Delmarva Power and Light Company
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Delaware College of Art and Design (Delmarva Power and Light Company)
1931–1932, Reah de B. Robinson for Brown and Whiteside. 6th and Market sts.
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(Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
Construction of Delaware's largest Art Deco building was considered a hopeful sign in the depths of the Great Depression. The exterior, of Mansota stone and light brick, was dramatically illuminated at night. The interior boasted many amenities, including gas heat (allowing for a coal-free basement), central air, and automatic elevators with fancy doors. The huge ground-level showroom had big windows, fittings of black marble and chromium metal, and a terrazzo floor. The building housed the most sophisticated retail display yet seen in Wilmington, with stylish new appliances from refrigerators and washing machines to radios, percolators, and waffle irons. In opening ceremonies, Mayor Sparks turned on all the lights by training a flashlight across an “electric eye.” In the 1990s, the abandoned building was converted into an art school in an effort at neighborhood revitalization. Across 6th Street stands the former Mullins Store (1940–1941, G. Morris Whiteside).
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Location: Wilmington, DelawareRegional Overviews:Architect:Styles:Materials:
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Citation
W. Barksdale Maynard, "Delaware College of Art and Design (Delmarva Power and Light Company)", [Wilmington, Delaware], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/DE-01-WL22.
Print Source
Buildings of Delaware, W. Barksdale Maynard. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008, 100-100.
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