Delaware Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program Helps Restore the Cyrus Polk House to its Former Glory

Historic Preservation Tax Credits have been highly successful in promoting the rehabilitation of historic properties throughout the state, serving to preserve the past while simultaneously creating jobs and promoting economic revitalization. The Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs’ State Historic Preservation Office manages this important program, shepherding interested parties through the application process with an eye towards facilitating state preservation efforts. 

When tragedy befell the 1850s Cyrus Polk House, the current homeowners opted to reconstruct and resurrect it. Constructed circa 1850, the Cyrus Polk House is an architecturally celebrated ‘high style’ residential home in Odessa, Delaware.  The 3-story, 5-bay, double-pile (or two room deep), red-brick building was designed by architect Samuel Sloan for Cyrus Polk.  The Polk family were, at the time, considered to be one of the area’s leading wheat merchants.

The home was designed with blended elements of the Greek Revival and Italianate architectural styles. The Greek Revival elements of the property are found in the Frieze-Band Windows, a row of small, rectangular windows tucked horizontally beneath the roofline, and the centrally placed grand entryway with decorative sidelights flanking the door crowned with a 3-light transom.

Italianate elements include the vertical orientation, and character-defining features such as the low-pitched hipped-roof, a uniformly sloped roof line so low it cannot be seen from the street view; projecting eaves with large, paired, brackets; and tall, narrow windows at the first and second floors adorned with decorative scrolls and a central anthemion, or ornamental motif. The front entrance is highlighted with a hip-roofed porch, or roof extension that slopes along multiple sides creating a sheltered entryway, with molded cornice, or decorative molding, supported by paired, tall and narrow chamfered piers or beveled supports.

In the 1950s, the house was purchased by Marian and Gant Miller Jr. who, for many years, opened their home for public tours and allowed it to be photographed and featured in magazines and newspapers.

Sadly, in May of 2021 the historic home was nearly destroyed by a fire. Flames tore through the building’s interior, collapsing the roof. The charred remains were further marred by smoke and water damage. Only about 30% of the structure remained. The owners of the historic home were not prepared to give up but instead chose to stabilize the remaining building and sought out information on Delaware’s State Historic Tax Credit program for guidance on how to reconstruct and restore it.

The Delaware Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program was created by state legislation in 2001. It is currently reauthorized through fiscal year 2030 and, via the Bond Bill, the yearly allocation of tax credits authorized for the Program stands at $8 million through FY2030.

The rules and guidelines of the program are based on The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for Preserving, Rehabilitating, Restoring & Reconstructing Historic Building.  In the case of the Cyrus Polk House, it is the Standards for Reconstruction that are being followed.

Reconstruction is defined as the act or process of depicting, by means of new construction, the form, features, and detailing of a non-surviving site, landscape, building, structure, or object for the purpose of replicating its appearance at a specific period of time and in its historic location.

Today, the reconstruction project is well under way and with careful attention to the Standards along with the guidance of our Historic Preservation Tax Credit program. Preservationists can take heart; The Cyrus Polk House of Odessa remains a treasured piece of Delaware’s history.