Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Ellendale, DE

Ellendale is an incorporated town in Sussex County, Delaware, with a population of 487 in the 2020 census, living in 205 households, up 27.8 percent from 381 residents in 2010.

The town covers 1.46 square miles of land at an elevation of 49 feet, and its ZIP code is 19941.

Ellendale was settled in 1866 and formally incorporated on March 30, 1905, after its current site was established around the Junction and Breakwater Railroad Depot.

Ellendale calls itself the Gateway to Delaware's Resort Beaches because it sits on U.S. Route 113, the resort area's westernmost border, and Delaware Route 16, its northernmost border.

The town is rumored to be named after either the daughter of state legislator Alfred Short, the wife of Dr. John S. Prettyman, who laid out the town, or the daughter of railroad survey engineer Thomas William Dale.

The Ellendale Swamp was a refuge for Loyalists during the 1780 Black Camp Insurrection in the American Revolution, whose leaders Bartholomew Banynum and William Dutton had about 400 men, and thirty-seven insurrectionists were indicted for treason before all were pardoned on November 4, 1780.

Ellendale's economy advanced in the late nineteenth century with the R.J. Clendaniel Sawmill, the Jester and Reed Canning Company, a brick yard, peach evaporating and canning companies, the Phillip J. Ritter Ketchup Company, and a button factory.

The Queen Anne's Railroad was authorized in February 1895 to extend its lines through Ellendale toward Lewes, with the first passenger trains passing through in 1897.

In 1918 the DuPont Highway, now U.S. Route 113, was completed through Ellendale, and in May 1920 the Town Council established a fire department that bought a Ford Model T fire truck for 1,400 dollars.

Ellendale State Forest was established in 1927 and later merged with Redden State Forest to create the largest state forest in Delaware, with 44 miles of trails for hiking, horseback riding, bicycling, and bird watching.