Newark

Like most initial settlements in Colonial America, the growth and development of Newark depended on natural features and location benefits. An early 1700s small English, Scots-Irish and Welsh hamlet in time began serving travelers en-route Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, Maryland and colonial Philadelphia. A rich soil encouraged farming and relative activity and industrial development grew around iron-ore deposits, creek banks and a bustling local market which swelled alongside. The first church in the state and the first paper mill of the United States also happen to be located at Newark, which is located at a distance of 19 kilometers to the west southwest of Wilmington.

Schools and education have played an important role in the history of this region, when the first school was moved from New London to Newark in 1765. A new school was granted a charter by the state in 1833, and was called the Newark College which joined the Newark Academy in the following year to be known as the Delaware College. Eventually this educational institution came into the sole ownership of the State of Delaware in 1921 to be renamed as the University of Delaware.

After World War II, Newark happily followed the post war national economic boom and started expanding the city’s boundary lines adding the Diamond State Industrial Park. This was later followed by the Sandy Brae Industrial Park and a whole lot of suburban residential communities growing around these industrial achievements. That little hamlet between the creeks has now come to become a bustling small city retaining the college town charm provided by the stoic presence of the University of Delaware overpowering a substantial industrial and commercial activity which has thrived alongside.