Brandywine Valley - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 1000

furbishedandtheelectricalsystemsreplaced.Outside,theirextensivecollection
ofindividualgardens—thelargestinNorthAmerica—wasalsorestored,aswas
the 800,000-gallon reflecting pool.
2. Hagley Museum
TurningsouthonRte.141,thedrivereachestheHagleyMuseum,siteoftheDuPontCom-
pany's early gunpowder mills. In use from 1802 until 1921, when the mills closed, these
works made the Du Pont family the largest manufacturer of gunpowder and construction
explosivesinAmerica.Muchoftheoriginalmachineryhasbeencarefullyrestoredandcan
be toured in the Hagley Yards, part of the indoor-outdoor museum that traces the long his-
tory of powder making.
Also found on these 240 wooded acres are several interesting buildings—including a
furnishedcottageandschool—thatvividlyevokethelifestyleofDuPontworkersandtheir
families. Farther upstream, overlooking the original powder mills, sits Eleutherian Mills,
an1803Georgian-styleresidencewhosefurnishingsreflectthetastesoffivegenerationsof
Du Ponts.
3. Winterthur
The rolling countryside near Centerville, Delaware, is a cornucopia of palatial estates. But
no piece of real estate here can quite compare with Winterthur (pronounced WIN-ter-toor ),
the ancestral home of Henry Francis Du Pont. This 983-acre compound—which explodes
with lyrically beautiful combinations of flowers from February until November—was lov-
inglylandscapedbyitsowner,whosepassionforhispropertyledhimtoeventuallybecome
an expert in horticulture.
The magnificence of the grounds at Winterthur is perhaps exceeded only by that of its
centerpiece, a nine-story museum housing some 90,000 examples of American decorative
arts dating from 1640 to 1860. Installed in nearly 175 meticulously restored, period-accur-
ate rooms, these rare objects—including silver tankards crafted by Paul Revere and a din-
ner service made for George Washington—form one of the largest treasuries of its kind in
America.
4. Longwood Gardens
In 1906 Pierre S. Du Pont, following in the tradition of his nature-loving ancestors, bought
landintheBrandywineValleytorescueanarboretumindangerofbeingdestroyedfortim-