Separation Day Celebrates History and Community
One of the state’s longest-running traditions returns June 9-10 with the Separation Day celebration in Historic New Castle. The event recognizes Delaware’s “separation” or declaration of independence from Pennsylvania and the British crown — an event that took place 247 years ago.
Separation Day festivities begin on Friday evening with an outdoor block party at The Wharf, featuring live music by Too Tall Slim & The Guilty Pleasures, food trucks and a beer/wine garden. Saturday commences with a Colonial-inspired parade at noon followed by an afternoon of activities in Battery Park featuring a vintage market, games and rides for kids, food/drink and live music from 1-9:30pm. Bands performing include Stone Shakers, Jack in the Back, Kategory 5 and What The Funk. The celebration culminates with fireworks over the Delaware River at 9:30pm.
Admission on Friday and Saturday is free, with ride tickets available for purchase on Saturday. Visit SeparationDayDe.com.
Find the Hiker
Delaware has made great strides in expanding its trail system. Read all about the progress on page 38. In honor of the state’s trailblazing, we’ve invited a hiker to take a walk through this month’s issue. Tell us what four pages our hiker has stopped to take a rest and we might buy you lunch. Three winners will be selected from those who answer correctly by June 10. Email your answer to Contact@TSNPub.com.
Congratulations to last month’s winners of the Find The Bikes contest: Kristie Gilford, Ellen Callahan and Olga Crowther. Ladies, lunch is on us!
Former DuPont Company Headquarters Rebranded as Market West
Five blocks of Downtown Wilmington that formerly constituted the 3 million-square-foot footprint of the DuPont Company’s headquarters will now be known as Market West. The complex, with the Nemours Building (1007 N. Orange St.) serving as its flagship, will be marketed by the Buccini/Pollin Group as a mixed-use campus offering luxury accommodations, modern co-working space, dining, live entertainment, luxury accommodations, and convenient parking.
Market West is the only mixed-use development and redevelopment of this scale in Delaware’s history, totaling more than one million square feet of office space, 553 residential units, 88,500 square feet of retail, and 1,170 public parking spaces.
“Market West is the culmination of 25 years of acquiring and repurposing the former Dupont worldwide headquarters complex,” said Chris Buccini, co-president of the Buccini/Pollin Group. “While we continue to honor and respect the century-old history of these buildings, we are ecstatic to introduce Delaware’s premiere live-work-play neighborhood. At Market West, a new history will be created in the century to come.”
Diamond State Masters Regatta
Wilmington Rowing Center, in partnership with USRowing, will host the 31st Diamond State Masters Regatta June 24-25 at Noxontown Pond in Middletown. Created by Wilmington Rowing Center board members Howard Smith and John Schoonover in 1991, this year’s event will feature approximately 50 races each day. Visit DiamondStateMasters.com.
Grain Exchange Debuts in Newark’s STAR Campus
OMG Hospitality recently opened its sixth Grain restaurant concept with the debut of Grain Exchange on University of Delaware’s STAR campus. STAR is a University Research Park with a mix of University and Industry innovators.
The restaurant will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and was designed for people in the office park to gather and collaborate, says Lee Mikles, who co-owns OMG Hospitality with Jim O’Donoghue.
“Being in a University Research Park and the FinTech Building, we wanted the space to celebrate Delaware Innovation,” says Mikles. “We had local Delaware artist Ed Schmidt design WPA-style posters highlighting eight Delaware Innovations with Precision Color Graphics printing them. It’s a really cool wall of Delaware innovations that we hope we can add to over the years. Celebrating Delaware has been core to who we are since we opened.”
Collaboration Leads to New City Mural
United Neighbors, a collaborative of residents, stakeholders, and leaders from both sides of I-95 through Wilmington, with support from Wilmington Mayor Michael S. Purzycki, have installed a mural on the Delaware Avenue Bridge. The mural was created by professional artist and local muralist Christian Kanienberg and can be viewed when crossing Delaware Avenue on the I-95 overpass bridge, between Jackson and Adams Streets.
United Neighbors has completed five murals on bridge overpasses between Jackson and Adams streets over the past four years. The intent of the mural installations is to grow the communities together and “bridge” the gap between the neighborhoods that I-95 divided back when it was introduced. The mural artist for the final bridge mural on Delaware Avenue was selected by a committee of local business owners, elected officials, neighborhood residents, and the City of Wilmington.
“The design is meant to marry metaphors to all of Wilmington and the larger state of Delaware as a whole,” says Kanienberg.
Delaware-Centric Craft Beverage Festival On Tap for Smyrna
The second annual Smyrna Craft Beverage Festival is set for Saturday, June 3 from noon to 6pm on the grounds of How Do You Brew (58 Artisan Drive, Smyrna). Proceeds from ticket sales benefit Restore the King, the effort to repair and bring back to public display the King Gambrinus statue. The 140-year-old sculpture of the icon of brewing was mounted on Wilmington’s Diamond State Brewery from 1888 until 1962 and has been in storage since it was broken in 1978. Tickets range from $39-$49 with designated driver tickets at $10. Visit HowDoYouBrew.com.
