Viola is a town in Kent 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. It is part of the Dover, Delaware

Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally incorporated as a city or tow ...

. The population was 157 at the 2010 census.

History

Viola was built in 1856 after the

Delaware Railroad The Delaware Railroad was the major railroad in the US state of Delaware, traversing almost the entire state north to south. It was planned in 1836 and built in the 1850s. It began in Porter and was extended south through Dover, Seaford and fin ...

opened a station. The town was laid out on a grant called Golden Thicket, owned by William Shores in 1681.

Geography

Viola is located at (39.0428907, –75.5718695). According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of t ...

, the town has a total area of , all land.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Main Street is the main north–south road through Viola. The road is called Turkey Point Road outside the town limits and leads north toward Woodside and south toward Felton. Evens Road is the main east–west road through Viola and leads east to an intersection with

U.S. Route 13 U.S. Route 13 (US 13) is a north–south U.S. highway established in 1926 that runs for from Interstate 95 (I-95) just north of Fayetteville, North Carolina to US 1 in the northeastern suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in Morrisville ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

. US 13 heads north toward Dover and south toward Harrington. The

Delmarva Central Railroad The Delmarva Central Railroad is an American short-line railroad owned by Carload Express that operates of track on the Delmarva Peninsula in the states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The railroad operates lines from Porter, Delaware to Hal ...

's Delmarva Subdivision line passes north–south through Viola.

Utilities

Delmarva Power Delmarva Power is an energy company that provides electricity and natural gas to customers on portions of the Delmarva Peninsula in the states of Delaware and Maryland. The company is a subsidiary of Exelon. Electricity and natural gas Delmarva P ...

, a subsidiary of

Exelon Exelon Corporation is an American Fortune 100 energy company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and incorporated in Pennsylvania. It generates revenues of approximately $33.5 billion and employs approximately 33,400 people. Exelon is the largest ...

, provides electricity to Viola. Chesapeake Utilities provides natural gas to the town.

Education

Viola is within the

Lake Forest School District Lake Forest School District, in Kent County, Delaware, was created when funding was not sufficient for three proximal districts (Harrington School District, Felton School District, and Frederica School District) so the three were merged to create a ...

. The zoned high school is Lake Forest High School.

Demographics

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2000, there were 156 people, 62 households, and 48 families living in the town. The population density was . The racial makeup of the town was 93.59%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, 4.49%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

and 1.92% Asian.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

of any race made up 1.92% of the population. Of the 62 households, 30.6% have at least one person under the age of 18, 62.9% had married couples, 11.3% had a single woman householder, 21.0% had non-families, and 19.4% were owned by a single person, with 8.1% who were 65 years or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 2.78. About 21.2% of the population were under the age of 18, 8.3% from 18 to 24, 26.3% from 25 to 44, 32.7% from 45 to 64, and 11.5% 65 years or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 110.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.6 males. The median income for a household was $47,813 and the median income for a family was $49,531. Males had a median income of $39,250 versus $24,250 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the town was $21,687. About 3.4% of the population live below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, 16.7% of which are 65 or older. The only non-residential structures within town limits are a post office, a VCF Ruritan hall, and the Felton-Viola United Methodist Church. The town council has recently implemented strict zoning regulations designed to prevent suburban sprawl. The regulations prohibit businesses with more than two employees, restrict the construction of multi-family dwellings, and forbid any annexation of outlying parcels into the original town proper.

References

{{Authority control Towns in Kent County, Delaware Towns in Delaware