The curtain came down on 120 years of football at Feethams and there was a carnival atmosphere at the start as Darlington paraded a host of former players, but visitors Leyton Orient almost spoiled the party.
Darlington will move into a new 25,000 all-seater stadium in the summer and a big crowd gathered for the last-ever game at their spiritual home.
The O's defended deep and in the opening phase of the game their defence was rarely troubled despite the home side's possession advantage, even so it was something of a shock when the visitors took the lead in the 26th minute.
Darlington had gone close, but found O's keeper Glen Morris in fine form, no more so than in the 25th minute when he saved point-blank from Barry Conlon.
Orient swept upfield and Gary Alexander fed Matt Lockwood who beat Andy Collett at the near post to put the away team 1-0 up.
Darlington's on-loan striker James Corbett should have equalised in the 32nd minute, but he fired wide after evading his marker and then a minute later Morris came to his side's rescue again to once more deny Conlon.
In the 36th minute a mistake by defender Stuart Whitehead gifted the O's a second. He was tackled by Alexander, after trying to dribble his way out of defence and Alexander raced clear to steer the ball past Collett.
Darlington needed a quick reply and they got it three minutes from the interval when Corbett beat Morris from close range to pull one back.
Darlington went all out for an equaliser in the second half, but they failed to beat the impressive Morris who kept his side in the game with a string of saves.
But he was beaten in the 75th minute when sub Neil Wainwright scored with his first touch seconds after coming off the bench.
Wainwright headed a rare goal to convert Ian Clark's left-wing cross and the home side could have won it at the end, but Corbett was once more denied by Morris.