Croswell's America's Garden Tour
If you’re interested in flowers, gardening, conservatories, extravagant and elegant landscaping, this Croswell tour is for you! This tour has lots of other offerings of interest, including several mansions and museums, all associated with the Du Pont family.
The Du Pont family is a prominent American industrial and philanthropic dynasty, with their fortune rooted in gunpowder manufacturing and later expanding into chemicals and textiles (per Wikipedia). A brief history, pulled from the internet, of each location is included for more clarification.
I, as well as the passengers, enjoyed the luxury of staying four nights in one location in Wilmington, Delaware, at the Hyatt Place Riverfront!
Our first tour was the Hagley Museum. The Hagley Museum covers more than 235 acres along the banks of Brandywine Creek. The museum and grounds include the first du Pont family home and garden in the United States, the powder yards, and a 19th-century machine shop. In 1802, French immigrant Éleuthère Irénée du Pont founded black powder mills. He chose the location for the river's tumble over the Fall Line which provided power, timber and willow trees (used to produce quality charcoal required for superior black powder), the proximity to the Delaware River (on which other ingredients of the powder – sulfur and saltpeter – could be shipped); and the quarries would provide construction materials for the mills. The E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's black powder factory became the largest in the world. The home was inhabited by five generations of the du Pont family, with many pieces of furniture, American folk art, and family pieces brought from France still on view.
Our second tour was Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. Longwood Gardens is listed as one of the most beautiful gardens in the world! It is a public garden that consists of more than 1,100 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in the Brandywine Creek Valley. It is one of the premier horticultural display gardens and one of the largest botanical gardens in the United States. For thousands of years, the native Lenni Lenape tribe fished its streams, hunted its forests, and planted its fields. Evidence of the tribe's existence is found in quartz spear points that have been discovered on and around the property and can be found on display in the Peirce-du Pont House on the Longwood Gardens property.
Tonight’s dinner was at Buckley’s Tavern in Wilmington, DE. Built as a private residence in 1817, this building has been the location of a blacksmith shop, a stagecoach stop, and even the site of a tollgate to collect fees from those traveling to and from Wilmington. The building has been a restaurant since 1951.
Our third tour was the Nemours Estate. Nemours was created by Alfred I. du Pont in 1909–10 as a gift for his second wife, Alicia. It was named for the north-central French town of Nemours, which was affiliated with his great-great-grandfather, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours. Its design is in the Louis XVI style of French architecture. The house contains rare 18th-century French furniture. The mansion has a chair from the 1937 coronation of King George VI, an event which was attended by Alfred I. du Pont's third wife Jessie. Alfred I. du Pont's own portrait is also in the mansion. The estate has the most developed and largest French formal garden-style landscape park and collection of individual gardens in North America. The design is patterned after the gardens of Versailles. The grounds are beautifully landscaped with plantings, fountains, pools, a carillon tower, statuary, and a pavilion surrounded by woodlands. I would like to point out that this estate reminded me of the Biltmore in Asheville, NC, not quite in size, but I was in awe of the mansion and surrounding gardens!
Our fourth tour was the Winterthur Museum. Our visit included a tram ride through the gardens and a self-guided tour of the mansion. Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is an American estate and museum in Winterthur, Delaware. Winterthur houses one of the richest collections of Americana in the United States. The museum and estate were the home of Henry Francis du Pont (1880–1969), great-grandson of E.I. du Pont. Between 1839 and 1842, a 12-room Greek revival manor house was built on the property and the estate was named Winterthur after the town of Winterthur, Switzerland. The collection spans more than two centuries of American decorative arts, notably from 1640 to 1860, and contains some of the most important pieces of American furniture and fine art. The estate had twelve temperature controlled greenhouses.
Our dinner tonight was at Brandywine Prime, Chadds Ford, PA. Located in the beautifully restored 1703 stone cottage, this is an elegant and upscale restaurant very tastefully decorated with original details that give it a special charm.
Our fifth tour was the Mt. Cuba Center. Mt. Cuba Center is the former home and family estate of Lammot du Pont Copeland and his wife, Pamela Cunningham Copeland. In 1935, the Copelands built a stately Colonial Revival manor house near the village of Mt. Cuba, outside of Wilmington, Delaware. The Copelands were prominent members of the community. Mr. Copeland served as President and Chairman of the DuPont Company, while Mrs. Copeland was a leader in many community and cultural organizations. In the 1960s, the Copelands were becoming acutely aware of a changing land ethic and they became more interested in ecology and the need for conservation. Mrs. Copeland, in particular, was increasingly concerned about wildflowers and the impact on them by development and unscrupulous practices. In response, landscape architect Seth Kelsey was hired to develop the woodland wildflower gardens with native plants, design their ponds, and planned many woodland garden paths. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
Our sixth tour was the Delaware Art Museum, best known for its large collection of British Pre-Raphaelite art. The museum was founded in 1912 after Howard Pyle's death as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts (WSFA), with over 100 paintings, drawings, and prints purchased from Pyle's widow Anne. Pyle was the best-known American illustrator of his day; he died unexpectedly in 1911 while on a trip to Italy. Pyle left behind many students and patrons in his home town of Wilmington who wished to honor his memory through the museum, including Louisa du Pont Copeland. I found the art museum quite interesting, especially with the very knowledgeable young man who was our guide.
Tonight’s dinner was enjoyed at the Big Fish Grill, located very close to our hotel.
To sum up this five-day tour – amazing, educational, well-paced, delicious food, elegant hotel, great Croswell driver and, as always, a coach full of great travelers! Since several avid gardeners were among us, a variety of new plants traveled home with us!
From the Escort Seat of,
Maxine Harris