County Tries to Sell State White Elephant
Goes by the name of Rockwood.
Yet another tony estate, built in the mid-1800’s, championed by those people more concerned about family crests than family economic survival, purchased by New Castle County with lotsa bucks from the state, turned into a ‘mansion and a park’ during the go-go Gordon and Freebury years, and now, and now…the County can’t afford the upkeep and wants to pawn it off on the state.
From the same administration that proposed $92/month cuts for the medically indigent, comes this response:
“It’s a reasonable proposal and one we’re taking a look at,” (Secretary of State Jeff) Bullock said. “Given Rockwood’s proximity to other state parkland, there’s an argument that you could create a greater efficiency by having the state run it.”
Uh, right. Don’t just take serial bureaucrat Bullock’s word for it. County Community Services Secretary Marcus Henry (yes, he’s Margaret Rose Henry’s son) says that this proposal makes sense “because Rockwood is close to Bellevue State Park”. Yep, all you have to do is cross Shipley Road, Carr Road, wend up past the industrial park and DELDOT maintenance area, cross Marsh Road and I-95, get back on Carr Road and you’re almost there. Why, they’re practically right next door.
Let me put this as succinctly as I can: Neither the state nor the county should expend another dime on this indulgence to the upper middle class. The public has demonstrated its disinterest by their absence. Councilman John Cartier, who I generally like, says that:
(t)he park needs to be marketed better to increase attendance, Cartier said. Programs need to be added, too, he said.The museum currently offers tours and lectures. Proceeds from other events, such as the Victorian Ball scheduled for February, are part of an ongoing fundraising campaign by the Friends of Rockwood to pay for restoration of the conservatory attached to the mansion.
This should not be a state or county function. The County should not be marketing events with public dollars. Both the state and county have sunk significant costs into Rockwood. Despite their best efforts, they now have a money pit to show for it. They should cut their losses, try to sell the white elephant, hell, at sheriff’s sale, if necessary, and get out of this business.
If the tony ‘Friends of Rockwood’, allegedly 135 strong, are sincere, they can either try to buy it themselves, or find a private purchaser. President June Zappa (Editor’s Note: No yellow snow has ever been eaten at Rockwood) might want to call up those Copelands. I hear they’ve got money to throw around.
Tags: Rockwood Mansion; New Castle County; Jeff Bullock; Steve Tanzer; El Somnambulo
We need to preserve Rockwood because if we don’t, the repercussions will be great, like where will the “Little Girls Spa Event” be held?
We can’t have 6-9 year old girls wandering around aimlessly without glitter make up and nail polish. Think about the children for G-d’s sake!
For every cringe inducing “Little Girls Spa Event” there is a worthy Shakespeare Festival.
BTW – If I was a better writer I take on the task of charting the Copeland family’s rise and fall. It would be an interesting American story of a chemist interested in family planning who marries into Capitalist Royalty only to have the family slide into decedent plutocratic disgrace a mere two generation later.
Not saying that there aren’t worthy events there. Just saying that the taxpayers should not be underwriting them. Wealthy patrons of the arts can write off their losses while the medically indigent lose $92 a month. It’s all a matter of resources and priorities.
As to the Copelands, if one is looking to, say, the Delaware Historical Society to research and publish a comprehensive and unbiased history of the family, just remember that there is a ‘Copeland Room’ at the Delaware Historical Society bought and paid for by the Copelands.
In other words, when it comes to the Delaware Historical Society and the Copelands, history and propaganda are synonyms. Kinda like the Hagley Museum and the duPonts.
Some things are treasures worth preserving just for what they are, even if they aren’t heavily used.
If you want it to be heavily used, then lay down some asphalt basketball courts and build long sheds full of video games, and add plenty of parking lots. Then it will be heavily used.
Delaware has torn down too much of its history. There is so little left that any piece remaining is extremely valuable. Go look at Bucks County and see how they have increased their values by preserving their history. Without some open space and some items of architectural interest, New Castle County will become even more of an excruciating wasteland than it already is.
If there is some class-based resentment directed at the Friends, let it go. Individuals are transients; the main thing is to preserve the property. Then there will be time figure out how to make it more of a populist attraction without spoiling its character.
And…
“The 65-acre property north of Wilmington costs the county $420,000 a year to maintain. ”
Seriously? Is that all? The state should take that over, plus take any reasonable offers of a public/private partnership. Fix the roof, add some more programs, and we’re good to go.
There’s no doubt Rockwood has management problems… starting with the fact that there’s hardly anyone there to run or repair it. But as a person who’s spent a lot of time there, in the last few years, I’d say it was worth trying to keep, if only for the grounds. It’s a critical part of the Greenway and has almost constant use, as a park, and as a location for weddings, etc., as well as being the venue for the Shakespeare Festival (which pays rent, btw).
The main problem with the park is that they haven’t figured out a way (other than the ice cream festival) to turn ‘use’ into income. In that way, it’s EXACTLY a ‘public park.’ It provides a service to the community, and protects the land from continued development.
I have to, (much as it pains me to admit it), agree with Cartier that it needs events, and marketing. A week of Victorian Craft Days, or a muster of re-enactors would be all to the good. But they don’t have budget or personnel to put that together.
As to the ‘tony friends of rockwood’, that’s unworthy of you, ElSom. I don’t know who’s on the marquee in that organization, but the bulk of the front line troops are history buffs and retirees, staffing the museum in costumes as volunteers, and at their own expense.
It’s fairly close to the Philadelphia airport. Maybe Marriot or Sheraton would like to turn it into a hotel-conference center. It could bring some money into the County coffers and create some construction jobs. And the setting would be ideal for oligarchs and captains of industry. Especially if there is room to add a golf course. And, if we could tie-in a gambling license with the deal it would be irresistable. A very exclusive gambling license just for guests. Wouldn’t want the hoi poloi to mingle or upset the gambling lobby here. It could become a national center for very exclusive high stakes poker.
And Jason, there are other venues for a Shakespeare Festival. It seems more Ardenish than Rockwoodish. At least that’s how I think of it.
Rebecca, Arden has its own Shakespeare programming… and, sadly, no theatre with equipment for doing a full-on professional production… let alone with the size audiences DSF tends to draw. That was a decision the town & the Arden Club made.
I’d hate to see DSF move again, both for it and for the estate. It’s just beginning to be something that people plan for, and it does increase the visibility of the estate.
Yeah, yeah, Heragain, I don’t give a bleep what you consider unworthy of me.
My issue isn’t whether it should or shouldn’t survive. My point is that the State and County shouldn’t have to pony up for its survival.
The fact that a small coterie of alleged history buffs and retirees allegedly constitute the Friends of Rockwood serves to prove my point that it’s basically a middle upper class indulgence, not unlike the Kalmar Nyckel, which also shouldn’t be receiving taxpayer funds.
If you all want to make an effort to save Rockwood, be my guest, I’m all for it. I just don’t want public monies expended on this money pit.
“Especially if there is room to add a golf course.”
NCC already has 2 abandoned golf courses that I know of. There is something shockingly dystopian about an overgrown and neglected golf course.
“My issue is that the State and County shouldn’t have to pony up for its survival.”
Nobody else will have the public’s interest at heart. Private money will have private uses for the property. The public should not be giving up valuable properties.
“it’s basically a middle upper class indulgence, not unlike the Kalmar Nyckel,”
It is a good and progressive thing to make upper middle class indulgences available to the public at large. This can only be done via public management with public money.
It is not a good and progressive thing for a public body to ‘make middle class indulgences available to the public at large’ when it comes at the expense of providing essential services to the public at large, especially the most needy amongst us.
In fact, it sort-of defines the term ‘bread and circuses’.
“when it comes at the expense of providing essential services to the public at large”
I am actually very sympathetic to this argument, but I am woefully ignorant of the services and populations you are referring to. Perhaps if you get a chance you could lay it out for us. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wonders about the scale and nature of the problem, as seen from your viewpoint.
I also don’t think we need to set up cultural and preservation spending in opposition to spending on services. We can’t give up everything nice in the world just because there are still poor people.
And we can’t use every recession as a mandate to privatize public assets.
We have a responsibility to maintain the mansions of the incredibly rich people who left their properties to the state so the state could give them one last big tax break and spend millions of dollars a year preserving their family history for them.
“spend millions of dollars a year preserving their family history for them.”
The thing is, it’s all our history too.
My grandfather was an Irish immigrant who worked as a day laborer mortaring the broken glass on top of the wall at Nemours. Do you think these places just belong to the rich?
“The thing is, it’s all our history too.”
You could make that argument for the powder mills, but explain to me the great historic value of Bellevue to the citizens of Delaware.
And your family’s history of helping rich people keep the masses off of their property is heartwarming. I feel much better now about my tax dollars going to preserve a mansion that could have been preserved by a family that is still thriving all around the state. I hope to G-d that the duPonts still get a tax break for that. If they don’t, we are truly a morally bankrupt society.
Well, Puck, then I guess I’ll have to emphasize for the third or fourth time, the administration that appears to embrace this ‘worthy public expenditure’ is the same administration that sought to cut funding for the medically indigent by $92 a month earlier this year. And the same administration that sought to slash scholarship programs for students at local colleges.
And, it sure as bleep isn’t ‘all our history’ too. While I salute your grandfather’s labor, that mansion does nothing to honor the history of most Delawareans, and you’re smart enough to know it.
I repeat what I have said: Preservation of the Rockwood Museum may well be a worthy goal. It is not worthy of public expenditure.
El Som, this is unusual for you, but you’ve grossly mischaracterized what occurred during the go-go Gordonbery days.
Rockwood was a nice pleasant place (and perhaps as underused as it is today) when the culture-killing team of Tom and Sherry took over the ice cream festival from the Friends of Rockwood, virtually kicked the Friends group off the grounds (for several years they rented office space in the Edgemoor Community Center), neglected maintenance on the mansion, and transformed a secondary structure into a million-dollar conference and meeting center.
The Coons administration was friendlier to the Friends, but exhibited little interest in maintaining the mansion. The Friends — mostly durable members of the middle class, many of them retired — have spent much of the last couple of years trying to identify private sources of funding to repair the conservatory. They care more about the facility than the county, which has gradually dismantled the small staff on the Rockwood grounds.
Don’t pick on them for trying to preserve the mansion in the face of the county’s continuing neglect.
“but explain to me the great historic value of Bellevue to the citizens of Delaware.”
You’re kidding, right? First of all, any open space near the Delaware River is historic enough in its own right. And Cauffiel House? Bellevue Hall? The Mount Pleasant Meeting House? A pond and a 1-1/8 mile oval dirt track?
Why not preserve the mansions of the old robber barons and plutocrats? They’re dead, and we’ve got their stuff.
Our grandparents sure coveted it when they were alive, and now we have it.
Do you just want to be barbarians and rip it all apart for firewood or something?
I think El Som is experiencing an overactive populist gland on this subject 🙂
Bellevue — the boyhood home of John du Pont.
Need a historical marker: killer of Olympic wrestler slept here.
I suppose all parks might be considered “middle class indulgences.” But this is the map of NCC parks might be interesting. http://www2.nccde.org/Parks/Locations/default.aspx
It’s not just rich folks who put their assets into the park system. Every neighborhood around, pretty much, has some patch of green they don’t want developed, and don’t want to pay direct taxes on. Easier just to make it ‘county land’ and let THEM repair the swingset.
Now, you might argue this is a crappy system, but you won’t argue it with me. However, it’s the system we’ve got.
My observation, which is not the same as science, is that the people actually USING the park come mostly from the neighborhoods around it, which are not the fanciest neighborhoods in NCC. They walk their dogs, they let their kids ride bikes on a safe path, they look at the Christmas lights. They have picnics.
It’s possible that there could be different administrative solution to maintaining the house. But to give up the property entirely strikes me as shortsighted. I think we have quite enough new housing and granite office parks already.
And I’m sorry you don’t like me, ElSom. 🙁
“championed by those people more concerned about family crests than family economic survival”
I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean, but it sounds like a poor characterization of any Quaker business tycoon, which Joseph Shipley was.
I think what ElSom is getting at is where are our priorities. Why are we so willing to spend on fluff and yet cut the essential. Had the Governor not pushed for his various cuts on the poor and working class then this I think would have been a non issue to El Som
El:
You are so full of it. In the past, you mentioned your kids went to Friends School in your 9/11 posting. That is about $22K a kid. Sounds kind of Upper Middle Class to me. You are another Liberal blowhard full of it. How many poor kids go to Friends, oh great protector of the working man?
as has been pointed out above, the Friends of Rockwood were caring for, staffing and furnishing the Historic Mansion long before the gordonberry grifters made their debut. All of the antique furnishings in the mansion were purchased by the FoR (not with your tax dollars).
The Icecream festival was a Fund Raiser before the gordonberry grifters took over.
“you mentioned your kids went to Friends School in your 9/11 posting.”
So what? That’s got nothing to do with the issue, and is the perfect example of an ad hominem attack. His argument should be engaged on its merits. It is not flawed because of the person raising it, whether that person meets your approval or not.
Welcome back, Tom-Tom Boy, aka Lib Blowhard. Your style is so unmistakeable that you give yourself away, regardless of what alias you use. Yes, we sent our kids to Friends. And, to answer your ignorance, the school has funded a significant student population from those in the lower economic strata. But Tom-Tom Boy wouldn’t know that. And they’ve opened up a pre-school in Wilmington specifically designed for lower-income students, and to enable many of them to ultimately attend Friends.
Oh, and I’ve voted for and campaigned on behalf of school tax increases, even though we pay for that in addition to paying for Friends.
I disagree with Geezer as I was not talking about the founder of the property, but those who believe that government should pay for its upkeep and, for that matter, marketing.
I am simply saying that government has no business subsidizing this stuff, especially when our economic circumstances are dire.
And, to Heragain, while I like you, I give no credence to someone who basically accused me of being a best friend to pedophiles for days on end when I dared to question the one-size-fits-all inequities of the Sex Offender Data Base.
Surely there is some wealthy benefactor willing to take advantage of all the tax breaks they would receive were they to take it over. If not, why should the taxpayers be forced to foot the bill? That is my only question.
I run in that park and walk in it. The “Greenways” trails are great and if you knocked down the mansion I’d think the park would be a lot easier to maintain.
I also like that during Christmas you can go through it for free and look at the lights.
One of the sad things was when the Ice Cream festival went away. My father who grew up pretty darn dirt poor told me tales of that festival and the great fireworks every year. The one year I got there for the fireworks I was impressed with those things too. It’s a great space to take advantage of and is free to get into unlike bellvue or any of the other meter maid parks.
It has a nice creek that runs through it with small fish, frogs, etc.
If it goes private, it’s just one more thing people can’t use that can’t afford to Can-do park or bellvue etc.
Flatten the mansion, put up some stuff for the kids and go from there.
The mansion is precisely what the Friends of Rockwood want preserved.
I’m fine with that.
Just not at additional public expense.