110 E Grove Street

Some houses just have misfortune connected with them and such was the case of 110 East Grove Street in the 1940s.  The house is a nicely built brick house on a corner lot.  It was built by Dr Howard LeCates for his business and his residency.  Half of the house was his office and practice and the other half was where his wife, Jean, and he lived.  They did not have children.  Dr LeCates practiced in Delmar for about 26 years until in 1945 he decided to commit suicide by jumping in front of a train.  His mangled body was carried by the train for about 500 feet after impact.

In 1946 Edmond Shinn purchased the house from Joan Reid Lecates, Dr leCates widow.  Ted Shinn, his wife Juanita Ruth Williams Shinn, their three children; Edmond, Richard and Thomas, and his father Edmond W. Shinn lived in the house.  Ted Shinn had a “Tom’s Roasted Peanuts” franchise sales route. 

Ted Shinn (Edmund Hedges Shinn) was born in Pennsylvania in 1904.  His father and he had lived in Roanoke, Virginia and in 1933 he married Juanita Ruth Williams, daughter of Alva and Rose Williams of Cumberland Maryland. Ted Shinn was unique in that he was Heterochromia meaning he had one eye that was blue and the other was gray. 

In the first part of 1947 Ruth Shinn became ill and died at the house. 

above March 4, 1947 Wilmington Morning News

Two months later Ted Shinn was still despondent over the lost of his wife and he committed suicide at the house. 

above May 8 1947 Wilmington News Journal

Before his death he had sold the house and had offers for the business

After the house was sold I believe the remaining family moved back to Cumberland Maryland. 

The house due to it’s size and interior arrangement which lend itself well to a duplex building ended up being purchased for rental property and over the years deteriorated until recently when it was purchased and fixed up and seems to be maintained now.