1750 John Shallcross, a wealthy Quaker merchant, begins
buying rural land west of Wilmington. He names the property “Hope Farm.” The
farm passes through generations of his family.
1863 Portions of the Shallcross-Lovering “Hope Farm”
(tracts within present-day Forty Acres boundaries) are sold off to A. Hughes
and Thomas Taylor.
1864 Horse-drawn trolleys put into service with the barn
set up at what is now Trolley Square.
1865 William Wharton purchases a tract of the
Shallcross-Lovering Farm and builds the Logan House hotel.
Mid-1860s Real-estate references to the area are made as “Forty
Acres.”
1865 John Fehrenbach purchases land from the
Shallcross-Lovering “Hope Farm” with the intention of building a brewery.
1866 Remaining property of the Lovering farm is sold off
in separate parcels to Henry Pickles, John McKinney, William Hoopes, James
Bradford, J.S. Heald and Joseph H. Gould.
1866-67 Brewery founded by John Hartmann and John
Fehrenbach. One of the brewery’s remaining three-story buildings is now
Gallucio’s Bar & Cafe.
1871 Drugstore opens at southeast corner of Delaware
Avenue and Du Pont Street (now the site of the vacant Smoke Shop).
1871 St. James Church at Lovering and Du Pont, its
foundation damaged by vibrations from the Baltimore & Ohio Rail Road, is
relocated to Union Street and changes its parish name to St. Ann’s.
1880 Soldiers and Sailors Monument built in triangular
wedge at Broom Street and Delaware Avenue.
1884 Ornate red brick B&O railway station begins
construction at the corner of Du Pont Street and Delaware Avenue.
1888 The city tries its first electric trolleys.
1889 John D. “Whiskers” Kelly and his wife take over the
Logan House and later build houses in the area. (Kelly family still owns the
Logan House.)
1893 The Water Witch Fire Company is built on Gilpin
Avenue. Now known as Station No. 5 Fire House, it is still in use.
1900 Famed illustrator Howard Pyle opens his Wilmington
school on Franklin Street.
1901 Thomas H. Cappeau buys the drugstore on Delaware
Avenue. He runs “Cappy’s,” remembered for its pink marble soda fountain, until
1943, .
1934 Writer Henry Seidel Canby publishes “The Age of
Confidence.”
1938 The first trackless trolleys are introduced.
1950 Constantinou family buys the old B&O lunch
counter on Delaware Avenue across from the car barn. A decade later, the
restaurant changes its name to Constantinou’s House of Beef.
1958 B&O discontinues passenger rail service.
1960 B&O station, most recently used as warehouse,
is demolished.
1962 Acme market built at the far end of the lot from
where the station once stood.
1966 Luther Towers I senior residence built at Harrison
Street and Delaware Avenue.
1974 Old trolley barn, more recently known as the
Delaware Coach Co., closes.
1978 Trolley Square Shopping Center built where the
trolley barn once stood.
1991 Dan Butler opens Toscana in a new shopping center
on Du Pont Street across from the Acme.
1992 Delaware Center for Horticulture opens in the old
Wilmington parks maintenance facility.
2002 Forty Acres Historical Society founded.
