Northbrook

The land around what became Northbrook was a favorite of the Lenni Lenape, who used it for camping, hunting, and dancing. Indian councils were held at a large rock just north of Northbrook. European settlement in the area began as early as 1703 with Abraham Marshall, who was granted a large tract of land by William Penn. Marshall built a one-story home for his family in 1706 on the northwest side of the Brandywine Creek. They operated many businesses there, including a flour and sawmill. Local farmers, clustering around the mills and other businesses, made it an agricultural settlement until 1870, when the Wilmington and Northern Line railroad came through the village. The station was originally called Marshall’s Station, but railroad engineers changed that. They had to toot their train whistles approaching the station “at the north brook,” and that’s the name that stuck. Milton Barnard orginally built several wooden structures along the railroad in 1873 and opened a coal and lumber business. In 1888 Elwood Thorne opened the Brandywine Fence Company across the road from the Railroad Station to produce his patented line of snow fences. A creamery was established for a time in the small village and later the buildings were used bythe Zebley Ice Company to store blocks of ice harvested from the frozen water of the Brandywine. The lumber and coal business was later sold to Frank Bailey. Caleb P. Fulton purchased the business in 1932, and the buildings were still in use into the 1970's as a hardware store and lumber yard. In 1977 the Northbrook Canoe Company took over the former lumber yard complex.