Delaware

Goggin Manor, Brecknock Park, Camden, Delaware (39.123872, -75.53583)

1st Phase House – Front Block Felling Dates: Spring 1771

2nd Phase House – Back Block Felling Dates: After 1770

3rd Phase House – Roof over Front and Back Block Felling Dates: Undated

Kitchen Felling Dates: Spring 1789

Site Master 1647-1788 (white oak) GMDEx1 (t = 7.46 hswews3; 6.44 LK1S4; 5.73 BCMDx1).

Brecknock, also known as the Howell's Mill Seat, is a historic home located near Camden, Kent County, Delaware. Today Kent County owns the surrounding Brecknock Park, which is the site of the historic Goggin Manor (KC-55). The house is in an unusual plan of three additions to an original one-room house constructed of brick. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. In 1993 a portion of the original tract was bequeathed to Kent County by Elizabeth Howell Goggin for recreational use. (Building description courtesy of Barton Ross.)

The dendrochronological analysis targeted four phases of the building: the first-phase front block in the southeast corner of the main house (the original one-room brick house); the second-phase back block addition in the southwest corner of the main house; the roof that was constructed over the front and back blocks; and the attached kitchen. Dendrochronological analysis has provided precise felling dates for two of the building phases (spring of 1771 for the front block and spring of 1789 for the kitchen) and a felled-after date of 1770 for the back block. The roof over the front and back blocks remains undated.

Worthington, M J and Seiter, J I 2015 Worthington, M J and Seiter, J I 2021 “The Tree-Ring Dating of Goggin Manor, Brecknock Park, Camden, Delaware” Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory Report 2025/16