Brandywine Creek State Park

Brandywine Creek State Park
Delaware State Park
Farm, field and forest near the park headquarters.
Named for: Brandywine Creek
Country	United States
State	Delaware
County	New Castle
Elevation	246 ft (75 m)
Coordinates	39°48′25″N 75°34′28″W / 39.80694°N 75.57444°W / 39.80694; -75.57444Coordinates: 39°48′25″N 75°34′28″W / 39.80694°N 75.57444°W / 39.80694; -75.57444
Area	933 acres (378 ha)
Founded	1965
Management	Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control
Location of Brandywine Creek State Park in Delaware
Website: Brandywine Creek State Park

Brandywine Creek State Park is a state park, located 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Wilmington, Delaware along the Brandywine Creek. Open year-round, it is 933 acres (378 ha) in area and much of the park was part of a Du Pont family estate and dairy farm before becoming a state park in 1965. It contains the first two nature preserves in Delaware. These nature preserves are Tulip Tree Woods and Freshwater Marsh. Flint Woods is a satellite area of the park and has become the park's third nature preserve. Flint Woods is home to species of rare song birds and an old-growth forest. The park's forests are part of the Northeastern coastal forests ecoregion.

Fourteen miles of trails run the park, the longest being the Rocky Run Trail and the Greenways Trail. Brandywine Creek has a large population of bass, and Wilson's Run is known for its trout. Nearby parks include White Clay Creek State Park, Wilmington State Parks, and Bellevue State Park.

Much of Brandywine Creek State Park was originally a portion of the du Pont family's Winterthur estate. The estate was acquired by General Henry du Pont in 1866, and between the time of purchase and 1875 he expanded the estate's size to 1,135 acres (459 ha). After du Pont's son, Henry A. du Pont took over the estate in 1875, he continued to expand the estate until it was over 2,400 acres (970 ha). In the mid-1800s, the du Ponts hired Italian masons to build stone walls around much of the property that is today part of the park. In 1893, Henry A. du Pont acquired the herd of dairy cattle that he housed on what would eventually become the park.

Henry Francis du Pont inherited the estate in 1927. He was much less interested in maintaining a working farm than his father and grandfather, and instead had an eye toward transforming the estate into a museum of American arts. To that end, he sold off pieces of the estate in 1951, reducing it from 2,400 acres (970 ha) down to a core of 962 acres (389 ha). 433 acres (175 ha) of the sold-off estate were purchased by du Pont's relative, Ellen Coleman du Pont Wheelwright (daughter of T. Coleman du Pont) and her husband Robert Wheelwright. Wheelwright was a prominent landscape architect who had in 1924 founded the University of Pennsylvania's landscape architecture school. The Wheelwrights maintained the estate until Robert's death in 1965.