Establishment of the First State National Monument

Proclamation 8944 of March 25, 2013

Establishment of the First State National
Monument

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Sites within the State of Delaware encompass nationally
significant objects related to the settlement of the
Delaware region by the Swedes, Finns, Dutch, and
English, the role that Delaware played in the
establishment of the Nation, and the preservation of
the cultural landscape of the Brandywine Valley. A
national monument that includes certain property in New
Castle, Dover, and the Brandywine Valley, Delaware
(with contiguous acreage in the Township of Chadd's
Ford, Pennsylvania) will allow the National Park
Service and its partners to protect and manage these
objects of historic interest and interpret for the
public the resources and values associated with them.

In 1638, Peter Minuit led Swedish and Finnish colonists
to present-day Wilmington, established New Sweden, and
built Fort Christina. Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church
nearby includes a burial ground used since the Swedes
landed in this area in 1638. In 1651, Peter Stuyvesant
led Dutch settlers from New Amsterdam in present-day
New York to a site approximately 7 miles south of Fort
Christina. There, in present-day New Castle, the Dutch
built Fort Casimir and named the place ``New Amstel.''
The Dutch fort at New Amstel occupied a better position
than the Swedish Fort Christina for controlling
commerce. Conflicts between the Swedish and Dutch
colonists resulted in changing occupations of Fort
Casimir, with the Dutch regaining control in 1655.

In 1664, the English arrived in New Amstel, seized the
city for the King of England, and renamed it ``New
Castle.'' The English also wrested control of all of
New Netherland, incorporating it into the colony of New
York under the Duke of York, brother of King Charles
II.

In 1681, King Charles II deeded Pennsylvania to William
Penn. To protect the land around New Castle that he had
previously granted to the Duke of York, the King set
the boundary 12 miles from New Castle in an arc
extending radially from a point subsequently marked by
the cupola of the New Castle Court House built in 1732.
To gain access to the Atlantic Ocean for his new Quaker
Colony, however, William Penn persuaded the Duke of
York to give him the three ``Lower Counties of
Pennsylvania'' that eventually became Delaware. The
``12-mile arc'' that separated these lower counties
from the rest of Pennsylvania, and eventually became
the State boundary between Pennsylvania and Delaware,
runs through the present-day Woodlawn property in the
Brandywine Valley (Woodlawn).

William Penn landed in New Castle in 1682, and took
possession of the city. In 1704, Penn allowed the
General Assembly of the Three Lower Counties to meet in
New Castle separately from the Assembly in
Philadelphia, portending the development of the State
of Delaware. New Castle remained the colonial capital
of Delaware until 1777, and the New Castle Court House
served as the meeting place of the Delaware Assembly.

During the 1700s, colonial Delaware actively
participated in both the first and second Continental
Congresses, and engaged in the debates over British
actions and the question of independence. The Delaware
Assembly met

on June 15, 1776, in the New Castle Court House, where
it voted to separate from England and from
Pennsylvania, creating the ``Delaware State.'' The
Court House served as the capitol until 1777, when
government functions moved to Dover as a precaution
against attack from British warships in the Delaware
River.

The Court House and the New Castle Historic District,
including the Green, the Sheriff's House, and numerous
additional resources from the time of earliest
settlement through the Federal era, are National
Historic Landmarks. The Green has served as a center of
activity since the Dutch laid it out as the Public
Square. The Sheriff's House, abutting the Court House
on the Green, is architecturally significant and is all
that remains of the State's first prison system. The
New Castle Court House later provided the setting for a
dramatic chapter in the history of the Underground
Railroad: the criminal trial, presided over by Chief
Justice Roger B. Taney, of prominent Quaker
abolitionist Thomas Garrett and his colleague John Hunn
for assisting runaway slaves escaping from Maryland to
Pennsylvania. In the trial Garrett defiantly asserted
that he would continue to assist runaway slaves, as he
did working with Harriet Tubman and other heroes of the
Underground Railroad.

The Constitution of the United States was completed in
Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, and then sent to
the Congress of the Confederation for transmittal to
the State legislatures. At the Golden Fleece Tavern on
the Dover Green, a Delaware convention ratified the
Constitution on December 7, 1787, earning Delaware the
accolade of ``the First State.'' Though the Tavern no
longer exists, Dover Green is the central area of the
Dover Green Historic District that signifies this event
and many others, including the mustering of a
Continental Regiment during the American Revolution and
the reading of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

The boundary arc establishing the three ``Lower
Counties of Pennsylvania'' that became the State of
Delaware runs, in part, through Woodlawn, northwest of
Wilmington. Woodlawn is situated on land in the
Brandywine Valley acquired by William Penn in 1682.
Penn commissioned a survey of this land that marked the
12-mile boundary arc through his property with tree
blazes, which were replaced in 1892 with stone markers,
two of which still stand. In 1699, Penn sold 2,000
acres of this property to the Pennsylvania Land
Company, which in turn sold the land predominantly to
Quakers, who had begun settling the area before 1690.
In time, the Brandywine and Delaware valleys were more
densely settled with Quakers than any other rural area
in the United States. At least eight structures from
the 18th century are known to be located at Woodlawn.
Because Woodlawn has been relatively undisturbed, it
still exhibits colonial and Quaker settlement patterns
that have vanished elsewhere.

The preservation of Woodlawn is the result of the
little-known but historically significant story of
Quaker industrialist William Poole Bancroft's prescient
planning efforts for the region. Beginning in 1906,
Bancroft began to purchase property in the Brandywine
Valley, 5 miles outside Wilmington city limits, to hold
in reserve for the health and well-being of the public.
Heir to the Bancroft textile mills on the Brandywine
River, Bancroft eventually amassed over 1,300 acres, of
which Woodlawn comprises approximately 1,100 acres that
remain essentially the same as when he purchased them:
farm fields and forest predominate, dotted with old
farmsteads, bridges, and a few roads and trails.

Bancroft provided this rural landscape as part of an
altruistic planning effort that also included
affordable housing in the City of Wilmington and a
system of parks and parkways, on which Frederick Law
Olmsted consulted, that linked the neighborhoods to the
green spaces. Bancroft established the Woodlawn
Trustees to preserve much of the rural landscape as
public park land where city residents could enjoy
recreation and bucolic surroundings.

WHEREAS section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat.
225, 16 U.S.C. 431) (the ``Antiquities Act''),
authorizes the President, in his discretion, to declare
by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and
prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic
interest that are situated upon the lands owned or
controlled by the Government of the United States to be
national monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof
parcels of land, the limits of which in all cases shall
be confined to the smallest area compatible with the
proper care and management of the objects to be
protected;

WHEREAS, for the purpose of establishing a national
monument, the State of Delaware has donated to the
United States certain lands and interests in lands in
New Castle, Delaware (including the Sheriff's House in
fee, and an easement for the protection of and access
to the New Castle Court House and the Green); the City
of Dover has donated to the United States an easement
for the protection of and access to the Dover Green;
and the Conservation Fund, with the support of the Mt.
Cuba Center and the cooperation of the Rockford
Woodlawn Fund has donated the Woodlawn property to the
United States in fee;

WHEREAS it is in the public interest to preserve and
protect the objects of historic interest associated
with the early settlement of Delaware, the role of
Delaware as the first State to ratify the Constitution,
and the establishment and conservation of Woodlawn;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by the authority vested in me
by section 2 of the Antiquities Act, hereby proclaim,
set apart, and reserve as the First State National
Monument (monument), the objects identified above and
all lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by
the Government of the United States within the
boundaries described on the accompanying maps, which
are attached to and form a part of this proclamation,
for the purpose of protecting those objects. These
reserved Federal lands and interests in lands encompass
approximately 1,108 acres, together with appurtenant
easements for all necessary purposes, which is the
smallest area compatible with the proper care and
management of the objects to be protected.

All Federal lands and interests in lands within the
boundaries of the monument are hereby appropriated and
withdrawn from all forms of entry, location, selection,
sale, leasing, or other disposition under the public
land laws, including withdrawal from location, entry,
and patent under the mining laws, and from disposition
under all laws relating to mineral and geothermal
leasing.

The establishment of the monument is subject to valid
existing rights. Lands and interests in lands within
the monument boundaries not owned or controlled by the
United States shall be reserved as part of the monument
upon acquisition of ownership or control by the United
States.

The Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) shall manage
the monument through the National Park Service,
pursuant to applicable legal authorities, consistent
with the purposes and provisions of this proclamation.
Further, to the extent authorized by law, the Secretary
shall promulgate any additional regulations needed for
the proper care and management of the monument.

The Secretary shall prepare a management plan for the
monument, with full public involvement, within 3 years
of the date of this proclamation. The management plan
shall ensure that the monument fulfills the following
purposes for the benefit of present and future
generations: (1) to preserve and protect the objects of
historic interest identified above; (2) to interpret
the story of early Swedish, Finnish, Dutch, and English
settlement in the region, and Delaware's role in the
establishment of the Nation, including as the first
State to ratify the Constitution; and (3) to preserve
Woodlawn consistent with William Poole Bancroft's
vision of a rural landscape accessible to the public
for their health and well-being. The management plan
shall set forth, among other provisions, the desired
relationship of the monument to other related
resources, programs, and organizations in the region,

including Old Swedes Church, Fort Christina, Stonum,
Lombardy Hall, Brandywine Creek State Park, Hagley
Museum and Library, Nemours Mansion and Gardens,
Winterthur Museum and Country Estate, Brandywine River
Museum, Longwood Gardens, John Dickinson Plantation,
and First State Heritage Park.

The National Park Service shall consult with State and
local agencies and other appropriate organizations in
planning for interpretation and visitor services at the
monument. The National Park Service is directed to use
applicable authorities to seek to enter into agreements
addressing common interests and promoting management
efficiencies, including provision of visitor services,
interpretation and education, and preservation of
resources and values.

Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke
any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation;
however, the monument shall be the dominant
reservation.

Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not
to appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature
of the monument and not to locate or settle upon any of
the lands thereof.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord two
thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
seventh.

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