Lewes history walking tours off to a strong start
The Lewes Historical Society’s daily walking tour has been getting rave reviews since its April launch. The newest excursion, Lewes History Highlights, is aptly encapsulated by its tagline, The First Town in the First State Summed Up.
This tour provides a compact yet comprehensive journey through Lewes' 300-year history, highlighting the heritage that has shaped this remarkable town.
Guests can anticipate an engaging excursion lasting between 45 minutes and an hour, featuring eight key stops. Starting at the historic Shipcarpenter Street Campus, the tour meanders down Second Street and concludes at the LHS Cannonball House Maritime Museum, located across from the War of 1812 Park.
During the walk, LHS guides showcase some of the town’s highlights: early habitation by the Siconese (a Lenape subgroup) and Nanticoke peoples; origins of European settlement and the historic Lewes-Pilottown divide; contributions of African American shipwrights Peter and Cato Lewis; Revolutionary Lewes on Market Street; the sinking of His Majesty's Sloop DeBraak in 1798; the origins of the Pilots of the Bay and River Delaware organization; and the bombardment of Lewes during the War of 1812.
Created by LHS Director of Interpretation Ryan Schwartz, with contributions from dedicated colleagues and researchers, the Lewes History Highlights Tour is designed to appeal to a wide range of visitors.
"This new tour provides an enriching opportunity for you to see the beach and streets you walk down in Lewes through a new lens,” said Schwartz. “Imagine going shopping in the morning at some of the great boutiques in Lewes. Then taking our Lewes History Highlights Tour and afterward, when you are headed to dinner, realizing you are now able to see the town in a new and unique way, with one foot in the present and the other in the past. We created this tour so people can experience that wonder in a shorter slice of time."
The guided tour runs Tuesday through Saturday and meets at 11 a.m. at the Sussex Tavern building on the historic campus at 110 Shipcarpenter St., Lewes.
LHS continues to offer a rotation of longer premium tours, including the Revolutionary Lewes Tour, also crafted by Schwartz, and the Lewes Legends and Paranormal Investigations programs.
Tickets for the Lewes History Highlights Tour are $10 per person, $5 for children 12 and under, and can be purchased online at historiclewes.org or at the Sussex Tavern before the tour's scheduled start time.
For more information or to book a tour, go to historiclewes.org/visit/tours.html.
