A century later the Reverend Sydenham Thorne built a dam across the Mispillion River to generate power for his gristmill and sawmill.

Around the same time, Joseph Oliver laid out the first city streets and plots nearby on a part of his plantation.

Shipbuilding continued to be the major industry of Milford through World War I, bringing considerable prosperity to the town.

The high point came in 1917 when the four-masted, 174-foot (53 m) long Albert F. Paul was launched from the William G. Abbott shipyard.

When the last of the area's giant white oaks was cut in the 1920s, the shipyards quickly went out of business, although the Mispillion ships sailed on for many years.

[5] During much of the twentieth century Milford served primarily as the commercial center for much of southern Delaware's large agricultural community.

William T. Watson Mansion, and J. H. Wilkerson & Son Brickworks are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[6] On Friday, May 30, 2003 at approximately 3:00 p.m. a fire started in a second floor apartment next to Wiley Hardware & Appliance on Walnut Street in the historic downtown section of Milford.

More than 200 firefighters from Milford, Ellendale, Harrington, Felton, Dover, Smyrna, Houston, Frederica, Slaughter Beach, Bowers Beach, Greenwood, South Bowers, Farmington, Magnolia, Cheswold, Lewes, Georgetown, and Bridgeville in Delaware and Greensboro and Goldsboro in Maryland fought the blaze which destroyed seven businesses, a church, and three apartments, destroying an entire city block in the historic section of town.

[18] The Public Works department provides water, sewer, trash and recycling collection to Milford.

[27] Milford Memorial Hospital will be converted by Nationwide Health Services into a multi-use healthcare-focused community that would include a nursing home.