Wilmington, DE: The Riverfront, Southbridge

[xzmattzx]

The Riverfront is Wilmington's main historically industrial neighborhood. Access to water in Wilmington fueled several industries, from mills along the Brandywine in other areas of the city to shipbuilding and shipping in the tidal section of the Christina River at the Riverfront. In the late 1800s, Wilmington was the biggest iron shipbuilding producer in the United States, being the home of the biggest iron shipbuilder in the nation in Harlan & Hollingsworth, and the fourth-biggest iron shipbuilder in the nation in Pusey & Jones, among others. Both Harlan & Hollingsworth and Pusey & Jones built ships to compete in the America's Cup during their times, with the Harlan & Hollingsworth ship "Mischief" winning in 1881 and the Pusey & Jones ship "VOlunteer" winning in 1887. As Pusey & Jones and Harlan & Hollingsworth produced ships during their heyday in the late 1800s, other companies built various railroad materials, from car wheels to passenger cars to streetcars. These were also produced along the Christina River. Almost all of these factories were located in between the Christina River and the railroad tracks through Wilmington, which meant that transporting goods by land or by sea was simple.

As industries began to fade away or move to other places, the Riverfront became abandoned. The Dravo Corporation was one of the last major industries on the Christina, building LSMs and other beach-launching craft for the military during World War II. After World War II, many of the old shipbuilding and railroad-related manufacturing buildings sat empty. In 1993, the city and the state began work on revitalizing Wilmington's waterfront, and a massive rehabilitation went underway. Visions for the Riverfront were lofty, with some officials wanting it to rival the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. To date, the Riverfront has not utilized all of the land originally suggested for rehabilitation, but some older warehouses and factories have been converted, several new office buildings, residential buildings, and amenities have been built, and parkland along the river has been added.



A broad definition of the Riverfront


The contemporary definition of the Riverfront, where rehabilitation is currently taking place



Dravo Plaza, at the north end of the Shipyard Shops on Justison Street. Dravo Plaza is located on what was once the center of the Dravo shipyard.



The Wilmington skyline, from the Riverwalk near Dravo Plaza.



A Dravo shipyard crane, dating back to the 1940s when LSMs were built in Wilmington for World War II. The River Tower at Christina Landing is in the background.



A Dravo crane next to the Shipyard Shops. The Dravo cranes at the southern end of the Riverwalk have not been renovated and repainted like the other four cranes along the Riverwalk.



A Dravo crane at the very southern end of the Riverwalk. The Russell W. Peteron Urban Wildlife Refuge, and the accompanying education center, will be located just south of this crane, at the southern terminus of the Riverwalk.



An old locomotive from the Dravo Corporation's shipyard. Dravo's shipyard opened up in 1927, but is best-known for being one of the biggest shipyards in the nation during World War II, employing 11,000 people by 1943 and building over 400 ships and landing craft from 1941 to 1945.



A smokestack in front of the Shipyard Shops is one of the only remnants besides the Dravo cranes of the industry located at the southern end of the Riverfront.



Judy Johnson Field at Daniel S. Frawley Stadium, on Madison Street. Frawley Stadium is the home of the Wilmington Blue Rocks of the Class A Carolina League, and has a capacity of 6,532. The stadium was built in 1993, when the Peninsula Pilots of Hampton, Virginia, moved to Wilmington.



The Chase Center on the Riverfront, located on Madison Street across from Frawley Stadium. The convention center was originally an exhibition hall, and was built in the early 1990s.



Part of Wilmington's skyline and Riverfront, from a pavilion on the Riverwalk.



Joe's Crab Shack, on Justison Street.



Iron Hill Brewery, a Newark-based regional microbrewery, on Justison Street.



The old Kahunaville nightclub, on Justison Street. The Delaware Children's Museum is now being built in the site, after Kahunaville was abandoned overnight in November of 2006.



A building from the first phase of building, the Hollingsworth phase, for Justison Landing, at the corner of Justison Street & Harlan Boulevard.



A Justison Landing condominium building on Justison Street, from the Riverwalk.



Justison Landing condominium building on Justison Street and along the Riverwalk.



A Justison Landing building, located at Justison Street and Harlan Boulevard.



One River Place, the headquarters for AAA Mid-Atlantic. The structure was built in 2005.



The Christina Crescent Building, at Justison & West Streets. The structure was completed in 2008 and is used by Barclays, with retail and other amenities on the ground floor.



The side of the Christina Crescent Building, from West Street.



The Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, on West Street. The DCCA was founded in 1979 and moved into the renovated Harlan & Hollingsworth building in 2000.



The Harlan & Hollingsworth headquarters, at Water & West Streets. The office building was built in 1912.



An old warehouse on the Avenue Of The Arts. Christina Landing is in the background.



An old warehouse on Avenue Of The Arts.



The Delaware Theatre Company, at the foot of the Avenue Of The Arts. The Delaware Theatre Company was founded in 1979.



An old warehouse for the J. Morton Poole Company, at the foot of Orange Street. The J. Morton Poole Company made metal rollers for papr and textile manufacturers.



The Riverfront Market, on Orange Street. The building was originally the home of the F. Blumenthal & Company, which produced leather products.



ING Direct building, at Water & Shipley Streets. The structure was built in 1885 and called the Kent Building. It was originally used as a warehouse.



The Water Street Station, on Water Street at Market Street. The station was designed by Frank Furness and built for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1887.



Looking down the Christina River from the Market Street Bridge at the Justison Landing construction site and the restaurants along Justison Street.



The Market Street Bridge, from Tubman Garrett Park. The bridge was built in 1927 as a bascule bridge due to the shipbuilding industry still operating on the river.



The Pennsylvania Building, designed by Frank Furness and built in 1905 for the Pennsylvania Railroad, which began running trains through the city in 1873. In 1901, the Pennsylvania Railroad began building an elevated viaduct for the tracks, since the street-level tracks led to delays for industrial street traffic. The building is now home to ING Direct.



Looking up French Street from Tubman-Garrett Park. The Pennsylvania Railroad elevated viaduct and the clock tower of the Wilmington Train Station are in the center, and the JP Morgan Chase buildings are in the background.



Townhouses of Christina Landing, from Tubman-Garrett Park. The Walnut Street Bridge is on the left.



The Residences at Christina Landing, from Tubman-Garrett Park. The River Tower at Christina Landing is almost completely blocked from view by The Residences building.



The skyscrapers at Christina Landing on the south shore of the Christina River. The River Tower, completed in 2007, is on the left, and the Residences, completed in 2006, is on the right.



Townhouses on A Street in the new Christina Landing development at the Riverfront.



The headquarters for the Buccini/Pollin Group is located on A Street, east of the Christina Landing highrises and townhouses. The office building was built in 2005.



The bridgehouse of the Walnut Street Bridge. The bridge was built in the 1950s. Christina Landing is in the background.



A renovated building on the Christina River between Walnut Street and Poplar Street. The building was once part of the Pusey & Jones shipyard. Pusey & Jones Company was a company founded in 1848 that produced iron ships until World War II, when they switched to producing paper-making machinery until the company closed in 1959. Pusey & Jones was most famous for building the fist iron-hulled sailing vessel in the United States, the "Mahlon Betts", as well as the first steel-hulled yaqcht to win the America's Cup, the "Volunteer" in 1887. Many Pusey & Jones ships were used in South America after being built. The building now houses the Amtrak Consolidated National Operations Center, and was built in the late 1920s.



Old warehouses on Front Street. These warehouses were a part of the Pusey & Jones Shipyard. Both were built around 1915 to 1920.



OperaDelaware Studios, located in an old Pusey & Jones building near the Christina River, between Poplar Street and Lombard Street.



Warehouses at the foot of Lombard Street. The building in the center was built as the Pusey & Jones Store House. The buildings on the right were originally part of the Lobdell Car Wheel Company's manufacturing center. The Lobdell Car Wheel Company produced chilled cast-iron wheels for streetcars, railroad cars, and mine cars, as well as other cast-iron products. The buildings later became part of the Pusey & Jones Company's operations.



The Wilmington Youth Rowing Association boathouse, on Front Street. The brick building was part of the Pusey & Jones Shipyard.



An old Pusey & Jones warehouse on Lombard Street. The warehouse was built at around 1920 and replaced a pattern building on the same site.



An old Pusey & Jones building on Lombard Street. This warehouse was used to begin building ships, and was built in the early 20th century.



The old warehouses and factories of the Pusey & Jones Company, on Front Street. The buildings were later used by the Lobdell Car Wheel Company, and later by other ironworks businesses. The Lobdell Car Wheel Company produced chilled cast-iron wheels for streetcars, railroad cars, and mine cars, as well as other cast-iron products. The buildings later became part of the Pusey & Jones Company's operations.



A warehouse at Front & Church Streets.



A warehouse on Front Street.





Southbridge is a neighborhood located in the southern part of the city of Wilmington, where U.S. Route 13 and Delaware Route 9 enter the city from the south. Physically separated from the rest of residential Wilmington by the Christina River, and surrounded by the Port of Wilmington to the southeast, and nondescript industrial lands on all other sides, Southbridge has been called "a town within a city". Southbridge is unique in Wilmington because the east-west streets are lettered; this was done in the mid-1800s by city officials because of the large population of Blacks: mainly Free Blacks, but some runaway slaves. Officials believed that the Blacks could not read and would never read, and so letters were used as street names so that the Blacks did not have to use whole words. Today, all of the streets have been unofficially renamed after neighborhood icons.





Samuel Elbert - John Palmer, Jr. School, on Lobdell Street.



Rowhouses on B Street.



Houses on Townsend Street.



Rowhouses on Townsend Street.



The Free Will Baptist Church, on Heald Street.



Rowhouses on Heald Street.



The New Calvary Baptist Church, on Heald Street at Pearl Street. The church was built in 1944.



Buildings on New Castle Avenue at C Street. The Four Brothers soul food restaurant is on the right.



Rowhouses on B Street.



Houses on New Castle Avenue.



Businesses at A & Heald Streets.



A mural on the side of a rowhouse on Heald Street.



Buildings on Heald Street.



Houses on New Castle Avenue. The Four Brothers Soul Food Restaurant is on the right.



Buildings on New Castle Avenue.



A housing project, on Townsend Street.



Infill on Apple Street.



An industrial site on Heald Street. Much of the area surrounding Southbridge is still used for industrial and storagee purposes.

[Jaybird]

There seems to be lots of new and lots of old in Wilmington, the new particularly on the riverfront. Wilmington also seems to have preserved some nice buildings as well. Great pictures.

[xzmattzx]

The new stuff is almost all on the western part of the Riverfront. The northwest corner, where access from I-95 and MLK Blvd is to the entire western part, has been getting pretty packed with new buildings and renovated shipyard buildings.

The other stuff is east of Walnut Street. It's east of the train station and east of MLK Blvd, and so there isn't any huge funnelling of people into that area like there is from the wide MLK Blvd.

[WA]

After seeing those pictures or Southbridge I think that with the urban renewal that the city wants to do many of the buildings could be renovated and expanded. But many buildings need to be torn down regardless of what some people think because they look unsafe and too run-down.

[njrocket24]

Southbridge used to be heavily ukranian, hence the out of place looking russian style church.

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by njrocket24

Southbridge used to be heavily ukranian, hence the out of place looking russian style church.

I think I've heard about that before. I knew that it wasn't originally a Black church, since the crosses at the top are definitely Eastern Orthodox, but I couldn't make out what the cornerstone read from the sidewalk.

I don't know too much about the Ukrainians in Wilmington; I've read more about the Italians, Polish, and Irish. That church could've been the original St. Michael's Orthodox Church, now located on Kirkwood Highway, or it could've been the original Sts. Peter & Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church, now located on Philadelphia Pike, from the information that I could find.

[doctorjef]

Or could it have been the original site of the Roman Catholic Byzantine Rite Ukranian Catholic Church which is now located rather dismally beneath I-95 north of downtown?