Brandywine Hundred
Brandywine Hundred is a civil administrative division located in New Castle County, Delaware, representing one of the oldest such geographic and governmental divisions in the state. Situated in the northern reaches of Delaware, Brandywine Hundred takes its name from the Brandywine Creek, which runs through the region and has shaped its history, economy, and identity for centuries. The hundred serves as a distinct community area with deep colonial roots, an evolving suburban landscape, and an active local preservation community that works to document and share its past.
History and Origins
The hundred, as a unit of local government, was established in Delaware during the colonial era as a way to organize the population for administrative, judicial, and taxation purposes. Brandywine Hundred was among the original divisions established under this system. As noted in research compiled by the Delaware Department of Transportation, Philadelphia so dominated the region in the early colonial period that other urban centers were slow to develop, and Wilmington itself emerged gradually within this broader landscape.[1]
The area's colonial history is closely intertwined with the influence of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania and proprietor of the region. In 1699, Penn sold 2,000 acres of the Brandywine Hundred to the Pennsylvania Land Company, which subsequently sold parcels of land to individual settlers who began establishing homesteads throughout the area.[2] This pattern of land sales and settlement in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries laid the foundation for a rural agricultural community that would persist for generations before the gradual expansion of Wilmington began drawing population northward.
The Brandywine Valley more broadly was a significant corridor in early American history, connecting trade routes and serving as a site of considerable economic activity tied to the Brandywine Creek's waterpower. Mills, farms, and small industries populated the banks of the creek and the surrounding terrain, making the hundred a productive and strategically important part of the Mid-Atlantic region during the colonial and post-colonial eras.
Geography and Setting
Brandywine Hundred occupies the northern portion of New Castle County and shares a border with Pennsylvania to the north. The region's geography is defined in large part by the Brandywine Creek, which drains from the Pennsylvania hills through Delaware before eventually meeting the Christina River near Wilmington. The creek and the rolling piedmont landscape of the hundred gave rise to both its agricultural heritage and its later attraction as a residential area.
The hundred encompasses a variety of communities, neighborhoods, and commercial corridors that together reflect decades of suburban growth radiating outward from Wilmington. Despite substantial development over the twentieth century, parts of Brandywine Hundred retain the character of older neighborhoods and green spaces that reflect the area's rural past.
Political and Civic Life
Brandywine Hundred has maintained an active civic and political culture across its history. Local government and party organization at the hundred level have historically been important vehicles for political participation in New Castle County. In 1963, a local political figure was elevated to the chairmanship of the Brandywine Hundred Republican Committee, reflecting the area's organized partisan structure during that era.[3]
The community has also figured in broader discussions of Delaware's political and social geography. Its reputation as an affluent suburban area has made it a recognizable reference point in regional political discourse. Writing about Delaware political dynamics, journalist Richard Ben Cramer noted that a successful Delaware political candidate had to demonstrate that he was not perceived as a wealthy insider from Brandywine Hundred or an academic outsider, underscoring the symbolic weight the area carried in the state's political imagination.[4]
This perception reflects the hundred's twentieth-century evolution from a predominantly rural area into one of the more prosperous suburban communities in the state, a transformation driven by residential development, proximity to Wilmington, and the arrival of major employers and institutions in the region.
Historical Preservation
Awareness of Brandywine Hundred's layered history has given rise to organized efforts at preservation and documentation. The Brandywine Hundred Historical Society was established with the purpose of collecting, preserving, and sharing the history of the area.[5] The society represents a community-based response to the rapid changes that suburban development has brought to the landscape, providing a repository for records, artifacts, photographs, and oral histories that document the hundred's past.
Such organizations serve a broader purpose in communities like Brandywine Hundred, where the built environment from earlier eras can be vulnerable to displacement by new construction and commercial expansion. By maintaining a focus on the long arc of the community's history — from its origins as a colonial-era administrative division through its growth into a modern suburb — the society helps residents understand the continuity of place across generations.
Education and Community
Brandywine Hundred has been home to schools and educators who have left lasting marks on local life. The community supported a public school system that served its growing population as the hundred expanded during the twentieth century. Among those who contributed to that educational environment, one local teacher spent thirty-two years in the classrooms of Brandywine Hundred, a tenure that coincided with his operation of Wilderness Canoe Trips, a business that offered canoeing excursions along the Brandywine Creek and became a beloved part of the regional outdoor recreation landscape.[6] The eventual closure of Wilderness Canoe Trips marked the end of a local institution that had connected residents and visitors alike to the natural character of the Brandywine Creek corridor.
Commerce and Development
The commercial landscape of Brandywine Hundred reflects patterns of suburban retail development common to prosperous communities adjacent to mid-sized American cities. Shopping centers and retail corridors have developed along major road arteries throughout the hundred, accommodating the consumer needs of a large residential population.
In recent years, the area has continued to attract new retail investment. Discount grocer Lidl announced plans to open a store at the Shoppes of Graylyn in Brandywine Hundred in late 2026, moving into a location previously occupied by a Rite Aid pharmacy.[7] The arrival of new grocery retailers in established shopping centers reflects the ongoing cycle of commercial evolution in the hundred, as older retail formats give way to new operators better suited to contemporary consumer demand.
The presence of malls and larger retail complexes in and near Brandywine Hundred has also brought the area into public attention for less welcome reasons. Delaware State Police responded to a reported shooting at a Delaware mall in Brandywine Hundred, an incident that drew regional media attention and highlighted the public safety considerations that accompany dense suburban commercial environments.[8]
Relationship to Wilmington and the Region
Brandywine Hundred's proximity to Wilmington — Delaware's largest city — has been a defining factor in its development and character. As Wilmington grew through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Brandywine Hundred absorbed much of the residential overflow, becoming a suburban destination for families and professionals seeking space and amenity while maintaining access to urban employment and services.
This dynamic is not unique to Brandywine Hundred but is characteristic of hundreds across New Castle County. However, the particular geography of Brandywine Hundred, with its access to the Brandywine Creek, its relatively elevated terrain, and its position along major road and rail corridors connecting Wilmington to Philadelphia, gave it advantages that accelerated its development relative to other areas. The result is a community that retains traces of its colonial origins while functioning fully as part of the modern metropolitan landscape that stretches along the Interstate 95 corridor from Wilmington northward toward Philadelphia.
The connection to Philadelphia noted by the Delaware Department of Transportation — that Philadelphia so dominated the early region that local urban centers were slow to form — helps explain why Brandywine Hundred developed along a trajectory shaped more by proximity to a major external city than by indigenous urban growth within Delaware itself.[9]