Tours
The Lewes Historical Society invites you to tour historic Lewes. Discover new historic destinations downtown learn fun facts about our region’s maritime history and experience history as it comes alive. Learn about our lighthouses, bunkers, observation towers, cemeteries, historic architecture, maritime monuments, and more.
The Lewes Historical Society celebrates over 50 years of embracing Lewes history by offering multiple tour options to the public. Experience one or all of the following: the Lewes Museum Tour, the Maritime Tour, the Architectural Tour, the Historic Lewes Trolley Tour, the Maritime Trolley Tour, the Kayak History Tour, the Haunted Lewes Tour, Cemetery Tour or the Sussex Heritage Tours. See below for tour descriptions and schedules.
Tour Descriptions and Schedules:
Lewes Museum Tour
Click here for current tour schedule.
The cost is $10. Members, Children and Students are free. Lewes Museum Tours leave from the Ryves Holt House Museum Gift Shop located at the corner of Second and Mulberry Streets in historic Lewes. Tickets can be purchased at the Museum Gift Shop.
This tour features The Lewes Historical Society Complex located in the block facing Shipcarpenter Street and edged by West Third Street on the northern edge of Lewes. The grounds hold 9 fascinating historic buildings dating from the mid 1600’s to the late 1800’s and clearly illustrate the impact of the sea on the community and Lewes’s penchant for moving buildings from site to site. With the exception of the Hiram Rodney Burton House, which is on its original location, all the buildings have been moved from other locations in Lewes or surrounding communities. The tour highlights the Hiram Rodney Burton House (c.1694), Burton-Ingram House (c.1785), Rabbit’s Ferry House (c.1741), Midway School #178 (c.1898), Doctor’s Office (c.1850), Early Plank House (c.1700s), Thompson Country Store (c.1800), Ellegood House and Lewes Blacksmith Shop (c.1785).
Maritime Tour
Click here for current tour schedule.
The cost is $10 and includes admission into the Cannonball House. Members, Children and Students are free. Tours leave from the Ryves Holt House Museum Gift Shop located at the corner of Second and Mulberry Streets in historic Lewes. Tickets can be purchased at the Museum Gift Shop.
This is a guided journey through the salty history of Lewes’s past. Begin at the Ryves Holt House and travel down residential Second Street as your Docent shares with you the early history of Lewes and the first explorers who came here on ships across the Atlantic. You will also take a walk through Native American history. The tour will make a stop at the Lewes Life-Saving Station (c:1884) where you will learn about the history of the Life-Saving Service and of the men who risked their lives to save others. The tour ends at the Cannonball House – Lewes Maritime Museum. This museum is self-guided and contains a part of the Society’s collection of maritime artifacts. Artifacts that tell of Lewes’s storied past with the sea are exhibited, including the Fourth Order Fresnel Lens from Fourteen Foot Bank Light in Delaware Bay. This tour is approximately 3/4th of a mile in length and takes approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes, not including the visitors’ time in the Lewes Maritime Museum at the Cannonball House. The walk requires a moderate level of endurance and has uneven walking areas of stone and a short flight of steps.
Architectural Tour of Lewes
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The cost is $10. Tours leave from the Ryves Holt House Museum Gift Shop located at the corner of Second and Mulberry Streets in historic Lewes. Tickets can be purchased at the Museum Gift Shop, but reservations are preferred. Preregister at 302-645-7670 (ext.12). Group maximum is 12 people.
The architectural tour is designed to introduce visitors to the various styles of Victorian architecture and illustrate with existing houses how those styles and stylistic elements have been used in Lewes. Though the emphasis is on Victorian, other notable non-Victorian houses including the oldest house in Delaware and the oldest house in the state that is still being lived in get attention. The walk begins with a brief description of Victorian architecture. As the tour progresses the guide passes on what he has been able to learn of the histories of some of the houses and stories about their owners and builders. Tour duration is about 1 3/4 hours. Distance covered is a bit more than a mile. The route includes Second, Market, and Mulberry Streets.
Historic Lewes Trolley Tours
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The cost is $10 for adults and $5 for students and children over 2. Children under 2 are free unless their parents want to guarantee a seat- then the price is $3 per child. Tours leave from the Trolley Stop at the corner of Second and Market Streets in historic Lewes, beside St. Peter's cemetery. Tickets can be purchased at the Ryves Holt House Museum Gift Shop located at the corner of Second and Mulberry Streets in historic Lewes, but reservations are preferred. Preregisteration is not required, but if you would like to make reservations, please contact 302-645-7670 (ext.12).
Take a trolley tour around historic Lewes as you learn about the history, the architecture, and the people who have lived here and helped shape the picturesque city it has become. The 1 hour tour will acquaint you with the Lewes of yesterday and today as you ride 5 ½ miles around Lewes. This tour is a joint project of The Lewes Historical Society and the Cape May-Lewes Ferry.
Maritime Trolley Tour
Click here for current tour schedule.
The cost is $10 for adults and $5 for students and children. The 45-minute guided tour begins at the Lewes Ferry Terminal. Tickets are available at the Lewes Ferry Terminal ½ hour before the tour or in advance at the Ryves Holt House Museum Gift Shop. If you would like to make reservations, please contact 302-645-7670 (ext.12).
The Maritime Trolley Tour highlights the history of Lewes and the Cape region from the early 17th through the 20th Century. Visitors will travel through Cape Henlopen State Park and hear about the early explorers to the Delaware Bay, the lighthouses, breakwaters, quarantine station, Fort Miles and the efforts to secure the area in times of war. As the trolley leaves the park and travels into Lewes, the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, menhaden fishing industry, Delaware River and Bay pilots, Lewes shipbuilding industry, the Lewes Lifesaving Station, the Lightship Overfalls, and other topics of maritime interest will be discussed.
Historic Lewes Kayak Tour
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The cost is $65 per person. The 3 hour tour is guided. Reservations are required through Quest Kayak: 302-644-7020.
The Lewes Historical Society is proud to offer a unique way to see Historic Lewes and to learn about our maritime heritage! Join the Society’s Executive Director for a kayak tour of the Lewes Harbor and Delaware Breakwater Harbor to hear about shipwrecks, pirates, lighthouses, and more. The trip includes the Lewes & Rehoboth Canal and Delaware Bay.; occasionally, due to tides, the trip may include a quick jaunt long thee Atlantic Shores. Kayaking experience is not necessary and a short paddling tutorial is given prior to each trip. Historic Lewes Kayak Tours are a great way to see Lewes, spend some time on the water get a little exercise! Tours generally last three hours; weather permitting.
Haunted Lewes Tour
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The cost is $10. The walking tours start at the Ryves Holt House next to St. Peters Cemetery on the corner of Second and Mulberry Streets beginning at 7:30 PM on tour dates. Preregistration is required at the Museum Gift Shop or 302-645-7670 (ext.12). Group maximum is 20 people. Each tour will last approximately 1 hour. Participants are encouraged to bring a flashlight. All tours take place outside.
As the site of the first European settlement in Delaware in 1631, Lewes has experienced everywhere from Indian massacres, to famous pirates, to the War of 1812. One can only imagine how many countless emotions and tragedies played in this historic town over the past four hundred years. Such events seem to have left behind undeniable paranormal evidence of such lush history. The Haunted Lewes Tours seeks to offer guests a chance to learn about many of the characters which once walked the streets of old Lewes.
Two different tours are offered per week on tour dates. The Friday evening tours, “Cannonballs and Cemetery Walls” will highlight locations on the east side of Lewes, such as St. Peter’s Cemetery, the Cannonball House and Zwaanendael Park. The Saturday evening tours, “Tombstones and Old Haunted Homes” will feature stories about locations on the west side of Lewes including the HMS deBraak and the DeVries Monument, and more.
Cemetery Tours
Cemetery Tours are held by special request only for groups of 8 or more people. The cost is $10 per person. Tours leave from the Ryves Holt House Museum Gift Shop located at the corner of Second and Mulberry Streets in historic Lewes. Preregistration is required at the Museum Gift Shop or 302-645-7670 (ext.12). Group maximum is 20 people.
The cemeteries of Lewes are rather unique. With the exception of a few scattered family burial grounds, all the cemeteries are associated with our churches and without exception, they all tell the story of the history of Lewes over the last 300 years. Take a walk with us as we visit the memorials and graves of some of our interesting citizens buried at St. Peters Church.
Sussex County Heritage Tour Series
2013 schedule TBD. Learn about the natural and cultural heritage of Sussex County, Delaware during a series of bus tours with Former Delaware State Archivist Russ McCabe!
Field Trips and Group Tours
Field trips and group walking tours of town can be arranged to show the highlights of Lewes in a meaningful context. For more information about interactive education and field trips, click here.
A quote from Mechthild E. "Mitzi" Peterson of the Shillelagh Travel Club on their group tour:
What a fantastic tour you gave our Shillelagh Travel Club on Monday, May 21, 2012! Don't think I've ever heard a tour guide give such an articulate and informative presentation and we've been all over the world. Your knowledge of not only the local history but our country's history in general as relayed by you painted beautiful pictures of actual events of the past. You made history come alive.
Thank you so very much for adventuring with us through Lewes and its environs and, most importantly, not letting it rain on us.
Wishing you much more success in all your efforts with the Lewis Historical Society.
Best wishes also for you and your growing family!
Sincerely,
Mechthild E. "Mitzi" Peterson
Shillelagh of Long Standing
A quote from Stephanie Brown of The Woman's Club of Odessa on their group tour:
"The weather was perfect, The docents divine, The Woman's Club of Odessa had a really great time!" - Stephanie Brown