Bancroft Mills is an abandoned mill complex along Brandywine Creek in Wilmington, Delaware, United States. It has been the site of some of the earliest and most famous mills near Wilmington and was the largest and longest running complex along the Brandywine.
Gilpin Mills was opened in 1787 and was the first paper mill in Delaware. This mill was followed by Riddle Mills (1845), and Bancroft Mills, which was opened in 1831 and had an 1895 expansion. In 1930 Bancroft Mills was the single largest cotton finishing works in the world. The complex was recently owned by Wilmington Piece Dye company which went bankrupt in May of 2003. The site was then bought by O'Neill Properties Group, a company specializing in the renovation and revitalization of disused or potentially dangerous parcels of land. Bancroft Mills is scheduled to become a large luxury condominium complex, to be called Rockford Falls. Today the complex stands as a reminder of the significant milling history of the Brandywine Valley.
