Nemours

The 320-acre estate of industrialist and philanthropist Alfred I. du Pont, was named Nemours after the town in France which Mr. du Pont's great-great-grandfather, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours represented, when serving as a member of the French Estates General in 1789. The mansion, grounds, and upper garden, all designed by architects Carrère and Hastings in the style of Louis XVI, were built between 1909 and 1920 at the height of the Country Place Era. Acres of Beaux Arts gardens patterned on the Petit Trianon at Versailles surround the residence, extending more than a third mile along the central axis. Garden features include a boxwood parterre garden, a formal maze, a colonnade  designed by Samuel Hastings, a sunken garden designed by Alfred Victor du Pont and Gabriel Massena around 1930, the classical Temple of Love with a statue of Diana by Houdon, and a one-acre reflecting pool 40 feet in diameter. Du Pont and Massena are also responsible for the mid-1930s memorial Carillon Tower on the northern portion of the property. The formal gardens are surrounded by acres of natural woodlands. One of a number of du Pont family estates in the Delaware Valley, the historic property is now nestled within the grounds of the Alfred I. du Pont Hospital for Children, established in 1940.