First State National Historical Park is a National Park Service unit which lies primarily in the state of Delaware but which extends partly into Pennsylvania in Chadds Ford.
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First State NHP's New Castle site was very interesting, and I learned a lot while there. Definitely check their hours before going, because they're only open Thursday through Saturday, 9 am to 4:30 pm, and the tours are worth going on, in my opinion. There's a whole historic town you can walk through (maps are in the Visitor Center, AKA the Arsenal), and my mom and I didn't even get through the whole thing in one day. I would recommend spreading your visit across multiple days to get the most out of it.
Our tour guide for the Courthouse Museum, Ranger Lexie, was very friendly and made the quick, 15-minute tour very engaging. She also took the initiative to do a quick internet search for questions she didn't know the answers to. I was very impressed by the many exhibits in the Courthouse Museum; the signs were well-made, and some were interactive. I learned a lot about America's history, even the problematic parts. It is so depressing that National Parks funding is being cut, because these people do so well at their jobs and care deeply about educating the public on history for free!
There was also a woman who gave a very interesting and thorough 45-minute tour at the Courthouse itself, but I forgot to get her name! I learned a lot from her about the people for whom the University of Delaware's residence halls were named, e.g. Louis Redding and Caesar Rodney.
If you have your National Parks Passport, you can get stamps from three different sites: the Visitor Center (AKA the Arsenal), the Courthouse Museum, and the...
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The "park" is actually a collection of 7 historic sites found throughout Delaware and the only federal historical park in the state. Interestingly enough, despite Delaware being the first US state, it was the last one to get a historical park.
If you're determined, you can visit all 7 sites in a single day. Four of them are clustered around the Wilmington metro area, which should make things a little easier. We visited 3 of these 4 sites for free - Fort Christina and Old Swedes Church in Wilmington and the Court House in New Castle. That took five hours. The farthest site from us at the time (called Ryves Holt House) was another 1.5 hours by car and it would've been closed by the time we arrived. We'll have to do another trip to complete the tour. But this was a good experience overall and we highly...
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I stopped by on a Wednesday which isn’t a day many places are open. Because of this, I was able to get a personal tour of the Court House Museum.
It was like walking back in time and I was waiting for them to come out for a court case. Not only was this the beginning of Delaware becoming an independent state, but was also important to the Underground Railroad. The guide was very knowledgeable and explained everything that happened in these walls.
Plenty of exhibitions showing the history of the Court House and Delaware as a whole. It is part of the First State National Heritage Parks sites. Don't forget your...
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