Three Sundays Left to Climb Rockford Tower

On a Sunday on or before October 11, if you walk up the hill off Lookout Drive between 1 and 3 in the afternoon, you can still climb the 132 steps inside Rockford Tower and look out over the city from 115 feet up. Come back on another Sunday on or before October 11 and you can do it again. Come back after October 11, and the door is closed until next spring.

Most people who live in The Highlands know Rockford Tower as the stone landmark on the hill, the thing on the postcard, the backdrop for every dog walk and jog through the park. Fewer know that the public actually gets inside it on a narrow schedule: Sunday afternoons only, weather permitting, running from mid-May through mid-October. This year that window closes October 11. There are three Sundays left in the season.

Rockford Park in The Highlands

Rockford Park is in The Highlands, a few blocks from Trolley Square and the Sugar Bowl.

The land came from William Poole Bancroft, who donated 59 acres to start the park in 1889, with the du Pont family adding another 9 acres shortly after. The tower itself went up in 1901, built from local Brandywine Blue Rock at the highest point in the park, originally doing double duty as a water tower and an observation deck. It's been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978. Together, the park and tower remain a defining part of The Highlands' history.

The tower's limited public schedule and seasonal closing date are worth keeping in mind: after October 11, the next chance to climb it is next May.

Here's what's left of the season:

The listing itself carries a caveat worth repeating: the tower can close on short notice if the weather turns, so a rained-out Sunday doesn't roll over to the following week. Three scheduled dates means three possible chances, not three guaranteed ones.

What Doesn't Close When the Tower Does

The tower's narrow hours are the exception in Rockford Park, not the rule. The off-leash dog park inside the park runs on no such calendar. It's unfenced, open daily, and it's the reason a lot of Highlands residents are in the park on an ordinary Tuesday with no interest in climbing anything. Ask around and you'll hear it described as one of the actual daily-use anchors of the neighborhood, the kind of place where you know the dogs before you know their owners' names.

The park was still drawing a crowd for reasons that have nothing to do with the tower as recently as this past Thursday. On September 17, Delaware Tech's Stanton and Wilmington campuses held their annual Hometown Heroes 5K Run and 1-Mile Walk at the clock tower in Rockford Park, with registration at 5 p.m. and the race starting at 6. It's a reminder that the park's calendar doesn't wind down just because the tower's public hours are thinning out. The lawn, the paths, and the dog park keep working long after the observation deck locks up for the winter.

The Museum Picks Up Where the Tower Leaves Off

Right next to the park, on Kentmere Parkway, the Delaware Art Museum runs on a curve that moves in the opposite direction. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but on Thursdays it stays open until 8 p.m., and general admission during those extended hours is free from April through December. That means the free Thursday evening at the museum isn't ending anytime soon. It runs through the last Thursday before Christmas, well past the point when the tower has already locked its door for the year.

Regular admission the rest of the week is $18 for adults, $16 for seniors 65 and up, $7 for students with ID, and $6 for youth ages 7 to 18, with children 6 and under free. But the free Thursday evening window is the one worth building a habit around, especially once the tower closes and there are fewer things pulling you up the hill after dinner. It's a five-minute walk from most Highlands streets, and it's one of the few free evening activities in the neighborhood that gets more useful, not less, as the days get shorter.

What's Already a Short Walk From Your Door

None of this requires driving anywhere. Southeast Kitchen and Scalessa's Old School Italian Kitchen are both established fixtures for residents who want dinner without leaving the neighborhood, and Trolley Square's restaurant cluster is close enough that a walk there and back barely counts as a plan. The tower closing for the season doesn't change any of that. If anything, the shorter days make the short walk to dinner more appealing than the drive.

What This Means If You Live Here

The tower's closing date isn't really about the tower. It's about noticing that a landmark you walk past every week runs on a schedule most people never bother to check until it's already closed. A few things worth doing before October 11:

• Pick one of the three remaining Sundays and actually climb it. The view from 115 feet up doesn't change much year to year, but the chance to see it does.
• Check the weather before you go. A rained-out Sunday isn't rescheduled, it's just gone.
• If you miss all three, mark your calendar for mid-May, when the tower typically reopens for the season.
• Once the tower closes, shift your free-evening habit to Thursdays at the Delaware Art Museum, which keeps its extended hours running through December.
• The dog park and the walking paths don't have a closing date. They're the part of Rockford Park that's always open, tower season or not.

Living in The Highlands means the park's calendar is effectively your own. Most of it never closes. The tower's public season ends October 11, and the only real cost of missing it is waiting until spring.

If you're weighing a move within the neighborhood, thinking about what your home might be worth in a market this specific, or just want someone who actually knows which Sundays the tower is open, that's the kind of detail Harrison Properties Ltd works with every day. Reach out anytime for a straight answer about The Highlands, whether it's about real estate or just the best way to spend the last few Sundays of tower season.