12 VILLAGE DR Hockessin, DE 19707

Original farmhouse in Mendenhall Village. Built in various stages but well over 200+/- years old . Had a nice modern addition added in 2000. Main floor center hall design, has modern kitchen, dining room, office and living room, Every one enters via the covered side porch into the dining room . Center hall stair case to 3 large rooms on the second floor in addition to the owners suite. There is a 2nd stair case from the dining room as well and a semi finished walk up attic and walk up unfinished attic with the original wood well holding tank. Beautiful 200+ year old farmhouse with modern updates but many original details and charm. Private and secluded on a nearly 1 acre lot in a family friendly neighborhood with playground park and pond. Fabulous combination of classic historic home with modern updates - seamless two story addition with gourmet kitchen and master bedroom and bath completed in 2000. Very private and secluded on a large beautifully landscaped lot in a great family neighborhood with a playground and a fishing pond. ***HISTORY ***The property where the house stands was part of a 100 acre purchase from William Penn by John Evans in 1707. After various subsequent land transactions Hugh Huston purchased the property from John Brackin in June 1763 as part of three tracts of 195 acres. It is not known if the house existed at that time, but one significant architectural feature of the house is the corbeled stone fireplace support that is located on the west wall of the old stone foundation. According to architectural historians this type of support typically was not used after 1721 so it is quite possible that there was a house or other structure on the current foundation in the early 1700’s. Many buildings were destroyed by fire in those years and new houses were built on the remaining foundation so it’s impossible to know if any part of the current house other than the foundation can be dated to that time period. Hugh Huston died in 1789 leaving the property to his son Samuel who died in 1815. Samuel’s will left most of his land (150 acres) to his son James but left 50 acres of “my land and plantation I now live on” to his other son Alexander. 12 Village Drive is part of those 50 acres. On or around 1815 the house was built by or for Alexander Huston. James Huston died in 1826, In 1827 his land was sold to his sister Margaret and her husband Stephen Springer and they acquired Alexander’s 50 acres also sometime after 1832. The house is shown on an 1849 map that identifies it as belonging to the Springers. Margaret and Stephen Springer had two sons, Stephen Jr. and James. James inherited the 12 Village Drive property in 1842 and he is identified as the owner of the house on the Mill Creek Hundred map from the Atlas of the State of Delaware published in 1868 (Beer’s Atlas). James Springer died in 1882 and the house and land passed through various owners until it was purchased in 1929 by a holding company owned by Donald Peabody Ross. Donald P. Ross was an executive with Wilmington Trust and also the husband of Wilhelmina H. DuPont, daughter of William Kemble DuPont. Ross had a great love of horse racing and, with his brother-in-law William DuPont, Jr. built Delaware Park. The property was part of a large estate Ross created that trained race horses. The 1962 Preakness Stakes winner Greek Money was trained at the Ross farm. Donald Ross died in 1973 and the many acres of the Ross Farm were slowly sold off to developers. In 1977, a DiSabatino Company bought sections of the Ross Farm that included the old Springer properties, and in early 1978 the first homes of Mendenhall Village were on the market. Thankfully the two old Huston-Springer homes were spared the wrecking ball and continue to serve as beautiful family homes today, more than 200 years after they first overlooked the Mill Creek Valley.