Woodward Houses are two historic homes located at Wilmington,

New Castle County, Delaware New Castle County is the northernmost of the three counties of the U.S. state of Delaware (New Castle, Kent, and Sussex). As of the 2020 census, the population was 570,719, making it the most populous county in Delaware, with nearly 60% of the ...

. The house at 701 West Street was built about 1745, and is a -story, three bay, quarried granite dwelling with a gable roof. It has an L-shaped, side-hall plan. The house at 703 West Street was built about 1760, and is a -story, three-bay,

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

ed stone dwelling with a gable roof. It is three feet shorter in both length and width than 701. Its interior was altered in the mid-19th century and then in the 1930s to accommodate apartment dwellings. They are excellent examples of the

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style. The houses were probably built by Joseph Woodward, a Quaker ropemaker from

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania. Located within the Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,461 at the 2010 census. West Chester is the mailing address for most of its neighb ...

. There is a legend that the house at 703 contains a

hearth A hearth () is the place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by at least a horizontal hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination of reredos (a lo ...

stone which was a section of the platform where

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

stood to read the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...

to the people of

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. and The houses were added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1979.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Delaware Georgian architecture in Delaware Houses completed in 1745 Houses completed in 1760 Houses in Wilmington, Delaware National Register of Historic Places in Wilmington, Delaware 1745 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies {{Delaware-NRHP-stub