As you meander the beautiful and bucolic route of the Brandywine Valley National Scenic Byway, it’s not hard to imagine yourself back before the founding of the nation. In many places the landscape is still much the same discovered when three ships sailed from England, two from London and one from Bristol, carrying members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) responding to William Penn’s offer of religious tolerance.

“The public mind in England, particularly the Quaker element of it was thus directed to the new province” in what would become one of the first three counties established in the new colony of Pennsylvania. When they arrived in the place where the County now stands on the 11^th of December 1682, they discovered scenic beauty and the Brandywine – meaning “brunt wine” – River running through it.

The Quakers brought with them a firm philosophy of individual freedoms, pacifism, and plain, simple living. Now, almost 350 years later, those ideals endure and still influence life in the Brandywine Valley.

Along the Byway, villages and hamlets built by early settlers still stand, unspoiled by modern development. This includes over fifteen Quaker meeting houses. Stately stone residences built during the early years punctuate the landscape that envelopes the Byway.

These historic homes preside over lush lawns and gardens adjacent to fields dotted by centuries-old barns. Breaking up the fields and homesteads are natural meadows and woodlands, sewn together by babbling brooks and spring-fed creeks where wildlife abounds. Here, one can still discover evidence of the remarkable events that shaped history before the founding of the nation.

The visual beauty and subject matter along the Byway has inspired artists across generations, spawning the Brandywine School, which made important contributions to American art in the 19th and 20th centuries. N.C. Wyeth, one of the great American illustrators and a product of the Brandywine School, said “Never have I appreciated nature as I have in this place …everything is so gentle and simple.” Many of the artworks representative of the Brandywine School are on display at the Brandywine River Museum of Art. Generations of the influential Du Pont family have also left an imprint on the Byway, as several of their noteworthy country estates have evolved into world class museums and gardens, including Longwood Gardens.

Driving the beautiful route of the Brandywine Valley National Scenic Byway will evoke the essence of a different time and place. Invite yourself to experience the serene landscape and gentle creeks as their waters flow past. Marvel at the timeless architecture that has stood proudly for centuries. There is no other place quite like it in America, a peaceful and memorable sojourn from past to present through a timeless tapestry that is art itself: the Brandywine Valley National Scenic Byway.