Willingtown Square

Willingtown Square. Delaware Historical Society. , Willingtown Square honors Thomas Willing and the original name of the town he helped found in 1731. The four brick structures, built between 1731 and 1801, represent the types of houses common in early Willingtown. Buildings like these often served as both businesses and residences. Each has only one or two rooms per floor. Large families both lived and worked in these small spaces., By the 1960s and 1970s, the older neighborhoods in which these houses originally stood had decayed and were slated for urban renewal. A determination effort by preservationists rallied support to move the buildings to a site on Market Street from which four commercial buildings had been removed. The houses were moved in 1976 and the area renamed Willingtown Square. The Delaware Historical Society accepted the responsibility for preserving the houses and now uses them for offices and meeting rooms.