The Blue Ball Barn was built in 1914 by Alfred DuPont as a dairy barn to supply his family with their own dairy and other animal products. The building was named after the Blue Ball Tavern that stood on the property along Concord Pike, which records show that the Tavern dated back to the 1710’s. The Tavern had a wood, later metal, blue ball on a pole that signaled that there were stagecoach passengers waiting for pickup. Restored in 2007, the Blue Ball Barn now houses Alapocas Run State Park’s folk art collection and event space.

The collection is focused on folk art from Delaware. Folk art is made by regular people who are not professionally-trained artists, which allows for a much wider range of perspective and talents than what would be typically seen in a fine art museum. Folk artists hone their craft outside of the classroom and unabashedly show off their cultures and elements from their daily lives in their works. The collection at the Blue Ball Barn has upwards of 200 works, from posters and dioramas to paintings and sculptures.