Bullen, John, House
214 S. State St., Dover, DEThe brick house owned by the Farmers Bank of the State of Delaware, located on the west side of State Street between North and Loockerman streets, is a rare documented example of the work of a Dover master builder. It is the only surviving eighteenth-century domestic building known to have been built by, inhabited by, and owned by a Dover carpenter, Though somewhat modified since it was built, it is still a significant example of eighteenth-century Dover architecture. John Bullen, house carpenter, built the house during the Revolutionary War, between 1775 and 1781. When he purchased the land on which the house now stands from Vincent Loockerman, Jr. in 1775, the land was unimproved. When Bullen died in 1781, there was a mansion house on the land which he left to his wife Rachel. After her death, the house passed to her daughter, Rachel Bullen Bedwell, wife of John Bedwell.
In 1796, the Bedwells sold the house to Joseph Harper. The next year he sold it to Benoni Harris. - Thereafter, James Harper, Joseph Smithers, Thomas Harris, James C. Bird and James T. Bird were among the owners of the house. In 1866, Edwin M. Stevenson purchased the house; it remained in his family until 1931. James A. Downes purchased the house in 1931 and in 1947 he conveyed it to his daughter, Salome Downes Edgeworth. Finally, in 1959, she sold the house to the Farmers Bank of the State of Delaware.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
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.