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History
The land on which Longwood Gardens is located was once home to the Lenni-Lenape tribe. Despite the presence of these native peoples, William Penn claimed ownership and sold it in 1700 to a Quaker family named Peirce, who farmed the land throughout the eighteenth century. As early as 1798, brothers Joshua and Samuel Peirce began planting an arboretum, which became well known by the mid 1800s. Joshua’s son George Washington Peirce developed the land into a public pleasure ground called Peirce’s Park, complete with croquet and rowboats.
After George died in 1880, the trees and land were neglected. In 1906 a sawmill operator was about to begin harvesting the trees when Pierre S. du Pont ( short bio ) stepped in. He purchased the land to save the collection of old trees and over the years developed it into one of the world’s top botanical showplaces. Pierre du Pont died in 1954, but his personal pride and joy, Longwood Gardens, continues to delight visitors.
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Reading List:
Thompson, George E., Sr. A Man and His Garden: The Story of Pierre S. du Pont’s Development of Longwood Gardens. Kennett Square, PA: Longwood Gardens, 1976.
Complete reading list
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