Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library

Private Non Profit House Museum, Garden And Research Library On The Former Country Estate Of Henry Francis Du Pont, Holding The Leading Collection Of American Decorative Arts · Winterthur, Delaware

Winterthur (say WIN-ter-tour) is the country estate of Henry Francis du Pont, a great-grandson of the founder of the DuPont company, about six miles north-west of Wilmington on Kennett Pike. He spent decades filling the family house with American furniture, silver, ceramics, textiles and paintings made or used between roughly 1640 and 1860, and in 1951 opened it as a museum. The result is a 175-room house in which whole rooms taken from older American homes were rebuilt inside, and a collection of about 90,000 objects that museum people treat as the leading one of its kind. You see only part of the house on any single tour, and guides lead every visit to the period rooms. Around it lies a 1,000-acre estate of meadows and woods with a 60-acre naturalistic garden that du Pont designed to flower in waves from late winter to autumn, a narrated tram loop, the Enchanted Woods children's garden, exhibition galleries and a research library. It is a quiet, slow place for people who like old things and gardens; children bored by furniture will be happier in the garden than in the house.

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, Delaware, 19735, United States

Winterthur keeps a museum-style week: as a rule it opens Tuesday to Sunday from mid-morning to late afternoon and is closed on Mondays, with exceptions for a few Monday holidays. It closes on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day and has in past years closed for some weeks in the depth of winter, usually in January, so confirm before planning a winter trip. Entry to the period rooms is by guided tour only, and tours leave at timed intervals; your ticket carries a tour time, and if you miss it you may wait for a later slot or lose it on a busy day. The last house tours of the day start well before closing, and the galleries and museum store close at the stated closing time, so arrive by early afternoon if you want the house, the galleries and the garden. The garden tram runs on a loop during open hours in the growing season and may stop in bad weather or in winter. The Yuletide holiday tours in November and December run on their own timed schedule and sell out; special events such as the Point-to-Point steeplechase in May can change parking and access for the whole day. Confirm current hours before you go.

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