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Photograph of Lewes Historic District
Photograph by Smallbones, CC0 1.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Lewes Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

From the record

“Lewes Historic District is a national historic district located at Lewes, Sussex County, Delaware. The district includes 122 contributing buildings and 6 contributing sites encompassing most of the 17th-century town of Lewes, together with part of Pilot Town.”

Wikipedia article Lewes Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 136 National Register listings published here for Sussex County · listed in 1992 · category: District.

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

The listing

Fires near this property

9 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 9 fires within 5 miles of Lewes Historic District (Boundary Increase) between 1992 and 2016, burning about 66 acres in total. None started naturally. 7 were 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
Arson/incendiarism7
Debris and open burning1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1

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
5 July 1997Arson/incendiarism15 acresPrime Hook National Wildlife RefugeUNITIINO4
13 May 2001Arson/incendiarism10 acresPrime Hook National Wildlife RefugeFIELD 2 03
11 May 1992Arson/incendiarism3.0 acresPrime Hook National Wildlife RefugeUNIT2-9202
20 April 2016Debris and open burning16 acresDelaware Forest ServiceCOASTAL
11 April 1992Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresPrime Hook National Wildlife RefugeUNIT2-9201
27 March 1995Arson/incendiarism14 acresPrime Hook National Wildlife RefugeUNIT II
16 March 1997Arson/incendiarism4.5 acresPrime Hook National Wildlife RefugeUNITIINO3
16 March 1997Arson/incendiarism2.0 acresPrime Hook National Wildlife RefugeUNITIINO2

Every fire recorded in Sussex County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Lewes Historic District (Boundary Increase): 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Magnesite. 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
BarcroftMagnesiteProducer1972
Lewes PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Sussex County

Storms near this property

20 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lewes, the town this property stands in, in 20 storm reports between 1997 and 2026: 12 thunderstorm wind, 6 lightning, 1 rip current, 1 heavy rain. The reports record 1 death. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 1998Rip CurrentLewes1 killedno account filed
August 2011LightningLewes$75,000The roof of a Drake Knoll home in Lewes was struck by lightning and started a fire. Five fire companies battled the blaze that was mainly confined to the roof. No serious injuries were reported.
July 2007LightningLewes$75,000A series of thunderstorms over a period of three hours produced about 1100 cloud-to-surface lightning strikes in Sussex County and Delaware Bay from 4 p.m. EDT through 7 p.m. EDT on the 16th. About ten structures were struck by lightning in and around Lewes. The worst reported property damage was the ensuing fire that occurred after a lightning strike to a Brighton Drive home. The fire damage was estimated at $50,000. The lightning strike in the Sussex East Mobile Home Park started a shed fire which spread to a home, but was quickly extinguished. Two small fires were started by lightning strikes to homes in the Eagle Point Landing Development. Another lightning strike occurred at an apartment building at the Village of Five Points development. Lightning struck a Home Depot twice on Delaware State Route 1. Lightning also struck the Furniture Galley on Delaware State Route 1 and Practically Yours on U.S. Route 9. No serious injuries were reported with any of the fires.
May 2004LightningLewes$30,000no account filed
July 2003LightningLewes$25,000no account filed
July 2003LightningLewes$25,000no account filed
March 2026Thunderstorm WindLewes-Trees and wires down in Lewes. Time estimated from radar.
August 2012Thunderstorm WindLewes-A severe thunderstorm knocked down a few trees in Lewes.
July 2010Thunderstorm WindLewes-A mesonet site measured a wind gust of 58 mph in Lewes.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindLewes-A severe thunderstorm tore down several trees in both Lewes and Rehoboth Beach. Half inch hail also fell in Rehoboth Beach.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindLewes-no account filed
June 2005Thunderstorm WindLewes-no account filed
July 2003LightningLewes-no account filed
August 2003Thunderstorm WindLewes-no account filed
April 2002Thunderstorm WindLewes-no account filed
July 2001Heavy RainLewes-no account filed
August 2001Thunderstorm WindLewes-no account filed
June 2000Thunderstorm WindLewes-no account filed
March 1999Thunderstorm WindLewes-no account filed
August 1997Thunderstorm WindLewes-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Sussex 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
Coleman Houseunder 500 feet1977
Lewes Presbyterian Church0.1 miles1977
Hall, Col. David, House0.2 miles1976
Lewes Historic District0.3 miles1977
Lightship WLV 5390.5 miles1989
William Russell House0.8 miles1977

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 92000462 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Sussex CountyAll 136 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.
  • 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.