Arden

It was the first entire village listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and noted as a successful utopian community Arden was founded in 1900 by sculptor Frank Stephens and architect Will Price, based on ideas such as Henry George's single tax and William Morris’s Arts and Crafts principles

Notable People

Among the most notable former residents of Arden are Upton Sinclair (1878-1968), author of The Jungle,

Harry Kemp (1883-1960), known as the Vagabond Poet, and

Ella Reeve Bloor (1862-1951), a founder of the communist party in America

Bridgeville

Festivals - Bridgeville is home to the Apple Scrapple Festival and the World Championship Punkin Chunkin .

Notable People

Thurman Adams, Jr.-Delaware State Senate

William F. Allen-Former Congressman for Delaware.(The family moved to Seaford, Delaware when he was six)

William Cannon-A governor of Delaware during the Civil War.

Peter F. Causey-Governor of Delaware from 1855-1869.

Edward Willis Redfield-Impressionist painter.

Claymont

Notable People

Joe Biden, U. S. President, Vice President and Senator

Valerie Bertinelli, One Day at a Time and Touched by an Angel actress

J. Caleb Boggs, Governor of Delaware, U. S. Representative, and U. S. Senator

F. O. C. Darley, known as "Father of American Illustration"

John J. Raskob, DuPont and General Motors executive

Adolf Ulric Wertmüller, Swedish portrait painter

Delmar

Notable People

William Alland Actor, Producer, Writer of B-Rated Sci-Fi and Westerns

Dewey Beach

The town hosts the Dewey Beach Music Conference during the last weekend of September. This event began in 2002 and has been a huge draw for unsigned bands from all over the country.

Another popular Dewey Beach event, which occurs every October, is Greyhounds Reach The Beach, where thousands of rescued greyhounds and their owners congregate.

Also, the town is the location of the annual East Coast Skimboarding Championships, in mid-August.

Farmington

Notable natives

Lyman Pierson Powell - Episcopalian priest, college president, and historian.

William Tharp - Nineteenth century governor.

Frederica

ILC Dover, the company who manufactured the spacesuits for the Apollo and Skylab astronauts of the 1960s and 1970s, along with fabricating the suit component of the Space Shuttle's Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU), is located nearby.

A bizarre, yet true story concerns a woman who hanged herself by a public road (Front Street) in Frederica, just off of the Murderkill River. This occurred on October 26, 2005. The police thought the calls they received were an early Halloween prank and ignored them for three hours

Georgetown

Return Day Every two years, Georgetown hosts an unusual event known as "Return day", a half-day-long parade and festival two days after Election Day. Stemming from the colonial days in which the public would congregate in Georgetown two days after the election to hear the results (because it would take that long to deliver the results to the courthouse by horseback), the winners of that year's political races parade around The Circle in carriages with the losers and the chairs of the county's political parties ceremonially "bury the hatchet" in a tub of sand. The afternoon of Return Day is a holiday for county and state workers in Sussex County, and the event is marked by a traditional ox feast, much revelry, and, of course, the beginning of the next round of campaigns. Many in Delaware feel that the state's traditionally chummy and staid political climate is due in large part to the Return Day tradition.

Notable residents

In 1981, a baseball team from Georgetown won the Senior Little League World Series in Gary, Indiana. Members of the team included Tim Conoway, Kevin Duperron, Mike Hearn, Barry Joseph, Alan Mears, Brian Messick, Tim Mumford, Bruce Noble, Tim Reynolds, Bill Savage, Jeff Shockley, Tom Tipton, Kevin Waples, Guy Wilkins, and John Young. They were coached by Russell Elliot and Coston Shockley.

Luke Pettigout from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, grew up in Georgetown and attended Sussex Central High School before he attended college at the University of Notre Dame and was drafted into the NFL by the New York Giants.

Iced Earth vocalist Matt Barlow has been a police officer in Georgetown since September, 2003. Matt says he was inspired to do something more substantial with his life after the September 11 attacks. He left the band to pursue a career in law enforcement. Then on December 11, 2007 he rejoined Iced Earth replacing Tim 'Ripper' Owens, who had replaced him a few years earlier.

Greenville

Hagley Museum and Library

Henry Francis DuPont

Winterthur Museum

Mt. Cuba Center

Twin Lakes Brewing Company

Notable People

Jim Thompson, noted businessman and U.S. military intelligence officer

Ted Kaufman, Democratic junior United States Senator from Delaware.

Greenwood

Notable People

Simeon S. Pennewill Politician, Governor of Delaware (1909-1913)

Earle D. Willey Politician, US Congressman (1943-1945)

Hugh M. Morris Attorney, US District Court Judge

Gumboro

Gumboro is home to the Old Homestead, a home in the heart of town that is reportedly haunted, and the Cypress Swamp which many travelers have reported hearing voices emanating from.

Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) was first discovered in Gumboro in the 1962, and thus has been known as Gumboro disease. This virus causes an immuno-suppressive disease in chickens. The disease is usually sub-clinical in birds less than two weeks of age and clinical disease is generally observed in birds over two weeks of age.

Hockessin

Notable People

Cab Calloway, Jazz Singer and Bandleader

Tony Graffanino, Major League Baseball Player

Bernard Hopkins, Professional Boxer

The first Roman Catholic church in Delaware was located in Hockessin. Missionary priests from Maryland established the Coffee Run Mission in 1790

Laurel

Bert Carvel - Former Governor of Delaware

Nathaniel Mitchell - Former Governor of Delaware, Member of the Continental Congress

William B. Cooper - Former Governor of Delaware

Joshua H. Marvil - Former Governor of Delaware

Mark and Jay Briscoe - Professional wrestlers

Lewes

Because Lewes was the earliest town founded in the state, and because Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution, the town refers to itself as "The first town in the first state On April 5 and 6, 1813, during the War of 1812, British naval vessels led by HMS Poictiers under the command of Captain Sir John Poo Beresford briefly and ineffectually bombarded the town. A cannonball from the bombardment is lodged in the foundation of Cannonball House, which now serves as the town's maritime museum. In addition to being a tourist destination, Lewes is also the home of the Zwaanendael Museum, which features exhibits about Delaware's history.

Middletown

Middletown is home to the Olde Tyme Peach Festival, an annual tradition that attracts thousands of visitors each August.

Middletown hosts the M.O.T. Big Ball Marathon, an annual Labor Day event that benefits local charities.

It also hosts an annual Hummers parade. The parade's name is a spoof of the nearby Philadelphia Mummers parade. As opposed to the Mummers, which is judged seriously, the Hummers dress up and make fun of all the popular news headlines, political, celebrity, and local happenings of the year.

The 1989 film Dead Poets Society starring Robin Williams was filmed almost entirely on the school grounds at St. Andrew's School. The theatre scene was filmed at The Everett Theatre on Main Street in Middletown. The episode of The West Wing entitled "Two Cathedrals" (#44) was partly filmed at St. Andrew's School. Trevor Eddy, a student at that time, scored a speaking part as Young Bartlet's Friend and gave a riveting performance.

"Watermelon Crawl" was filmed in June 2007 in Middletown and Townsend. It is in post-production.

Notable People

Danielle Marshall, Miss Delaware's Outstanding Teen 2009, a 2011 graduate of Appoquinimink High School

Amanda Debus, Miss Delaware's Outstanding Teen 2008, a 2010 graduate of Middletown High School

Ashlee Greenwell, Miss Delaware USA 2006

Rebecca Bledsoe, Miss Delaware 2005, a 2000 graduate of Middletown High School

Reggie Leach, former Philadelphia Flyers forward

Dwayne Henry, former Major League Baseball pitcher

Silas Simmons, longest-lived professional baseball player in history

Tom Verlaine, guitarist and singer for 1970s art punk group Television, attended St. Andrew's School

Loudon Wainwright III, folk singer, attended St. Andrew's School

Willard Walls, Ralph Nader impersonator

Kate Banaszak, Miss Delaware USA 2009

Milford

Trivia John Lofland (1798-1849), widely known as the "Milford Bard", was a prolific and widely read writer of prose, verse and speeches. He grew up and spent much of his life in "The Towers" on North West Front Street. Later in his life he moved to Baltimore where he associated with Edgar Allan Poe.

Milford hosted farm teams of the New York Giants and Boston Red Sox in the Eastern Shore Baseball League as well as a team known as the Sandpipers.

On October 11, 1929, JC Penney opened Store #1252 in Milford, which made it a nationwide company with stores in all 48 of the continental states.

In 1974 a second grade class at the Lulu Ross Elementary School in Milford successfully petitioned the State Legislature to make the ladybug Delaware's official state bug. Starting in April 2004 Downtown Milford, Inc., a local business association, established an annual festival - the Bug & Bud Festival - to celebrate this event and recognize Arbor Day.

Robert Crumb, the most famous American cartoon artist of the twentieth century, lived in Milford for a few years and attended high school there.

Chris Short, star baseball pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1960s, was born in Milford.

Simmie Knox began to teach himself to paint while living in Milford as a young man. He later became the first Afro-American to paint an official presidential portrait - that of President Bill Clinton

Millsboro

On July 21, 1930, the temperature in Millsboro rose to 110°F (43°C), the highest temperature ever recorded in Delaware. However, on January 17, 1893, the temperature fell to -17°F (-27°C), the coldest temperature ever seen in Delaware. Thus, it is only one of two cities in the United States to record both its state's extreme temperatures. The other city is Warsaw, Missouri.

New Castle

Stonum, the house of George Read Thomas McKean House, 22 The Strand

Notable People

John Walter Bratton songwriter

William C. Frazer. United States territorial judge

Thomas Holcomb, Commandant of the United States Marine Corp, diplomat

Dave May, MLB former MLB player

Vinnie Moore, guitarist

Jeff Otah, NFL player

George Read I, signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, second Governor of Delaware.

Ryan Phillippe, actor

Nicholas Van Dyke I, President of Delaware

Nicholas Van Dyke II, son of Nicholas Van Dyke I, United States Senator

Newport

Notable People

Oliver Evans, inventor

Dallas Green, Major League Baseball pitcher and manager of the 1980 World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies

Henry Latimer, United States Representative and Senator

Rehoboth Beach

The town often bills itself as "The Nation's Summer Capital" due to the fact that it is a frequent summer vacation destination for Washington, D.C., residents as well as visitors from Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania Reader's Digest named the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk as "Best of America". This celebration of the quirky, amazing and truly extraordinary was featured in the May 2006 issue. Additionally, AARP has named Rehoboth Beach as one of five dream towns as "Best Places to Retire".[6]

The town has several festivals including the Sea Witch Festival, the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival,[7], and the Rehoboth Beach Autumn Jazz Festival[8] every year.

Seaford

Voted the 28th Best Small Town in America

Notable People

Former baseball player Delino DeShields

Former American football player Lovett Purnell

Former Olympic baseball player

Mike Neill San Francisco writer and performance artist

Jon Longhi Aerospace Tycoon

Capt. Lee F. Booth Philadelphia poet

Eddie Watkins DE Gatorade HS baseball player of the year and

Major League Baseball draft pick Derrik Gibson (selected 77th in the 2008 MLB Draft by the Boston Red Sox)

Former Iranian Embassy Hostage Capt. Greg Persinger

Slaughter Beach

Mispillion Lighthouse Slaughter Beach was home to the only wooden frame lighthouse still standing in Delaware, the Mispillion Lighthouse. The lighthouse, which overlooked the Mispillion River and Cedar Creek, was established in 1831 with a 65 foot tower. The lighthouse was on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2002 the lighthouse was partially destroyed when it was hit by lightning. The lighthouse was later purchased privately, transported down the bay via barge, and incorporated into a private residence in the town of Lewes.

Slaughter Beach is also home to the Milford Neck Wildlife Area. Tourists are attracted to this area for bird watching as many birds stop over to eat the eggs of horseshoe crabs as they lay their eggs on the beaches.

Along with Broadkill and Pickering beaches, this area is officially designated as a horseshoe crab sanctuary. Because Slaughter Beach is such an important area for the continued survival of horseshoe crabs and the migrating birds that depend on their eggs, the town has adopted the horseshoe crab as its official town symbol

Smyrna

Notable People

John Bassett Moore, international lawyer.

Chuck Wicks, country music singer and Dancing with the Stars contestant

Billy Bailey, Convicted Murderer, Last person to be hanged in the US (1996)

Wyoming

The "Wyoming Peach Festival" occurs every August. It offers pageants, homemade peach ice cream and tours of Fifer Orchards, which is the largest peach and apple producer in the state of Delaware.