Lewes in Sussex County, Delaware — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)

deVries Monument

— Dutch Settlement of Delaware —

Photographed By Mike Stroud, October 15, 2010

1. deVries Monument

National Register of Historic Places: De Vries Palisade ** (added 1972 - Site - #72000299) • Also known as DeVries Palisade of 1631 Fort Oplandt • Address Restricted, Lewes • Historic Significance: Event, Information Potential • Area of Significance: Historic - Aboriginal, Commerce • Cultural Affiliation: Dutch Settlers • Period of Significance: 1600-1649 • Owner: Private , State • Historic Function: Funerary, Landscape • Historic Sub-function: Cemetery, Underwater • Current Function: Funerary, Landscape, Transportation • Current Sub-function: Cemetery, Road-Related, Underwater •

Inscription. Erected
By The
State of Delaware
To Commemorate The Settlement
On This Spot, Of The First
Dutch Colony, Under De Vries,
A.D. 1631.

Here was the cradling of a state.
"That Delaware exists as a separate
Commonwealth is due to this colony !"
Bancroft

Erected 1909.

Topics. This historical marker and monument is listed in this topic list: Landmarks. A significant historical year for this entry is 1631.

Location. 38° 47.176′ N, 75° 9.513′ W. Marker is in Lewes, Delaware, in Sussex County. Marker is on Pilottown Road (Front Street), on the right when traveling north. Located opposite St. Peter's Pilottown Road Cemetery. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Lewes DE 19958, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within one mile of this marker, measured as the crow flies. The De Vries Monument (here, next to this marker); University of Delaware (about 600 feet away, measured in a direct line); Home of Major Henry Fisher (approx. 0.2 miles away); Tapping the Power of Wind Energy in Coastal Delaware (approx. ¼ mile away); Maull House (approx. 0.4 miles away); St. George African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and Cemetery (approx.

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0.7 miles away); Station Master's House (approx. 0.9 miles away); Harbeson Railroad Station Privy (approx. one mile away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Lewes.

Regarding deVries Monument. In 1631 on this site, 28 Dutch settlers under the direction of deVries established the whaling colony of Zwaanendael and erected a fort. The following spring, Indians burned the stockade and massacred the settlers. Although the ill-fated settlement endured only briefly, its existence was significant in Delaware's becoming a separate State The Monument honoring the significance of the settlement was erected in the center of what was once the North bastion of the fort (apparently by coincidence). In 1964 members of the Sussex Society of Archaeology and History found the postmold patterns of the South bastion as sketched by deVries. This discovery culminated several years of effort to determine the exact location of the fort.

Also see . . . Zwaanendael Colony. Wikipedia entry (Submitted on December 14, 2020, by Larry Gertner of New York, New York.)

Photographed By Mike Stroud, October 15, 2010

2. deVries Monument

Credits. This page was last revised on January 18, 2022. It was originally submitted on October 31, 2010, by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina. This page has been viewed 1,131 times since then and 40 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on November 4, 2010, by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina.