site, in a historic house or garden or being around historic artifacts. Ideally, any online content we provide will either be used by people while they are in New Castle or motivate them to visit the town and its museums on their own.
How does running New Castle's Visitor Center and gift shop fit within the Historical Society? Are there natural synergies or, alternately, ways in which it distracts or detracts?
Just to clarify, it’s the New Castle Historical Society’s visitor center. However, we work hard to promote the whole of the City and help visitors with any information they need regardless of whether they are interested in NCHS museums or programs. We help them make decisions on what to see, where they can shop or dine, and the best way to spend their time in New Castle – depending on their interests. We promote the city’s cultural attractions and events, our local businesses, as well as other historic and cultural attractions in the New Castle County/Brandywine Valley area.
We think of our retail store as a “museum store” rather than a “gift shop.” The main difference is that the items for sale in a museum store are really selected to help visitors extend their visit to New Castle by bringing something from the store home with them. The merchandise is directly related to our mission. The visibility and location of the visitor center allows us to speak with visitors directly and hopefully have them take a tour or attend a program – either now or in the future. So it really enhances our ability to fulfill our mission to share New Castle’s history with the public.
What has folding the Arts Council into NCHS looked like in practical terms? Again, in what ways is it a fit or a challenge?
The Arts Council is now a committee within the New Castle Historical Society. It’s a very natural fit. Arts, culture, history and the humanities go hand in hand. All are about the human experience. The New Castle Historical Society has offered arts programming for years so it’s really not a big change for us. We’ve just been able to formalize it more with volunteers that are really dedicated to the arts – whether that’s performing arts, visual arts, film, etc. Bringing the Arts Council into the Society will make it a bit easier on the volunteers that work on arts programming. They have access to any of our resources like marketing channels, bookkeeping, printing and office services, etc.
What will we see from the Arts Council in the future and how can interested residents get involved?
The arts programming in the future will be based on what ideas the Arts Committee generates. Definitive plans include supporting the Fourth Friday Art Loop that has been happening in New Castle for several years, hosting Art in the Garden at the Amstel House on April 28, and bringing Opera Delaware back to New Castle for a concert event on June 23. Upcoming arts events will be listed on our website, newcastlehistory.org, and on our Facebook page. Anyone interested in volunteering for the Arts Committee, or any other volunteer position at NCHS, can contact me directly at 302-322-2794 or by email.
What is something NCHS does that you wish more people knew about?
I’d like to see more people utilizing our historic collections and archives. For a small organization, we have a great collection of documents, photos, artifacts, clothing, furniture, etc. All of it is available for the public to utilize for research purposes. To use it we recommend that people contact us ahead of time to let us know what they’re interested in researching. We’ll complete a preliminary search to be sure we have something that will help them. At that point, we can set up a research appointment for them.
Unfortunately, we don’t have enough staff for drop-in researchers. Also, we do not have a very large collection of genealogical resources. That surprises a lot of people. I think that’s OK though since so much information is available in other repositories like the Delaware Historical Society, the Delaware Public Archives and online at ancestry.com or familysearch.org. That being said, we are still trying to expand our collections related to New Castle’s history. One example of that pursuit is that we just received our first-ever donation of yearbooks from William Penn High School. It seems hard to believe that we didn’t have any before! Now we’ve started collecting, and we’ll continue to try to build that specific collection through donations.
If people have anything that they’d like to donate to the Historical Society they can contact me at the number/email above.
Historians and cultural curators throughout the social sciences in recent years have turned a new focus onto the stories and histories of people whose voices were marginalized or silenced in the past. In what ways, or through what projects, has NCHS worked to elevate such voices and stories or to reckon with uncomfortable parts our city's past?
NCHS was formed as a very traditional historical society with the goal to save and preserve a historic house with ties to one of Delaware’s revolutionary founding father type figures (Nicholas Van Dyke), and even a connection to George Washington. For a long time, the focus remained on the history of “great men” of the founding era. That started to change as the organization matured and as social history became increasingly inclusive. The Society has recognized the importance of including everyone in the New Castle story for decades – it’s not really a new thing.
I think our first formal exhibition on the black experience in New Castle was back in 2001 – in conjunction with New Castle’s 350th anniversary of European settlement. It was an exhibition hosted in the Old Library. The companion book, Passing on the Story: African-Americans in New Castle, that was produced at the time is available on our website for free.
We also realized long ago that we can’t interpret the history of the New Castle, and the Amstel & Dutch Houses in particular, without including discussions of slavery and the individuals that were enslaved in our historic houses. While we’ve included that in our guided tours for decades, we formalized it in 2011 with a new interpretive plan at the Amstel House that includes a theme we call “ And Liberty for Some: The Great Paradox of the American Revolution.” This theme tackles the contradiction between the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the reality of slavery until its abolition. Additionally, we discuss women’s lives in the 18th and 19th centuries and how they were circumscribed by traditional norms of what constituted women’s roles in society.
It’s very challenging, and we don’t pretend to understand how people of the past reconciled this paradox, if they even did. But we need to recognize it and discuss it because these issues of race and equality continue to be a struggle in our country today with very serious ramifications. With other exhibits and programs we try to incorporate the experiences of marginalized communities into our discussion of a particular topic. We recently had an exhibition on suffrage in Delaware and included the struggle of white and black women in that movement. In our recent exhibit on transportation from 1651 -1851 we tried to give a sense of how the travel experience differed for white men, white women and black people. The material from that exhibit is now available on our website.
I think we need to continue looking for ways to incorporate all communities in our exhibitions, programs and events - especially the history of indigenous people in our area.
Are there any future projects, current research or upcoming exhibits that you are particularly excited about?
I’m very excited about our historic foodways program – better known to most people as open hearth cooking.
In addition to providing a sense of the food of the past and the cooking methods, it also is another way to connect with the people who don’t appear in the history books. These are people that were enslaved, indentured or hired workers toiling in households of wealthy families. In most cases we don’t know their names or many details of their lives. But they have passed down a legacy of cooking traditions that have become part of American cuisine.
So hearth cooking is a way that we can explore those traditions and feel closer to the people that brought them to us.
Thanks to Mike Connolly for taking the time to chat with City Topics about his role and the important work NCHS is doing.
Readers can support the Society’s work preserving and sharing our local history by becoming members, which can be done on the NCHS website.
IV. Community Event Calendar 📅
Check out the Community Calendar on our website for an even farther view of the local event scene and bookmark the page so you can stay informed about what’s coming up!
Remaining in APRIL:
4/28 - Fourth Friday Art Loop Events (TONIGHT!), including:
‘Flower Power’ at the Mo’zArt Gallery - get out your tie die and bring your blooms to celebrate a swinging Spring, 5-8pm.
Artist Vivienne Cameron, founding member of Urban Sketchers Delaware, at Opera House Arts & Antiques, 5-8pm.
The Gallery at the Mercury Cafe & Teahouse, featuring a pop-up sale by Cobblestone Chocolates, 5-7pm.
4/28 - Art in the Garden at the Amstel House garden, 5-9pm.
Cabernet Candles has teamed up with Jessop’s, Zollie’s and the Mercury for an evening of live music and beautiful artwork in the historic Amstel House garden. Register here.4/28-29 - WE CREATE Visual & Performing Arts Showcase at William Penn HS.
4/29 - Bicycle Safety & Registration Event at the Jack A. Markell Trail, 9am-1pm.
NCPD and GWFC are teaming up once again with DelDOT, WXZY and other partners to promote bike safety and offer free ProtechDNA bicycle registration.4/30 - Bicentennial Celebration of Lafayette’s Farewell Tour, Court House, 1pm.
Learn details of Lafayette’s Farewell Tour of America, how it will be celebrated in 2024, and how to get involved. Organized by the Battell and Read Chapter of the DAR.
Happening in MAY:
5/2 - Swearing-In of Trustee Marsha Corcoran, Penn Farm House, 6:30pm.
The unopposed candidate for the Trustees of the New Castle Common will be confirmed and sworn in, publicly, ahead of the evening’s (closed) meeting of the Trustees’ board.5/4 - May Market Donation Drop-Off, at the Arsenal, 10am-4pm.
Leave donated plants and home treasures to be sold at May Market. Details here.5/5-6 - Arasapha’s May Market, on Market Square behind Old Town Hall.
Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday 9am-3pm, the garden club’s annual fundraiser.
5/5-6 - Library Friends’ Book Sale at May Market, Market Square.
Friday from 10 to 5 and Saturday from 9 to 3, featuring a focus on cooking and gardening.5/9 - Public Hearing and Council Meeting at the NC Senior Center, 6:30pm.
Public hearing on Ordinance 536, which would re-zone parcels on Lukens Drive to pave the way for the ‘Flats at River’s Edge’ development. Council agenda not yet posted.5/10 - Sea Level Rise Information Meeting, at the Senior Center, 6:30pm.
Hosted by the the Sea Level Rise Task Force.5/17 - ‘Four Gardens’ Tour & Concert feat. John Walthausen, Read House, 6pm.
Enjoy the music of Domenico Scarlatti and his contemporaries and students, preceded by an optional garden tour. Ticket information here.5/19 - ‘Spring Assembly 2023’ English Ball at NC Historical Society, 7-10pm.
Formal ball featuring 17th- and 18th-Century English Country Dancing. Period clothing is encouraged but modern formalwear is also welcome. More info and tickets here.5/20 - Spring Native Plant Exchange at the Hermitage Natural Area, 10:30am.
5/20 - A Day in Old New Castle, organized by NC Community Partnership.
5/20 - Paint Historic Old New Castle ‘Plein Air’ art competition.
In conjunction with Day in Old New Castle, hosted by Dennis Young’s Mo’zArt Gallery.
Coming up in JUNE:
6/6 - Trustees of the New Castle Common Meeting, Penn Farm, 7pm (Public).
6/9-10 - Separation Day 2023, by the City of New Castle (with Event Allies).
MONTHLY & ONGOING EVENTS
Second Saturday Bird Walks at the Hermitage with Delaware Birders, 8am.
Second Tuesday Mix & Mingle at Zollie’s Jazz Cucina, 4 to 7pm.
Meet neighbors to enjoy beer, wine and spirit tastings and a Tapas-style food buffet.Fourth Friday Art Loop at participating shops and galleries around downtown, including the Opera House, Mo’zArt Gallery, Cobblestone Antiques, All Good Things, the Mercury Cafe’s in-house gallery, and more!
Regular Historic Tours at:
New Castle Historical Society at the Arsenal
New Castle Court House Museum (Weds-Sunday)
Read House & Gardens (Thurs-Sunday)
Second Tuesdays: City Council Meetings at the NC Senior Center, 7pm.
Click here for the many events happening each week at New Castle Public Library.
Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly identified the woman holding the Bible for Mayor Blest in the photo above; she is his daughter.