
Before Winterthur was famous for decorative arts, it was known for dairy cattle. Colonel Henry Algernon du Pont kept a herd, which his son Henry Francis greatly enlarged in 1914. Winterthur Farms covered more than 2,000 acres. By 1926, there were ninety houses for workers. Among the Holstein cattle was the second-largest dairy cow in the world (2,225 pounds), which once produced thirty-eight pounds of butter in a single week. Atop Farm Hill, south of the mansion, stood the Main Cow Barn (burned 1930), of hollow tile construction, 329 feet long with big silos at each end. A huge fan could change the air inside every eight minutes. The milk produced (821 tons a year) was screened for purity and sold to the Hotel du Pont and other purchasers in the city of Wilmington. Other buildings (some of which were later demolished or became dilapidated) included the Main Calf Barn, Creamery, and Club House, made possible by huge wartime DuPont Company profits. The farm was served by the fish-scale-shingled Winterthur Railroad Station and Post Office (1890s).