Page 8 - The Hunt - Spring/Summer 2023

EDITOR’S NOTE
Precious Parcel
Many forget that Longwood Gardens was a creation motivated by a desire to preserve a threatened property—a farm long held
by the Pierce family, which was originally purchased in 1700 from William Penn’s commissioners. The Pierces had created an arboretum that boasted one of the finest collections of trees in the nation. By all accounts, however, the family had lost interest in farming in 1906, deciding to sell the land for its lumber.
Enter Pierre du Pont, who stepped in
and purchased the farm from the family, setting out to create what would become Longwood Gardens. It’s also worth noting that Hagley Museum & Library, Bellevue State Park, Nemours Children’s Hospital
and the Nemours Estate, Mt. Cuba Center, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, and the Brantwyn Estate are all former du Pont family properties. Now we can add another to that impressive list.
This past February, Longwood Gardens and the Conservation Fund announced a binding agreement to acquire and operate Granogue, the 505-acre estate completed
in 1923 by Pierre du Pont’s younger
brother, Irénée, and his wife, Irene, and later passed down to their youngest child, Irénée du Pont Jr., and his wife, Barbara. The 505-acre property sits in a critical location for the ongoing conservation of the regional landscape in northern Delaware. With large sections of farmland, forest, pasture and meadow, it’s one of the last remaining pieces of unprotected open space in the Brandywine River corridor. “Preserving this beautiful land is important to our family,” says Grace Engbring, daughter of Irénée du Pont Jr. and family representative for GRLLC, the legal entity that owns the property. “Longwood Gardens has shown great care in stewarding our great-uncle Pierre’s former estate, and
I know Longwood will ensure Granogue thrives into the future.”
Just as Pierre du Pont’s investment
117 years ago created the wonder that is Longwood, one can only imagine what the union of these two properties will offer the Brandywine Valley in the coming years.
Jim Graham Contributing Editor
6 THE HUNT MAGAZINE spring 2023
JIM GRAHAM
THERE’S HALF A PACK IN EVERY ONE.
UNWRAP THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR FAVORITE CIGAR.
One large cigar can contain as much tar and cancer-causing chemicals as 10 or more cigarettes. And just like cigarettes, its secondhand smoke is toxic too. Rethink what you’re unwrapping. Just because it’s “premium” doesn’t mean it isn’t deadly.
UnwrapYourSmoke.org