Home News Laura Bush Announces Preserve America Grants Budget Preserve America Community: Delaware, Ohio

The City of Delaware is the seat of Ohio's Delaware County and has a population of approximately 26,500. Originally home to the Mound Builders, and later to Delaware and other Indian tribes, Delaware's earliest American settlement dates from 1808.

Historic Winter Street in downtown Delaware, Ohio. The city recently partnered with local businesses and invested approximately $5 million in streetscape improvements in its historic downtown. (Photo courtesy of the Delaware County Convention and Visitors Bureau)

During the War of 1812, Delaware served as the headquarters of General William Henry Harrison. Settlers poured into the area after 1814; they included the parents of future President Rutherford B. Hayes, who was born in Delaware and met his future wife Lucy Webb at local Ohio Wesleyan University.

Recently, the City of Delaware partnered with local businesses and invested approximately $5 million in streetscape improvements in its historic downtown—the largest major investment of city money, planning, and project development in the downtown district in half a century.

To ensure that the private reinvestment and rehabilitation effort that followed would retain the historic character of the community, the city established a formal historic preservation review process in 1998. MainStreet Delaware, Inc., has awarded its first Downtown Revitalization Awards to 10 individuals and organizations for important projects, including the recent rehabilitation and restoration of the city's Carnegie Library.

The community's growing preservation expertise and commitment led to its designation as a Certified Local Government by the National Park Service in 2003.

For more information

Preserve America:
www.PreserveAmerica.gov
Summary of the Preserve America initiative

Delaware, Ohio:
www.delawareohiochamber.com
www.DelawareOhio.net
www.visitdelohio.com/play_attract_history.htm

An independent Federal agency, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) promotes historic preservation nationally by providing a forum for influencing Federal activities, programs, and policies that impact historic properties, advising the President and Congress, advocating preservation policy, improving Federal preservation programs, protecting historic properties, and educating stakeholders and the public. For more information, visit the ACHP's Web site at www.achp.gov, or contact Bruce Milhans at 202-606-8513 or bmilhans@achp.gov.

Learn more about ACHP

Posted January 15, 2004

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