Once Wilmington’s most fashionable neighborhood, Quaker Hill has a long and storied history.
In two and a half centuries, it has been home, variously, to prosperous colonial merchants, ardent abolitionists, working-class Irish immigrants, bitter race riots and, most recently, Quaker Hill’s struggle to establish itself as a diverse blend of upwardly mobile homeowners, solid renters, small businesses and social service agencies.
“We haven’t gotten to the tipping point, that stage where you know you have completely turned things around,” said Cassandra Marshall, president of the Quaker Hill Neighborhood Association. “But we are closer than ever.”
On a recent afternoon, homeowners tended to mannered, colonial gardens outside Federal-style brick homes. On the next block, a disheveled man in dirty jeans kicked a plastic trash bag on the sidewalk outside a rundown liquor store.
Progress is achieved building by building, block by block. Amid sirens and shouting are hopeful sounds, the hum of power tools and a smooth baritone reminiscent of Frank Sinatra.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Quaker Hill: Then and Now
Click here to see pictures of the historic section of Wilmington as it was more than a century ago, and as it looks today.
(Historic photos courtesy: Delaware Historical Society)."]
Sean Reilly, a singer known for his Sinatra impressions, moved into a Federal-style house on West Street in 1983, renting before he bought it in 1987 for $115,000. The elegant, Flemish-bond brick facade shows no signs of the riots that almost destroyed it in 1968.
“The house was burned, on the brink of destruction—and then, thank goodness, restored,” he says.
After he moved in, his grandmother visited and told Reilly about attending a wake at the house in 1914. Back then, it was home to the Lemon family, headed by a barber who ran a shop nearby.
“They had 12 kids, a dozen Lemons,” he said.
Over the years, Reilly has immersed himself in the history of the neighborhood. He takes communion at the altar of the Cathedral of St. Peter, seat of the bishop of Wilmington, where his grandparents were married on Valentine’s Day in 1884. The church was built in 1816 to serve French and Irish parishioners, as well as the city’s orphans.
Layers of history are woven into a rich tapestry in the community, says Bayard Marin, founder and president of the Quaker Hill Historic Preservation Foundation.
Marin bought a building with Greek Revival and Empire elements at 521 West St. in 1983 during a short-lived urban renaissance in Wilmington. The structure, which was updated in the Victorian style around the turn of the 20th century, houses his law office and the preservation foundation.
“1983 was the day of the urban pioneers, who were filled with the enthusiasm of Bob Vila and This Old House,” he recalled. “But when things didn’t change quickly enough for them, they left.”
Established as an historic district by the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, Quaker Hill is a small neighborhood, only 151 buildings on 250 acres, bordered by Tatnall and Jefferson streets, from Second through Eighth streets.
The district dates back to the early 18th century, when Elizabeth Shipley, a Quaker from Ridley township, persuaded her husband William to build a home there. The first Meeting House was constructed in 1738.
During the Revolutionary War, George Washington slept in quarters in Quaker Hill, as did Marquis de Lafayette. Among those buried in the graveyard at Wilmington Friends Meeting House are John Dickinson, signer of the Constitution, and Thomas Garrett, a Wilmington merchant and abolitionist who worked with William Still and Harriet Tubman to conduct slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad.
More recent history overshadows Quaker Hill’s proud past. After the first round of urban pioneers moved on in the late 1980s, a number of properties were bought up by absentee landlords, Marin says. Drug use and prostitution flourished.
Many of those properties have since been cleaned up but the neighborhood’s reputation has not regained its full luster. Still, Marin says he feels safe leaving his law office late at night as he heads home to Greenville.
“Have people panhandled me? Certainly,” he said. “But I’ve never been accosted, never been harmed.”
“This is not Trolley Square,” Reilly said. “You have to diligent, aware and responsible if you want to live here.”
Reilly, Marin and other activists believe there is a place in Quaker Hill for agencies that help disadvantaged people. But they are concerned the mix has become unbalanced, diluting the residential character of the neighborhood.
The Presbyterian Church on West Street, which closed several years ago, was sold to Connections CSP, a social services organization that operates a homeless shelter and works with alcoholics, drug abusers and people with mental illnesses. The Homeless Café offers drop-in meals 24 hours a day.
“We made a list of all the places that social service agencies have a presence in the neighborhood,” Marshall recalled. “We had a list of more than 40, most serving clients who were being imported into Quaker Hill.”
Two years ago, residents prevailed in turning back Connection’s initiative to renovate apartments on Ninth Street. A proposal by the Bureau of Federal Prisons to locate a halfway house at 6th and Washington also was rejected.
“We’re not saying ‘not in our backyard,’” Reilly said. “We’re saying ‘not in our backyard again.’”
Catherine Devaney McKay, Connections founder and CEO, says the organization has renovated three buildings in the neighborhood that might otherwise be occupied by squatters, part of a $10 million investment in west center city. She grew up in Quaker Hill and says the group is committed to staying.
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“The conditions in this neighborhood are not related to Connections, they are related to poverty and to the number of liquor stores,” she said. “It would behoove us all to work together.”
Meanwhile, community boosters are growing more proactive in providing opportunities for people to get a fresh look at the neighborhood, inviting real estate agents to tour homes for sale. Several Quaker Hill properties were featured on the Wilmington Garden Tour and the cathedral was opened to the public. The preservation foundation also organizes tours for history buffs in the form of architectural treasure hunts.
“We want to give people an idea of what can be done with these wonderful houses,” Marshall said.
In this latest awakening, Quaker Hill is benefiting from two important trends that were not factors in the 1980s.
First, bordering neighborhoods have perked up, forming a bridge between Quaker Hill and other urban communities. Reilly walks to the Grand Opera House and the newly refurbished Queen Theatre on Market Street, to the train station on Martin Luther King Boulevard, to restaurants on the Christina riverfront.
The second factor is high fuel prices, which are inspiring a number of consumers to consider driving less and walking or biking more.
“People who don’t want to spend money on gas, who would rather spend time enjoying their lives instead of commuting, are coming to appreciate pedestrian-friendly cities,” Marshall said.
The city is helping Quaker Hill and other inner-city neighborhoods with tax incentives for owners who fix up properties.
Reilly sank $100,000 into renovations in 2009. Because his house is an historic property, he received a tax credit from the city as a reward for his investment. He doesn’t want to say precisely how much it was, only that it was “pretty darn close” to the $20,000 maximum.
Marin says investment from both the private and public sectors are creating critical mass in the community.
“There is a fascinating blend of people here who are making Quaker Hill a great place to live and work,” he said. “The time has come.”
