51st Annual Delaware Show

HISTORIC ODESSA: A PAST PRESERVED BY PHILIP D. ZIMMERMAN Odessa, Delaware, located where the Appoquinimink empties into the Delaware River, is a cul-de-sac of history. This small river community flourished from the mid-18th through early 19th centuries as a marketing hub for the shipping of grain and goods across the Delmarva Peninsula between the Appoquinimink (with access to Wilmington, Philadelphia, and the Atlantic) and the Chesapeake Bay (en route to Baltimore and Annapolis). Local businesses included William Corbit’s thriving tannery, David Wilson’s dry goods store, and John Janvier’s and Duncan Beard’s cabinet- and clockmaking shops. But prosperity was not to last. In 1829 the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal opened for business and began diverting river traffic, undercutting Odessa’s economic foundation. Further competition occurred in 1832, when the railroad connected wharves in New Castle with those in Frenchtown at the head of the Chesapeake and then extended south to Middletown, only three miles west of Odessa, in 1855. That year, town fathers retired the original name, Cantwell’s Bridge, in favor of Odessa, the Black Sea grain-shipping port in Ukraine, but the community’s heyday had passed. Although circumstances continued to decline, several fortunate events as well as the actions of history-minded family members and citizens have ultimately resulted in the preservation of the best of Odessa and its material culture. G. W. Janvier, A View at Appoquinimink, State of Delaware, watercolor on paper, 1805–20. Historic Odessa Foundation — 16 —