Wilmington, Delaware · Est. 1918
A neighborhood built in a year, for workers who built a fleet. A community that has endured for more than a century.
About the Neighborhood
In 1918, with America at war and Wilmington's shipyards running at full capacity, thousands of workers flooded the city with nowhere to live. In response, an extraordinary thing happened: an entire neighborhood was designed, built, and occupied in under a year.
Designed by renowned town planner John Nolen in the style of the English Garden Suburb movement, Union Park Gardens was conceived not merely as housing, but as a livable community — with curved streets, green medians, open spaces, and a variety of architectural styles that gave the neighborhood warmth and character from day one.
More than a century later, that warmth endures. The brick row houses, the tree-lined parkway, and the close-knit streets that Nolen envisioned remain very much intact — a rare and remarkable survivor in the American urban landscape.
A Brief History
The western limits of Wilmington end at Union Street. On the open land beyond, the Front & Union Park hosts baseball, bicycle racing, circuses, and traveling shows. The Wilmington Quicksteps call it home.
April 6th. Within months, Wilmington's shipyards are overtaken by the Emergency Fleet Corporation and pushed to maximum production. Workers flood into the city. There is nowhere for them to live.
John Nolen and architects Ballinger & Perrot design the neighborhood. Ground breaks June 24th with 200 workers — a figure that will swell to nearly 4,000. Twelve million bricks are ordered. The city's two brick manufacturers work around the clock for 40 days to fill the order.
With the war over and shipyard production winding down, construction slows. By July, 300 of 506 houses are occupied — all rented from the U.S. Shipping Board. Residents want to own their homes. The government wants to sell the whole block to an investor.
After a failed sealed-bid sale and a collapsed deal with a Philadelphia syndicate, February brings a two-day public auction. Over 5,000 people attend. 286 homes sell for $2,000–$4,500 each. By August, every deed is recorded. Union Park Gardens belongs to the people who live in it.
More than 100 years on, Union Park Gardens remains one of Wilmington's most distinctive neighborhoods — walkable, close-knit, and remarkably true to Nolen's original vision. Second and third generation families still call it home.
Photo Archive
Union Park Gardens under construction, c. 1918–1919 — Courtesy of Cornell University Library, Rare and Manuscript Collections
General Plan — John Nolen, town planner; Ballinger & Perrot, architects; 1918 — Courtesy of Cornell University Library, Rare and Manuscript Collections
A Union Park Gardens home today, still reflecting the original English Garden Suburb character
Architecture
Seven-family row houses — Ballinger & Perrot, architects, Philadelphia
Nolen's design borrowed from the English Garden Suburb movement — a reformist vision of urban housing that prized greenery, human scale, and architectural variety over the monotony of typical worker housing.
Curved streets slowed traffic and created a sense of enclosure. A broad tree-lined median on Bancroft Parkway gave residents a common green. Houses were built in clusters with varied setbacks, materials, and rooflines — giving the neighborhood a coherent but never repetitive character.
That these houses were built in wartime haste — by nearly 4,000 workers, with horses and wagons, in under a year — makes them no less beautiful. They were built to last, and they have.
Get Involved
Union Park Gardens has always been a place where neighbors know each other. Whether you've lived here for decades or just moved in, there's a place for you in this community.
We're organizing cleanup days, building a photo archive, and looking for people who want to help preserve and celebrate what makes this neighborhood special. And yes — the cats are welcome too.