T. Coleman du Pont
Delaware industrialist and road builder · 1863–1930
Delaware industrialist, builder of the Coleman du Pont Road the length of his state, and later a United States senator. In August 1917 he offered to build at his own expense and deed to the Maryland State Roads Commission a hard road of over four miles from the Delaware line at Selbyville to Showell in Worcester County — the only missing link between the Maryland good-roads system running up from Pocomoke City and his own boulevard from Georgetown, and therefore the last gap in a paved route from the lower Eastern Shore to Ocean City via Berlin. The offer, valued by the press at about $40,000, was transmitted to the commission through State Senator Orlando Harrison of Worcester and welcomed by chairman Zouck; du Pont asked in return for a 200-foot right-of-way obtained within 90 days. He was at Ocean City in person that month, the Cambridge Daily Banner reporting him spending several days there "with an eye keen to the future possibility of the development of this resort."
In the record (2)
1917 · 1917-08-27
T. Coleman du Pont offers to build the four missing miles between his Delaware boulevard and the Maryland road to Ocean City.
The Cambridge Daily Banner of 28 August 1917: "ZOUCK APPRECIATES GEN. DuPONT'S OFFER: Four Miles of Good Road Will Connect Delaware With Ocean City. Chairman Zouck, of the State Roads Commission, yesterday expressed his approval of the generous offer of Gen. Coleman duPont, the Delaware multi-millionaire, to construct and to deed to the Maryland commission a smooth and hard road from the Delaware line at Selbyville to Showell, Worcester county, a distance of over four miles" — a gift the paper valued at about $40,000. "Selbyville marks the southern terminus of the Coleman duPont boulevard, extending from Georgetown, Del. Showell is the northern terminus of the Maryland system of good roads, beginning at Pocomoke City and crossing the Ocean City boulevard at Berlin. The link proposed to be constructed by General duPont is, therefore, the only incomplete section of a system of good roads extending from Pocomoke City to Georgetown, with connections at Berlin for Ocean City." The terms were handed to State Senator Orlando Harrison of Worcester and transmitted by him to the commission; du Pont asked for a strip of land 200 feet wide, obtained within 90 days. The same month the Banner reported du Pont personally at Ocean City, spending several days "with an eye keen to the future possibility of the development of this resort." Securing the right-of-way became point 3 of Harrison's September platform.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1919
"Thousands of Eastern Shoremen, with their pockets bulging with profits from their strawberries and early vegetable crops, will flock to the resort."
The Annapolis Evening Capital, 24 June 1919, previewing the Fourth: Governor Harrington would speak at Cambridge in the morning and then, "if possible, he will then go to Ocean City, where a celebration on a large scale has been planned. Governor Miller, of Delaware, has promised to attend. T. Coleman du Pont, the man who put Sussex county, Del., on the map by his boulevard, will also be present. Mr. Du Pont has his business eye on Maryland lands as profitable investments. Thousands of Eastern Shoremen, with their pockets bulging with profits from their strawberries and early vegetable crops, will flock to the resort." Two years after du Pont offered Maryland four miles of free road from Selbyville to Showell, the Annapolis paper had him down as a land speculator — and had the source of the 1919 boom exactly right: not the war, but a good berry year with wartime prices.
Source · checked 2026-08-06