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Photograph of Fort Delaware
Photograph by Michael Swanda, U.S. Army Corps of Enginers, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

From the record

“Fort Delaware is a former harbor defense facility, designed by chief engineer Joseph Gilbert Totten and located on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), the Union / United States Department of War / United States Army used Fort Delaware as a prison for Confederate prisoners of war, political prisoners, miscellaneous civilians, federal convicts, and privateer officers.”

Wikipedia article Fort Delaware, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 411 National Register listings published here for New Castle County · listed in 1971 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • Address. Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River, Delaware City
  • When was it listed? December 1971
  • Category. building
  • Census division. Red Lion
  • Architect. Joseph Gilbert Totten
  • National Register reference number. 71000226 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

7 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island between 1992 and 2015, burning about 180 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Arson/incendiarism1
Other causes1
Equipment and vehicle use1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
8 May 1995Missing data/not specified/undetermined90 acresSupawna Meadows National Wildlife RefugeMESSYONUS
21 May 1992Arson/incendiarismunder an acreNew Jersey Forest Fire Servicenot named
12 April 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined8.8 acresNew Jersey Forest Fire Servicenot named
9 March 2014Other causesunder an acreNew Jersey Forest Fire Servicenot named
25 March 1995Missing data/not specified/undetermined60 acresSupawna Meadows National Wildlife RefugeMILLCREEK2
24 March 1995Missing data/not specified/undetermined20 acresSupawna Meadows National Wildlife RefugeMILLCREEK1
16 November 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreNew Jersey Forest Fire Servicenot named

Every fire recorded in New Castle County

Mines and quarries near this property

8 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island: 6 past producers, 2 plants. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay, Sulfur, Aluminum. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Delaware Plant GettySulfurPlant
New Castle Plant C-E MineralsAluminumPlant
Delaware Brick Co. PitClayPast Producer
Delaware Brick Co. Pit and MillClayPast ProducerSedimentary
Delaware Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Delaware Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Woodlawn Sand & Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Woodlawn Sand & Gravel Pit & MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary

Every working recorded in New Castle County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Eastern Lock of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal1.1 miles1975
Delaware City Historic District1.4 miles1983
Fort Dupont Historic District1.4 miles1999
Chelsea1.7 miles1982
Fairview2.9 miles1982
Windsor3.8 miles1992

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 71000226 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
New Castle CountyAll 411 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • 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.