Port Penn, DE

Port Penn is a New Castle County census-designated place on the Delaware River, below the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Dr. David Stewart laid out the village in the 1760s, and its deep-water harbor made room for grain, peaches, a customs house, and the occasional British target. The canal and railroad later pulled commerce elsewhere, leaving the old grid and the Port Penn Interpretive Center to carry the story. Port Penn is lower Delaware in a river-village shape, with trade routes still visible in the streets.