Delaware History Museum

The State History Museum Run By The Delaware Historical Society In A Former Woolworth Store On Market Street In Downtown Wilmington, With The Mitchell Center For African American Heritage And The 1798 Old Town Hall On The Same Block · Wilmington, Delaware

The Delaware History Museum is the Delaware Historical Society's museum on lower Market Street in downtown Wilmington, a few blocks up from the train station. It fills a former Woolworth store, an Art Deco building from about 1940 whose big shop windows and open sales floor were turned into galleries, so it feels more like a bright downtown storefront than a marble temple. Inside is a permanent Delaware history gallery that walks from the Lenape and the Swedish and Dutch colonists through the Revolution, slavery and the Underground Railroad, the du Pont powder mills, industry, the 1968 occupation of the city and modern Delaware, plus changing exhibitions on local subjects. In recent years the society reopened the building with the Mitchell Center for African American Heritage, which tells the state's Black history in its own galleries. Across the street stands the Old Town Hall of 1798, part of the same campus, and nearby is the society's research library. It is a modest museum, open only four days a week, worth an hour or two if you care how this small state came to be.

504 North Market Street, Wilmington, Delaware, 19801, United States

In 2026 the museum has been open Wednesday to Saturday only and closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, so a Sunday-to-Tuesday visit finds locked doors; confirm the days before you travel, because this is the single most common way to waste the trip. On open days the galleries keep daytime hours, roughly late morning to late afternoon, but published sources disagree on the exact opening and closing times, so check the Delaware Historical Society's own site or call on the day. Last entry is usually a little before closing. The museum closes for major holidays and can close early or shut galleries for private events, school programs or while exhibitions are changed; confirm if you are coming for one exhibit. The Mitchell Center for African American Heritage keeps the same days as the main museum. The Old Town Hall across the street is generally opened for tours, programs and events rather than daily drop-in visits; ask at the museum desk. The society's research library keeps its own, shorter schedule and may need an appointment. The shop follows the museum day.

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