Once a symbol of opulence and wealth on the outskirts of Delaware’s largest city, a vacant and crumbling former du Pont mansion looms over the Highlands neighborhood.
The grounds, once meticulously kept with Wisteria cascading over entrances and a variety of perennial flowers brightening the space, are overgrown, save for the Marian Coffin Gardens still maintained by a local preservation group.
The historical Gibraltar mansion remains standing despite years of exposure to snow, wind and rain, its faded green shutters hanging haphazardly, if at all. Many of the paned windows are shattered, the interior paint and plaster is peeling, and both the interior and exterior are “tagged” with graffiti.
It’s a far cry from its heyday when the estate entertained wealthy guests and served as the canvas for a famous female horticulturalist to create a tiered garden descending from the mansion.
For the last decade, the mansion and much of the sprawling landscape has sat dormant and deteriorating, waiting for the right plan to breathe life back into it.
There have been proposals, but a lack of funding and community opposition often stalled progress.
The last attempt for adaptive reuse was pitched more than 15 years ago in 2005 by CCS Investors, LLC while Preservation Delaware was the owner. The firm proposed turning the historic property into an office complex, but it was abandoned after opposition from neighbors mounted and the state Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs denied the developer’s proposal to amend a conservation easement attached to the property.
Now the property owners – Gibraltar Preservation Group, a limited liability corporation of which Drake Cattermole is a principal – have amassed nearby parcels attempting to build a redevelopment plan that will restore the Gibraltar estate while remaining financially viable.
Familiar hurdles are forming again after local developer Robert Snowberger, of 9SDC – a Wilmington-based historic preservation contractor – introduced plans to turn the Gibraltar mansion into a boutique hotel, renovate the greenhouse and garage into restaurant and retail space, and build townhomes on vacant land surrounding the 6-acre property.
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Many neighbors are unconvinced that developers will save the historical buildings, pointing to the redevelopment’s plan to build several townhomes and a single-family house on adjacent land as proof the Gibraltar property will continue to deteriorate if a conservation easement struck with the state in the 1990s isn’t enforced.
Michael Melloy, a resident of the Forty Acres neighborhood who grew up in the Highlands, said the latest plans lack detail on how the historic buildings will be renovated and who would operate the mansion as a boutique hotel, leaving Melloy convinced the hotel plan is a “myth” and the entire project “whacko.”
“Nobody in their right mind would propose to take the second most valuable property in the Highlands and put six semi-detached houses in the backyard, and then jam another house between the Gibraltar wall and a house,” he said. “We strongly object to ruining the Highlands because Robert Snowberger and the owners, who’ve been negligent on Gibraltar, want to jam in a dense housing project.”
According to Maggie Mesinger, who has lived in the Highlands for over 30 years and currently resides on West 16th Street, nearby residents agree.
Forty-three households have signed a petition opposing any subdivision of 1600 Brinckle Ave. – a single family home owned by BDK Brinckle LLC, a corporation with the same address as the developers who own Gibraltar – or allowing a decommissioned section of city road to be used for new housing, she said.
Not everyone is opposed to the redevelopment of Gibraltar, but the proposal has divided neighbors and silenced residents who are more open to the plan. Those neighbors have stayed out of the spotlight, offering quiet, nameless support for the tentative plan out of fear vocal support will create conflicts.
The petition, crafted by Melloy and others in the neighborhood, includes signatures from most residents on Brinckle Avenue, most households on West 16th Street as well as residents on West 17th and 18th streets, Rockford Road, Greenhill Avenue, Wawaset Park and the Devon, Mesinger said.
However, Snowberger said the only way to make an estimated $14 million restoration of the Gibraltar mansion and outlying buildings financially viable is coupling it with new construction.
“The Gibraltar mansion project is not feasible as a standalone development due to the costs and risks associated with the historic restoration and long-term operation of the property,” he said. “The only option to ensure the long-term viability of the restored mansion, which is our primary focus, is to include a housing component on the adjacent parcels. We have been working with community members to gain feedback and reduce the impact of this reality while still having a project that works.”
The history
Overlooking the Highlands community with a distant view of downtown Wilmington, the historic mansion at 2505 Pennsylvania Ave. was built in the mid-1840s by Wilmington businessman John Rodney Brinckle.
Brinckle constructed the mansion on a rocky outcrop that came to be known as Gibraltar, named after the famous limestone ridge at the tip of Spain, in a rumored, failed attempt to lure a wealthy Philadelphia socialite into marriage.
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He eventually used the roughly 80-acre estate for entertaining guests and conducting horticultural experiments, before passing on the property to his brother Samuel and – following his death – his wife, Julia. It was then purchased by Hugh Rodney Sharp and his wife, Isabella Mathieu du Pont Sharp, in 1909.
Sharp, an influential historic preservationist in Delaware, sought to expand the home, adding wings to the east and west, a conservatory, a carriage house, a greenhouse, a swimming pool, and an elaborate garden. It is the sole surviving walled estate in the city of Wilmington.
Sharp singlehandedly created a “distinct Brandywine style: highly textured, rooted to the past, with a sophisticated sense of place,” according to The Du Ponts Houses and Gardens in the Brandywine by Maggie Lidz.
The Gibraltar remains a prime example of Sharp’s influence on Delaware’s architecture, and ultimately earned its historic designation due to this influence. Sharp was responsible for the extensive renovations to Gibraltar, which began in 1915, and hired pioneering female landscape architect Marian Cruger Coffin to design the property’s accompanying gardens from 1916 to 1923.
Coffin was born to a wealthy, upper-class family in 1876, and early on had a love for landscaping that she fostered into a successful landscape business in New York City following study at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Designed in the “Italianate Beaux-Arts” style, and reminiscent of traditional English gardens, the Gibraltar gardens are laid out in terraces descending from the main house and accessible by a marble staircase with wrought iron fencing. Coffin designed other notable gardens, including Winterthur and the grounds of the University of Delaware in the First State, along with other major projects in New York like the gardens at the Caumsett estate, which is now a state historic park.
When Sharp died in 1968, the Gibraltar estate moved to his son, Hugh Rodney Sharp, Jr., who did not have an interest in horticulture, and the gardens fell into disarray.
In the mid-1990s, a local campaign pursued by Preservation Delaware, raised $2.1 million in private donations along with securing $1 million from the state to purchase Gibraltar and save the historic mansion and adjacent gardens from demolition. During this time, the $1 million state commitment established a “conservation easement” that required the owners of the estate to maintain the buildings in perpetuity and limit any new construction on the site.
It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998 and eventually Gibraltar Preservation Group took ownership.
The project
The conservation easement and the historical requirements associated with the property make redevelopment of Gibraltar both complicated and expensive, Snowberger said.
Any renovations to the mansion and existing buildings will require approval of materials – like historically appropriate replacements for windows and proper restoration of trim and other ornate fixtures – which means higher costs and more red tape.
Snowberger said 9SDC’s goal is to design a project that won’t require any revisions to the conservation easement. Previous failed attempts for redevelopment often required changes to the easement, seeking to increase the square footage allowance for new construction.
The easement limits new construction to 6,500 square feet – a change from the original limit of 4,000 square feet made when Preservation Delaware sought a viable redevelopment plan for the property.
The nonprofit preservation group – which did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story – first aimed to turn Gibraltar into a boutique hotel, much like 9SDC’s latest plan, but they were unable to “arrange an acceptable financing package for the project” with the developer, and the proposal was abandoned in 2001.
Four years later, the nonprofit pitched a new proposal: turning Gibraltar into an office plaza.
While the city approved rezoning the property to move the project forward, developers also needed to change the conservation easement. Neighbors balked, and filed papers seeking a judicial review of the city zoning board’s decision. At the same time, the Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs ruled additional changes to the conservation easement would need to be made by the General Assembly.
The plans were abandoned after Delaware Superior Court in 2008 reversed the Wilmington Zoning Board of Adjustment’s approval of the variance. A few years later Preservation Delaware sold the property to Gibraltar Preservation Group.
Currently zoned as single-family residential, developers say any successful reuse of the property will need a zoning change.
“You can’t just get this property and do whatever you want – you have to go to city council for zoning and moreover there is actually a historic easement on the property from the owners long ago, so whoever buys it now also has to keep the historical character,” Snowberger said. “The combination of the two – the fact you have to rezone and the fact you need to keep it historic – means that the owner by right can only do one thing: a very expensive renovation for a single-family house, and we don’t have anyone doing that.”
The 6-acre property is divided into two parcels – one off Greenhill Avenue that encompasses the Marian Coffin Gardens and the other off Pennsylvania Avenue that includes the mansion and other buildings – and is currently valued at over $1 million, according to the latest tax assessment information on the New Castle County’s online parcel search.
The owners pay roughly $45,000 annually in city and New Castle County property taxes for the two parcels, a figure expected to increase with improvements to the estate.
Moreover, historically renovating a single-family home versus a commercial-use property comes with fewer historic tax credits, Snowberger said. The feasibility of the project relies on receiving 20% tax credits by renovating Gibraltar into a boutique hotel.
Finally, to attract a boutique hotel operator and other tenants to the restaurant and retail space, new construction is necessary to subsidize future rent costs, Snowberger said.
“The rent for that boutique hotel is going to be absolutely insane if you don’t find a way to subsidize project costs,” he said. “That’s why the combined project of the home lots next door and the property are paramount to making this thing finally work.”
The opposition
Since the last failed attempt to rehabilitate Gibraltar, its property owners have amassed adjacent parcels trying to establish a financially viable project, seemingly with little opposition.
Then, last summer, 9SDC developers presented a plan for returning the historic property back into productive use. Dozens of residents filled the Marian Coffin Gardens to hear the tentative plans.
In the proceeding months, Snowberger said they gathered community feedback and altered plans to reflect neighborhood concerns.
But staunch opposition remains, with neighbors signing petitions to halt new development and urging the state Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs to enforce the conservation easement and demand the property owners “mothball” the property.
Preservation Brief 31, a federal historic preservation document for “mothballing” vacant properties, outlines how to stabilize and protect an abandoned property when “all means of finding a productive use for a historic building have been exhausted or when funds are not currently available to put a deteriorating structure into a useable condition.”
Following neighbors’ complaints on Gibraltar’s condition, Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs Director Timothy Slavin said he connected with the property owner and developers on securing the buildings and ensuring they were protected from the elements. But with a tentative redevelopment plan in the works, Slavin said he did not order the owners to perform mothballing.
“Mothballing is really if you are taking a building offline for a long, long period of time,” he said. “We believe that the project will move from stabilization to rehabilitation without delay. As such, taking additional measures to mothball the building are unnecessary at this time with the rehabilitation work. If that rehabilitation is delayed, we will pursue additional measures over-and-above the current stabilization measures.”
While Highlands neighborhood residents push for Gibraltar to be mothballed, the crux of the opposition centers on the new construction component.
“I think adding to the density of housing is a huge problem and preempting a public road for private development is another huge problem,” said Lois Bates, who has lived at 1601 Brinckle Ave. since 1994. “I can’t imagine the almost simultaneous construction of up to 18 homes. I just can’t imagine living there and having to endure that.”
The Highlands neighborhood is dominated by single-family homes, both detached and semi-detached, with homes and land on average valued between $125,000 and $150,000, according to the latest assessments.
Few homes are on large plots of land, however, most offering no more than a ¼-acre of open space. Years prior, Sharp’s property along Greenhill Avenue was subdivided to construct multiple single-family homes.
Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki, whose West 16th Street backyard faces Gibraltar, stopped short of offering his opinion on the latest development proposal, instead emphasizing that he hopes this is the project the finally gets to the finish line.
“I think it would be a spectacular site if developed properly: A beautiful garden with a spectacular walkway, magnificently maintained is something that makes you feel better about your city and community,” Purzycki said. “That’s the opportunity that is lost here – this beautiful, ascetic pleasure just hides behind those walls and no one can see it. I’m hoping there’s a happy ending here.”
Developers have their work cut out for them.
Before cleaning the property and beginning stabilization, the mansion was accessible through multiple broken windows and un-boarded doorways. Overgrown trees and vines obscured the front of the mansion overlooking the Marian Coffin Gardens and fallen trees along the Pennsylvania Avenue driveway served as a reminder of Gibraltar’s neglect.
Empty bottles and cans were strewn throughout the mansion, graffiti scarred outdoor pillars and stones as well as the interior walls, ashy remnants of squatter fires pockmarked the first floor, and water damage was apparent throughout the home.
From the walls to the ceiling, plaster and paint has peeled and crumbled, but as Snowberger toured the property on a recent breezy, winter day, the uniqueness and character of Gibraltar stood out. Detailed thresholds and molding remained intact, marble showers and tubs maintained their gleam, and wood floors – despite water intrusion – had yet to rot or warp.
Neighbors promise to oppose any redevelopment plan that adds new construction to the Highlands community, and have suggested the state, or a nonprofit entity like the University of Delaware, take on the project to ensure it’s developed into a historical destination.
“Right now, the state has the authority to send people in there, inspect it and make an assessment of what the value is to restore it back to the 1997 condition,” said Gary Linarducci, who lives about a mile away from Gibraltar on Bancroft Mills Road. “Putting the property up for sale would be the best situation because (then you can) find someone who is genuinely interested in making it a first-class hotel. I suggested the University of Delaware, which would be a great partner to do this.”
Snowberger, who grew up in the Highlands and lives there today, said developers plan to submit a final historic preservation plan to the state – which would begin the process of accessing historic tax credits – by the end of February. Crews are currently cleaning up the property, and aim to have the structures stabilized by the end of January.
A revised plan for redeveloping the estate will be presented to neighbors in February, Snowberger said.
Bates, who said she was unaware of the initial project presentation held last year in Marian Coffin Gardens, said neighbors’ skepticism is warranted given the previous failed attempts for redevelopment.
With multiple draft plans floating in the Highlands neighborhood since the initial meeting last summer, residents hope a final draft plan will provide enough detail to understand the necessity of new construction to make the project work financially and how it will save the historic buildings.
“I fail to understand why these two projects are being tied together; I think this has to be explained more fully,” Bates said. “Other than trying to rent the Gibraltar space for white collar offices, I don’t see that that group has made any real effort, and now apparently there is a boutique hotel proposal, but I don’t think that that has been fully explained.”
Got a tip? Contact Amanda Fries at afries@delawareonline.com, or by calling 302-598-5507. Follow her on Twitter at @mandy_fries.
