Jim Jones became interested in Newark history in the 1980s, when he was living in a Main Street apartment above a now-shuttered store called Braunstein’s.

“I remember thinking ‘This is an odd building. I wonder what the story is.’ Looking out the window, there was the Newark Opera House, and I knew that was not the typical building for this town.

“Since I drove buses first for one of the contractors for the school district and then the University [of Delaware], I got a lot of experience driving around town. And I thought our street network was woefully inadequate. There are only three streets that go east-west across town: Cleveland Avenue, Main Street and Delaware Avenue as a pair and then Park Place. … How come?”

Such questions gestated in his mind for decades. And after serving in the Peace Corps in Swaziland, trying to hitchhike around the world, working as an agricultural laborer in the south of France, writing a book about crossing the Sahara, working as long-distance camping tour operator in North America, acquiring two advanced degrees in history, teaching history at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, serving on the West Chester Borough Council and other governmental bodies, leading well-researched walking tours of West Chester and retiring back to Newark, he realized that Newark – which he called “a walkable town” and “a great town” – lacked something that he could provide.

That would be walking tours.

What is history?

Since his first tours in 2018, Jones has curated a dozen itineraries, offered through the Newark Historical Society and the Newark Parks & Recreation Department. He donates his time to researching and running the tours, which are free for participants, except for the seasonal ghost tours.

Information about upcoming tours is available on NewarkHistoryDE.com. Jones invites questions and answers about Newark history at [email protected].

He’s also writing a book – or maybe two, since he has so much information to share – about Newark history, and he’s been talking to the society about publishing the work.

“History is whatever happens in the past … that is part of the answer to any question that interests you,” he said. When asked how his own home – an unassuming house from the 1960s, which he shares with his wife, University of Delaware German professor Ester Riehl – could be part of history, he immediately offered several ways.

“If I was trying to talk about how America changed after World War II, the roles of the automobile or the patterns of homeownership, there’s something I could say about it.”

Positive reaction to the tours

“There are no better-researched history tours than those presented by Dr. Jim Jones,” said Mary Torbey, curator of the Newark History Museum.

“You will get all the historical facts, the inside scoop and probably a good laugh as well. He is an expert at drawing conclusions about the ways that the people, businesses, schools, social clubs and organizations in this small community have been historically connected. Our three-way relationship with Dr. Jones, the Newark Parks & Recreation Department and the Newark Historical Society has increased both the citizens’ interest in Newark’s history and support for historic preservation.

“Dr. Jones has been talking about publishing a book on Newark history, and we enthusiastically support his efforts. Like the proceeds from the Historic Ghost Tours, he has offered to share the proceeds from his book with the Newark Historical Society. His forthcoming book fills a need for a comprehensive, scholarly history of Newark.”

Bob McBride is a long-time Delaware history enthusiast who has been on several walks with Jones. “Jim and I share a lot of old time Newark knowledge from the 1970s, and we both wondered why the town developed in the way that it did. Jim decided to find out about that. He did so in great depth searching out old maps, and reading deed and real estate purchase records to tell the story.

“The walks are a great way to share Jim’s knowledge with everyone as we literally walk through Newark history and see what’s still here and what has disappeared.

“The most interesting thing we have learned on Jim’s walks is why the now CSX railroad underpasses are so low! The reason why so many trucks get stuck in them today. The second most interesting thing learned was why Newark had two historic railroad stations and why the second station to be built was the one in the middle of town.”

Jones’ background and insights

Jones moved to Newark in 1972 to attend UD, and his first degree was a bachelor’s in mathematics. He kept a post office box in Newark as he was exploring the world and returned to UD for a master’s degree in modern European history and a doctorate in modern African history.

His books include “Making Camel Commercials,” on traveling in the Sahara; “Industrial Labor in the Colonial World: The African Workers of the Chemin de Fer Dakar-Niger,” based on his doctoral dissertation; “Made in West Chester”; and “Railroads of West Chester.”

Along the way, he acquired fluency in French and German and varying levels of understanding of Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Flemish, si-Swazi and Bamanakan. Such linguistic prowess has helped him research his own genealogy, as far back as the 1670s.

“My people are all peasants, except for one branch that included mostly executioners,” he said.

One interesting tale he has uncovered involves that house that sits by itself on the edge of the Newark Cemetery. “It’s not that I know more than anyone else, but I am willing to do the tedious work of dissecting deeds, census data, court records and other old documents,” he said. “As a result, most of what I learn just confirms what other people know, and occasionally I find something that no one else has come upon, like the identity of the former slave who built the house at 65 N. Chapel Street.”

Another tidbit involves the brick house at North College and East Cleveland avenues. “It looks odd,” he said, “like a little castle,” more impressive than neighbors. It was built by Theodore Armstrong, an entrepreneur who made his money as a retailer and donated some of the land to create Cleveland Avenue. That grand house was intended to be a model of what could be built nearby.

A third involves the triangular parking lot to the east of Herman’s, the butcher on Cleveland Avenue. The odd shape reflects the path of a buried stream.

And Newark’s frustrating street pattern? The town began on Main (early records don’t even name the street) and then haphazardly grew, with Delaware Avenue, Park Place and then Cleveland Avenue developing in bits and pieces as residential streets. And the arrival of the B&O Railroad in the 1880s blocked a lot of crosstown access to the east.