About Hockessin's Yorklyn

If you care about the environment and love the traditional way of building stone houses, you have a chance to own a beautiful home in a private setting and the State will pay you for preserving the land and the exterior of the Benge House, an historic home presently for sale in the old mill village of Yorklyn, Delaware.

This location overlooking the Red Clay Creek is so important to the adjacent Auburn Heights Preserve that the State of Delaware has offered facade and conservation easements to the next owner. If you are interested in learning more about this once in a lifetime offer, come to the Open House Sunday, September 19 between the hours of 1 and 4 PM, or call Carolyn for details. To see the website for this home, visit www.psre.com/9352.

You may have driven by a lovely stone house at 702 Benge Road in Yorklyn, Delaware on your way along the Red ClayCreek, perhaps for a visit to the Auburn Heights Preserve. Well, here is your chance to preview this home at an open house this Sunday, July 25, 2010 from 1-3 PM.

If you are seeking a restored historic home with new systems, new kitchen and baths, you will love this Yorklyn stone home. Not only is this home beautiful, but its private setting is unmatched. Located adjacent to the new Auburn Heights Preserve, a State park, there are possible financial rewards for a buyer interested in preserving the exterior of this home (ask Carolyn for details). There is an extensive system of stone walls for terracing and retaining walls which were recently constructed. A garage across the road has a second floor studio/workshop.

See this property website for details:www.psre.com/9352. The home is listed for $675,000 and sits on just under 3 acres.

On the banks of the Red Clay Creek, Yorklyn, Delaware is near the border with Pennsylvania that was drawn by Mason and Dixon. The swiftly moving creek once powered numerous mills from Pre-Revolutionary times to the early 20th century. Industry began here with John Garrett in 1730, when he opened a gristmill in an area called at the time "Auburn." He had purchased the land from the estaate of Letitia Penn, William Penn's daughter. Later members of the Garrett family built snuff and paper mills and added to the family fortune.

Above are some of what remains on the site of the Garrett Snuff Mills, which finely ground tobacco from Maryland and Virginia into snuff (which is a type of smokeless tobacco). Flooding from a hurricane in the 90's destroyed shops which were located in some of the buildings, along with long abandoned mill buildings.

Today, one center of activity in Yorklyn is the tiny post office, located on the left side of this building on Yorklyn Road. Just 100 yards past the post office is the bridge over the Red Clay Creek.

Yorklyn is part of the Greater Hockessin, Delaware area, which is just down Yorklyn Rd. There are many historic homes in Yorklyn, as well as the new Auburn Heights Preserve, a State park which features the 1897 Marshall mansion as well as a collection of steam powered cars and machinery.