Winterthur Museum and Gardens

About this property

Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is an American estate and museum in Winterthur, Delaware. Winterthur houses one of the richest collections of Americana in the United States. The museum and estate were the home of Henry Francis du Pont (1880–1969), Winterthur's founder and a prominent antiques collector and horticulturist. Part of the natural area is old-growth forest and recognized by the Old-Growth Forest Network. The property where Winterthur sits was purchased by Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (E. I. du Pont) between 1810 and 1818 and was used for farming and sheep-raising. In 1837, E. I. du Pont's heirs sold 445 acres (180 ha) of the land to E. I. du Pont's business partner from France, Jacques Antoine Bidermann (1790–1865) and his wife Evelina Gabrielle du Pont (1796–1863) for the purpose of establishing their estate. Evelina was the second daughter of E. I. Du Pont's seven children. Between 1839 and 1842, the couple built a 12-room Greek revival manor house on the property and named their estate Winterthur after Bidermann's ancestral home in Winterthur, Switzerland. The Bidermanns added expansive gardens, livestock, and pastures. After Bidermann's death, the property passed to his son, James Irénée, who then sold it to his uncle, Henry du Pont. Henry purchased the property for his son, Henry Algernon du Pont. Henry Algernon and his wife, (Mary) Pauline, settled at Winterthur in 1876 and enlarged the estate's existing home. Upon his father's 1889 death, Henry Algernon officially inherited the property and converted its main home to a French-style manor house. Between 1885 and 1925, Henry Algernon and Pauline added 900 acres (360 ha) to the property, which included pastures for Holstein cattle. After Pauline's 1902 death and the election of Henry Algernon to Congress, their son, Henry Francis (H. F.) du Pont, took over management of the estate. H. F. married Ruth Wales in 1916. In 1923, the couple traveled to Vermont to study the cattle-breeding operation of William Seward Webb. During the trip, they visited the home of Webb's daughter-in-law, Electra Havemeyer Webb, a collector of American decorative arts. H. F. later stated that this was when he became interested in collecting American antiques. During the same trip, the du Ponts also visited interior decorator Henry Davis Sleeper. Sleeper's home was decorated with American antiques and interiors taken from other homes. This, too, inspired H .F. to start his own collection of Americana. Henry Algernon died at the end of 1926, and Henry Francis du Pont officially inherited Winterthur in 1927. At the time, the estate consisted of 90 buildings and more than 2,600 acres (1,100 ha). H. F. and Ruth renovated Winterthur's manor, tripling its size. They outfitted the home with architectural elements salvaged from 17th, 18th, and 19th century American homes in the region, including wood interior paneling from the Grahame House, Belle Isle, and Mordington. Rooms in the home were themed by time period.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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