Downtown Dover

Day 256
​Dover DE

Our journey through a state wouldn't be complete without swinging by the capital to see what's what. Dover is a 30 minute ride out. That's close enough for us to hop into Shirley and walk the square on a Saturday afternoon.

This is not the capital building.

We park the jeep and start walking through the streets. Standing in front of one of the buildings is a bell that came off of the USS Delaware. A fighting dreadnought battleship that was kick'n ass for America back in WW1. Following it's successful battles it was turned to scrap in order to build a new class of ships that would later be used in WW2. The theme of countrymen and women carry on throughout the square. We step into the visitor center and browse the small museum they have.

Showcased predominately in the side room was a fantastic collection of trench art. For those of you not in the know, trench art was made by doughboys during WW1 while waiting in the trenches. Imagine yourself trapped in France. You are a whole country away from home and living in the dirt. A twelve hour bombardment of mortar shots rang through your trench and killed 3 friends next to you. As the smoke settles the silence kicks in and the waiting becomes worse than the fighting. You block out the silence by picking up a spent artillery round that may have killed a man you never met and start sculpting it into a piece of art. A piece of sanity to remind you of being human.

We leave the visitor center and step out into the green space to continue our walk around the square. Heritage and history ooze out of the brick buildings. Cobblestone sidewalks have grooves worn in them from the millions of steps taken over the last 300 years.

The old capital building is the only other place that is open today. The current building in closed to the public on the weekend so this place will have to do. It was built between 1782 and 1792 out of brick and plaster. The floors were all wood as well as the columns supporting the second story and roof. It has since under gone two complete renovations. The first was in 1873 to update it to a Victorian style mansion. Then in 1976 the second renovation stripped that away and returned it back to what it would have looked like when first completed. Although the restoration is recent, much of the main architecture remains original.

It's time to start walking back to Shirley to call it a day. We did a load of laundry before checking out the square and the day has been long enough. One more sight will greet us along our merry way.  A Presbyterian church that was built in 1734 holds the title of being the oldest church in the United States that still has an active Congregation of 250 members.

That's enough walking and history for a day. Time to go home walk the dog, walk ourselves, and make dinner. Life could be worse.