Date of Acquisition: 1916
Date of Construction: c.1770
Current Function: offices of the Dean and Advisement Center, College of Arts and Science
The oldest surviving building in downtown Newark, Elliott Hall was constructed about 1770. It has a two-and-one-half-story, four-bay original house constructed of brick laid using the Flemish bond system with a water table and belt course. A two-bay, nineteenth-century stucco addition extends to the east. An extensive modern addition in the rear incorporates a much older rear ell.
In the late eighteenth century, Alexander McBeath and his wife Catharine bought the house. The McBeaths soon became one of the leading families in Newark. Their status is reflected in their fine house on Main Street, their extensive land holdings in Cecil County, Maryland, and the collection of fine furniture and objects left to their heirs. Included in Catharine McBeath's will of 1817 were three mahogany tables left to her son, a collection of silver tableware left to her granddaughters, and a "long scarlett broadcloth coat and . . . new sattin cloak, with Broad lace" left to a niece. The McBeaths were staunch supporters of Newark Academy. They sent their son to the Academy and often boarded his friends. In 1833, the McBeaths' grandson, also named Alexander McBeath, sold to the Academy the six acres on which Old College was built. The house passed out of the McBeath family sometime in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1916, Delaware College acquired the house and its remaining acre of land from H. Rodney Sharp, who had bought the property from Frances O. and John L. Elliott. The house was used for faculty apartments from 1920 to 1950, then for various departments and research centers. Following a major renovation in 1993, it became the home of the Dean's office and Advisement Center for the College of Arts and Science. Elliott Hall has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973.
