Blackbird Hundred is an unincorporated subdivision of

New Castle County 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 ...

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 ...

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

s were once used as a basis for representation in the

Delaware General Assembly The Delaware General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Delaware Senate with 21 senators and the Delaware House of Representatives with 41 representatives. It meets at Legisl ...

, and while their names still appear on all real estate transactions, they now have no purpose except as a geographical point of reference.

Boundaries and Formation

Blackbird Hundred is that portion of New Castle County that lies south of Blackbird Creek and Cypress Creek, a tributary of the

Chester River The Chester River is a major tributary of the Chesapeake Bay on the Delmarva Peninsula. It is about long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 and its watersh ...

. Very small portions of the towns of

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...

and Clayton, both primarily in Kent County, are the only towns or named communities in Blackbird Hundred. It was formed from Appoquinimink Hundred in 1875 and was named for Blackbird Creek that flows along its northern boundary.

Development

Blackbird Hundred remains mostly rural.

Geography

Important geographical features, in addition to Blackbird Creek, include the Delaware River, which forms its eastern boundary, the Smyrna River, formerly known as Duck Creek, which forms its southern boundary, and the North West Branch of the Smyrna River. It is entirely in the coastal plain region on the

Delmarva Peninsula The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a large peninsula and proposed state on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the vast majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore regions of Maryland and Virginia. ...

Transportation

Important roads include portions of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway ( Delaware Route 1), the DuPont Highway (

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 ...

), and the Thoroughfare Neck Road ( Delaware Route 9). A portion of the old Delaware Railroad, subsequently the Delmarva branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, now 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, runs north–south through the hundred.

References

*The

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 ma ...

Library (2001).
The Hundreds of Delaware
Retrieved August 17, 2005. {{Delaware Hundreds in New Castle County, Delaware