The Chambers House

The Chambers House began with Benjamin Chambers's 1775 purchase of 250 acres and establishment of a sawmill on nearby White Clay Creek, and his son Joseph built the house about 1820 after Benjamin's death. After 1841, the house and land passed through many owners outside the Chambers family until 1927, when distant relative Mary Chambers Folwell and her husband, P. Folwell, bought the property, started a dairy farm, and altered the house at various times. In 1959, E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Company bought the house and land with plans to build a dam on White Clay Creek, but public protests halted the project, the property was donated to the State of Delaware, and the area became part of White Clay Creek State Park, where the Chambers House now serves as the park's nature center. Built in a simple Quaker style seen in other local early 1800's homes, the original stone house was later enlarged by a side addition in the late 1800's that was renovated in the early to mid-1900's, and in 1985 State Parks restored and preserved it. Once nicknamed "Stairways" because it has one staircase in the old stone house and two more in the addition, the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places after additions were carefully completed to preserve its architecture.

Delaware · United States