Today was Howard Pyle Day at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, Delaware. A special exhibit of his paintings and illustrations ends this weekend, so there were some interesting events going on. After looking at the artwork, I saw 3 chefs and some pretty fancy cakes. They were asked to create cakes interpreting Pyle’s artwork, and I am picturing 2 of these cakes.  One, by Liz Marden of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, was inspired by Pyle’s Mermaid. The other cake, created by Hotel DuPont pastry chef Michelle Mitchell and her assistant, shows a DuPont powder wagon which probably inspired some Pyle illustrations.  There was also a mock lecture by Howard Pyle impersonator, Jim Norton, with Joyce Hill Stoner portraying his secretary, Gertrude Brincklé. (note: Pyle died in 1911 and Gertru... 03/03/2012

March 5, 1804, Nathan Burrows, a farmer living near John Dickinson’s plantation outside Dover, Delaware wrote, “Tis with regret I acquaint you that your house was burnt down on Saturday last.” With these words, Dickinson discovered that his home had been accidentally destroyed by fire on Saturday, March 3, 1804. Exactly 208 years later, on Saturday, March 3, 2012, from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., the John Dickinson Plantation, located at 340 Kitts Hummock Road in Dover, Del., will commemorate the anniversary of the blaze with a program that explores both the details of the fire and Dickinson’s decision to rebuild his beloved family home. Admission to the program is free and open to the public. For additional information, call 302-739-3277.Also on March 3, the Chester County Historical Society... 03/01/2012

  Date Mar 3, 2012 to Mar 4, 2012 Description Delaware Home Show March 3-4, 2012; Sat 10-6/ Sun 11-4 Chase Center on the Riverfront, 815 Justison Street, Wilmington, DE 19801 March 24 & 25, 2012; Saturday 10 – 6 & Sunday 11 – 4   Rollins Center Dover Downs Rollins Center at Dover Downs Hotel, 1131 North DuPont Highway, Dover, DE 19901 Location Wilmington and Dover , DE Additional Information Website: http://delawarehomeshow.com 02/29/2012

This spring the South Graylyn Crest Civic Association community event will be all about children who are in need. Many children go to bed at night without a good pair of pajamas or a bedtime story. Some of these children are in shelters and others are in foster homes waiting to be adopted. SGCCA will partner with Sprout to help them deliver a good night to children in need. The Great Sprout Tuck-In is presented in conjunction with the Pajama Program. Our goal is 150 new pairs of pajamas and new bedtime stories. Our drive kicks off in March with the delivery of our newsletter and an empty bag. The first round of donation pickups will occur on Saturday March 31st. A second opportunity to donate will occur at the Easter Egg Hunt in Chatham Park where SGCCA Board Members will be available t... 02/28/2012

Easily View ALL upcoming Open Houses in Wilmington Delaware Homes for Sale Real Estate CLICK HERE:   http://searchlistings.teamluca.com/i/9005/Open_Houses_Pike_Creek_Wilmington_Delaware_19808_Real_Estate We provide these searches as a free service, along with free Buyer Agent Representation for you. Having sold over 300 homes in the past seven years, our skill at finding value and negotiating on our clients' behalf could benefit you significantly. To interview us to represent your real estate financial interests, call us now - John & Mary Luca at 302-740-5872. We also offer our clients other tools to help them find the home of their dreams in the easiest manners and at the best prices. If you have a smart phone use our free Mobile Home Search using GPS . Once you view an Open House or ... 02/11/2012

Easily View ALL upcoming Open Houses in Wilmington Delaware Homes for Sale Real Estate CLICK HERE:       http://searchlistings.teamluca.com/i/9005/Open_Houses_Wilmington_Delaware_Real_Estate We provide these searches as a free service, along with free Buyer Agent Representation for you. Having sold over 300 homes in the past seven years, our skill at finding value and negotiating on our clients' behalf could benefit you significantly. To interview us to represent your real estate financial interests, call us now - John & Mary Luca at 302-740-5872. We also offer our clients other tools to help them find the home of their dreams in the easiest manners and at the best prices. If you have a smart phone use our free Mobile Home Search using GPS . Once you view an Open House or see a home fo... 02/11/2012

Since one year ago, real estate sales in New Castle County, Delaware, have continued the same trend which existed at the end of 2011. January listings were up almost 17% compared to one year ago. The good news is that closed sales were up more than 26% and pending sales were up twice that amount, 58%. Another trend that continued into 2012 was that prices dropped 20%, while days on the market averaged almost 7% higher than the previous year.  An anomaly is that single family detached listings were down almost 16%, which reflects what I am seeing with sellers.  They are holding their homes off the market that they would really rather sell. I saw this happen with one of my clients, for whom I did a market analysis showing that they would definitely have to list their house for about $50,... 02/06/2012

CAROLYN ROLAND --YOUR HISTORIC HOMES RESOURCE February 2012 Historic Homes E NewsThe Murphy House in Rockland, Delaware has been torn down by the Nemours Foundation as of 4:20 p.m. on Jan 11. In 2008, the State sold the house to the Foundation for $10 with their promise to restore the building. For details on this story see http://actvra.in/r8BOn Saturday, February 18, 2012, from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., the John Dickinson Plantation, located at 340 Kitts Hummock Road in Dover, DE 19901, will commemorate the 204th anniversary of the death of American patriot John Dickinson (Nov. 13, 1732–Feb. 14, 1808). The program will feature letters written in Dickinson’s memory by prominent Wilmington physician Joseph Bringhurst. The day’s activities will also include a wreath-laying ceremony at the gr... 01/31/2012

Although we had some light snow in October 2011, last night brought a couple of inches of wet snow in Wilmington. It was pretty icy around 9 a.m., but by noon it had turned to a manageable icy layer with enough water under it to scoop to the side of the driveway. And my lovely South Graylyn Crest neighbor had used his snow blower earlier to do the front sidewalks of about half a dozen houses from his house to mine, so all I had to shovel was the driveway and path to my door. Then I looked out my back window and saw this lovely sight. I had left a container with Juncus effusus (Big Twister - Twisted Rush) and alyssum for winter interest, and behold--it looked very interesting! 01/21/2012

As was true in other local markets, New Castle County, Delaware had a surge of activity in December, 2011, but a year end compilation of figures  still shows a slow market. Although new listings were up 1.3% in December, they were down almost 13% for the year. The reason for this can be seen in the median sales price of $195,000, which was down 8% for 2011 overall. The times are also reflected in days on the market, which for the year went up 21.5% from the previous year, from 79 to 96 days on the market.  These figures are saying to sellers that for the most part, your home will probably be on the market more than 90 days, and you will get around 8% less than last year. There are exceptions, of course, depending on neighborhood and condition of a property. And remember, don't overimpr... 01/17/2012

JANUARY      APRIL        JULY FRIDAY      FRIDAY      FRIDAY 13                   13              13         Wait--are we beginning to see a pattern here? For the first time since the early 1980’s, there will be a Friday the 13th (Like Today!) in January, April and July during a leap year. And to top it all off, they will all be 13 weeks apart.But you know what? I’m going to keep working and calling my contacts, because I don’t want them to think I have fallen into a black hole of some sort. We make our own luck, after all. Four-leaf clovers need not apply.    Still serving the Real Estate needs of Kent and New Castle Counties in Delaware, and Southern Chester County in Pennsylvania. No luck involved, just hard work and experience.CAROLYN ROLAND, GRI CRS 01/13/2012

   Once considered eligible for the Natiional Register of Historic Places, Brandywine Hundred's Murphy House was demolished yesterday. The Nemours Foundation, owners of the children's hospital across the road, had agreed to restore the Murphy House . Those who fought to preserve the build­ing said they felt double-crossed by the state it trusted to enforce deed restrictions im­posed in 2008 when it sold the acre at 1601 Rockland Road to Nemours for $10 and a promise to preserve the farmhouse. A deed restriction on the property was recently lifted by the State, and although Delaware Greenways proposed using the house as a trailhead for a bike program, the Nemours Foundation chose to take advantage of the lifting of restrictions and turn a deaf ear to the Greenways proposal. An earlier of... 01/12/2012

  Year-to-date (December 2011), close to one in four listings in New Castle County closed as a short sale or bank-owned property, and one in three in Kent County.  Above, we see the figures for December alone, and below we see the figures for  2011 as a whole. The biggest difference between New Castle and Kent Counties is that 15.5% of REO or Bank-Owned properties settled in NCCO, while 22.6% closed in Kent.  Short sale figures are almost identical, although the more populous northern county handled almost four times as many individual properties. . Your resource for older homes in Delaware and Southern Chester County, Pennsylvania. Carolyn Roland, GRI, CRS   01/11/2012

If you read my earlier blog, http://actvra.in/pbP  you know that preliminary measurement and clean out was being done on the sewer laterals in Brandywine Hundred and in particular,  South Graylyn Crest to prepare them for lining, per an EPA mandate. Rainwater and sewage were mixing and causing sewage to flow untreated into rivers. Not Good.  So New Castle County set about lining main lines and laterals into houses to prevent this leakage and overflow. Today was the day that workers Dave (the CCTV cameraman) and Octavio came to finish the job on my lateral (they still have a lot more houses to do in South Graylyn, then they move to North Graylyn Crest).     Here you see Dave checking the video screen to see how the lining is being inserted, then Octavio watches as Dave adjusts the camera... 01/09/2012

Efforts to preserve the endangered Murphy House in Wilmington have encountered yet another setback as Delaware Secretary of Transportation, Shailen Bhatt signed paperwork changing the usage of the property. The modification to the usage includes the razing of the Murphy house, keeping ownership of the property with the Nemours Foundation, and ensuring the the property remains open space. Though efforts have been made by residents, elected officials, Preservation Delaware, Delaware Greenways and other non-profits urging Nemours to forgo demolition of the Murphy House, it appears that this is what will happen. I received this plea from Preservation Delaware. A Plea from Larry Hoover, SaveTheMurphyHouse.Org, to email Nemours Foundation to save the William Murphy House in Wilmington Delawa... 01/05/2012

The year-end figures are in for New Castle County, Delaware real estate, and we are not surprised to see the results. New listings were down almost 13% for the year, while closed sales were up almost 18% for the month of December, but only 4% for the year. Prices were down 8% for the year, bringing the median sales price down from $212,000 in 2010 to $195,000 for 2011. This drop in sale prices is keeping many homes off the market, with almost 17% less single-family homes in inventory at the end of 2011 compared to 2010.  I predict that if and when prices start to stabilize, we will see many more houses come on the market. 01/04/2012

                          CAROLYN ROLAND            YOUR HISTORIC HOMES RESOURCE       JANUARY 2012 HISTORIC HOMES E NEWS        Please join the Chester County Pops Orchestra for a performance benefitting the Chester County Historical Society at Fugett Middle School, West Chester, January 9, 2012 at 7 p.m. For info, see http://chescopops.org/players.htm   Candlelight Tour -Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site,  January 19, 4:30-5:30 p.m.: Celebrate Poe's 203rd birthday with a special candlelight tour of his house, focusing on the famous stories he wrote here in Philadelphia. Free; reservations required. (215) 597-8780. The site is located at 532 N. Seventh St., Philadelphia. See  http://www.nps.gov/edal/index.htm   Take a survey and help the State of Delaware update its statewide his... 01/03/2012

   Even though the Joseph R. Biden Jr. Amtrak train station in Wilmington Delaware was designed by Frank Furness in 1908 and is in a National Register Historic District, it is very much an active place. As a matter of fact, it is the 11th busiest station in the country. Christmas day 2011 was no exception, as you can see from these pictures. Before and after 1:00 p.m., two trains were in the station, one going to Boston, and the other to Florida. Just another day of boarding trains for the conductors and engineers, but always an eventful day of riding the trains for passengers eager to get back home or travel to yet another train station!   Carolyn Roland is your resource for buying and selling older homes in New Castle and Kent Counties in Delaware and Southern Chester County, Pennsylv... 12/27/2011

http://activerain.com/blogsview/2646594/new-castle-county-november-market-report- is the Market Report for New Castle County, Delaware for November, 2011. http://activerain.com/blogsview/2657019/kent-county-delaware-market-report covers the central Delaware area for November, 2011. And last but not least, http://activerain.com/blogsview/2660379/southern-chester-county-market-report-and-children-s-christmas-trees-at-longwood-gardens is the market report for Southern Chester County, Pennsylvania for the year up to November, 2011. And here is the Peppermint Twist poinsettia from Longwood Gardens in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Merry Christmas to All! 12/23/2011

I visited Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania late afternoon the other day and got to see the conservatory and to join the crowd in the ballroom to sing Christmas Carols along with the famous organ. The organ is comprised of 10,010 pipes divided into 146 ranks, making it one of the largest Aeolian organs ever constructed.  We also visited the "organ museum" to see 5 of the 9 chambers, which are behind glass. In the growing area at the end of the East Conservatory, we saw this lovely poinsettia called "Luv U Pink."              On another side of the E. Conservatory, the rose area was spangled by Moravian Stars hanging above.  Amongst the roses, this beautiful hibiscus was a striking sight.       We ended our visit as the lights came on outiside while Christmas music played ... 12/21/2011