Winterthur



Winterthur Parlor with Chinese wallpaper

We headed up to Delaware to visit Winterthur, one of the DuPont mansions. Henry Francis DuPont was the primary benefactor of this estate. In the early 1900’s he inherited a 30 room mansion along with 2500 acres of land. His major contribution to the world was the Holstein-Friesian dairy cow. He won several awards for the most productive dairy farm. Today, over 90% of dairy cows are Holstein cows. While most of the rich were collecting European art and décor, Henry decided to collect American decorative arts. He expanded his mansion from 30 rooms to 175 rooms, primarily with the intention of eventually turning it into a museum. He presented a real challenge to his architects. He would buy a historic home to take it apart and recreate some of the rooms in his home. For example, one room was paneled with the room panels from a 17^th century home. Another has the original staircase from a Southern Mansion that was going to be demolished, but he stretched it to cover two floors instead of one. The Parlor of the house was designed to fit the Chinese wallpaper, he had found on a visit to France (still in its original rolls).When the room was found to be too short, he curved the walls into the ceiling so that he didn’t have to cut the wallpaper. Each room is filled with furnishings from a particular period as well as American art. Some of the more interesting parts of the collection, included a China set used originally by Washington, and eventually bought by General Lee, a Washington portrait by Stewart, and an incomplete painting of the signing of the Treaty of Paris (ending the Revolutionary War, the British refused to sit for the painting). We only visited about 20 of the 175 rooms, on three of the nine floors.

Spiral Staircase

Around the mansion were gardens filled with trees, ground cover, and perennials. Most of these gardens were planted under the supervision of Henry. The flowers bloom at different times of the year, so the gardens change naturally throughout the year. A recent addition was the Enchanted Woods, designed as a playground for children. There we found a giant bird’s nest, a witch’s house, as well as a stone cottage. While visiting we heard a siren, warning of lightning storm approaching. A tram comes by and quickly takes us to our car before the downpour.

House in Enchanted Woods