Rodney Square is the public square in downtown Wilmington

Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...

, Delaware named after American Revolutionary leader Caesar Rodney

Caesar Rodney

Caesar Rodney was an American lawyer and politician from St. Jones Neck in Dover Hundred, Kent County, Delaware, east of Dover...

. A large statue of Rodney by James E. Kelly

James E. Kelly (artist)

James Edward Kelly was an American sculptor and illustrator who specialized in depicting people and events of American wars, particularly the American Civil War....

 stands in the front of the square. The square was created in the early 20th century by John Jacob Raskob who worked for Pierre S. du Pont

Pierre S. du Pont

Pierre Samuel du Pont was president of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company from 1915 to 1919, and served on its Board of Directors until 1940...

. The City Beautiful movement

City Beautiful movement

The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy concerning North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of using beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago,...

 served as the inspiration for the effort.

Events

• Clifford Brown Jazz Festival
  Clifford Brown Jazz Festival
  The Clifford Brown Jazz Festival is a free jazz music festival held annually in June at Rodney Square in Wilmington, Delaware. The first festival was held in 1989 on the open lawn in the center of the city, and has grown into the largest free jazz festival on the East Coast...
  
  
• First Night
  First Night
  First Night is an artistic and cultural celebration on New Year's Eve, taking place from afternoon until midnight. Some cities have all their events during the celebration outside, but some cities have events that are hosted indoors by organizations in the city, such as churches and theaters...
  
   Wilmington
• Saint Patrick's Day
  Saint Patrick's Day
  Saint Patrick's Day is a religious holiday celebrated internationally on 17 March. It commemorates Saint Patrick , the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of :Ireland, and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland. It is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion , the Eastern...
  
   Parade
• Citizen's Bank Caesar Rodney Half Marathon

Surrounding architecture

The eight blocks surrounding the square contain a number of downtown buildings:

Name	Built	Architect	Style	Current Use
American Life Building	1971	I.M. Pei	Brutalist Brutalist architecture Brutalist architecture is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement.-The term "brutalism":...	Multi-tenant office
MBNA MBNA MBNA Corporation was a bank holding company and parent company of wholly owned subsidiary MBNA America Bank, N.A., headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, prior to being acquired by Bank of America in 2006...  Bracebridge I	1995			BofA Bank of America Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...  credit card headquarters
Delaware Trust Building	1930	Dennison & Hirons	Classical Revival	Condos and restaurants
DuPont Building DuPont Building The DuPont Building, occupying the entire block bound by 10th, 11th, Orange and Market streets, was one of the first high-rises in Wilmington, Delaware. It looks out over Rodney Square. The building was built in phases, with the original building constructed in 1908 fronting Rodney Square. At...	1908			DuPont DuPont E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...  headquarters
First & Central Church				Presbyterian Church USA
Public Building	1916	Henry Hornbostel Henry Hornbostel Henry Hornbostel was an American architect.He designed more than 225 buildings, bridges, and monuments in the United States; currently 22 are listed on the National Register of Historic Places....	Classical Revival	Vacant but protected
Wilmington Mansion	1860s			Wilmington Club
Wilmington Post Office	1937	Associated Federal Architects	Classical Classical architecture Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...	Wilmington Trust Wilmington Trust Wilmington Trust was founded on July 8, 1903 as a banking, trust, and safe deposit company by DuPont president T. Coleman du Pont.On November 1, 2010, Wilmington Trust announced a merger with M&T Bank, of Buffalo, NY. The deal values 107-year-old Wilmington Trust at $3.84 a share, or 46 percent...  headquarters
Wilmington Public Library	1922	Edward Lippincott Tilton	Beaux-Arts	Library

Corporate headquarters

Former

• American Viscose Company
• Atlas Powder Company
• Barnsdall Oil
• Delaware Trust
• Hercules Company
  Hercules Company
  Hercules is a manufacturer of computer peripherals, for PC and Mac.-History:Hercules Computer Technology, Inc. was formed in 1982 in Fremont, California, by Van Suwannukul, and was one of the major graphics card companies of the 1980s. Its biggest product was the MDA-compatible Hercules Graphics...
  
  
• MBNA
  MBNA
  MBNA Corporation was a bank holding company and parent company of wholly owned subsidiary MBNA America Bank, N.A., headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, prior to being acquired by Bank of America in 2006...
  
  

Transportation

Rodney Square serves as a major hub for public transit with the following connections:

• DART First State
  DART First State New Castle County bus routes
  DART First State operates 45 fixed-route bus routes throughout northern New Castle County, serving the cities of Wilmington and Newark. Most of the routes operate Monday through Saturday with some Sunday service.-External links:*...
  
   bus lines: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 19/30, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 54, 55
• DART First State
  DART First State
  The Delaware Transit Corporation, trading as DART First State is the primary public transportation system that operates throughout Delaware, USA...
  
  trolley: 32

External links

• Historic Rodney Square Post Cards
• Downtown Wilmington
• Wilmington Visitors Bureau
• Wilmington City Government