Gilt and Greenery. Just 58 miles north of Chestertown, in Wilmington, sits perhaps the grandest residence ever built in Delaware.
Constructed in 1910 by Alfred I. duPont, Nemours was reopened in May 2008 after a three-year, $39 million renovation. Although it was open to the public before, it’s been a bit off people’s radar, at least when compared to the region’s other duPont estates—Pierre duPont’s Longwood Gardens, and Henry F. duPont’s Winterthur. Nemours is named after the French town that Alfred I. duPont’s great, great-grandfather, Pierre S. duPont, represented as a member of the Estates General in 1789.
Small group guided tours (6-9 people) are about 2.5 hours long and cover three floors of the mansion plus a bus tour through the grounds. Our tour guide was impressive; she fielded numerous questions and was only once stumped for an answer. So, besides seeing a lot, you’ll learn a lot.
The tour begins at the visitor center with a 15-minute film that gives a good foundation for everything you are about to see. Alfred I. DuPont built Nemours for his second wife, Alicia, a divorcee and mother of a young daughter. Set on 300 acres, the estate became the couples’ refuge from members of the duPont family who disapproved of Alfred’s divorce and second marriage. Ironically, his third wife, Jesse, with whom he had no children, reunited the family. You’ll learn about the DuPont Company, Alfred’s rise within it, and the nasty corporate riff that eventually forced him out.
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From the visitor center a small tour bus takes you up to the mansion. The house and gardens were designed by Carrere and Hastings, architects of the New York Public Library, and are based on the Petit Trianon, the estate of Marie Antoinette at the Palace of Versailles. The gates adjacent to the mansion were originally used at Wimbledon Manor outside London, which once belonged to Henry VIII.
There isn’t a hint of Americana anywhere. This is Europe. In fact, as you follow your guide throughout the mansion, and she calls your attention to a musical grandfather’s clock that once belonged to Marie Antoinette, or to one of three lyre guitars known to exist, it gets harder to believe that you are not visiting an estate just outside Paris.
You might expect a five-floor, 70-room mansion furnished with rare French 18th century furnishings, spectacular chandeliers and an extensive art collection to feel more like a museum than a home. Yet for all its 47,000 square feet of gilt and grandeur, the house really does feel like a home. It’s easy to imagine the duPont grandchildren running down the portrait-lined hallways, or the dogs (most of them rescued mutts) jumping up on the elegant sofas (they were allowed to.)
On the second floor, the bedrooms and sitting rooms provide a peek into the domestic quarters of the duPonts’ private world. Ubiquitous call buttons for servants aside, the rooms are cozy and almost low-key. Almost. A quick glance out any window to the stunning formal gardens will quickly remind you that American royalty once slept in these beds.
The basement is as fascinating as any part of the house. Dubbed the “man cave” by our tour guide, a portion of it is a mahogany-walled world of its own. There’s a two-lane bowling alley, a movie screen, billiards room, shuffleboard and shooting gallery. (Had my imagination gone into overdrive, or did those rooms still retain the faint aroma of pipe smoke?)
This is Alfred I. duPont’s basement, after all, so naturally there’s a power plant for generating electricity. Alfred’s friend, Thomas Edison had wired a previous duPont home, Swamp Hall, with electricity in 1887, five years before the White House had it. (Alfred was always on the cutting edge of the latest technology.) There’s also a water plant, where spring water from the estate was pumped in, purified and bottled. And the ice-making room is a marvel of innovation, where long blocks of ice were frozen and then sent by conveyor chute directly to the (what else?) ice-cream making room.
The tour continues outside. A glittering focal point of the gardens is the 12-foot tall statue “Achievement” by Henri Crenier. As part of the 2008 renovation, the statue was stripped of paint and then recovered in 23-karat gold leaf, restoring it to its original condition. Near the southern gardens look for a set of baroque-style, ornamental ironwork gates. They once belonged to a palace in Russia owned by Catherine the Great.
A final grace note at the very end of the garden is the Temple of Love, a classic tempietto containing a bronze statue of Diana the Huntress. Looking across the elegant stretch of formal gardens, ponds and fountains, she visually connects the gardens with the mansion.
Alfred I. duPont died in 1935. In his will he created the Nemours Foundation, a charitable trust, which owns the mansion and gardens. Alfred instructed his trustees to leave the mansion and gardens “for the pleasure and benefit of the public.” The trust also operates the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children.
But it’s said the legacy Alfred I. duPont was most proud of was his “pension project.” In 1929, he personally funded an “old-age pension” for every elderly, indigent Delaware citizen. He invested a half million dollars in the project until the state of Delaware adopted a government-funded pension plan in 1931.
Nemours Mansion and Gardens in Wilmington, DE, is open May 1st through December 31st. Tour times are Tuesday–Saturday, 9:00 am, 12:00 pm, & 3:00 pm, and on Sunday, 12:00 pm & 3:00 pm. Reservations are advised during the summer. For information call 1-800-651-6912, or visit https://www.nemoursmansion.org
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