Woodlawn Trustees, Inc. / William Poole Bancroft

Woodlawn Trustees, Inc., also, William Poole Bancroft. . , Woodlawn Trustees, Inc. ~ The Land as Legacy , In 1981, Woodlawn Trustees, Incorporated helped the State of Delaware to add the land you see around you to Brandywine Creek State Park. Woodlawn owned 350 acres of this land, which at that time was worth almost $3 million. Woodlawn gave half of the land as a gift to the people of Delaware. Federal funds bought the other half., This area, known as the Woodlawn Tract, lies along the Brandywine Creek on both sides of Thompsons Bridge. Beginning in 1907, William Poole Bancroft and later Woodlawn Company and the Woodlawn Trustees bought the land to save it. They protected a wonderful landscape of old mills, dams, houses and barns, as well as rare wildflowers and some of the oldest woodlands in Delaware., When the Woodlawn Tract was added to Brandywine Creek State Park, a large part of William Bancroft's dream of saving the beauty of this region came true. Those dreams are still the goal of the Woodlawn Trustees and Delaware State Parks., William Poole Bancroft ~ A Man of Vision , There is a place about 400 feet above a bend in the Brandywine where William Poole Bancroft is remembered to have brought visitors. Below lay a beautiful valley. The creek flowing through green fields and gently rolling woodlands was alive with plants and animals. Bancroft also saw that the growing city of Wilmington might soon spread into this valley., Bancroft was a man of vision and action. He bought land in the valley to be saved as parkland for future generations. In 1901 he formed the Woodlawn Company to further his objectives of preserving open space for public enjoyment, providing rental housing for persons of modest means and to pursue planned orderly funding. In this way some of the kind helped to pay for preserving the rest for parks and open space. The Brandywine Creek's valleys, streams, marshes, meadows and woodlands were preserved and protected for people to enjoy.