Lewes, DE Shirts

Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution, and Lewes was settled before any other town in it, which is how you get the title locals will happily recite: the first town in the first state. The opening chapter was Dutch and brief. In 1631 a whaling colony called Zwaanendael was planted here near the mouth of the bay and destroyed within a year, but the claim held, and the town that grew in its place has faced the water ever since: pilots guiding ships in from the ocean, a lighthouse standing offshore on its breakwater, the ferry sliding across the bay to New Jersey every few hours all summer long. Lewes today is trim and salt-aired, its old streets lined with shingled houses that have outlasted storms, wars, and several economies.

Our Lewes design looks out at the bay: the lighthouse offshore, the ferry crossing mid-frame, and a hint of Dutch gable worked into the border as a nod to 1631.