Jimtown is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Sussex County,

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

, United States.

Geography

Jimtown is located on

Delaware Route 23 Delaware Route 23 (DE 23) is a state highway in Sussex County, Delaware, Sussex County, Delaware. Its southern terminus is at Massey's Landing in Long Neck, Delaware, Long Neck, near the confluence of Rehoboth Bay and Indian River Bay ...

southwest of

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...

. It is along Jimtown Road, near Goslee Creek. Less than a mile south of Jimtown is Goslee Mill Pond.

History

Early years

The area around Jimtown was settled by whites as early as the 1690s when the court at either Lewes or Sussex County granted a petitioner land on Bundick's Branch to build a mill, so long as he "build the mill within fifteen months and ..attend and minde the same and grind the grain well and in due course as it is brought thither without respect of persons, at the eighth part tolle for wheat and the sixth part tolle for Indian corne." Two years later, Jonathan Bailey built a mill on this stream. However, Scharf's ''History of Delaware'' states that no village was in this part of Delaware as late as 1888. Jimtown was from early on an African-American community. In the early 20th century, the site was the location of a "colored" schoolhouse during an era when segregation was still legal in Delaware. Jimtown made state headlines in 1915, during the

prohibition era Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacturing, manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption ...

, when twelve Jimtown residents were arrested in state raids on alcoholic establishments. Most of those arrested were African-Americans.

21st century

Some residents in Jimtown clashed with the

Delaware Department of Transportation The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) is an agency of the U.S. state of Delaware. The Secretary of Transportation is Nicole Majeski. The agency was established in 1917 and has its headquarters in Dover. The department's responsibil ...

and real estate developers in 2004 regarding upgrades to Jimtown Road. Residents stated that the department's plans to upgrade only a portion of the road clashed with the plan to build 650 houses adjacent to the historic community. Residents in Jimtown clashed again with the owners of the neighboring subdivision of Coastal Club near

in 2014 over the issue of streetlights, sidewalks, and sewer connections in the community; the plan at that time was to offer Jimtown residents sewer and streetlights connecting to the new subdivision. In 2018, a 49-lot subdivision adjacent to Jimtown, named Marine, was approved by Sussex County officials.

References

Notes

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Sussex County, Delaware Unincorporated communities in Delaware