Clayton, Delaware
30 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1899 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the Smyrna census division. It lies in ZIP code area 19938. It stands on Providence Creek. The Survey maps it on the Clayton quadrangle. 3,961 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 48 feet above sea level.
On record in Clayton
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 4 records
Byrd's AME Churchlisted 1982
Clayton Railroad Stationlisted 1986
Enoch Jones Houselisted 1973
St. Joseph's Industrial Schoollisted 2002
Population over time
3 figuresClayton grew from 148 to 3,961 between 1880 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1880 | 148 | |
| 2010 | 2,918 | |
| 2020 | 3,961 | +1,043 (+36%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 30 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1899 USGS Dover quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1906 USGS Dover quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1920 USGS Dover quadrangle1:125000
- 1931 USGS Smyrna quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1946 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Clayton quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1966 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1972 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS Dover quadrangle1:100000
- 1993 USGS Clayton quadrangle1:24000
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Clayton: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hoskinson Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
23 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Clayton in 23 storm reports between 1999 and 2026: 17 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 2 heavy rain, 1 flash flood. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | 1 hurt, $200,000 | no account filed |
| April 2026 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | $40,000 | A tree was blown down onto a house in the Clayton Courts Neighborhood. |
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | $10,000 | A severe thunderstorm tore down a couple of trees in Clayton, one of which damaged a home. |
| April 2026 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | - | Several large trees and power lines were blown down around Clayton. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | - | Several reports of trees and power lines down in Clayton. Time estimated from radar. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | - | Several reports of downed trees and wires near Millington Rd. Time estimated from radar. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | - | Trees and wires were downed near and south of Clayton. Time estimated from radar. |
| August 2017 | Flood | Clayton | - | Water reported over the road on Mount Friendship road. |
| July 2017 | Heavy Rain | Clayton | - | Daily rainfall from the 6th. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | - | A few downed trees due to thunderstorm winds. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Clayton | - | Nickel size hail fell from a thunderstorm in Clayton. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | - | A severe thunderstorm knocked down poles across a roadway in Clayton. |
| July 2011 | Flash Flood | Clayton | - | Thunderstorms with torrential downpours caused field, poor drainage and small stream flooding in northwestern Kent County in and around Kenton Hundred. Doppler Radar storm total estimates averaged between 3 and 4 inches, most of which fell within one hour. |
| June 2009 | Hail | Clayton | - | Penny to nickel size hail fell in Clayton. Hail covered the ground so extensively, that some of it was still around the next morning. |
| September 2009 | Heavy Rain | Clayton | - | Showers and thunderstorms with heavy rain caused some poor drainage flooding in Kent County. Roadway flooding was reported in Clayton along Peach Alley and Wilson Street. Event precipitation totals included 3.79 inches in Dover and 3.54 inches in West Dover Hundred. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | - | A severe thunderstorm tore down large tree limbs and wires in Clayton. |
| May 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | - | A severe thunderstorm knocked down a couple of trees and wires in Clayton. |
| February 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | - | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Johnson Farm | 0.5 miles | 30 | |
| Wheatleys Pond | 0.7 miles | 30 | |
| Millcreek | 0.8 miles | 32 | |
| Spruance City | 1.0 miles | 32 | |
| Gardenside | 1.0 miles | 32 | |
| Pheasant Point II | 1.1 miles | 30 | |
| Wind Song Farms | 1.3 miles | 30 | |
| Long Point Landing | 1.4 miles | 32 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Clayton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q755717 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 213805. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.












