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Brandywine Valley Museums and gardens are chief among the Brandywine Valley's myriad attractions.
The foremost: Longwood Gardens, Route 1, Kennett Square, Pa. One of the world's great horticultural displays is showy year-round, thanks to the gardens and conservatories that once were the 350-acre private preserve of Pierre S. du Pont. Spring begins in January and the spectacle changes monthly through Christmas in the twenty Crystal Palace-type conservatories, which we find even more colorful and exotic than the outdoor gardens. Illuminated fountain displays are choreographed to music on summer evenings. (610) 388-1000 or (800) 737-5500.
www.longwoodgardens.org. Open daily, conservatories 10 to 5, outdoor
gardens 9 to 6, to 5 November-March. Extended hours in December and
summer fountain nights. Adults, $12 to $15, $8 on Tuesday. Brandywine River Museum, Route 1, Chadds Ford, Pa.. The Civil War-era grist mill converted into a modern museum is known for its incomparable collection of art by the Wyeth family as well as fine collections of American illustration, still life and landscape painting associated with the Brandywine heritage. Spectacular glass additions overlook the river as well as the adjoining wildflower gardens and nature trail developed by the Brandywine Conservancy, which marked its 35th anniversary in 2002 and preceded the museum by a few years. Andrew Wyeth's work, reflecting the valley and its people as well as the Maine coast, is shown in the special Andrew Wyeth Gallery, which constantly changes with additions loaned by the family. At a recent visit, a special exhibit told the story of the Wyeths’ early relationship to Chadds Ford. A shuttle bus transports visitors to the N.C. Wyeth house a quarter-mile to the north, where an hour-long guided tour shows the house and studio restored to their appearance in 1945, the year the great illustrator died. (610) 388-2700. www.brandywinemuseum.org. Open
daily, 9:30 to 4:30. Adults, $6; house and studio tour, $3. Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Route 52, Winterthur, Del. The world's premier collection of American decorative arts and antiques, assembled by Henry Francis du Pont, is displayed in 175 period room settings in the main house and in a new building with three exhibition galleries. Only some are on view at any one time, such is the scope of the collection and the size of the nine-story mansion. The interior can be seen on an assortment of guided tours, sometimes fully booked well ahead. The layman may be well enough served by Winterthur's new building dedicated to the art of looking at (and learning from) things. The Galleries at Winterthur shows 1,000 of the museum's pieces arranged in galleries on two floors. Trams take visitors on tours of the lavish gardens developed by “head gardener” du Pont on his 980-acre estate. (302) 888-4600 or (800) 448-3883.
www.winterthur.org. Open daily, 10 to 5. Adults, $10. Hagley Museum, Route 141, Wilmington, Del. The original du Pont mills and powder works, estate and gardens offer 230 acres of Brandywine history. More than the other museums, this lives up to its slogan, “something for everyone.” A shuttle bus takes visitors around the tranquil grounds along the Brandywine. The Henry Clay Mill exhibits trace America's industrial expansion. Water flowing through the mill races power the massive stone mills in the powder yard. Pause for lunch in the simple Belin House Coffee Shop atop Blacksmith Hill and visit the workers' housing area. Then see how the boss lived in Eleutherian Mills, the first du Pont family home built by E.I. du Pont in 1803. The Georgian-style residence is furnished to reflect the tastes of five generations of du Ponts who lived there. Espaliered fruit trees set off the beautiful yet functional French garden outside. The Hagley, we think, is most evocative of the Brandywine heritage. (302) 658-2400. www.hagley.org. Open daily, 9:30 to 4:30, March 15 through December; same hours weekends and one tour at 1:30 weekdays, January to March 14. Adults, $11.
Brandywine Battlefield Park, Route 1, Chadds Ford, Pa.. In the biggest battle of the Revolution, 18,000 British and 11,000 Americans met at Chadds Ford. This one went to the Brits. They outflanked George Washington, who was defending Chadds Ford, and encircled his troops from the north. Now a 50-acre state park, it has a visitor center that presents a thirteen-minute slide show on the battle. Washington's headquarters in the Benjamin Ring House and Lafayette's quarters in the Gideon Gilpin House are open periodically for tours. The actual battlefield is on unmarked lands, “two miles north as the crow flies and five roundabout miles by car,” according to a park guide. (610) 459-3342. Open Tuesday-Saturday 9 to 5,
Sunday noon to 5. Grounds open to 9 in summer. Building tours, $3.50;
battlefield, free.
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