Houston-White Co. thrived in Millsboro
Houston-White Co. was a mill and basket company founded in the late 19th century that thrived in the early 20th century in Millsboro. The large campus was located off Washington Street/Main Street and Monroe Street along the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks. Today, the site is across from Millsboro Town Hall and home to Brandywine Village Apartments, First Shore Federal and Tidemark Federal Credit Union. Houston-White was incorporated in 1905 by Sen. Henry Houston and William White. As the lumber business grew, they expanded their reach throughout the entire Eastern Seaboard and furthered their operations with a second mill in Lumberton, N.C. It wasn’t before they discovered a unique method of making agricultural baskets that would have a major impact on agricultural shipping throughout the entire United States.
In 2017, White’s great-great-granddaughter Megan Kee, a successful restaurateur in the Cape Region, honored her family’s past by converting the business (which never dissolved) to a restaurant, opening a high-end steakhouse called Houston White Co. on Rehoboth Avenue.
Houston-White’s mill in Millsboro closed in 1974, falling into despair until the late 1970s, when a man named Kenneth Jobes single-handedly demolished the building and salvaged as much as he could. Although this photo is undated, it appears to have been taken between the closing in 1974 and the demolition in 1977.
