A history of Odessa,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Odessa from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Odessa was originally known as Cantwell's Bridge. In 1721, a son of Captain Edmund Cantwell opened a toll bridge over the Appoquinimink Creek at this location. Cantwell's Bridge became an important port that shipped wheat, corn, tobacco, and produce down the creek to the Delaware Bay, where it traveled to distant ports. The town was also home to tanneries that produced leather goods. Cantwell's Bridge would continue to prosper as an agricultural port into the 19th century. In 1855, the grain trade collapsed after the Delaware Railroad was built to the west through Middletown. The railroad was originally proposed to be built through Cantwell's Bridge but the merchants and vessel owners in the town opposed. Following this, the town was renamed to Odessa after the port city of Odessa in the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) in an effort to keep the town alive as a major port. The town s…
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Odessa’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewPleasant Hill Motel, U.S. Route 1…, c. 1930: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Odessa
See all 2 →
Odessa, decade by decade
CommonsPleasant Hill Motel, U.S. Route 13 -- 1-2 mile south, Odess…c. 1930
CommonsFirst floor- view of interior of crib walls and framing loo…1933
CommonsGROUND LEVEL STALL - Woodlawn, Barn, Saint Georges Hundred,…1933
CommonsHABS DEL,2-OD.V,2- (sheet 1 of 6) - Ike Cleaver Muskrat She…1933
CommonsHABS DEL,2-OD.V,2- (sheet 1 of 6) - Ike Cleaver Muskrat She…19331990s
9 historic places in Odessa
Odessa has 9 listings on the National Register, and they protect 51 historic buildings, because Odessa Historic District alone counts 40. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier, which fewer than 3% of listings reach.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Pleasant Hill Motel, U.S. Route 13 -- 1-2 mile south, Odessa, Delaware (86525) (c. 1930) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (5) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.