Reed House
Lombard St., Leipsic, DEThe building's timber construction typifies the construction materials commonly employed in the flat sandy areas of southern Delaware's coastline where no natural stone existed for building purposes and brick was reserved for those who could afford to set up a clamp or kiln and fire their own. In plan, the Reed House is truly representative of the vast majority of Federal period domestic architecture where rich and poor alike occupied a single ground floor room.
Architecturally significant, the Reed House represents the late usage of a chambered hall plan. This arrangement consisting of a two-story dwelling with a single room on the ground floor and a fully developed chamber overhead was used by wealthy Delaware planters in the early eighteenth century. By the early nineteenth century (the period in which the Reed House was built) the chambered hall was no longer widely built. Its use here in conjunction with finely carved federal period mantels indicates the diminished but long-term perseverance of earlier Federal traditions by those who could afford to commission desirable dwellings.
The Reed House also provides a vital index to the geographic growth and commercial development of the village of Leipsic in the nineteenth century. This site, originally known as Fast Landing, constituted the easternmost plot of land of Little Duck Creek (now the Leipsic River) in an area otherwise dominated by marsh and tidal drains. The geographic setting of the dwelling demonstrates the way in which Leipsic's nineteenth-century inhabitants took part in trades and occupations closely linked to the water. From this location, the building's original owners and subsequent occupants enjoyed ready access to the water and its natural resources which supported a variety of land and water occupations. The dense marsh across the river supported an abundant muskrat population trapped for their pelts. Cutting marsh hay also contributed to the economic livelihood of the village. The harvested hay was used to produce cores for hollow-bodied iron castings, as cattle feed, or as packing material. The bulk of the one hundred tons of marsh hay annually cut in the vicinity of Leipsic was shipped directly to Wilmington and Philadelphia. The water not only supplied a variable harvest but was also the primary commercial avenue linking Leipsic to the urban centers of Philadelphia and Wilmington and the oyster shipping centers of Port Norris and Bivalve, New Jersey.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
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.