Milford
Small River Town On The Mispillion River That Straddles The Kent Sussex County Line, A Wooden Shipbuilding Town In The 1800s And Early 1900s With A Riverwalk Through Its Historic Downtown · Milford, Delaware
Milford is a small town on the Mispillion River, set right on the line between Kent and Sussex counties, about 20 minutes south of Dover and roughly half an hour or a bit more from the beaches. For most of the 1800s and into the early 1900s it was a wooden shipbuilding town: yards along the river turned out schooners and other working vessels, and the money from them built the brick commercial blocks and big Victorian houses that still line the older streets. Today the Mispillion Riverwalk follows the river through downtown for about a mile, past Bicentennial Park, small bridges and the backs of the old blocks, and Walnut Street holds a modest run of galleries, cafes and shops. The Parson Thorne Mansion, an 18th-century house tied to the town's founding, and the small, free Milford Museum tell the local story. Abbott's Mill Nature Center, a working 1800s gristmill with trails, lies just outside town, and the DuPont Nature Center on Delaware Bay is about 20 minutes east. Milford is quiet and unhurried: a pleasant stop on the way to the coast, not a destination in itself.
Walnut Street and the Mispillion Riverwalk, Milford, Delaware, 19963, United States
The town has no gates or opening hours: the streets, the Mispillion Riverwalk and Bicentennial Park are open and free, and the riverwalk is lit in parts but best walked in daylight. Downtown parking is mostly free in public lots and on the street, with time limits posted on some blocks; read the signs. The things with doors keep short and irregular hours. The Milford Museum is small, run with volunteer help, and open only on some days of the week, often for a few hours in the afternoon; confirm before a special trip. The Parson Thorne Mansion is looked after by the local historical society and opens mainly for scheduled tours, events and open days rather than daily; confirm opening before you plan around it. Abbott's Mill keeps its trails open most days, but the mill building and nature center open on a limited schedule and mill demonstrations run on set days, mostly in the warmer months. Many Walnut Street galleries and shops close Sundays and Mondays or open late in the morning, and several cafes close by mid-afternoon. On summer Saturdays Route 1 and US 113 traffic to the beaches is heavy around town. Confirm anything that matters.