View source for Block House (Delaware)

[[Image:Block house01.jpg|thumb|right|Block House front, facing north, April 2006]]

The '''Block House''' is a 17th-century historic building located off Naamans Road in [[Claymont, Delaware]]. The Block House is believed to be the only structure remaining of original Swedish colonial settlement on [[Naamans Creek]].

==History==
[[Image:Block house02.jpg|thumb|right|Block House, facing southeast, April 2006 (the smaller building in front is a [[spring house]])]]
The Block House is believed to have been constructed in 1654 under instruction of [[Johan Risingh]], who was the last Governor of the Colony of [[New Sweden]]. Chief Peminacka of the [[Susquehannock|Minqua tribe]] had deeded the large tract of land along Naaman's Creek to John Risingh on behalf of the Swedish colony. 

The structure was originally designed for defense. During September 1655, the Block House was taken by the [[Dutch West India Company]] under [[Peter Stuyvesant]] at the same time that Dutch forces captured [[Fort Christina]]. In 1671, the Block House was attacked by [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]]. It was captured by the [[British Army during the American Revolutionary War|British Army]] in 1777 during the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>Naaman's Creek {{cite web|url=http://archives.delaware.gov/markers/ncc/BLOCK%20HOUSE%20NC-1.shtml |title=Block House |access-date=2009-05-12 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090503172515/http://archives.delaware.gov/markers/ncc/BLOCK%20HOUSE%20NC-1.shtml |archivedate=2009-05-03 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Old Roads Out of Philadelphia |last=Faris |first=John Thomson |year=1917 |publisher=J.B. Lippincott |pages=[https://archive.org/details/oldroadsoutphil01farigoog/page/n83 63] |url=https://archive.org/details/oldroadsoutphil01farigoog }}</ref>

The Block House consists of one room with a lower and upper level. Inside is a relatively large fireplace and the former living quarters for the Robinson House cook. That 18th-century house was built in 1723 on nearby land. The date of construction of the Block House has been disputed. Some scholars {{by whom|date=December 2022}} {{who|date=December 2022}} say the Block House was not built until later, possibly around the time the Robinson House was built in 1723.

==See also==
*[[List of the oldest buildings in Delaware]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Other sources==
*[[Amandus Johnson|Johnson, Amandus]] ''Johan Classon Rising: The Last Governor of New Sweden'' (Philadelphia: The Swedish Colonial Society, 1915)
* Ward, Christopher. ''Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware, 1609 - 1664'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1930)

==External links==
*[http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/de.html Delaware Forts]
*[http://www.landmarkunitedstates.com/site/19105/Block-House Landmarks of the United States]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110721035426/http://archives.delaware.gov/markers/ncc/NAAMANS%20CREEK%20NC-3.shtml New Castle County Markers]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090416210239/http://www.robinsonhousede.org/New_Sweden_History_Conference.htm Claymont Historical Society]
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[[Category:Pre-statehood history of Delaware]]
[[Category:Houses in New Castle County, Delaware]]
[[Category:New Sweden]]
[[Category:Swedish-American culture in Delaware]]
[[Category:1654 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:Blockhouses]]
[[Category:Claymont, Delaware]]


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