| Between 1880 and 1940, the Read House garden and New Castle, Delaware have been historicized as fixed. Focusing upon the constancy of structures in the National Historic Landmark district, historians have conjectured that an economy in decline produced a stagnant community. In contrast, however, New Castle experienced both periods of economic instability and regeneration during the period. In the inconsistent fiscal climate, industrialists, affluent residents, and town leaders reinvented the community's cultural history by transforming use and ornamentation of private and public landscapes.;Interpreting variations in the town's open spaces between 1880 and 1940 connected New Castle to larger American themes of industrialization, suburbanization, Progressive reform, and city beautification. In addition, it facilitated understanding New Castle's transition from prominent Colonial and Federal town with big city aspirations to an insular Colonial Revival historic district, a foundation built upon throughout the twentieth century.;Multiple perspectives provided by primary source materials created a rich context for identifying and understanding changes in the Read House garden and New Castle. Public and institutional records of the New Castle City Council, Trustees of the New Castle Common, and New Castle Presbyterian Church demonstrated the ways in which groups, most often of the town's elite, viewed and responded to the town's fluctuating manufacturing economy. Reports from several Wilmington newspapers recorded regular activities, events, and sentiments of a more diverse population. New Castle residents' correspondence, documents, and photographs, collected by government and private historical organizations and for preservation initiatives, highlighted the changing private landscape, as well as individual perspectives on evolving public green space.;From these rich primary source materials, a history of planned change emerged, manifested in New Castle's private and public landscapes. As industries and suburbs expanded upon former estates and farms on the town's perimeter, open space in the urban core formerly used for livestock grazing, light industry, and domestic trash dumping was reconfigured as public parks and ornamental private gardens. The Read House garden, a fixture since the mid-nineteenth century, changed too with the needs of its owners, yet served as a visible symbol, inspiration and example of the town's prosperous past. |
