Hagley, Wilmington, Delaware

     I have been to Longwood Gardens and Winterthur, but never to Hagley, the place "where it all began."  Hagley is the site of the first du Pont home in the United States.  Mike and I visited the house, the garden, the machine shop, and the powder yard.

This old mill building is the visitor center.  This is where you buy tickets and pick up the shuttle that will drop you at various places on the property.  The price of admission is free for children under age 5, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, $14.00 for adults, and $10.00 for seniors and students.  Hagley is open most days from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  Check the website to verify hours before you visit.
https://www.hagley.org/ 

Éleuthère Irénée du Pont founded what is now called the DuPont Company in 1802.  He came to the United States to escape the French Revolution.  He tried several businesses using money from French investors.  Most of his business ventures failed.  When he saw the poor quality of American gun powder, he got the idea that he could make a better product.  After returning briefly to France for training, he started his powder works on the Brandywine River near Wilmington.   He called this business Eluetherian Mills.  The tract of land was named Hagley by the previous owner, and du Pont did not change the name of the property. 

These cormorants, perched on a branch in the Brandywine, are drying their wings in the sun.

The du Pont family missed France.  Éleuthère planted a French style garden to both feed the family and to make them feel more at home in their new country.  

We saw this chubby ground hog feasting on an apple.

This is the du Pont home.  There were a couple of additions over the years.

The dining room wallpaper depicts scenes of American life.  The wallpaper came from France, probably from the Zuber factory in Rixheim, France.

This is where one of the children slept.  The nanny slept on the trundle bed.

This stair case came from another, grander house.  Our guide explained that the du Ponts were not rich when they came to America.  Being able to install this staircase showed they were moving up in the world.  

E. I. du Pont's family came to the United States on a ship named Eagle.  Perhaps that is why there are so many eagles incorporated into the home's decor.  You'll find eagles perched on the top of mirror frames, painted on china, or woven into rug designs. 

This is du Pont's office.  It is made from a stone called gneiss (pronounced like nice).  The stones were quarried on the property.

This is E. I.'s desk.

The business used the latest technology - oil lamps, the typewriter, and the telegraph.

E. I. du Pont and other local mill owners built this school in 1817 when there were no public or private schools in the area.  Children got their formal education on Sundays.  E. I.'s daughter Victorine taught at this school for forty years.  In 1856 Christ Episcopal Church turned this building into a private church school.  In 1900, the building was used for an office, and in 1921, it became a private residence.   

The Interior of the Restored School.

There were several homes along this row that employees' families occupied.  The biggest, nicest house was for the superintendent.

This is one of several quarries on the property. 

This is the machine shop.  When something broke, the repairmen didn't order a part and wait around for it to be delivered.  He went to the machine shop and had a machinist create a replacement part.

The shop was lighted by kerosene lanterns.  The air in the shop, now as it was then, is an authentic but unhealthy gray blue color. 

Every machine was powered by a belt that was tied into this system that runs down the center of the ceiling.

The gun powder recipe was 76% saltpeter (potassium nitrate), 12% sulfur, and 12% charcoal.  These items were mixed at the powder yard in these stone structures.  The buildings are three sided.  The open side faces the Brandywine River.  The walls are three feet thick.  They are designed so that the force of an explosion will blow out toward the river and maybe blow off the metal roof.  There were many explosions over the years.  One website I read said there were 288 explosions over the 119 year operation of the factory. 

The docent exploded some gun powder for our enjoyment.

KA - BOOM!
The last and worst explosion at Hagley occurred in 1920.  The du Pont family closed all the mills at the site in 1921.  The Hagley site became a museum in 1952, the year the DuPont Company celebrated its 150th anniversary.