In 1906, Quaker industrialist William Bancroft began buying land outside Wilmington to keep it open for the public; more than a century later, 1,359 acres became the largest unit of First State National Historical Park
The Brandywine Valley unit now covers 1,359 acres along the border of Delaware and Pennsylvania. (NPS photos) In 1906, industrialist William Poole Bancroft began buying land in Delaware’s Brandywine Valley to hold it in reserve for the health and well-being of the public. More than a century later, 1,359 acres of that land became the…