Grubb / Worth Mansion

John Grubb, one of the original English settlers in Delaware, acquired a one-third interest in a 600 acre tract of land at this location in 1680. Over several generations, the Grubb family greatly increased its land holdings in the area and successfully opened leather tanning and iron manufacturing businesses. In 1783, John Grubb’s great-grandson Amor Augustus Grubb built a fieldstone home believed to stand on the foundation of his great-grandfather’s original house from 1684. The house and land remained in the hands of Amor Grubb’s heirs until 1913. In 1918, Edward Worth of The Worth Steel Company bought the house and surrounding land, expanded the house, and doubled its size, and the Worth family named the estate Ledgeworth. In 1952, the Catholic Foundation of the Diocese of Wilmington purchased the estate and sold it to Holy Rosary Parish for use as a convent for the Sisters of Saint Joseph. The convent closed in 1980, and the mansion was then used for various activities, meetings, and retreats. In October 2011, after an extensive two year renovation, the mansion reopened as the Holy Rosary Parish Pastoral Center.

Claymont, Delaware · United States