Holiday Spectacle
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- Written by Kris Legates
Winter WonderFest Lights Up the Night
By Maddie Lauria
Photographs by Thane Phelan
From the Winter 2021 issue
Driving along Route 1 after the sun sets in November and December, it’s hard not to become a distracted driver when passing by Hudson Fields. There, thousands of red, white and green holiday lights twinkle brightly against the night sky.
Since Winter WonderFest began at Cape Henlopen State Park in 2016, the light spectacular has come to attract more than 80,000 people throughout the holiday season. The growing demand is what drove organizers to Hudson Fields, where there’s more space to expand the philanthropic community light show and holiday celebration.
Real Estate BOOM!
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- Written by Kris Legates
Pandemic-fueled buying frenzyhas pushed prices up, selling time down
By Lynn R. Parks
Photographs by Scott Nathan
From the October 2021 issue
Coastal Sussex has long been a mecca for retirees. “They’ve been coming here for years,” says real estate agent Judy Rhodes, manager of the Century 21 Home Team Realty office near Rehoboth Beach. This year, though, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed more people to act on their plans than usual, Rhodes says. Retirees who had been saving for a home at the beach decided that now was the time to take the leap. Others who were still working turned in their notices and embarked on early retirement.
And then there were younger people who are still raising families but who realized, while kept out of their offices under COVID restrictions, that they could do their jobs from anywhere. “If work could be done remotely and you no longer needed to live near your work location, then work could be done from a much better place than you currently had,” Rhodes says.
The Lewes That Nearly Was
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- Written by Kris Legates
We might take for granted the preservation of historic homes, the creation of an impressive public park, and the safeguarding of a clean enviroment, but those achievements did not happen by luck in the First State's First Town. Citizen activists made them happen.
By Chris Beakey
Photographs by Carolyn Watson
From the September 2021 issue
Whether you’ve just escaped from Route 1 traffic or taken a detour on your way home from a day at Cape Henlopen State Park, you’re apt to feel a special kind of peace as you encounter historic Lewes’s most picture-perfect places. The bustling marina alongside the Savannah Road bridge. Canalfront Park, with its performance spaces and public boat launch. The quaint downtown surrounded by beautifully preserved Colonial, Victorian and craftsman homes.
But what if it wasn’t there, as you see it now?
That’s a question some longtime local residents contemplate every time they look back on three pivotal events that almost turned Lewes into a very different place: a town challenged by chronic pollution, reduced access to its picturesque canal, and the loss of prized historic buildings.