New Castle

Last night, a fellow and I made a trip down to visit some friends in New Castle, Delaware, for turkey gumbo. I had never been before to New Castle, and, embarrassingly, didn't know a thing about it. So our host took us for a walk and told us about the history of the town. (It was dark for the walk and I didn't bring my camera, so these pictures are mined from google, unfortunately.) He started with its Dutch founding, proceeded to it being taken over by the Swedes, and then to the influence of the British.



New Castle is where William Penn arrived when he first came to America. Delaware was originally part of Pennsylvania until it seceded (which, according to my friend, is why it was so eager to ratify the Constitution--before anyone tried to force it to become part of Pennsylvania again). When Delaware was part of Pennsylvania, PA had a dual executive, with governments in both New Castle and Philadelphia. Okay, so Mama Leopard is going to make tons of fun of me when she finds out that I didn't know all of this.


The old Anglican church in New Castle is very interesting, not only because it's in cruciform style, instead of the manor house style of more southern Anglican churches, but also because it's lit up with spotlights at night and the crosses on top of the gravestones reflect on the walls of the church. It's all very film noir.


(picture, picture, picture)