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Hagley Museum

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1802 and later. Along Brandywine Creek, north of DE 141, east of Greenville
  • Hagley Museum (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)

Along a scenic stretch of Brandywine Creek, French emigrant Eleuthère Irénée du Pont founded his namesake gunpowder company in 1802. From this seed would grow the gigantic DuPont chemical corporation of our times. E. I. named the first powder yard after himself, Eleutherian Mills, a name preserved today in his house (CH15.4) that stands overlooking the industrial ruins (also known as Upper Yard). Better preserved is the later Hagley Yard downstream (CH15.1), near which stands a small fraction of the worker housing built by the du Ponts. The various yards remained in continuous operation from 1802 until 1921. Some 42 percent of the gunpowder used by the North in the Civil War was produced here. Today, the architectural remains (thirty buildings of the original 100) are open to the public as a 230-acre outdoor museum under the administration of the Eleutherian Mills–Hagley Foundation, established at the time of the company's 150th anniversary in 1952. Historical materials are housed in the Library (1959–1961, Voorhees, Walker, Smith, Smith and Haines). Hagley is a National Historic Landmark.

Writing Credits

Author: 
W. Barksdale Maynard
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Data

What's Nearby

Hagley Yard
Eleutherian Mills
Henry Clay Mill (Metal Keg Shop)
Breck's Mill
First Office

Related Essays

THE DU PONT FAMILY AND ARCHITECTURE

Citation

W. Barksdale Maynard, "Hagley Museum", [Wilmington, Delaware], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/DE-01-CH15.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Delaware

Buildings of Delaware, W. Barksdale Maynard. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008, 65-66.

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