Fulfilling One Man’s Vision
In 2004, Woodlawn Trustees created the Rockford Woodlawn Fund, Inc. The 501(c)(3) was organized for “…the development, preservation, and maintenance of lands located in the City of Wilmington and lands located between the Brandywine Creek and Route 202, to use as open space for public use and enjoyment…and the stabilization of unstable and blighted communities located in the City of Wilmington.”
In the creation of the Delaware National Historic Park, it was the Rockford Woodlawn Fund that facilitated the donation and subsequent sale of the 1,100 acres to create the park. The result was the creation of the current principal held by Rockford Woodlawn. The Rockford Woodlawn Fund has provided millions of dollars in support to the Todmorden Foundation to facilitate the rebuilding of the Flats, Phases I-IV. They also make annual grants to organizations focusing on parks and green space in the City of Wilmington.
“For many years I had been saying that I wished someone would gather up the rough land along the Brandywine above Rockland and hold it for the future…and I concluded I ought to do something toward what I had been wishing others would do.”
William Poole Bancroft (1835 – 1928)
