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-Pierre Samuel DuPont
Many people would be surprised to learn the company of DuPont was
founded nearby, in the state of Delaware. DuPont is a company that
has been credited with many inventions that help society today. Others
would be surprised if they learned that a DuPont founded a nearby
attraction. Pierre Samuel DuPont founded the world-renowned Longwood
Gardens, in Kennett Square.
Pierre Samuel DuPont was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1870. He
was the great-grandson of the well-known E.I. DuPont, who founded
the company of DuPont. Pierre graduated from Massachusetts Institute
of Technology in 1890, and worked as a chemist in his family's company,
E.I. DuPont de Nemours Powder Company. While there, he helped develop
smokeless gunpowder.
In 1902, it was thought that the DuPont company would be sold, with
its assets going to the highest bidder. Pierre and his two cousins,
Thomas Coleman DuPont, and Alfred I. DuPont bought DuPont and took
control, now operating the firm, now known as E.I. DuPont de Nemours
and Company. He was the treasurer and then president of the company
from 1915 to 1919. His cousin Alfred DuPont later brought suit against
Pierre for breach of trust. The case was in court for five years,
but was finally ruled in Pierre's favor. The relationship between
Alfred and Pierre became very strained. In addition to the DuPont
Company, after the First World War ended, in 1917, Pierre bought one-quarter
of General Motors stock and allowing him to become president from
1920 to 1923, and then chairman of the board from 1923 to 1929.
Pierre Samuel DuPont is probably best known for founding Longwood
Gardens. The land of the future Longwood Gardens was purchased in
1700 by a Quaker family, by the name of Peirce. They made the land
into a farm and later planted an arboretum. Pierre bought the land
in 1906 in order to preserve the trees. Most of what is planted there
today was built between 1907 to 1930.
Travel introduced Pierre to many types of garden settings. Some examples
the inspired him are: Horticultural Hall, England's Sydenham Crystal
Palace, the garden maze at the Hampton Court, and many more around
the world. Different floras from South America, the Caribbean, Florida,
California, and Hawaii also inspired him for the many different flowers
that would soon be added.
Pierre Samuel DuPont was not a novice when it came to construction
and gardening. When he was only twenty-one years old, he oversaw the
construction of his family's new house. At twenty-seven years old,
he owned a commercial florist business that had seven greenhouses.
When Pierre was twenty-nine years old, he supervised the building
of one hundred-fifty houses with landscaping. When he was thirty-four
years old, he started to design his own gardens and landscaping, and
at thirty-five years old he headed a group that oversaw the team that
built a twelve-story building in Wilmington, Delaware.
When Pierre turned thirty-six, he bought the Peirce family farm and
started to create the garden that would later become Longwood Gardens.
While creating this garden, he did not follow any plan; he just designed
it as his inspiration hit him. In late June 1909, Pierre started hosting
garden parties, which later encouraged him to entertain guests more
often, and add to his garden. In 1914, Pierre Samuel DuPont debuted
his Open Air Theatre, which was inspired by an outdoor theater that
he had seen in Italy. In the Open Air Theatre, Pierre added secret,
hidden fountains that splashed out of the floor to drench visiting
guests. Later that year, Mr. DuPont doubled the size of the old Peirce
farmhouse, adding many amenities. Such amenities included a bowling
alley, automatic fire doors, windows that lowered in to the basement
and a built-in rug-rolling machine.
Next he created a conservatory in 1921, which was sustained by oil.
The only thing that Pierre thought could improve it would be a pipe
organ. Which he added in as well. In 1930, he replaced the organ with
one three times larger. It is still s world renouned organ of great
historical signigicance.
A couple years later, Pierre became enthralled with fountains. They
were his new love. Soon he added many fountains throughout the park,
many of which were based on an Italian Water Garden, which was located
near Florence, Italy. He also decided to replace the fountains in
the Open-Air Theatre. He replaced the fountains with ones that could
jump as high as 130 feet in the air; there were now 750 illuminated
jets in the Open-Air Theatre. The jets used 10,000 gallons every minute
and they were in "every imaginable color." When Pierre commented
on the gardens, he stated that, "The fountains themself are of
a simple design. It is the landscape effect that adds to the total
bill."
After the fountains were built, Pierre did not add much more to the
gardens before he retired. In the late 1930's Pierre Samuel DuPont
built a 30 foot-by-36 foot oval analemmatic sundial. In 1937 the Longwood
Foundation was created to handle his charitable giving. In 1944, Pierre's
wife died, and in 1946, the government gave approval for the Longwood
Foundation to operate Longwood Gardens. The garden was to be used,
"for the sole use of the public for purposes of exhibition, instruction,
education, and enjoyment." Longwood Gardens' influence on American
horticulture has been through its many educational programs, classes,
and events, which completed Pierre's goal of educating many. For the
past 30 years, as many as 5,000 students a year have attended classes
for gardeners. Since 1958, 1,000 students from throughout the world
have participated in one or more intensive programs. Some examples
include internships (2-year professional gardening programs that train
how to become professional) and a master's degree program in horticultural
administration.
Pierre
Samuel DuPont died on April 5, 1954 at the age of 84. He was a prosperous
businessman who invented things while working at his great-grandfather's
company, and had an extreme love for gardening and fountains. Pierre
wanted to educate, which he has done with the help of many, at Longwood
Gardens. He was a giving man who loved horticulture, and his spirit
shall most likely live on throughout the years.
Jeremiah
Bailey| Richard Banard | Bayard
Taylor | George Fox | Howard
Pyle
Martha
Brown |Pierre
Samuel Dupont | Wyeth Family
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