The du Pont Landscape of Delaware

Part I: The du Pont Powder Mills

Across the Delaware River from my home is northern Delaware, a landscape dominated since 1802 by a significant industry and an exceptional family. Eleuthère Irénée du Pont of Nemours, France started a gunpowder and blasting powder works on the Brandywine Creek and his descendents built it up into the international chemical company that it is today. I visited the site, now Hagley Museum, this past summer in order to better understand the context of the industry and the du Pont family.

The powder mills were built of Delaware "blue rock" and faced the Brandywine Creek. The creekside wall was wood, made to be sacrificial in the event of explosion, of which there were more than 200 between 1802 and 1921. Note the round-arch opening for the mill race. These mills were water-powered. A long raceway ran parallel to the creek with a gate at each mill. There are roughly twenty surviving mill buildings lining the creek, where the powder was prepared, produced and packed.

A narrow-gauge railway carried gunpowder from the mills out of the site. The stone-lined channel in the foreground is a raceway carrying water to power the mill. Notice the free-standing stone wall in front of this mill. What do you suppose that was for? (There is a hint in the preceding paragraph.)







The du Ponts also built country houses throughout the Brandywine Valley, many of which survive. Some are now museums, like Winterthur, Hagley, and Nemours, some are still houses, and others became country clubs.


This is the first du Pont family home, called Eleuthèrian Mills. Built on a crest above the powder works in 1803 by E. I. du Pont, it was enlarged in 1853 to its present form by his son Henry du Pont. After an explosion in the powder yard below in 1890, the family vacated and it became an employee clubhouse, an army guard station and a farm manager's house. In 1921 when the old powder works were closed, it again became a du Pont family home and was restored and occupied by Louise du Pont Crowninshield, who was a founding trustee of the U. S. National Trust for Historic Preservation. After her death in 1958 it became part of the Hagley Museum. Though it is a public museum, du Pont family descendents still regard it as their ancestral home and can often be found puttering around the place as though visiting family. After two centuries it is still very much a du Pont family landscape.

The rear veranda looks out over gardens, the Brandywine Creek, and the powder works.

Behind the house are the remains of designed gardens. E. I. du Pont was a horticulture enthusiast and spawned generations of du Pont gardeners in the Brandywine Valley. Today the area is known for its country houses and gardens, such as those at Longwood (Pierre S. du Pont) and Winterthur (Henry Francis du Pont), and has been called "Chateau Country."

More to come...