|
DISCOVERING DELAWARE
Delaware Press Association invites you to explore the rich
cultural, industrial and commercial history of northern Delaware, the
Brandywine Valley and nearby Philadelphia on four separate tours of
historical landmarks, country churches, magnificent estates, famous gardens,
priceless art collections, museums of world renown and gift shops galore.
Whether you’re looking for stories to write, a pleasurable learning
experience, personal discovery, or regional cuisine, or you simply want to
indulge in tax-free shopping, you’ll find what you’re looking for in
Delaware.
Wear comfortable shoes and clothing and, although the weather should still
be warm, you’ll need a sweater or light jacket for evening activities or
while riding the buses or the ferry. Most of our tour destinations are
handicapped accessible. All prices include transportation, attractions,
meals as indicated and professional tour guides. Additional tips and
gratuities are not included.
PRE- AND POST-CONFERENCE TOUR HIGHLIGHTS
September 1–3: Pre-Conference Tours
Monday, September 1 - Distinctly Delaware; Historical
Highlights of the Colonial and Civil War Eras
Tour highlights: Fort Delaware, Old New Castle
Tuesday, September 2 - The du Pont Family Legacy: Black
Powder and Blue Bloods
Tour highlights: Christ Church Christiana Hundred, Hagley Museum, and
Winterthur, an American Country Estate
Wednesday, September 3 - Arts and Flowers
Tour highlights: Gibraltar Garden, Brandywine River Museum, and Longwood
Gardens
Get full pre-conference tour information
September 7: Post-conference tour
Sunday, September 7: Historic Philadelphia: City of
Brotherly Love
Tour highlights: Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, walking tour of
Historic District, narrated bus tour of the city, dinner at City Tavern.
Get full post-conference tour information
WILMINGTON & THE BRANDYWINE VALLEY
PRE-CONFERENCE TOURS: SEPTEMBER 1 - 3
Distinctly Delaware: Historical Highlights of the
Colonial and Civil War Eras
Monday, September 1 Price Per Person: $75
Storyteller Ed Okonowicz and historian Mike Dixon will take us aboard a
ferry from Delaware City to Pea Patch Island in the middle of the Delaware
River for a guided tour of Fort Delaware, a Union garrison that held
32,000 Confederate prisoners during the Civil War. At the fort, you’ll hear
the roar of an authentic Civil War-era Columbiad cannon and the whisper of
ghost stories about the old island fortress, recognized as one of the most
haunted sites in the United States near the water. As we return to Delaware
City, Ed and Mike will talk about the historical significance of the old
water town and the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal (the third busiest in the
world).
We’ll have lunch on our own and then will spend the afternoon in the
footsteps of George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, Davey Crockett,
Chief Blackhawk and many other historical figures when we stroll the brick
sidewalks and cobblestone streets along The Strand in Old New Castle.
Founded as a Dutch fort in 1651, Old New Castle became Delaware’s colonial
capital and, for a time, the state capital. William Penn first set foot on
American soil there in 1682 and, for many years, the town was a vital sTop
on the north/south trade route.
We’ll have some time to visit antique shops and walk to the battery beside
the Delaware River before our included dinner at one of New Castle’s
historic inns. We’ll return to the hotel after dinner.
The du Pont Family Legacy: Black Powder and Blue Bloods
Tuesday, September 2 Price Per Person: $80
Our day begins with a drive through Rockford Park and a glimpse of the
DuPont Experimental Station before heading down a country road to Christ
Church Christiana Hundred, founded in 1848 by several of E.I. du Pont’s
children. There we will see 500 needlepoint kneelers (each different), the
children’s chapel and the memorial garden, and we’ll hear the magnificent
sound of the Brombaugh tracker organ.
Just down the hill from the church and located along the Brandywine River on
the site of the first du Pont black powder works, the Hagley Museum
will offer a glimpse into American life at home and at work in the
nineteenth century. The tour will include the first du Pont family home and
garden in America, the Blacksmith Hill workers’ community, the powder yards,
the machine shop and the schoolhouse where the children of the mill workers
learned to read, write and cipher.
We’ll make the four-mile trip to Winterthur, an American Country
Estate, often described as America’s premier museum and garden, for lunch on
our own in one of the gift shop pavilions. Then we’ll tour part of the
unrivalled collection of early American antiques and decorative arts (1640 -
1860) displayed in 175 period rooms. The fabulous collection numbers more
than 85,000 objects. On the garden tram tour, we’ll see the country estate’s
magnificent naturalistic gardens, designed by museum founder Henry Francis
du Pont, with rolling meadows, ponds, and woodlands on nearly a thousand
acres.
We’ll return to the hotel to change before taking a four-block stroll to the
elegant four-star, four-diamond Hotel du Pont, decorated with original Wyeth
art, for an included dinner in the Old World atmosphere of the
Brandywine Room. Night owls may end the day listening to live jazz just
around the corner at Zanzibar Blue.
Arts and Flowers
Wednesday, September 3 Price Per Person: $85
There is a secret garden in Wilmington. And we will visit it. The garden
at Gibraltar Mansion lies behind the ivy-covered walls surrounding the
mansion, the last of the city’s big estates. Soon after purchasing the
property in 1909, Isabella Mathieu du Pont and her husband Hugh Rodney Sharp
hired Marian Cruger Coffin, one of the first and most accomplished woman
landscape architects in the US to design formal gardens resembling those
they had seen in Europe. Gibraltar was listed on the National Register of
Historic Places in 1998.
A drive through the countryside will take us past the Centre Friends Meeting
House
(1796) and Granogue (1923), a grand estate built high on a hill in
Delaware’s “Chateau Country” by Irénée du Pont, when he was president
of the DuPont Company. At our destination in Chadds Ford, Pa., we’ll tour
the Brandywine River Museum, an historic 19th century grist mill with
wide plank floors and hand-hewn beams, that houses N. C. Wyeth’s dashing
illustrations from “Treasure Island,” some of Andrew Wyeth’s world-renowned
paintings of scenes in and around Chadds Ford, Pa., and along the rocky
coast of Maine, and Jamie Wyeth’s “Portrait of a Pig.” Illustrations, still
lifes and landscapes by Howard Pyle (the foremost illustrator of the late
19th century), Frank Schoonover, Maxfield Parrish and many other American
artists round out the collection.
After an included lunch at the museum, we’ll have time to browse in
the gift shop and do some antiquing. Then it’s on to Longwood Gardens,
one of the premier gardens in all the world. We’ll be enchanted by thousands
of species of flowers and plants as we stroll through the four-acre
conservatory, explore 20 outdoor gardens and see the chimes tower, the open
air theatre and the Peirce-du Pont house. Longwood’s 1,050 acres also
feature spectacular European fountains, an Italian water garden, fantastic
Topiary and the allée of ancient trees that inspired Pierre S. du Pont to
purchase the land in 1906 and begin to create the gardens that attract more
than a million visitors every year. Dinner followed by a fountain display
under the stars at Longwood will bring our day to a close.
PHILADELPHIA
POST-CONFERENCE TOUR: SEPTEMBER 7
Historic Philadelphia: City of Brotherly Love
Sunday, September 7 Price Per Person: $95
“Let Freedom Ring” will echo through your mind as you gaze at the Liberty
Bell and set foot in the hallowed chambers of Independence Hall. Benjamin
Franklin and Betsy Ross will figure prominently on the morning walking tour
of Philadelphia’s historic district. After lunch on our own, a narrated bus
tour of the city will acquaint us with Antique Row, Society Hill, Chinatown,
City Hall, Fairmont Park, Boathouse Row, South Street, the Italian Market
and the Avenue of the Arts. We’ll dine at City Tavern, where we will be
greeted and served by a friendly staff in 18th century garb. We’ll return to
our hotel in Wilmington following dinner.
CLIMATE AND CLOTHING
Temperatures in Wilmington in late August/early
September range from a daytime average of 80° to an evening average of 65°.
Dress is business casual for the conference; something dressier for
the banquets. Casual clothing is recommended for the pre- and
post-conference tours, for Friday evening at the Wilmington Riverfront
(picking crabs) or should you choose to take either of the walking tours of
downtown Wilmington. Take at least one pair of comfortable walking shoes for
those activities. Pack a sweater or light jacket for tours and evening
activities. The hotel is air conditioned, and it may be cool in the meeting
rooms.
EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION IS DUE AUGUST 4, 2003
Mail your registration to:
NFPW
PO Department 798
Alexandria, VA 22334-0798
Or fax it to:
703-534-5751
^Top
|
