old houses in Wilmington DE

With so much unimaginative office and multi-storey-parking development in Wilmington DE, it's a relief to see that the latest such development is at least going to keep a bit of historic Market Street by incorporating these buildings on one side of the block (plus a few others). Elsewhere downtown Wilmington is pretty grim with row upon row of car parks and architecurally dismal office blocks. Even the Dupont tower is disappointing, and the Dupont Hotel appears to have been remodelled in the post-war years in a pretty grim way. The neighbourhoods around the centre are, in contrast, gorgeous with lovely streets full of period terraces. Gilpin has a wonderful 19th century fire station and the area around the Delaware Art Museum is superbly landscaped and adorned with handsome town houses. It seems that wiser council now prevails in the downtown area, though I couldn't help but notice that five (?) period row houses at the bottom of the hill near Amtrak are slated for demolition. A great shame.