New Castle, Delaware, was one of the first European inhabited settlements in Delaware. In the 1600's the area was first inhabited by the Swedes, and then the Dutch after that, of which both cultures maintained a permanent footprint on the area. When the Dutch "took over" from the Swedes, they allowed the Swedes settlers to remain because.. well.. they were successful settlers. Likewise, when the English finally showed up, they allowed both the Swedes and Dutch to remain for the same reasons. The importance of these peoples can be seen in the original New Castle Courthouse flying all four nations flags:
I made the visit today on a rather hot day - 95 F, or 35 C - hot enough that some local sailors were out on their sailboats. I happened to be here mid-day, so the lighting was awful, but I was able to squeeze some decent black and white's out of it.
The river is the Delaware River. The park between the river and the city is Battery Park, and is where the "batteries" of shore to ship weapons were placed for defence. Today it's just a nice park.
The old arsenal, however, where the weapons (and most important, gun powder) was stored is still standing. The arsenal and the courthouse are now museums.
The arsenal and the courthouse are both on "The Green", along with an old Episcopal Church. Community "Greens" were originally communal areas where social functions were held: markets were held weekly (imagine only having a weekly market!) as well as judicial functions and festivals were held here. Life in the 1600 and 1700's was obviously very different than today, and these shared social places were very important for the community.
There are some other buildings that I didn't get an opportunity to photography (it was hot, and my son was melting), but I did get a nice one of the courthouse. Here you can see the founding nations flags, as well as the current flags of the US and the State of Delaware.
The cupola on the top of the courthouse has historical importance: the boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania (and to a lesser extent, between Delaware and New Jersey) is ostensibly a 12 mile circle with the tip of the cupola as the centre point. Wikipedia has an interesting and more in depth read on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-Mile_Circle
Old New Castle is a great little city. It used to be the State Capital (now Dover) and still contains a large number of old buildings (of which I'll most likely have future posts). New Castle also hosts "Separation Day" festivities to commemorate Delaware officially separating from both Pennsylvania and England simultaneously.
(all images in this post made by myself)
