Delaware State Museum Buildings
a.k.a. Old Presbyterian Church Complex
316 S. Governors Ave., Dover, DEThe Old Presbyterian Church is an excellent specimen of the religious architecture of the Federal period. The congregation it housed for 134 years was the first of the denomination in Kent County and an important factor in the ethical and educational development of the town and county from 1714. Among members buried in its churchyard are John M. Clayton (1796-1856), jurist, statesman and United States Secretary of State; and Colonel John Haslet, commanding officer of the Delaware Battalion in the Revolution until his death at the Battle of Trenton in January, 1777. The present Museum Building No. 1 was erected near the close of the long pastorate of Rev. John Miller (d.1791), who was briefly succeeded by his son Rev. Samuel Miller, later a distinguished professor at Princeton. A State constitutional convention held its sessions in this building in 1831, an earlier convention, 1791-92, in which John Dickinson was the most influential figure, may also have met there.
Buildings No. 2 and 3, though not of the architectural importance of the Church, are nevertheless good examples of a later nineteenth century small town church edifice and a small industrial building. The exhibits the three units house interpret many phases of Delaware life and history to several thousand visitors yearly. The Johnson Building is devoted to the history of sound recording as developed by the Victor Talking Machine Company.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.