Ardencroft, Delaware
Ardencroft is a village in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the village is 231.
Ardencroft, Delaware | |
|---|---|
Village | |
Location of Ardencroft in New Castle County, Delaware. | |
Ardencroft Location within the state of Delaware Ardencroft Ardencroft (the United States) Ardencroft Ardencroft (North America) | |
| Coordinates: 39°48′15″N 75°29′29″W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Delaware |
| County | New Castle |
| Area | |
| • Total | 0.09 sq mi (0.23 km2) |
| • Land | 0.09 sq mi (0.23 km2) |
| • Water | 0.00 sq mi (0.00 km2) |
| Elevation | 279 ft (85 m) |
| Population (2020) | |
| • Total | 226 |
| • Density | 2,539.33/sq mi (982.37/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
| Area code | 302 |
| FIPS code | 10-01530 |
| GNIS feature ID | 217491 |
The village was founded in 1950 as an outgrowth of Arden and Ardentown with a conceptual lifestyle based on Henry George's single tax movement and William Morris's arts and crafts principles. The last of seventeen land trusts founded between 1894 and 1950, Ardencroft's tax structure is based on the single tax economic philosophy of Henry George. As a result, a person's house is not taxed, only the land it sits on, which is owned by a charitable trust and managed by three directors. Half the land is woods and open space. Footpaths criss-cross the village. At its founding in 1950, Ardencroft formally encouraged minorities to settle there, seeking families that wanted to live in an integrated setting. The nearby, former Arden School (now the Buzz Ware Village Center) also allowed integration around this time, prior to many of the changes enacted by the Civil Rights Movement.
Civil rights and suffragist activist, prolific writer, pilot, librarian, lecturer, and educator Pauline A. Young (1900 to 1991) moved into Ardencroft around this time. The outspoken Young was famous for having joined the NAACP in 1912 at the age of 12, lectured and worked conferences with W. E. B. Du Bois in the 1930s, and in 1965 marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama.