The First State National Historical Park’s Visitors Center is now open to help visitors.
The Park has been without a welcome center for over a decade since its creation, but that changed last month.
The official Visitors Center is inside the Historic New Castle Sheriff’s House to help visitors learn about the state’s multi-site National Park.
Park Superintendent Joshua Boles describes the visitors center.
"We're really proud of the sheriff's house here in New Castle. It's been a project that's taken 11 years from ownership being transferred from the state of Delaware to the federal government to us opening to the public,” said Boles. “And the sheriff's house it's kind of an intimidating building from the outside, but on the inside it's pretty modest. On the first floor you're going to find exhibits, a front desk where you'll hopefully find smiley, happy rangers there to answer your questions."
There’s also an auditorium in the jail’s old holding tank where they show a film to introduce visitors to the park’s story and how the pieces throughout the state connect to it.
He notes a trip to the center takes about 25 minutes to complete.
Boles says it’s not necessary to stop at the center before exploring the Park, but it is highly encouraged.
"And I think the exhibits do a really good job of writing information, orientation, interpretation to why we're a national park. If you can come away from visit to the sheriff's house with an answer to that question I think that makes the rest of your visit throughout the state and into Pennsylvania even more valuable," said Boles.
The First State National Historical Park consists of six individual sites, and it was designated a national park in December 2014 after being established as a national monument in March 2013 by presidential proclamation.
Delaware was the last state in the U.S. without a National Park.
It cost $7.9 million to transform the Historic New Castle Sheriff’s House into the Visitors Center.
