by Winterthur, pronounced “winter-tour” and named after an ancestral home in Winterthur, Switzerland, is one of the famous du Pont-related estates in Wilmington, Del., (we also toured Hagley and Nemours, and they are very different experiences). It was the home of collector and horticulturist Henry Francis du Pont (1880-1969), and houses one of the richest collections of Americana in the United States, containing more than 90,000 objects, primarily from the period covering 1640 to 1860.
The estate started as a modest 12-room Greek revival manor when it was first built in 1842. Over time, it expanded to a whopping 175 rooms (and that’s just the main house, pictured above) on 979 acres. Rooms were themed by time period and included entire sections rescued from other homes around the country that were to be torn down. Just a few of the rooms are visible on the regular self-guided tour, but what we saw was so wow-inducing that we both agreed we’d like to come back for an extended tour one day to see more of the rooms. I had previously toured the house many, many years ago, but the repeat visit was still a wonder.
70 of acres of the estate are dedicated to naturalistic gardens, which were designed by one of America’s first female landscape architects, Marian Cruger Coffin (we also visited a rescued Coffin garden elsewhere in Wilmington). You can ride a shuttle that tours the gardens, but I opted to travel on foot so I could take pictures. At the time of our visit, peonies were in full swing, and the azaleas were ablaze, as well; it’s clear that one could visit at various times throughout the year and have completely different garden experiences each time.
There are several galleries to visit, including a display of whimsical and daring soup tureens (which you can see video of here, if you are so inclined). There are other outbuildings and a reflecting pool, along with the Winterthur Library, which contains more than 87,000 rare books and 800,000 manuscripts and images from the 17th to 20th centuries; it is visited by appointment only, so not something we were able to see.
Winterthur has an active events calendar, so if you decide to visit, be sure to check out what’s going on.
