Frederica, DE

Frederica is a Kent County town on a bend of the navigable Murderkill River, where firm ground and tidal water made a port possible. The town began as Indian Point and later Johnny Cake Landing before becoming a shipping and shipbuilding center. Canneries, a fertilizer plant, factories, and steamship service followed, but the last shipyard closed around 1890. Frederica is central Delaware with its old water economy still legible: river bend, marsh edge, working port, and a town road now carrying the traffic ships once did.