Dover, Delaware, United States

🇺🇸 Dover is the capital and second-largest city of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is also the county seat of Kent County and the principal city of the Dover, DE, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Kent County and is part of the Philadelphia–Wilmington–Camden, PA–NJ–DE–MD, Combined Statistical Area. It is located on the St. Jones River in the Delaware River coastal plain. It was named by William Penn for 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Dover in Kent, England.

History Dover was founded as the court town for newly established Kent County in 1683 by William Penn, the proprietor of the territory generally known as the "Lower Counties on the Delaware". Later, in 1717, the city was officially laid out by a special commission of the Delaware General Assembly. The capital of the state of Delaware was moved here from New Castle in 1777 because of its central location and relative safety from British raiders on the Delaware River. Because of an act passed in October 1779, the assembly elected to meet at any place in the state they saw fit, meeting successively in Wilmington, Lewes, Dover, New Castle, and Lewes again, until it finally settled down permanently in Dover in October 1781. The city's central square, known as The Green, was the location of many rallies, troop reviews, and other patriotic events. To this day, The Green remains the heart of Dover's historic district and is the location of the Delaware Supreme Court and the Kent County Courthouse.

Dover was most famously the home of Caesar Rodney, the popular wartime leader of Delaware during the American Revolution. He is known to have been buried outside Dover, but the precise location of his grave is unknown. A cenotaph in his honor is erected in the cemetery of the Christ Episcopal Church near The Green in Dover.

Dover and Kent County were deeply divided over the issue of slavery, and the city was a "stop" on the Underground Railroad because of its proximity to slave-holding Maryland and free Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It was also home to a large Quaker community that encouraged a sustained emancipation effort in the early 19th century. There were very few slaves in the area, but the institution was supported, if not practiced, by a small majority, who saw to its continuation.

The Bradford-Loockerman House, Building 1301, Dover Air Force Base, John Bullen House, Carey Farm Site, Christ Church, Delaware State Museum Buildings, John Dickinson House, Dover Green Historic District, Eden Hill, Delaware Governor's Mansion, Greenwold, Hughes-Willis Site, Loockerman Hall, Macomb Farm, Mifflin-Marim Agricultural Complex, Old Statehouse, Palmer Home, Town Point, Tyn Head Court, and Victorian Dover Historic District are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Satellite photo of Dover taken from the International Space Station. The red arrow points at Dover.

On August 4, 2020, Hurricane Isaias produced an EF2 tornado that struck the city. Trees were significantly damaged, including some that fell on homes, roofing was blown off a middle school, a warehouse had metal walls torn off, some tractor trailers were blown over and a garage was severely damaged. Damage in Dover was rated EF1. The tornado would be on the ground for tracked 35.78 miles (57.58 km), becoming the longest-tracked tornado in the state, but there were no casualties.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 22.7 square miles (59 km²), of which 22.4 square miles (58 km²) is land and 0.3 square miles (0.78 km²), or 1.32%, is water.

Economy Delaware's largest employer is also Dover's – the state government. A large portion, but not all, of the state's bureaucracy is located in and around Dover. However, like some other American states, Delaware's capital is not its largest city. Consequently, Wilmington, in the northern part of the state and its largest city, has many state offices and employees one would normally expect to find in the state capital, including the headquarters of the Office of the Attorney General, especially as many large American corporations maintain nominal offices in that city to register their Delaware corporation.

Dover is one of the fast-growing areas in the state of Delaware, due in large part to the relatively low cost of living. As a consequence, the Kent County government is a major employer in the area as well. Apart from the state and county governments, Dover's significant employers include Dover Air Force Base, located within the south-east corporate limits of the city. The base houses two airlift wings as well as the U.S. military's only mortuary in the continental United States, which accepts and processes the remains of soldiers killed in battle. In addition, Kraft Foods and Procter & Gamble have manufacturing facilities in Dover. The Kraft Foods plant in Dover has been the plant that manufactures Jell-O since 1964 when it relocated from Bloomfield, New York. The P&G plants makes Pampers Baby Fresh wipes. ILC Dover, in nearby Frederica, is the producer of fabrics for military and aerospace uses, along with being the primary contractor for production of the Apollo and Skylab space suits, as well as the space suit assembly for the Space Shuttle's Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU). Several local and national retailers and restaurants line US 13 through Dover, with the Dover Mall situated along this corridor and serving as the only shopping mall in the area.

Two weekends a year, NASCAR races are held at Dover International Speedway, attracting about 65,000 spectators. Attendance to the races is much lower than in the 1990s and 2000s, when 140,000 spectators at times came to Dover International Speedway and led to traffic snarls throughout the city and on US 13 approaching Dover. The races bring in increased patronage for local businesses, and hotels and motels sell out weeks in advance. Many race fans camp in RVs and tents adjacent to the track. These races, and in recent years adjacent slot machine gambling at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino, contribute millions of dollars to Dover's economy.

Firefly Music Festival is held in the Woodlands of Dover International Speedway every summer since 2012.

Education Dover is home to Delaware State University, a land-grant university and Delaware's only historically black university. The city was also home to Wesley College, which is now the Delaware State University Downtown campus. Campus Community School, a public charter school, is located on the Wesley College grounds. It is also home to the Terry Campus of the Delaware Technical Community College and that college's administrative offices. Dover also has satellite locations of the University of Delaware and Wilmington University.

Three public school districts serve Dover residents. The majority of the city is served by the Capital School District, which includes Dover High School. The southern portion of Dover is served by the Caesar Rodney School District, which includes Caesar Rodney High School located just outside the city in Camden. The Polytech School District, which includes Polytech High School located in Woodside, serves as an overlay district for vocational-technical students.

The Dover Air Force Base Middle School is located on the premises of the Dover Air Force Base. This school is unusual in that it is run not by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), but by the Caesar Rodney School District.

Culture The former Dover Opera House, built in 1904, was renovated and converted to the Schwartz Center for the Arts, which hosted performances by the Dover Symphony Orchestra, ballet, and classic films. The Schwartz Center for the Arts closed on June 30, 2017, due to financial issues.

The Kent County Theatre Guild was founded in 1953 and presents a five-show season at the organization's theater, the Patchwork Playhouse. It is run solely by volunteers, who handle everything from governance and building maintenance to set construction, acting and directing. It is open to anyone interested in participating in or learning about live theater.

Dover is also home to The Children's Theatre, Inc. of Dover and Kent County, a non-profit organization.

The Delaware State Library, the Delaware State Museum, and the Delaware State Archives are in downtown Dover and are open to the public for research and browsing.

In Dover's historical district is the Sewell C. Biggs Museum of American Art, featuring collections from the Colonial days to the present.

An Amish community resides to the west of Dover, consisting of 11 church districts and about 1,650 people. The Amish first settled in Kent County in 1915, with the settlement almost dying out in the '20s and '30s, but rebounding from the 60's to present. The area is home to several Amish businesses selling items such as Amish food, furniture, quilts, and handmade crafts. Every September, the Amish Country Bike Tour, the largest bike ride in Delaware, takes place in the area. In recent years, increasing development has led to the decline in the number of Amish living in the community, with some moving to areas with cheaper farmland and less traffic, such as Michigan, Upstate New York, Illinois, Kentucky, and southern Virginia.

Parks and recreation The City of Dover Parks & Recreation Department maintains several parks in the city, consisting of three larger parks and 27 smaller parks. Silver Lake Park is a 182-acre park located along Silver Lake and offers fishing, boating, a walking/jogging path that provides views of the lake, a playground, benches, and pavilions. Schutte Park offers a variety of athletic facilities including 10 multipurpose fields, four lighted softball fields, a pavilion, a playground, a cross country course, waking paths, the Dover Little League baseball fields, and the John W. Pitts Recreation Center. The recreation centre at Schutte Park has meeting rooms, a gym with two basketball courts and three volleyball courts, and an indoor walking track; it is home to a variety of fitness classes, sports, and sport leagues. Dover Park offers three tennis courts, a softball field, multipurpose field, two basketball courts, a disc golf course, and two pavilions. Dover is home to several smaller neighborhood parks including City Hall Plaza, Continental Park, Crossgates Park, Division & Kirkwood Streets Park, Kirkwood & Mary Streets Park, Hamlet, Heatherfield East, Mallard Pond, Mayfair Park, Millcreek Park, New & Dover Streets Park, Orville Myers, Paul's Property, Richardson Park, Saulsbury Park, The Green, Turner Drive, Westfield, Westwind Meadows, Williams Park, and Woodbrook.

Media Two newspapers are headquartered in Dover, the Dover Post, printed weekly and online, and the daily Delaware State News.

Kent County is within the Philadelphia television market, with the local Xfinity cable system carrying most channels from that city, alongside Salisbury stations WBOC-TV 16 (CBS), WMDT 47 (ABC), WCPB 28 (PBS), and low-powered NBC affiliate WRDE-LD 31. WBOC-TV maintains a bureau in Dover, and WHYY-TV 12, the PBS member station in Philadelphia, maintains a studio and broadcasting facility in Dover. WMDT operates a local repeater serving Dover, WEVD-LP channel 27, while WHYY programming is seen locally on WDPB-TV channel 64 from Seaford (part of the Salisbury television market).

WDDE, Delaware's first NPR station, launched in August 2012. It broadcasts on 91.1 FM. Delaware was the last state in the nation to have an NPR station located within its borders.

Sport Dover Motor Speedway is home to a NASCAR race weekend in May. The race weekend features the ARCA Menards Series East on Friday, the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday, and the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday. Located with Dover Motor Speedway is Bally's Dover, a harness horse racing track, hotel and casino. The harness track is located within the NASCAR track.

The two colleges in town are both active in sports. The Wesley College Wolverines are a perennial powerhouse in NCAA Division III football, where they began play in the New Jersey Athletic Conference in 2015, while other sports compete in the Capital Athletic Conference. The Delaware State Hornets compete in NCAA Division I, with football competing at the FCS level of Division I, as a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference made up of other historically black colleges and universities.

For one week during the middle of July every year, Dover also hosts the Big League (Little League 16–18) Eastern Regionals, attracting teams from all of New England and the Mid-Atlantic.

There are several golf courses located near Dover. They include the Maple Dale Country Club in Dover, Wild Quail Country Club near Camden, Jonathan's Landing Golf Course near Magnolia, Dover Center Par 3 and Driving Range in Dover, and the Eagle Creek Golf Course (Must have military I.D.) on the Dover Air Force Base.

Historically, Dover hosted a farm team of the Philadelphia Phillies in the Eastern Shore Baseball League. It also served as an affiliate of the minor-league Baltimore Orioles. The teams were variously known as the Senators, Dobbins, Orioles, and Phillies.

In 2008 Sporting News ranked Dover 215th in its list of the 400 Best Sports Cities based on the year October 2007 – October 2008, a year which saw high attendance for the NASCAR races and Delaware State's football team making its first FCS tournament appearance.

Combat Zone Wrestling held its yearly Tournament of Death in Dover twice.

Government Dover is governed via the council-manager system with an elected mayor, currently Robin R. Christiansen since 2014. The council consists of nine members, eight of whom are elected from four districts with each district having two members. One member of the council is elected at large. Municipal elections, which are nonpartisan, are held on the third Tuesday in April in odd-numbered years. The mayor is elected directly by the city voters for a four-year term. City council members are elected to staggered four-year terms.

Transport The most prominent highway serving Dover is the Delaware Route 1 toll road, which is the main route to Wilmington and the Delaware Beaches. It passes east of downtown, with the toll portion ending near the Dover Air Force Base and DE 1 continuing south on Bay Road. U.S. Route 113 formerly ran along Bay Road from Milford to US 13 near the State Capitol Complex, but was decommissioned north of Milford in 2004 to avoid the concurrency with DE 1 between the Dover Air Force Base and Milford.

The main north–south highway through central Dover is U.S. Route 13, which runs through the main commercial strip of Dover on the multi-lane, divided Dupont Highway. An alternate route of U.S. Route 13, U.S. Route 13 Alternate, passes through downtown Dover on Governors Avenue. Delaware Route 8 is the main east–west route through Dover, passing through downtown on Division Street and West Dover on Forrest Avenue. It continues west toward Maryland to provide access to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Delaware Route 15 passes north–south through the western part of Dover along Hazlettville Road, West North Street, Saulsbury Road, and McKee Road. Dover is one of only four state capitals not served by an Interstate highway. Pierre, South Dakota; Jefferson City, Missouri; and Juneau, Alaska are the other three state capitals with this distinction.

Parking in the downtown area of Dover consists of free on-street two-hour parking and five off-street parking lots offering a total of 440 spaces. Parking lots in downtown Dover contain a mix of permit parking, parking meters, and free two-hour, 15-minute, and handicapped parking spaces along with spaces reserved for tenants and apartments. Parking is free on evenings and weekends.

Dover Air Force Base is located within the south-east corporate limits of Dover. Airports near Dover with commercial air service include the Wilmington Airport in Wilmington, the Wicomico Regional Airport in Salisbury, Maryland, the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Baltimore, and the Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia. Other general aviation airports near Dover include Chandelle Estates Airport to the north-east of the city, Delaware Airpark near Cheswold, and Jenkins Airport near Wyoming.

Dover is located on a former Pennsylvania Railroad line, later operated by Penn Central, Conrail, and Norfolk Southern and now operated by the Delmarva Central Railroad as its Delmarva Subdivision. Into the 1950s multiple PRR passenger trains daily, on a Philadelphia-Cape Charles, Virginia circuit, made stops in Dover, including the Del-Mar-Va Express and the night train, the Cavalier. Passenger service ended when the Blue Diamond was discontinued on December 31, 1965. In later years, Dover was served by special Amtrak trains to NASCAR races at Dover International Speedway and the Delaware State Fair in Harrington. Today, the rail line is just used for local freight. The closest passenger rail station is the Wilmington station in Wilmington, served by Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and SEPTA Regional Rail's Wilmington/Newark Line.

DART First State provides local bus service throughout Dover and Kent County, radiating as a hub-and-spoke system from the Dover Transit Center in downtown. They also provide inter-county service to Wilmington on the Route 301, Middletown on the Route 302, Georgetown on the Route 303, and Lewes on the Route 307 and seasonal service to Lewes and Rehoboth Beach on the Route 305 "Beach Connection".

Greyhound Lines are provided as intercity bus transportation along a route running between the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City and Richmond, Virginia, with a bus stop at the 7-Eleven store along U.S. Route 13 in the northern part of Dover.

Utilities The city of Dover provides various utility services to businesses and residents. The Department of Public Works provides trash collection, recycling, water, and sewer service to the city. Republic Services provides recycling collection under contract to the city. The City of Dover Electric Department provides electricity to the city and some surrounding areas to the south and east, including the town of Little Creek. The city's electric department is a member of the Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation, a wholesale electric utility that represents municipal electric departments in the state of Delaware. The City of Dover Electric Department generates some of its electricity from the McKee Run Generating Station, which consists of three natural gas-powered units that are used on a limited basis. The city also generates electricity from solar power at the Dover SUN Park, a 10 MW solar power farm on 103 acres at the Garrison Oak technology park owned by SunPower. The remainder of the city's electricity is purchased. Natural gas service in Dover is provided by Chesapeake Utilities.

Health care Bayhealth Medical Center operates the Bayhealth Hospital, Kent Campus in Dover. The hospital offers various inpatient services including a birthing room and cardiovascular and cancer services. The Kent Campus also offers numerous outpatient services, patient and family support services, community outreach, and imaging services. The hospital has a 24-hour emergency room with a Level III trauma center.