The DuPont Building, occupying the entire block bound by 10th, 11th, Orange, and Market streets, was one of the first high-rises in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

, United States. It looks out over Rodney Square. The building was built in phases, with the original building constructed in 1908 fronting Rodney Square. At the time, the building housed the offices of

DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...

. In 1913, the building was expanded into a "U" by adding wings along 10th and 11th streets, the DuPont Playhouse was added, and a portion of the original 1908 section was converted into the Hotel du Pont. (Hotel du Pont is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 ...

.) The final addition to the building occurred in 1923 when the Orange Street addition was added along with an additional two floors, bringing the floor count to 13 and the height to . Until early 2015, the building housed DuPont's headquarters. In December 2014, DuPont announced that it would move and consolidate its corporate headquarters at its nearby Chestnut Run Plaza site and that The Chemours Company, which spun off from DuPont in 2015, would move into the DuPont Building. As well as Chemours, the building houses The Playhouse on Rodney Square (formerly the DuPont Playhouse), the Hotel duPont, and a branch of M&T Bank. Under pressure from activist shareholders, the company first leased the building's DuPont Playhouse in January 2015 to the Grand Opera House, which renamed it The Playhouse on Rodney Square. The entire structure and the hotel business were then sold to Wilmington-based developer Buccini/Pollin in January 2018. The new owners have leased the building's office space back to Chemours, will continue to lease The Playhouse to The Grand Opera House, and have promised to keep the hotel operating. Hotel du Pont was where

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

announced his candidacy for the 1972 United States Senate election in Delaware.

Gallery

File:DuPont Building, 11thStWall.JPG, The DuPont Building (center left) and the Nemours Building (right) in 2006. Image:Dupontat10th.JPG, The corner of Market and 10th with the Wilmington Trust branch. File:Hotel DuPont lobby, Wilmington, Delaware (72217).jpg, Postcard of the lobby, circa 1930-1945

References

External links

Hotel du Pont

DuPont Theatre

DuPont Theatre records
(1919–2001) at Hagley Museum and Library {{Authority control Historic Hotels of America DuPont Skyscrapers in Wilmington, Delaware Skyscraper hotels in Delaware Skyscraper office buildings in Delaware Theatres in Delaware Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Chemours Office buildings completed in 1923 1923 establishments in Delaware Preferred Hotels & Resorts Italian Renaissance Revival architecture in the United States

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links