Millwright Warwick Hale left his Muscle Cripple property on the banks of White Clay Creek to his son, Samuel. In 1750 David Finney of New Castle purchased the land from Samuel. Whether the current house was built by the Hale family or by David Finney is still unclear. Daniel Byrnes, a Quaker preacher and miller, purchased it and added the left wing in 1773. The original south section, with its four fireplaces, is a good example of Georgian brick architecture.

The property sits at the intersection of what were two major roads. Throughout the American Revolution, the Quaker pacifist residents of the house were on the military baggage train route leading from New York to Philadelphia to Baltimore and Yorktown. During the Philadelphia Campaign of 177, the Byrnes family were pinned between British and American encampments.

On September 6, 1777, three days after the Battle of Cooch's Bridge, General George Washington held a war council here. The Marquis de Lafayette and other Continental Army officers attended. Shortly thereafter, the soldiers marched north to Chadds Ford where they fought the British at the battle of the Brandywine. The Historic Hale-Byrnes House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; is the southern anchor of the federally-designated Wild and Scenic White Clay Creek; and is a site on the nine-state Washington-Rochambeau National Historic Trail.

Hale-Byrnes House is on old Route 7 just south of Stanton, Delaware, near the intersection of Route 4 East and Route 7 North. The street address is 606 Stanton-Christiana Road.   Map