Gibraltar Mansion: Demolition by Neglect?

Gibraltar Mansion, Rear Facade (Eastern elevation, August 2017

The Gibraltar estate in Wilmington, Delaware was initially developed around 1844 by John Rodney Brincklé (1794 -1875), grand-nephew of the first Governor of Delaware, Caesar Rodney.

Hugh Rodney Sharp (1880 -1968) purchased Gibraltar in 1909. He would soon marry Isabella Mathieu du Pont, the sister of Pierre S. du Pont, the President of E.I. du Pont & Nemours. Pierre often visited the Sharp’s garden at lunchtime and, in 1915, proposed to his wife among the roses at Gibraltar.

Mr. Sharp was a Founding Member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Marian Cruger Coffin (1876-1957), one of America’s first female landscape architects, had a lifelong friendship with Henry Francis du Pont, and did substantial garden design work on his Winterthur estate. Among her more than 130 commissions were Gibraltar, Mt. Cuba, St. Amour, Winterthur, the University of Delaware and the du Pont family cemetery. Hugh Rodney Sharp commissioned Marian Cruger Coffin to design the gardens for the entire Gibraltar estate.

In 1997, the State of Delaware paid $800,000 to H. Rodney Sharp, III, Trustee of H.R.S. Real Estate Trust, and an additional $200,000 for the adjacent Shaw property, in exchange for a Conservation Easement. This enabled Preservation Delaware, Inc, a non-profit, to purchase the 6.1 acre Gibraltar estate for $10.00. Preservation Delaware eventually subdivided the property into two parcels, separating the Marian Cruger Coffin Gardens from the land holding the mansion and other buildings.

In 2010, Preservation Delaware abdicated their stewardship of the large parcel, selling the 4.58 acre parcel holding the mansion, the pool house, the garages/greenhouses/apartments and other buildings to a private sector development firm called “Gibraltar Preservation Group, LLC.” Preservation Delaware maintains the ownership of the 1.51 acre Marian Coffin Gardens.

Gibraltar, Delaware’s finest example of an urban estate, is wasting away. Despite its architectural, historical, horticultural and cultural significance, it is Delaware’s most “At-Risk” historic property.