William H. Ward House, North side of Road 244, .25 mile east of Road 246, Georgetown, Sussex County, DE

Significance: The William H. Ward house is an example of the single-pile, hall-parlor-plan house type utilized in Delaware from the middle seventeenth century, persisting in the lower regions of the state through much of the nineteenth century. Its construction includes both traditional braced timber framing and balloon framing. The relatively late date of the house (circa 1880) is indicative of the general conservatism that was characteristic of rural domestic architectural practices in lower Delaware. The subsequent addition of a rear wing is consistent with the relocation of service activities from the front rooms of dwellings to rear areas, permitting a more formalized use of the "hall." Of additional interest is the 1-1/2 story configuration of the main block, since dwellings of two stories are dominant in the nineteenth-century architectural development of rural Delaware. Rear ells of 1-1/2 stories were not uncommon, but the utilization of the half-story for the main body of the house is relatively unusual.
Survey number: HABS DE-334
Building/structure dates: ca. 1880 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: ca. 1900 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1987 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: after. 1992- before. 1997 Subsequent Work