For over a century, the du Pont family operated a black powder mill here in Wilmington, Delaware, where more than 300 workers combined saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur to create the explosive powder used in mining and construction-and munitions during wartime. Walking these paths evokes even more powerful feelings after one learns the landscape’s poignant history. Paul Orpello, director of gardens and horticulture at the Hagley Foundation, descends from the Refinery Terrace to the Azalea Terrace in the Crowninshield Garden.Ī staircase leads from the Cistern Terrace to the Refinery Terrace. Orpello tells me that what he’s experienced in this garden changed his life. This may be the strangest garden in America, at once the darkest and most joyous, unlike any other place I’ve been. Despite being buried under weeds for decades, a swan mosaic is almost perfectly intact. It feels like traversing the fire swamp in The Princess Bride, risking quicksand and Rodents of Unusual Size. We pass a terrace of cracked columns and crumbling brick walls with hidden recesses like tiny witches’ caves. Orpello guides me past murky former swimming pools that now hold snakes and sludge. It feels more like a magical lost city that was bombed in a war. I realize that “garden” isn’t the right word for it. A battered sign reads: “Positively No Admittance!” Paul Orpello, my guide, opens a creaky gate and leads me into a landscape of ruins, which was largely abandoned for more than 50 years and is now being brought back to life. A gray afternoon in winter is not usually considered the best time to visit a garden, but it’s perfect for my first glimpse of this extraordinary place.
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