The Zwaanendael Museum, located at 102 King’s Highway (Delaware, USA), was founded in 1631 to commemorate the first European colony in Delaware. It served as a showcase for the Lewes area’s maritime, military, and social industries.
The museum’s facade is adorned with sandstone carvings and the Hoorn coat of arms. The museum building was restored between 1998 and 2000, with the red tile roof replaced and the heavy wooden doors rebuilt.
17th-century Dutch elements inspire the museum’s design. The stepped facade’s gable has terracotta tiles, carved bricks, and ornate sheds modeled after Hoorn’s old town hall (Netherlands). A statue of David Peterson de Vries, the expedition leader who founded Zwaanendael, stands atop the building.Up next is Hopkins Farm Creamery
The Zwaanendael Museum is managed by the Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs of Delaware. Did you know that the first people to settle in Delaware were Dutch? The Zawaanendael Museum is a great place to learn more about the history of the people of Delaware.
The museum has grown and now occupies the library room on the second floor. The museum’s exhibits highlight the history of Sussex County by telling stories about the community that lived on Delaware’s southeastern shore.
Local history, shipwrecks, and lighthouses are among the exhibits at the Zwaanendael Museum. The history of the British bombardment of Lewes during the War of 1812 and the pilots of the Delaware River Bay and the Delaware Coast are also on display.
The Fiji merman, a monkey head is sewn onto a fish body made in China in the nineteenth century, is one of the most fascinating objects. A local family, the Martins family, loaned it to the museum in the 1940s. The exhibit was later purchased by the museum, which has been displaying it ever since. in Lewes, DE