CAMDEN-WYOMING, Del. - If you've ever visited Brecknock Park, you've probably noticed the old white house on the edge of the woods.
It's the old Goggin Manor, the former home of Elizabeth Goggin. She left the property to the county.
"She wanted some thing done with this property. She didn't want a subdivision here, she didn't want it developed. And as you can see over the years we've added trails, we've added the Piccadilly castle playground. We've added ball fields, horseshoe pits, volleyball pits and the Howl Mill nature center," said Jody Sweeney, Kent County Levy Court Commissioner of the 5th District.
The manor, has not been occupied for decades, but advocates hope it will one day house the Kent County Museum.
"We've looked at all these different options from making a meeting house, a community place, we worked with the friends of historic Camden trying to come up with ideas. A museum is the perfect thing...Kent county was the start of this country. Caesar Rodney rode from Kent County to Philadelphia to start this country. We need a Kent County Historical museum," explained Sweeney.
The county has already put a lot of work into the building, including siding, repairing the roof, and capping the chimneys. But the insides remain largely untouched.
"It's much different to actually go in to a building, to see and feel and touch and even sometimes smell the difference because it does mean something, it gives you a much better picture of what people went through," said Jeremy Sheppard, Director of Community Services for Kent County Levy Court.
Some of the cosmetic fixes that have already been made such as the windows are pretty visible. But there are some that you can't see, such as the foundation. This foundation is hundreds of years old and begin to settle, so it needed to be repaired.
Those fixes, don't come cheap.
"So currently we are having vendors come to the site and take a look at the property. There's more than one way to do some thing, you know, so and considering that it's a historical property we don't wanna do anything that really sacrifices the integrity of the structure itself," explained Sheppard.
There's no timeline for the project just yet. The next step would be adding an HVAC system.
Sheppard and Sweeney say they hope more people will come forward with pieces to add to the future museum's collection.