Hockessin, Delaware

History

Hockessin came into existence as a little village in 1688 when several families settled in the area. The village was named after the Lenape word hokes, meaning good bark or good bark hill. There is a second and more likely origin for the name. While the word Hockessin does look like a Native American word, the name Hockessin did not show up on any early maps until many years after the Hockessin Meeting House was built and what is now the Village of Hockessin was never settled by the Native Americans, while they did have a hunting camp nearby. There was no town name Hockessin and the area was referred to as Mill Creek Hundred. The actual name is believed to be derived from one of the first settled properties which was named Occasion and settled by William Cox in 1726 and also the location of the first Quaker meetings in the area before Hockessin Meeting House was built a few years later. The earliest known use of the word Occasion was in 1734 in a property deed for this property. And the road to the Hockessin Meeting House, currently Old Wilmington Road, was written as Ockession Road on a map in 1808. The first Roman Catholic church in Delaware was located in Hockessin. Missionary priests from Maryland established the Coffee Run Mission in 1790.

The A. Armstrong Farm, Coffee Run Mission Site, Hockessin Friends Meetinghouse, T. Pierson Farm, Public School No. 29, Springer Farm, and Wilmington and Western Railroad are listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. More recently added sites to the National Register of Historic Places include: Tweed's Tavern, the home of Negro league baseball player James "Nip" Winters, Colored School #107C, St. John the Evangelist Church, the Daniel Nichols house, and the Cox/Phillips/Mitchell Agricultural Complex.

Geography

The community is near the northwestern border of Delaware, within 1.2 mi of the Pennsylvania border on the east bank of Mill Creek.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 10.0 sqmi, of which 10.0 sqmi is land and 0.10% is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 12,902 people, 4,464 households, and 3,731 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 1,286.7 PD/sqmi. There were 4,575 housing units at an average density of 456.3 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the CDP was 88.8% White, 2.7% African American, 0.2% Native American, 7.2% Asian,

There were 4,464 households, out of which 40.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 77.3% were married couples living together, 4.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 16.4% were non-families. 13.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.83 and the average family size was 3.13.

In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 26.9% under the age of 18, 4.7% from 18 to 24, 24.5% from 25 to 44, 28.7% from 45 to 64, and 15.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.9 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $100,844, and the median income for a family was $108,784. Males had a median income of $76,617 versus $46,988 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $40,516. About 1.0% of families and 1.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.0% of those under age 18 and 1.3% of those age 65 or over.

Economy

Although Hockessin is primarily a bedroom community, there are several mushroom farms operating in the area.

Hockessin contains the Lantana Square Shopping Center, and the Hockessin Athletic Club, which contains a pool, indoor gym, and walking trail.

Arts and culture

Hockessin hosts several Fourth of July activities for the area residents. Local groups parade down Old Lancaster Pike, neighborhoods compete in different athletic events, and there is a fireworks display in the evening in Swift Park.

Education

Hockessin is served by the Red Clay Consolidated School District for public education.

Elementary schools serving Hockessin for grades K through 5 include Cooke Elementary School and North Star Elementary School. Public school students in grades 6 through 8 are zoned to Henry B. duPont Middle School. Students in grades 9 through 12 in Hockessin are zoned to Thomas McKean High School to the south of Hockessin or Alexis I. duPont High School in Greenville, with students in the western part of Hockessin attending John Dickinson High School in Pike Creek. Cab Calloway School of the Arts and Conrad Schools of Science are magnet schools that take middle and high school students.

Private schools in Hockessin include CACC (Chinese American Community Center) Montessori School, Hockessin Montessori School, Sanford School, and Wilmington Christian School.

Hockessin School District 29 and Hockessin School District 107 merged into the Alexis I. DuPont Special School District effective April 24, 1958 and March 5, 1959, respectively. The Alexis DuPont Special school district was reorganized on July 1, 1969, as the Alexis I. DuPont School District. The Alexis I. DuPont district merged into the New Castle County School District in 1978. That district was divided into four districts, among them the Red Clay district, in 1981.

In the era of de jure educational segregation in the United States (before circa 1970), there was the Hockessin Colored Elementary School for African-American students.

New Castle County Library maintains the Hockessin Library.

Infrastructure

Transportation

The main road through Hockessin is Delaware Route 41 (Lancaster Pike) which heads southeast toward Wilmington and northwest toward the Pennsylvania border, where it becomes Pennsylvania Route 41 and continues toward Lancaster. South of Hockessin, Delaware Route 48 splits from DE 41 to follow Lancaster Pike to Wilmington while DE 41 continues along Newport Gap Pike to Prices Corner. Delaware Route 7 passes through the western part of Hockessin along Limestone Road, heading north to the Pennsylvania border and south toward Pike Creek and Christiana. The northern terminus of the Wilmington and Western Railroad, a tourist railroad, is in Hockessin; the railroad follows the Red Clay Creek valley south to Greenbank. DART First State provides bus service to Hockessin along Route 20, which follows Lancaster Pike to Wilmington and ends at the Wilmington station served by Amtrak and SEPTA Regional Rail's Wilmington/Newark Line. DART First State's Route 20 bus serves park and ride lots located at Hockessin Memorial Hall and the Wells Fargo bank.

Notable people

• Delsworth Buckingham, Delaware state representative
• Chris Coons, US Senator from Delaware
• Matt Denn, Lieutenant Governor of Delaware
• Trevon Duval, basketball player for the Duke Blue Devils
• Tony Graffanino, Major League Baseball player
• Bernard Hopkins, professional boxer
• Kent A. Jordan, Federal Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• Sohan S. Shah, medical student at Sidney Kimmel Medical College and 2014 National Geographic Bee state winner

References

References

1. "2020 U.S. Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau.
2. {{GNIS. 214099
3. Lake, Joseph. (1997). "Hockessin: A Pictorial History (Second Ed.)". Friends of the Hockessin Library.
4. (1989). "Final Archaeological Investigations at the Hockessin Valley Site (7 NC-A-17), New Castle County, Delaware". Division of Highways.
5. Weslager, C.A. (June 1961). "The Old Hollingsworth Plantation". Historic Red Clay Valley, Inc.
6. Mertz, Ann Morris. (September 25, 1986). "Pioneer Catholic church nears 200th anniversary". Brandywine Crossroads.
7. {{NRISref
8. "Delaware National Register of Historic Places" https://history.delaware.gov/preservation/natlregister/
9. ''Kennett Square, PA,'' 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1954 (1987 rev.)
10. "Census of Population and Housing (1790–2000)". [[U.S. Census Bureau]].
11. "U.S. Census website". [[United States Census Bureau]].
12. "Sperling's Best Places: Hockessin, Delaware".
13. Team, The Untappd. "Lantana Square Shopping Center".
14. "Hockessin Athletic Club".
15. "2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: New Castle County, DE". [[U.S. Census Bureau]].
16. "Approved 2015–16 Elementary Attendance Zones". Red Clay Consolidated School District.
17. "Henry B. duPont Middle School Attendance Zone". Red Clay Consolidated School District.
18. "Thomas McKean High School Attendance Zone". Red Clay Consolidated School District.
19. "Alexis I. duPont High School Attendance Zone". Red Clay Consolidated School District.
20. "John Dickinson High School Attendance Zone". Red Clay Consolidated School District.
21. Mowery, Roger. (1974). "Delaware School District Organization and Boundaries". [[Delaware State Department of Instruction]].
22. "New Castle County School District". Government of Delaware.
23. "Separate is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Education". [[Smithsonian Institution]].
24. "Hockessin Library". New Castle County Library.
25. {{Delaware road map. (2008)
26. "Routes and Schedules". DART First State.