Deer Park Inn

The building's basement, according to legend, was part of an underground network during the Civil War.

Near the University of Delaware in Newark, you'll find the Deer Park Inn. The present building is believed to be on the site of the St. Patrick's Inn, built in the mid-1700s. A favorite resting place for travelers passing through Newark, the inn housed Charles Mason, Jeremiah Dixon and their team of surveyors in 1764. The Mason-Dixon line, which divided Pennsylvania and Maryland, became famous as a line of demarcation between free and slave states.

Rumor has it that an old Mason and Dixon border marker was once in the Deer Park's basement. During the American Revolution soldiers used the inn, and George Washington may have been one of them. Another illustrious lodger was Edgar Allan Poe, who stayed there in 1843. As he was attempting to descend from a carriage at the inn, he allegedly fell in the mud, and, according to the tale, was so upset that he put a curse on the building.

Fire destroyed the original building in 1851. James S. Martin built the Deer Park Hotel that year and named it after his farm, which in turn was named for a grove of deer that often filled the nearby landscape. The original structure was red brick and had four stories and was built entirely of materials from Newark. Jacob DeHaven was the first proprietor of the Deer Park, and the hotel housed a women's seminary for twenty years. The building's basement, according to legend, was part of an underground network during the Civil War. Rooms rented for $1.50 in the late 1880s, and permanent residence cost $10 a month.

The Deer Park had a succession of owners until 1976, when ERG Inc. purchased the building. Changes included an expanded menu, Sunday brunch and Sunday night jazz, a new bar, restoration of the original red brick, the addition of a new, Victorian-style porch, remodeled kitchen, bathrooms and dining area, and the removal of panel walls to reveal the original oak woodwork.

The main barroom has a comfortable, grungy feeling, as patrons sit on stools around a worn, formica-and-wood, square-shaped bar. Wainscoting runs up the walls. Draft choices recently included a Stoudt's product and a Pete's product and mainstream domestics, with nearly 100 micros and imports available by the bottle. The windows and door are kept open in summer to let breezes in, and ceiling fans whirl.

Diners can sit out on the covered porch or in one of several dining areas. The menu emphasizes Mexican and Tex-Mex food, with an assortment of sandwiches, burgers, fajitas and a Cajun crawfish quesadilla among the offerings. Nothing is over $10. The Deer Park Inn is also open for breakfast.

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October 1996