Fall For History

History is in Reach of our Beach

And there's no better time to highlight all the history you can experience here than during the fall, so...

Check out the videos above to learn a little about some of our historical attractions and take a look at our history events and tours for this fall including museums (more than two dozen of them!) and exhibits, all in one place to make planning your Fall for Our History adventures easy! Planning a fall beach weekend? Come a little early or stay a little longer to take advantage of midweek tours, presentations, and museum hours. Please check with individual venues to confirm dates and hours.

The Milton Historical Society

Stay tuned for updates on 2025 Milton Fall programs.

Rehoboth Beach Historical Society's Walking Tours, Two Tours: Annual Boardwalk Walking Tour or Spunky Women Walking Tour: September 11 & 22 & 25 and October 6 & 16: Departing from the bandstand on Rehoboth Avenue or the Village Improvement Association parking lot and continuing down the boardwalk and side streets. Tours last about 90 minutes, so wear comfortable walking shoes and bring water. The Annual Boardwalk Walking Tour provides general information about the history of Rehoboth Beach and the changing streetscape of buildings over the years, both business and residential. The tour guide will lead walkers from the bandstand along Rehoboth Avenue, pointing out landmarks and providing photos of historical sites and events while touching on several of the storms that have shaped the coastline and the beachfront. The Spunky Women Walking Tour: visit the VIA clubhouse and stroll through town learning about the women of Rehoboth who made the town a “more pleasant place” to live and vacation. The stroll will include the town history and improvements, the founding of the Rehoboth Art league, the Rehoboth Library, the Mosquito Matron, the children’s fishing pier, and Irene Dupont’s plans for Lake Gerar. The tour continues with stories (with photos) about healthcare, real estate, businesswomen and entrepreneurs, suffragettes, restaurateurs, philanthropists, from beautification to comfort stations. Your guides will end the tour at the Anna Hazzard House on Christian Street.

The Seaford Historical Society

Seaford Museum is open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 1 - 4 p.m. One of the Best Small Museums in Delaware! Trace the history of this community from ancient times through the First Americans, the Civil War, Industrialization, to modern times. Learn how the River and Railroad made Seaford the center for development in Western Sussex County, including its role in Harriett Tubman’s best documented escape. Other featured exhibits include: Nanticoke River Maritime Gallery; DuPont Nylon; Seaford’s Theater District; Women in the Workplace; And Much More! Museum dmission is just $7 for non-members or $12 for both museum & mansion. Children are FREE.

Governor Ross Mansion is open Saturdays and Sundays 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM. Last tour begins at 3:30. Private tours available by appointment. Mansion Grounds are open dawn to dusk. This rare and complete Victorian Italianate mansion, ca. 1860, has been lovingly restored and fully furnished. Step into the Governor Ross Mansion, and step back into time. See the only documented log slave quarter in Delaware. Enjoy 20 acres that include a granary, stable, smokehouse, and corn cribs. Explore a “Honeymoon Cottage” likely built from a pattern book and located on the property.

Seaford Museum Holiday Train Show, Opens November 28 2025, Thursdays - Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. through January 10. Closed December 25,& 26 and January 1. Location: The Seaford Museum, 203 High Street, Seaford, DE 19973. Bring back those fond memories of Christmas Past! The Seaford Museum’s Webb Room features a large O-Scale layout with two operating Lionel trains and more than 100 “Department 56” ceramic buildings and figures. Kids (of all ages) can push buttons to operate animated scenes. The layout is surrounded by display cabinets featuring dozens of antique toy trains gathered from local collectors. Admission is just $3 for adults and kids are FREE. Children must be accompanied by a paid adult. You can see the full museum, including the trains, for just $7.  Check their website here for updates as dates draw near. 

The Lewes Historical Society - Visit their website for details of the following: https://www.historiclewes.org/

Stay tuned for 2025 updates!

Zwaanendael Museum, Lewes

Built in commemoration of Delaware’s first European colony, Swanendael, established by the Dutch in 1631, the museum serves as a showcase for the Lewes area’s maritime, military and social history.

Walk to DeBraak: September 4 & 18 at 10a.m., September 13 at 3p.m. Location: Tours meet in front of the Cape Henlopen State Park Office. Click here for event web page. Join this special tour that explores the history, artifacts and surviving hull section of the HMS DeBraak, an 18th century shipwreck. The tour begins at Cape Henlopen State Park (CHSP). Participants will meet Zwaanendael staff outside the CHSP Park Office and take a short walk (0.3miles) to the DeBraak conservation facility. There, attendees will see the surviving hull of the ship and learn more about the history, crew and sinking of the DeBraak through a guided presentation and display of artifacts. Each tour will last approximately 45 minutes. Prior registration is encouraged. Walkups are welcome if space is available. To register, email zmuseum@delaware.gov or call (302) 645-1148.

Fall Equinox Seasonal Activity: September 20. 2 p.m. Location: Zwaanendael Museum. 102 King Hwy, Lewes DE.
Click here for event web page. Celebrate the changing seasons with a seasonal craft! Throughout 2025, the Zwaanendael Museum will offer short, 15 minute lectures paired with a fun, easy to-do craft that connects to natural, nautical and agricultural traditions. Learn about what is in season, the kinds of wildlife and plant life to look out for and then make a pinecone craft for the Fall Equinox. All craft materials will be provided. To learn more, call the Zwaanendael Museum at (302) 645-1148.

Mysteries of History Walking Tour: October 2, 4, 11, 16, 18, 25, 30, 31. All tours begin at 2p.m. Location: Begins at the Zwaanendael Museum. 102 King Hwy, Lewes DE. Click here for event web page. Explore the darker and more unusual history of Lewes with this spooky walking tour! Participants will wind through downtown Lewes while Zwaanendael Interpreters share stories of shipwrecks, mysterious disappearances, and much more. The tour begins at the Zwaanendael Museum and ends at St. Peter's Episcopal Church. The tours last approximately 80 minutes and are a half mile long. There is no cost to participate, but pre-registration is required. These tours fill up quickly and space is limited so reserve your spot! Call the Zwaanendael Museum at (302) 645-1148 or email at Zmuseum@delaware.gov to sign up

Halloween Seasonal Activity: November 1. 2p.m. Location: Zwaanendael Museum. 102 King Hwy, Lewes DE. Click here for event web page. Celebrate the changing seasons with a seasonal craft! Throughout 2025, the Zwaanendael Museum will offer short, 15-minute lectures paired with a fun, easy to-do craft that connects to natural, nautical and agricultural traditions. Learn about what is in season, the kinds of wildlife and plant life to look out for, and then make merman inspired nature craft for Halloween. All craft materials will be provided. To learn more, call the Zwaanendael Museum at (302) 645-1148.

Wings and Wheels, a Fall Festival, 10/3 & 4 at Delaware Coastal Airport, Georgetown. Link to event web page – www.wings-wheels.com. History comes alive in Georgetown, Delaware! Bring the whole family and experience the world of planes, cars, music and vendors all wrapped around honoring history and fueling family fun.

9th Annual History Book Festival

The History Book Festival is the first and only book festival in the United States that is devoted to history! The annual festival highlights new works about history, both historical fiction and narrative nonfiction. Saturday's twenty free author events take place at four, walkable venues in Lewes, with ticketed Keynote and Closing events on Friday and Sunday.The Festival will be September 26, 27, & 28 in Lewes, DE. For full program information and tickets, visit HistoryBookFestival.org. 

47th Annual Nanticoke Indian Powwow

September 6 & 7, 2025 at Hudson Field, Milton, DE. 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. Join the Nanticoke Indian Tribe in celebrating its unique history and culture.  The powwow will feature native traditional dancing, drumming, singing, flute performances, native foods, native craft vendors and storytelling.  Fun for the entire family! Visit their website here.  This year's theme is "Brave, Strong, United".  Over 30 Native American tribes from all across the United States and Canada are expected to attend.  Gates open at 10 a.m. and Grand Entry at 12 noon on both days.

Indian River Life Saving Station Museum Programs

Stay tuned for 2025 updates!

Lewes Junction Railroad and Bridge Association: Lewes Junction Railroad Tours: 1^st and 3^rd Saturday of each month, weather permitting. Location is Adams Ave., Lewes (between Lewes Public Library & Margaret H. Rollins Community Center). Visit www.lewesjunctionrr.org.  Visit the recently acquired coal tender, tour inside the 1916 Pennsylvania Railroad restored red caboose and learn the rail history of Lewes and eastern Sussex County.  Also see the 1917 hand-cranked, bobtail swing bridge which spanned the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal for over 100 years on display at the end of American Legion Road along the rail trail in Lewes.

U.S. Life-Saving Service Heritage Association Annual Conference, October 23-25, 2025. Multiple locations. The U.S. Life-Saving Service Heritage Association is coming to our region! The annual conference will spend Thursday, October 23 touring historic stations up and down the Delaware coast—including Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, and Indian River Inlet. Sign up for the Delaware day or attend the full conference, which spans Lewes, DE to Cape Charles, VA, and celebrates the legacy of early Coast Guard history up and down the Delmarva coast.

Museums, Exhibits & Antiques

Eastern Sussex County

• Lightship Overfalls, Lewes: The Overfalls is one of only 17 remaining lightships out of a total of 179 built from 1820 to 1952. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2011, it is one of seven lightships in this country still open to the public. 
• Old Courthouse, Georgetown's Old Courthouse was built in 1792 and is located 150 feet off the Georgetown Circle on S. Bedford Street. The GPS address is 10 S. Bedford Street. Visitors can see Patty Cannon's poison cache, rare court tipstaffs, and America's last used whipping post on display. 
• Lewes History Museum: The Lewes Historical Society Museum features their collection of tens of thousands of historic artifacts, artwork, documents, maps and photos. Staffed by skilled professionals from the Society, the Museum serves as the primary source of information about Lewes for visitors, researchers, students and residents. The Museum also provides ongoing seminars, symposia and presentations, a wing for community non-profit gatherings, a children’s interactive history area, and an attractive venue for private celebrations and events. Visit their website for details.

• Cannonball House Museum, Lewes: Cannonball House is the home of The Lewes Historical Society's maritime museum. Nationally important pieces of maritime art and memorabilia are displayed in the house, including the Fresnel Lens of Fourteen Foot Bank Light. There is a cannonball from the War of 1812 bombardment by the British embedded in its foundation.
• Zwaanendael Museum, Lewes: The museum is a showcase for Lewes-area maritime, military, and social history. Modeled after the town hall in Hoorn, the Netherlands, the museum commemorates the founding of Delaware's first European settlement by the Dutch in 1631.
• Fort Miles Museum and Historic Area, Lewes: Fort Miles, located in what is now Cape Henlopen State Park, was a key piece in the nation's coastal defense during WWII. Take a tour of the Fort, enjoy an interpretive program, dance to a swing band, and celebrate the "greatest generation" in our nation's history. On the National Register of Historic Places. Watch a Pentagon Channel program about the fort here.)
• Rehoboth Beach Museum, Rehoboth Beach: The Society preserves and displays showcase artifacts that illustrate the development of the community. The exhibits range from vintage postcards and bathing suits to original Civil War era maps and train schedules as well as temporary exhibits such as photography and needlework exhibits, etc.
• Anna Hazzard Museum, Rehoboth Beach: This museum boasts a Camp Meeting Era "Tent" structure, which houses a collection of artifacts and memorabilia pertaining to the early days of Rehoboth Beach as a religious retreat.
• Indian River Lifesaving Station, Delaware Seashore State Park: Learn the history of the U. S. Life-Saving Service, the precursor to today's U. S. Coast Guard, by visiting the original Indian River Life-Saving Station. Be swept back to a time where night-time beach patrols and perilous high seas rescues were the only way to save shipwreck victims along the coasts of the United States. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
• Bethany Beach Dinker-Irvin Museum, Located at 318 Garfield Parkway, this restored cottage will offer visitors an immersive experience of an historically significant early 1900's home and a glimpse of what life was like during the early days of the town.  It is one of the few remaining original cottages in Bethany Beach and the oldest public building in town.  It served as a U.S. Post Office from 1922-25.  
• DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum, Fenwick Island: DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum is an ever-changing exhibit that expands and diversifies with the acquisitions of new artifacts as they are recovered. The collection of shipwreck and recovered artifacts is one of the largest in the Mid-Atlantic and contains shipwreck artifacts both regional and worldwide.
• Fenwick Island Lighthouse, Fenwick Island: The lighthouse is owned by the state of Delaware and maintained by the private, non-profit New Friends of the Fenwick Island Lighthouse. The "isolated" lighthouse now stands surrounded by a neighborhood of houses and businesses. Visitors can enter the base to view a small museum and gift shop. 

Central Sussex County

• The Milford Museum, Milford: Permanent exhibits include local historic events from the 1700s to the present, shipbuilding, and local businesses. Other exhibits include an historic doll collection, Victorian silverware, Delaware ladybugs, and early Milford baseball. 
• Treasures of the Sea Museum, Delaware Technical Community College, Georgetown: Betze Library building. The exhibit is a beautiful collection of spanish treasures from a 17th century ship, the Nuestra Seniora de Atocha. The library is also home to the Elsie Williams Doll Collection. Currently the collection of over 600 dolls is housed in more than one dozen glass cases and is continuing to grow.
• Marvel Carriage Museum, Georgetown: There are many historic buildings on the museum grounds such as the Ellis School, a one room school house built in 1833. There are two large barns on the grounds that house carriages from Mr. Nutter Marvel's collection. Among these carriages are the Queen's carriage, the Disney carriage, a peddlers wagon and an 1800's era horse drawn hearse carriage. There are many treasures to be seen here such as the beautiful collection of victrolas, ephemera, photographs, telephones, furniture and many more items related to Georgetown history.
• Delaware Aviation Museum, Georgetown: The museum features many WWII aviation artifacts, memorabilia and displays. Also home of the Jeffrey L. Ethell Memorial Aviation Library of over 3,000 aviation related books. The largest aviation library in the east. Several aircraft are also on display surrounding the museum. www.delawareaviationmuseum.org
• Lydia Black Cannon Museum, Milton: The museum’s exhibit includes original art, sailors’ decorative folk art, photographs, ship building tools, sailing implements, and ships’ logs.
• Nanticoke Indian Museum, Millsboro: Displays include thousands of arrowheads, pottery, axe hammers and other objects, all of which are homemade. Visitors are educated and receive insight of the work that goes into creating Native arts and leave with a new understanding of Nanticoke culture. Display also features an example of our village to show how our elders lived in the old days and lots of artwork from tribal members and others.
• Prince George's Chapel, Dagsboro. Historic chapel with tours available by appointment. Built in 1755, Prince George’s Chapel has its beginnings as an Anglican chapel-of-ease, serving the northern outlying area of Worcester Parish, Maryland. During the reorganization of the Episcopal Church following the American Revolution, the chapel became an independent parish church in the diocese of Delaware. Deeded to the State of Delaware in 1967, it was restored and reopened as a museum, administered by the State. The Chapel’s most striking feature is its graceful barrel-vaulted ceiling of natural, unadorned heart of pine planks. The nave section remains as the original 18th century portion, while the east transept end with its great window and octagonal high pulpit has been reconstructed. The chapel is available for a fee for special events, such as a wedding and religious services, that are consistent with its historical character. For more information or tours, please call 302-732-6835.

Western Sussex County

• Bridgeville Historical Society Museum, Bridgeville: The Society’s collection includes a wealth of artifacts, documents, photographs, and books from local businesses, families, and community organizations.
• Seaford Museum, Seaford: Extensive collections and exhibits highlight local area history following a timeline from Native Americans to present day. Museum contains a library of historical materials, changing exhibit gallery, interactive displays and more.
• Seaford Fire Museum, Seaford: Displays fire memorabilia related to the history of the Seaford Volunteer Fire Department Inc.
• Governor Ross Mansion & Plantation, Seaford: Explore a complete Victorian Italianate mansion with slave quarters, barns, sheds and spacious grounds. Learn what life was like before the Civil War, why a popular Delaware governor was smuggled to England with a Federal warrant out for his arrest and how the “War of Northern Aggression” changed life forever.
• Bethel Heritage Museum, Bethel: Explore the history of this quaint shipbuilding village. 
• Cook House Museum, Laurel: The Cook House contains the offices of the Laurel Historical Society, as well as a large number of photos and artifacts that help to tell the story of Laurel and the residents who call it home. 
• Laurel Heritage Museum, Laurel: Showcasing an extensive collection of historical documents and objects displayed in our restored Train Station. The Key element of the Museum is the one-of-a kind Waller Photograph Collection, recognized as the premier period historical collection by both the State of Delaware Archives and the University of Delaware.
• Delmar Railroad Museum, Delmar: Delmar, known for its railroading history, is home to a unique highball signal listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Nearby, a 1929 caboose serves as museum for railroad artifacts. The highball signal and caboose are located in a small park on Route 54 at the railroad tracks. The caboose has no regular hours, so call ahead. A railroad history display is also available at the Delmar Public Library, 101 N. Bi.State Blvd. and the Delmarva Model Railroad Club posts holiday open house events for model train enthusiasts.

Love Antiques and Collectibles?

Check out our Antiques Itineraries! The itineraries, at this link, are designed especially for antiques and collectibles fans and can be enjoyed over two days, any time of year, with plenty of time left over for leisurely lunches and sightseeing along the way.