Along the Kirkwood Highway

By William Francis

The Kirkwood Highway is an almost six-mile portion of State Route 2 in New Castle County, Delaware. Built as a bypass of Marshallton after the opening of Delaware Park at Stanton in 1937, it was meant to provide Wilmington-area horse-racing fans a straighter and faster route to the track. It is named after a distinguished officer of the American Revolution, Robert Kirkwood Jr., who was born at his family’s farm along Polly Drummond Hill Road in Newark in 1756. Since it opened to automobile traffic, the highway has undergone numerous renovations and the scenery along its route has changed dramatically. Today, it is the fifth-busiest roadway in the state and is lined by shopping centers, national retailers, fast-food and chain restaurants, gas stations, subdivisions, and historic sites. Through vintage photographs, Along the Kirkwood Highway takes a nostalgic look back at the travel corridor, its cross streets, and familiar sites along its path.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Jun 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9781439645444

Book preview

Delaware.

INTRODUCTION

The Robert Kirkwood Highway is a dual highway that was originally built as a bypass of Marshallton. The opening of Delaware Park at Stanton in 1937 necessitated its construction. The planning and design of both the park and highway coincided during the early 1930s. In 1938, construction began on what was considered a realignment of Capitol Trail, the road that went through Marshallton, by extending New Road in Elsmere west. The road that was bypassed was renamed Old Capitol Trail, the name it retains today. In that first year, the dual highway reached Prices Corner. By 1939, the bypass reached Limestone Road (except the bridge at Cranston Heights over the Red Clay Creek was not yet finished). The bypass was completed in 1941, and the Delaware General Assembly changed the name of the bypass to honor a Delaware hero of the American Revolution:

111th Delaware General Assembly

CHAPTER 265—STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT—

ROBERT KIRKWOOD HIGHWAY

AN ACT NAMING AND DESIGNATING STATE HIGHWAY NUMBER 2

IN NEW CASTLE COUNTY AS ROBERT KIRKWOOD HIGHWAY.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of

the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:

Section 1: That on and after the passage and approval of this Act, State Highway

Number 2 in New Castle County extending from Wilmington via Elsmere and

Newark to Delaware-Maryland line, known as State Highway Number 2, shall be

known and designated as the Robert Kirkwood Highway. Approved May 9, 1941.

However, the actual length of the Robert Kirkwood Highway was modified to include only the bypass. Therefore, the portion of Route 2 designated Kirkwood Highway is between Pike Creek Road (by the All Saints Cemetery) and the eastern end of New Road in Elsmere (where Route 2 becomes South Union Street), a total of 5.84 miles. Route 2 between Pike Creek Road and Ogletown Road (Route 273) in Newark is called Capitol Trail. Many in Delaware, this author included, believe that the Kirkwood Highway extends the entire length of Route 2 between downtown Elsmere and Route 273. What adds to this misconception is that some businesses along Capitol Trail have Kirkwood Highway as their address. There is also confusion in Elsmere, where Kirkwood Highway and Wilmington Avenue are interchangeable east of Linden Avenue; however, street signs recognize it as Kirkwood Highway.

The Robert Kirkwood Highway is named after Robert Kirkwood, a distinguished officer of the American Revolution. Born in Newark in 1756, he was the only boy among eight sisters. He worked his family farm on what is today Polly Drummond Hill Road, and he attended Newark Academy, the forerunner to the University of Delaware. On December 9, 1775, he was commissioned as a first lieutenant in Col. John Haslet’s Regiment of Light Infantry (later part of the Delaware Continental Regiment). In 1777, Robert Kirkwood participated in every battle fought with Gen. George Washington; in all, Kirkwood survived 32 battles.

After the war, Kirkwood received the rank of major and returned to Newark, where he married Sarah England. They had a son, Joseph, and a daughter, Mary, before moving first to Odessa and then to St. Georges Station (now called Kirkwood). Robert Kirkwood’s wife, Sarah, died in 1787. That same year, Kirkwood paid $2,204 for 260 acres in present-day Jefferson County, Ohio, in an area then known as the North West Territories. The British had ceded the Northwest Territory as part of the peace treaty that ended the American Revolution. However, the British supported the Native Americans in their fight to keep out American settlers. In 1791, Kirkwood joined an expedition under Gov. Arthur St. Clair to build a series of forts. On November 4, 1791, he was killed by natives from the Miami tribe at Fort Recovery, Ohio.

Robert Kirkwood’s name is memorialized on the monument at Fort Recovery, and there is an area of Belmont County, Ohio, called Kirkwood Township. He is also the namesake of Kirkwood, Delaware, and the Major Robert Kirkwood Chapter of the Delaware Society Sons of the American Revolution. His name is also applied to approximately six miles of State Route 2 in New Castle County. It is interesting to note, however, that the portion of Route 2 that passes near the former location of Robert Kirkwood’s farm on Polly Drummond Hill Road is called Capitol Trail, not Kirkwood Highway.

Today, the Robert Kirkwood Highway is the fifth busiest roadway in Delaware. Its numerous intersections are controlled by traffic lights and lined by shopping centers, businesses, restaurants, housing developments, and some historic locations. It is difficult to imagine that the highway once cut through farmland and had a grassy median. On a final note, the travel corridor once had an earlier name, the Lincoln Highway, which is in the records from the 1910s until 1938. It was paved during the 1920s. Delaware’s Lincoln Highway (not to be confused with the national roadway of the same name) was a curvy and narrow stretch that went between Wilmington and the Maryland state line, a good portion of the present day Old Capitol Trail, Capitol Trail, Newark’s Main Street, South Main Street, and Elkton Road.

One

LINCOLN HIGHWAY

Delaware’s Lincoln Highway was the initial moniker given to the travel corridor between Wilmington and the Maryland State line west of Newark. The Lincoln Highway was grouped into six sections of about three miles apiece: the Philadelphia Pike was section one and two; section three was Wilmington city line to Marshallton; section four