Brandywine Hundred

Brandywine Hundred is the name of an unincorporated subdivision of New Castle County, Delaware. Hundreds were once used as a basis for representation in the Delaware General Assembly. Brandywine Hundred is a commonly used colloquial name for this area. However, while their names still appear on all real estate transactions, all other hundreds in Delaware presently have no meaningful use or purpose except as a geographical point of reference.

Boundaries and Formation

Brandywine Hundred is that portion of New Castle County that lies north of the Christiana River and east of Brandywine Creek, excepting that portion in the south included in Wilmington Hundred. Its northern boundary follows a portion of the 12 mile arc drawn around the town of New Castle. It was one of the original hundreds in Delaware created in 1682 and was named for Brandywine Creek that flows along its western boundary. When created it included some of the area now in the Wilmington Hundred, which was split off 1833.

Development

Excepting a still wooded area along Brandywine Creek, the area is completely suburban with almost continuous industrial, commercial and residential development. The eastern portion was built out early in the twentieth century with the remainder in the decades following World War II. The town of Bellefonte, the villages of Arden, Ardencroft, and Ardentown, the Claymont and Edgemoor Census Designated Places (CDP), and the community of Talleyville are in Brandywine Hundred.

Geography

Important geographical features, in addition to the Christiana River and Brandywine Creek, include the Delaware River, which forms its eastern boundary, Naaman’s Creek and Shellpot Creek. It is mostly in the piedmont region with one of the more dramatic sections of the fall line being close enough to the Delaware River to allow many scenic views. The highest natural elevation in the state, Ebright Azimuth (448'), is located along the northern edge of Brandywine Hundred, very close to the Pennsylvania line.

Transportation

Important roads include portions of Interstate 95, Interstate 495, Concord Pike (U.S. Route 202), Powder Mill Road (Delaware Route 141), Naamans Road and Thompson Bridge Road (Delaware Route 92), Marsh Road (Delaware Route 3), Foulk Road (Delaware Route 261), Delaware Route 491, and the old main highway between Wilmington and Philadelphia, now Philadelphia Pike (U.S. Route 13). A portion of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, subsequently the main north-south line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and now Amtrak, follows the Delaware River, and a portion of the old Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, now CSX Transportation, approximately follows the fall line.

References

*The University of Delaware Library (2001). [http://www2.lib.udel.edu/subj/genealogy/resguide/hund.htm The Hundreds of Delaware] . Retrieved August 17, 2005.

ee also

*Valentine Hollingsworth
*Ebright Azimuth