The Read House and Gardens is the grandest of New Castle's historic house museums, a Federal-style mansion at 42 The Strand that looks out over the Delaware River. Built in 1801 for George Read II, it contains fourteen rooms furnished in period style, with an impressive collection of Delaware-made furniture, silver, and decorative arts. The house is managed by the Historical Society of Delaware and is open for tours.
The garden stretching behind and beside the house is one of the finest historic gardens in the region — four terraces stepping down toward the river, planted with boxwood, roses, and perennials in a design that reflects early nineteenth-century taste. Even visitors who skip the house interior often walk through the garden. The whole property gives a vivid sense of how the prosperous merchant class of the early republic lived in this river town.