Tavistock, Delaware Explained

Tavistock is an unincorporated community in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. It is within ZIP Code Tabulation Area for 19803.^[1]

Geography

Tavistock is northwest of Wilmington in the Brandywine Hundred. It is located on U.S. Route 202 northwest of Mt. Lebanon Road between Talleyville and Rockland. It abuts both Brandywine Creek State Park and Woodley Park, where Husbands Run, a tributary to the creek which runs through the neighborhood, rises. The community includes 176 homes.^[2]

History

Tavistock was originally developed by Woodlawn Trustees,^{[3] [4]} The land on which it is sited once belonged to E.B. Talley, for whom nearby Talleyville is named. It was acquired in 1906 by Woodlawn Trustees, which had been created in 1901 by Quaker philanthropist William Poole Bancroft, who realised that Wilmington would grow northward along the Brandywine Creek. To promote orderly growth, and subsidize land preservation and affordable housing, Woodlawn developed residential communities set back from Brandywine Creek and west of Concord Pike (U.S. 202) including Alapocas, Woodbrook, Sharpley and Edenridge,^[5] The neighborhoods have been described as a "string of pearls".^[6] They were included in the master plan for development of the Brandywine Hundred created by Charles Wellford Leavitt in 1922.^[7]

Tavistock was developed in the mid 1960s and included a one-acre, wooded lot for the former Talley homestead, which was envisioned as "focal point" of the community, but had deteriorated by 2015.^[8]

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2010 Census Tracts and ZCTAs, New Castle County, DE.
2. Web site: Tavistock. Welcome to Tavistock.
3. Web site: Orderly planned Development. rockfordwoodlawn.com. Alapocas, Woodbrook, Sharpley, Edenridge, and Tavistock all are Woodlawn residential developments. In these developments, Woodlawn sold building lots to individuals and builders who followed an approved subdivision plan which included provisions for sidewalks, trees, and other basic infrastructures (sewer, water, storm drains, street curbing and paving.) In conjunction with these developments, Woodlawn made land available, at less than market value, for community uses, thus benefiting such groups as the Brandywine YMCA, county library, post office, Pilot School, Jewish Community Center, and the Baptist, Methodist, Unitarian and Catholic churches..
4. Web site: History.
5. Web site: Woodlawn Trustees, Incorporated - Social Networks and Archival Context. snaccooperative.org.
6. Web site: These Are 30 of the Hottest Neighborhoods in Delaware. March 6, 2018.
7. Web site: Woodlawn Trustees, Inc. records, Group I 2424.I . Hagley Museum . July 14, 2020 . During the 1950s the neighborhood developments of Alapocas, Woodbrook and Sharpley were begun, followed by the construction of Edenridge and Tavistock in the 1970s. Records indicate that the developments in Brandywine Hundred had been part of a Master Plan designed by Charles Wellford Leavitt in 1922, and later revised by Whitman, Requardt and Associates in 1973. . September 12, 2021.
8. Web site: Milord . Maureen . Talley family landmark threatened . The News Journal (Delaware Online) . January 23, 2015 . September 8, 2021 .