Delaware Route 52 - History

History

On January 21, 1811, the Wilmington and Kennett Turnpike Company was incorporated to build a toll road from Wilmington to the Pennsylvania border at Centreville. The road was built between 1811 and 1813 at a cost of $30,000. The charter of the turnpike gave Christiana Hundred the option to purchase the road in 1820 and remove the tolls. The Kennett Pike had two toll gates north of Wilmington. In 1919, Pierre S. du Pont bought the road and the toll gates were removed. The road widened and paved following the sale and eventually sold to the Delaware State Highway Department. When Delaware designated state highways by 1936, DE 52 was designated onto its current alignment. In 2002, DE 52 was designated as part of the Brandywine Valley Scenic Highway in the Delaware Scenic and Historic Highways system; it was designated a National Scenic Byway in 2005.

Read more about this topic:  Delaware Route 52

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    Anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact; and anyone who has studied the history of science knows that almost every great step therein has been made by the “anticipation of Nature.”
    Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)

    The custard is setting; meanwhile
    I not only have my own history to worry about
    But am forced to fret over insufficient details related to large
    Unfinished concepts that can never bring themselves to the point
    Of being, with or without my help, if any were forthcoming.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)

    Don’t you realize that this is a new empire? Why, folks, there’s never been anything like this since creation. Creation, huh, that took six days, this was done in one. History made in an hour. Why it’s a miracle out of the Old Testament!
    Howard Estabrook (1884–1978)