Landscape Information
In 1798 Joshua and Samuel Peirce established an arboretum and pleasure ground on 190 acres of rolling hills 30 miles west of Philadelphia. The industrialist Pierre du Pont bought the property in 1906 and transformed the landscape, adding formal and Picturesque stroll gardens. It is one of several significant du Pont family estates in the region, along with Winterthur and Gibraltar.
Du Pont’s first addition was the 600-foot-long gardenesque Flower Garden Walk, created in 1907 with flowering shrubs, rose-covered trellises, and annual and perennial beds. By 1921 du Pont had built an open-air theater and a colossal, oil-heated conservatory with a pipe organ. He then installed lavish water features, including the five-acre Main Fountain Garden. An expanded version of the fountains at the Villa Gamberaia near Florence, it features limestone canals, basins, and 380 illuminated water jets.
With du Pont’s death in 1954, the Longwood Foundation assumed management. Continuing with duPont’s vision for increased public visitation, new gardens have been integrated with the earlier gardens, including the Theatre Garden, Peony Garden, and Wisteria Garden designed by Thomas Church; Waterlily Court and East Conservatory building by Sir Peter Shepheard; indoor Silver Garden by Isabelle Greene; tropical Cascade Garden by Roberto Burle Marx and Conrad Hamerman; and an indoor Mediterranean Garden by Ron Lutsko.
In 2010 landscape architects West 8 and architects Weiss/Manfredi prepared a master plan, which guided the rehabilitation of the Main Fountain Garden. Advancing the master plan, from 2017-2024 Weiss/Manfredi collaborated with Reed Hilderbrand landscape architects on the “Longwood Reimagined” plan, which transformed seventeen acres of the campus. The largest feature, and centerpiece of the plan was a 32,000 modernist glasshouse designed by the architects, with its choreographed landscape of gardens and pools designed by Reed Hilderbrand. The project also resulted in the relocation and reconstruction of the Cascade Garden to a new 3,800 square foot glasshouse designed by the architects, a Bonsai Courtyard organized as an outdoor gallery, and the rehabilitation of the Waterlily Court. Presently, Longwood Gardens measures more than 1,100 acres.
In 1972 Longwood Gardens was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
