Page 26 - Allison's Magazine ~ Issue #99

THE WELL-KNOWN ARCHITECT FRANK
Lloyd Wright, who knew a thing or two
about nature, once said, "Study nature,
love nature, stay close to nature. It will
never fail you."

Wright had a kindred spirit in a
LONGWOOD’S seemingly unlikely ally: Pierre S.
du Pont, one of the top industrialists in
American history. Du Pont graduated
LEGACY with a chemistry degree from MIT,
became a chemist, and then became a
wildly successful businessman, running
written by matthew brady
photography by longwood gardens both the DuPont Company and
General Motors.

Du Pont was also passionate about
horticulture. So when he got wind that
Peirce’s Park, a well-known arboretum
in his hometown of Kennett Square,
Pennsylvania, was being sold for lumber,
he stepped in to purchase the 202 acres
to save the trees—and began creating a
new legacy called Longwood Gardens.

“Mr. du Pont was a man ahead
of his time,” says Patricia Evans,
communications director for Longwood
Gardens. “He went to all the world’s
fairs to see all the newest technology
and always brought those ideas back
to Longwood. Because he viewed the
gardens not only as a place of beauty but
also as a place to entertain his friends
and wow his guests, he was innovative
everywhere in the gardens.”

Du Pont dedicated decades to creating
and improving Longwood, designing
many of the garden displays himself.
In 1907, his first display, the Flower
Garden Walk, was completed, followed
in 1914 by the gardens’ Open Air
Theatre. In 1921, du Pont finished
perhaps his greatest masterpiece,
Longwood’s Conservatory—a four-acre
perpetual indoor flower garden, the

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