Experience Americas Most Treasured Roads
Touring the Byway
6 Days/5 Nights | Gateway City: Wilmington, Delaware
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 11th 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.
View the Detailed Itinerary below to see the full route, which is complete with dining, shopping, and lodging recommendations!
Highlighted Attractions
Longwood Gardens
Features over 1,007 acres of gardens, woodland, and meadows in the Brandywine Creek Valley. It is one of the premier horticultural display gardens in the United States and allows visitors to enjoy native and exotic plants and horticulture, events and performances, seasonal and themed attractions, as well as lectures, courses, and workshops.
Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art
Housed in a converted nineteenth century mill with a dramatic steel and glass addition overlooking the banks of the Brandywine River, this museum is sometimes referred to as the Wyeth Museum because it showcases the work of Andrew Wyeth, a major American realist painter, and his family. The museum’s permanent collection features American illustration, still life works, and landscape painting by Jasper Francis Cropsey, Harvey Dunn, Peter Hurd, Maxfield Parrish, Howard Pyle, William Trost Richards, and Jessie Willcox Smith. The glass-wall lobby overlooks the river and rolling countryside that inspired the Brandywine School earlier in the early 20th century. The museum campus is also home to the separate studios of N.C. Wyeth and Andrew Wyeth, and Kuerner Farm, the source of much of Andrew Wyeth’s inspiration.
Brandywine Battlefield
The 1777 Battle of Brandywine was the largest single day engagement of the American Revolution where nearly 30,000 soldiers (not including civilians, teamsters, servants, and other members of the army) squared off on a ten square mile area of roughly 35,000 acres. Today’s battlefield landscape encompasses nearly fifteen different municipalities with the main gateway of interpretation being the park. Brandywine Battlefield Park is a 52-acre park that was the epicenter of George Washington’s continental encampment but is often mistaken as being the entire battlefield itself. The visitor center offers exhibits, a museum store, and an orientation film.
Nemours Estate
A 300-acre country estate with jardin a la francaise formal gardens and a French neoclassical mansion built to resemble a French chateau, it was created by Alfred I. du Pont for his second wife and its 105 rooms on five floors occupy nearly 47,000 feet.
Hagley Museum and Library
Located on 235 acres along the banks of the Brandywine, Hagley is the site of the gunpowder works founded by E.I. du Pont in 1802. This example of early American industry features indoor and outdoor exhibitions, including restored mills, a workers community, and the ancestral home and garden of the du Pont family. People of all ages are invited to investigate and experience the unfolding history of American business, technology, and innovation, and its impact on the world. This is a place where innovation inspires and imaginations run wild.
To experience all that Visions of Vanished Centuries has to offer, download the complete itinerary!
The detailed itinerary includes:
- A complete trip experience organized in geographic order, to print down and go.
- A full description of the Byway tour.
- Each trip experience begins in a gateway city with commercial flight availability (and often ending in another) to enhance the Byway experience.
- Attractions and activities along the full length of the Byway selected to truly tell the story of the places you visit.
- Detailed description of each attraction and activity, including the address, telephone number, hours of operation, admission fees and suggested time to allow for a visit.
- Accommodations (related to the theme of the Byway or unique to the destination wherever possible) positioned in the correct locations and including breakfast wherever possible.
- Dining suggestions positioned in the correct locations for lunch and dinner.
- All attractions, accommodations and dining locations arranged into Days that allow time for relaxation, savoring meals and enjoying the experience.
- A road trip to create memories and intrigue your mind.