EARLY HISTORY
 View of South Porch |
The Woodburn property is a surviving portion of a land grant to David Morgan in 1684 for 412 acres of land. The land granted to David Morgan was noted as "Immediately adjacent to the northern boundary of the original town tract of Dover." This 1684 patent covered land from present day North Street to about Hazel Road on the north side of the City and extended a mile west from the St. Jones River. It was known as David Morgan's Calf Pasture. Historical information has not been discovered on any homes or buildings erected on this property by the Morgan family.
One hundred years after the Morgan patent, the land was sold to Charles Hillyard III (not "Jr." as noted on the sale) by Sheriff John Clayton on November 2, 1784. The deed for this sale follows:
2 November 1784 Kent County Deed Book Y 997-99 John Clayton, Sheriff to Charles Hillyard, Jr. "All that Lott or parcel of ground situae (sic) on the North side of the town of Dover and on the east of the main Road leading from said Town of Dover to Jones's Bridge Bounded as follows vislt (sic). BEGINNING at a corner of a Lott of ground belonging to the heirs of John Bullen decd. by the edge of the afsd (sic) Dover River alias Joneses Creek, thence South sixty two and a quarter degrees west sixty four and three quarter perches to a corner of a Lott of Ground sold by sed (sic) John Bell to Peter Furth thence with said Lott North eight degrees East five and a Quarter perches to a corner of a Lott of ground sold by said John Bell to John Bell, Junior, thence with same Lott North eight degrees East ten and a half." |
After the purchase, Woodburn was built on the plot by Charles Hillyard III. The origin of the name Woodburn is unknown.
This home is one of the finest Middle Period Georgian homes in Delaware. Woodburn is a well proportioned, massive structure with three full floors, an attic and a cellar. The builders layered the brick work in Flemish bond at the north and south sides with a belt course between the first and second floors of five bricks in width and a water table topped with two courses of molded bricks.
Among the notable features of this house, the distinctive woodwork of the Middle Georgian Period is reflected in the window treatment, the dados around many of the walls, the chair rails and the fine molding.
