Vanished Estates of the du Pont Family
Please note: This exhibit is CLOSED. For reference only.

The Historical Society of Delaware celebrated the bicentennial of the arrival of the du Pont family in America with the special exhibition Vanished Estates of the du Pont Family.  

As the du Pont family grew and prospered, new generations left the original family homes along both sides of the Brandywine in the late 1800s and early 1900s-- but they did not move very far. They built their new, often larger homes for their new, often larger families along the Kennett Pike from Wilmington’s city limits to Centreville. They built them according to then popular architectural tastes and aesthetic sensibilities as well as the needs of those growing families. Turreted Victorians mixed with restrained Colonial Revival styles and even a Spanish hacienda.

St. Amour

By the early years of the twentieth century, as many as two dozen family houses of all sizes and styles lined the Kennett Pike. Now, nearly 100 years later, most of those houses are gone. Many properties were donated to schools or hospitals. Others, simply too big or out of fashion for modern life, were replaced by smaller, more convenient houses.

All of those houses—with names like Saint Amour, Pelleport, and Renaud—and their way of life are now gone, but their size and grandeur are captured in this exhibit through photographs, interior and exterior architectural elements such as light fixtures, paneling, and stone columns, as well as objects used and clothing worn in those now-lost houses. Children’s toys, silver, furniture, and garden ornaments help recreate a world that has disappeared.

Rancourt

The Delaware History Museum is part of the Delaware History Center complex that dominates the 500 block of Market Street in downtown Wilmington. The museum’s hours are noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 am to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Admission to the museum is $4 adults, $3 seniors/students, $2 ages 2-18, free younger than 2.

NOTE: Vanished Estates of the du Pont Family
ran from April 28 through August 5, 2001 it is no longer on display.