Last updated: November 19, 2024
Person
William Poole Bancroft
Courtesy of the Delaware Historical Society
Quick Facts
Significance:
William Poole Bancroft was a Quaker industrialist who's vision of preserving natural spaces for public use led to the establishment of First State National Historical Park
Place of Birth:
Wilmington, DE
Date of Birth:
July 12, 1835
Date of Death:
1928
It would not be a stretch to say that the Brandywine Valley, the biggest of First State National Historical Park’s six sites, would not be the natural wonder it is today without William Poole Bancroft. It was Bancroft’s vision of preserved green space, accessible to all people, regardless of class or wealth, that allowed for the preservation of the Brandywine Valley that we know today.
Bancroft was born in in Wilmington, Delaware in 1835 to Joseph Bancroft and Sarah Poole. The Bancroft family were prominent in the Quaker community of Delaware and Pennsylvania, and Joseph Bancroft himself was an immigrant from England. The elder Bancroft had established Bancroft Mills, a textile milling business which eventually grew into the largest mill complex on the Brandywine Creek, just a few months before William Poole Bancroft was born.William Poole Bancroft would grow up steeped in the religious beliefs of his family, and the work ethic that Quakers are known for. He began working in his father’s mills at age seven, and by the age of 30, after his father had repaid all of the debts he incurred in founding the business, the mills were reorganized as a partnership between Joseph, William, and William’s brother. Seeing further success as a result, the family became quite wealthy.
By the late 1800s, Philadelphia and Wilmington were rapidly expanding outwards from their original boundaries, and to people like Bancroft, it became apparent that soon the two cities would merge into one continuous urban sprawl. The late 1800s were the era of progressive community planning in which green open spaces were intentionally incorporated into new residential subdivisions. These new planned neighborhoods were almost always designed with the upper and middle class in mind. Steeped in Quaker values which encouraged the betterment of all society, regardless of class, Bancroft believed that the working class, to which he might not belong but was in close contact with since his childhood in the mills, ought to have affordable housing with easy access to natural spaces as well. Starting in the 1880s, Bancroft began to use his wealth to buy up large parcels of land between Wilmington and Philadelphia. Further, he used his influence to drive forward the establishment of a city park system in Wilmington, donating over 200 acres of his own land to the city for the creation of public parks, and consulting with the famous architect Frederick Law Olmstead on landscape design.
Taking inspiration from movements in Great Britain to design communities that rejected the maligned “company town” model and embraced affordable working class housing with easy access to open green space, Bancroft founded Woodlawn Trustees in 1901. With an eye towards the future, Bancroft intended for Woodlawn to continue buying up land, preserving it from over development, and providing housing to working class families long after he had passed. Combined with his funding of public libraries in Wilmington, Bancroft left behind a strong tradition in northern Delaware of conservation and progressive philanthropy aimed at providing benefits to all inhabitants, regardless of class.
Bancroft passed away in 1928 at the age of 93, but his legacy is still felt today. His connections to the DuPont family allowed him to convince them to match his own land donations to create Brandywine Creek State Park, and the Woodlawn Trustees would eventually donate over 1,300 acres to the National Park Service, which established the Brandywine Valley unit of First State National Historical Park. Honored in the proclamation issued by President Barrack Obama in 2013 which established First State National Monument (it became a National Historical Park the following year), Bancroft’s vision and ideals were recognized as being essential to the preservation and conservation of natural spaces in northern Delaware and southeastern Pennsylvania.
Reflection Questions
- Do you agree with Bancroft’s strategy of acquiring land through private sale and then donating it for public use?
- What steps can you take to support the preservation and conservation of public lands like the Brandywine Valley for future generations?
Sources
- “Presidential Proclamation -- First State National Monument.” Presidential Proclamations, The White House, 25 Mar. 2013, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/03/25/presidential-proclamation-first-state-national-monument.
- Reed, Paula, and Edith Wallace. 2019. A Historic Saga of Settlement and Nation Building: First State National Historical Park Historic Resource Study. New Castle, DE: National Park Service.