11 real sites worth the drive — the state capitol, battlefields, monuments, and founding-era landmarks — each with why it actually matters, not just a pin on a map.
Legislative Hall
Dover, DE
Delaware's capitol in Dover — home to "The First State," which beat every other state to ratifying the Constitution on December 7, 1787.
Get Directions →Old State House, Dover
Dover, DE
Delaware's capitol from 1791, in the town where Delaware became the first state to ratify the Constitution in 1787.
Get Directions →First State National Historical Park
New Castle, DE
A National Park Service unit created specifically to preserve sites tied to Delaware's founding-era role.
Get Directions →New Castle Court House Museum
New Castle, DE
A 1732 courthouse that served as Delaware's colonial capitol, where the state declared its separation from Britain in 1776.
Get Directions →John Dickinson Plantation
Dover, DE
The boyhood home of John Dickinson, called the "Penman of the Revolution" and a signer of the Constitution.
Get Directions →Zwaanendael Museum
Lewes, DE
A museum built in 1931 to mark the 300th anniversary of the 1631 Dutch whaling settlement at Lewes.
Get Directions →Hagley Museum and Library
Wilmington, DE
The original du Pont black powder works on the Brandywine.
Get Directions →Fort Delaware State Park
Delaware City, DE
An island fort that held thousands of Confederate prisoners during the Civil War, reached by ferry.
Get Directions →Air Mobility Command Museum
Dover, DE
A museum of military airlift at Dover Air Force Base, with transport aircraft you can walk through.
Get Directions →Fort Miles Historic Area
Lewes, DE
A World War II coastal fort in Cape Henlopen State Park, where the German submarine U-858 surrendered in 1945.
Get Directions →Cooch's Bridge Battlefield
Newark, DE
The site of the September 3, 1777 skirmish, the only Revolutionary War battle in Delaware. Tradition holds the Stars and Stripes first flew in battle here.
Get Directions →Delaware has 11 sites on our list: Legislative Hall, First State National Historical Park, Hagley Museum and Library, Fort Delaware State Park, New Castle Court House Museum, Air Mobility Command Museum, and more — spanning state capitols, founding era sites, museums, military/veteran sites.
First State National Historical Park in New Castle. A park that exists purely to tell one state's founding story — worth seeing why it earned that name.
Yes — Delaware's capitol in Dover — home to "The First State," which beat every other state to ratifying the Constitution on December 7, 1787. First to say yes to the whole American experiment. It's on every Delaware license plate for a reason.
First State National Historical Park, Hagley Museum and Library, New Castle Court House Museum — hands-on history that works for a family day trip.
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