National Register of Historic Places

First Broiler House

Georgetown, Sussex County, Delaware
Listed
July 2, 1974
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
74000607

About this property

The First Broiler House, also known as Mrs. Wilmer Steele's Broiler House, is preserved at the University of Delaware Agricultural Experiment Station near Georgetown, Delaware as an example of a chicken house that was widely used to raise broiler chickens in Delaware during the 1920s. An example of an individual-colony house, the 16-foot (4.9 m) square wood-frame building housed 500 chickens. It was provided with a coal stove. Cecile Steele of Ocean View, Delaware was the first person in Delaware to raise chickens specifically for meat production, separately from her laying flock that was primarily meant to produce eggs. The wife of a Coast Guardsman stationed at the Bethany Beach Lifesaving Station, she raised her first flock of 500 in 1923, selling 387 two-pound chickens for 67 cents per pound. She ordered 50, but was accidentally shipped 500 which she decided to keep and sell at a discount. Her business model was profitable. In 1924 she doubled to 1,000 chickens, and in 1925 leaped to 10,000. By 1973, 50 years later, the industry processed 3 billion chickens per year. The broiler house has been moved from its original site at the Steele farm and has been repaired. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 3, 1974.

Location

Georgetown, Sussex County, Delaware
38.63594, -75.45410

Categories

AGRICULTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Gyles, Stella Pepper, House
Industrial
3.2 mi
Hearn Potato House
Industrial
3.5 mi
Pepper, Carlton, David, Farm
Industrial
3.8 mi
Short Homestead
Industrial
4 mi
Hebron Methodist Protestant Church and Cemetery
Industrial
4.5 mi

Questions about this property

When was First Broiler House listed on the National Register?

First Broiler House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 2, 1974.

What type of historic resource is First Broiler House?

First Broiler House is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for First Broiler House?

The period of significance for First Broiler House is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near First Broiler House?

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