Things to Do in Lewes

The Zwaanendael Museum: Two Failed Colonies Before the Town That Stuck

The Zwaanendael Museum commemorates a genuinely distinctive founding story. In December 1630, the Dutch West India Company's ship Walvis departed Holland under Captain Peter Heyes, carrying roughly 28 colonists under company agent Gillis Hossitt and general administrator David Pietersz de Vries. In 1631 they built a palisade, dormitory, and cook house at Blommaert's Kill -- later called the Hoerenkil, known today as Lewes Creek -- intending to run a whale fishery and grow grain and tobacco. By 1632 the Zwaanendael colony had been destroyed by the local Siconese people, described by Delaware's own historical account as rooted in "a cultural misunderstanding between the Dutch and Native people." De Vries himself arrived on December 5, 1632, to find only a burned settlement.

A second attempt fared no better: a 1663 Mennonite colony led by Pieter Cornelisz Plockhoy was destroyed by English forces within about a year. The Dutch did not refortify the area until 1659, and it was William Penn who formally named the resulting village "Lewes" in 1682, after an English town of the same name. Two genuine, dated, back-to-back failed colonies before a third that finally took root -- that is the real story behind the museum's name, and it is a founding claim unlike any other town on this coast.

The museum building itself was dedicated in 1932 during Delaware's Tercentenary Celebration, marking 300 years since the 1631 Zwaanendael settlement. We did not confirm current hours or admission details this research pass, so check directly with the museum before planning a visit around a specific schedule.

The Cannonball House: A War of 1812 Cannonball Still in the Foundation

During the War of 1812, the British bombarded Lewes over April 6-7, 1813. One cannonball from that bombardment remains lodged in the foundation of what is now known as the Cannonball House, today operated as a maritime museum. A monument commemorating the bombardment was later dedicated on June 2, 1914. It is a small, specific, physically verifiable piece of history -- an actual cannonball still embedded where it landed -- rather than a plaque describing something long since removed.

The HMS DeBraak Hull and Fort Miles at Cape Henlopen State Park

On May 25, 1798, the Royal Navy brig-sloop HMS DeBraak sank just offshore after Captain James Drew ignored pilot Andrew Allen's storm warning; Drew and 46 crew members died, and Allen was the sole survivor. The wreck sat undisturbed until a salvage company using side-scan sonar located it in the mid-1980s, searching for rumored Spanish treasure that was never found. Delaware's own account describes what followed as the wreck being "thoroughly looted and destroyed" during that salvage operation, after which the salvage company went bankrupt. Delaware ultimately acquired roughly 20,000 recovered artifacts along with a hull remnant, now conserved at Cape Henlopen State Park, though most of the artifacts have since moved to a curatorial facility in Dover. Delaware's own assessment describes the hull's conservation window as closing, so this is a real piece of history worth seeing while it remains on display, rather than something guaranteed to be there indefinitely.

Also inside Cape Henlopen State Park is Fort Miles, built in 1941 to help defend Delaware Bay. Per Wikipedia, it fired its guns only once outside of training exercises through the end of World War II, ceased operations in 1991, and transferred to Delaware state control; it is listed today on the National Register of Historic Places. Between the DeBraak hull and Fort Miles's coastal-defense structures, the park pairs a colonial-era shipwreck story with a 20th-century military one, both grounded in the same stretch of Cape Henlopen.

The Cape May-Lewes Ferry: A Scenic Day Trip Across Delaware Bay

The Cape May-Lewes Ferry was dedicated June 30, 1964, and still connects Lewes to Cape May, New Jersey, across the mouth of Delaware Bay -- a real, functioning transportation link that doubles as a scenic on-the-water day trip rather than a roadside attraction. Cape Henlopen State Park itself was dedicated the same year, on October 17, 1964.

Lewes's maritime identity runs deeper than the ferry, too: a naval officer of Port Lewes was first appointed in 1721, and by 1872 roughly thirty bay and river pilots lived in town, growing to nearly sixty by 1887. That profession was formally organized as the Pilots' Association for the Bay & River Delaware in 1896, an organization that still operates today and opened a shore base at a former Coast Guard station on June 9, 1979. It is a genuine, still-functioning maritime profession tied directly to the town's identity, not a historical footnote.

The Lewes Historic District: A Walkable Downtown

Beyond its individual landmarks, Lewes's historic district itself is walkable, built up around the same waterfront that shaped the town's Dutch-colonial founding, its piloting profession, and its maritime museums. Lewes was redesignated from "town" to "city" in 1969, and the University of Delaware's Graduate College of Marine Studies was established there in 1970, reinforcing the town's ongoing maritime identity well past its colonial origins. Six Delaware governors were born in or lived in Lewes, including brothers Daniel Rodney (19th governor, 1814) and Caleb Rodney (23rd governor, 1822) -- another marker of the town's long civic history layered into the same few historic blocks.

What We Will Not Invent

This page is built around real, confirmed facts: the 1631 Zwaanendael colony and 1663 Plockhoy colony, both destroyed within about a year, before William Penn's 1682 naming of Lewes; the Zwaanendael Museum's 1932 dedication during the Tercentenary Celebration; the 1813 War of 1812 bombardment and the cannonball still in the Cannonball House's foundation; the 1798 HMS DeBraak wreck and its destructive 1980s salvage saga; Fort Miles's 1941 construction and National Register listing; and the Cape May-Lewes Ferry's 1964 dedication. It does not state current museum hours, admission fees, ferry schedules or fares, or restaurant and shop names, because none were confirmed this research pass. Confirm current hours, fees, and schedules directly with the Zwaanendael Museum, the Cannonball House, Cape Henlopen State Park, and the Cape May-Lewes Ferry before planning a visit around them.