Farnhurst is an unincorporated community in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. The site of two historic hospitals (one now gone) and a number of cemeteries, the community once had a post office, school, and rail station.
Farnhurst, Delaware | |
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Farnhurst Farnhurst | |
Coordinates: 39°41′35″N 75°34′39″W / 39.69306°N 75.57750°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Delaware |
County | New Castle |
Elevation | 43 ft (13 m) |
Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
Area code | 302 |
GNIS feature ID | 216946[1] |
Farnhurst is located at the junction of Interstate 295, U.S. Route 13, and U.S. Route 40, 2.2 miles (3.5 km) north-northwest of New Castle.[2]
Farnhurst is the site of the Delaware State Hospital, a psychiatric institution, originally opened in 1889, and often called Farnhurst.[3] The New Castle County Almshouse/Hospital also operated in Farnhurst from 1884 to 1933; these two large institutions were on adjoining plots.[4]
A post office opened at Farnhurst on January 15, 1890. According to historian Harvey Cochran Bounds, the 1890 opening of the post office in Farnhurst "had more than a little to do" with the closure of the nearby Hares Corner post office. The Farnhurst post office was moved to the psychiatric hospital grounds in the 1930s.[5]
In 1898, a stagecoach line ran three times per week between Wilmington and Farnhurst; a trolley system connecting Farnhurst to Wilmington was proposed in the Wilmington Evening Journal.[6] At that time, a round-trip coach between Farnhurst and Wilmington cost twenty cents.[7]
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Farnhurst Asylum had its own baseball team, which played against teams such as the Wilmington Actives.[8][9]
In 1901, newspapers announced the creation of a village at Farnhurst. This village housed workmen on the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad. The 25 new buildings, at that time described as sheds, were built overnight.[10] That same year, the P.B.& W. rail line in Farnhurst was altered, easing the curves of the railroad and leveling the steep grade; there was also a beautification project, with rail workers adding flower beds and landscaping to the rail station.[11]
In 1904, Farnhurst was described as a post village on the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad.[12] The station opened largely to service the hospital and the nearby almshouse.[13]
In 1912, Delaware courts ruled that the old soldiers living in the Farnhurst almshouse would be allowed to vote. The Wilmington Journal reported that "the court decided the old soldiers have a right to vote and the people will see that the men get their votes in the box and are counted."[14]
In 1920, Farnhurst's population was 332.[15] Around this time, the population of the State Hospital was 541,[16] and the New Castle County Almshouse's population was 220.[17]
In 1934, Gracelawn Memorial Park, a cemetery, opened across the highway from the two hospitals.[18]
In 1939, a new chapel was completed at the State Hospital. A project of the Works Progress Administration, the building was completed in September of that year.[19] In 1940, Farnhurst's population was 250.[20]
The older cemetery on the grounds of the hospital and almshouse, which served as a potters field for New Castle County, was mostly obliterated in the 1950s/1960s by highway construction of the Farnhurst interchange providing access to the Delaware Memorial Bridge.[21][22][3][23][24]
The Farnhurst post office closed in 1958.[25] In 1961, the hospital/almshouse, renamed the New Castle Building after its 1933 closure, burned to the ground.[4]
In 1960, Farnhurst's population was 350.[26]
The Farnhurst School was still intact in the 1980s.[27] Since 1978, this building has been the Howard J. Weston Senior Center,[28][29] now a part of the Wilmington Manor census-designated place.