Thomas Dixon designed this Italianate brownstone in 1863, and the Wilmington Club has owned it since 1900. It was designed by Thomas Dixon and built in 1863 as a three-story, five-bay "T"-plan brownstone dwelling in the Italianate style. Newspapers from March 10, 1863 (The Delaware State Journal), March 12, 1863 (The Delaware Republican), and March 13, 1863 (The Daily Gazette) reported that H.F. Dure had contracted with John Merrick to erect "a beautiful mansion" on his lot on Market Street between Eleventh and Twelfth streets for about $21,000.
Although oral history credits Edmund G. Lind of Baltimore as architect of record, those 1863 reports point to Thomas Dixon, who also practiced in Baltimore and later was architect of the Wilmington Grand Opera House. The Wilmington Club — incorporated in 1877 — purchased this building in 1900 and expanded it between 1936 and 1950 and again in 1966. Stand here and take in that sequence of dates, names, and changes: a 1863 Italianate brownstone that became the Wilmington Club's clubhouse.
Picture that sequence of dates and names, then follow Market Street between Eleventh and Twelfth streets.