Current:Home > reviewsHow a secret Delaware garden suddenly reemerged during the pandemic -Wealth Evolution Experts
How a secret Delaware garden suddenly reemerged during the pandemic
Poinbank Exchange View
Date:2025-04-07 00:10:48
Wilmington, Delaware — If you like a reclamation project, you'll love what Paul Orpello is overseeing at the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware.
It's the site of the original DuPont factory, where a great American fortune was made in gunpowder in the 19th century.
"There's no other post-industrial site reimagined in this way," Orpello, the museum's director of gardens and horticulture, told CBS News.
"There's only one in the world," he adds.
It's also where a DuPont heiress, Louise Crowninshield, created a garden in the 1920s.
"It looked like you were walking through an Italian villa with English-style plantings adorning it," Orpello said of the garden.
Crowninshield died in 1958, and the garden disappeared over the ensuing decades.
"Everything that she worked to preserve, this somehow got lost to time," Orpello said.
In 2018, Orpello was hired to reclaim the Crowninshield Garden, but the COVID-19 pandemic hit before he could really get going on the project. However, that's when he found out he didn't exactly need to, because as the world shut down in the spring of 2020, azaleas, tulips and peonies dormant for more than a half-century suddenly started to bloom.
"So much emotion at certain points," Orpello said of the discovery. "Just falling down on my knees and trying to understand."
"I don't know that I could or that I still can't (make sense of it)," he explained. "Just that it's magic."
Orpello wants to fully restore the garden to how Crowninshield had it, with pools she set in the factory-building footprints and a terrace with a mosaic of a Pegasus recently discovered under the dirt.
"There was about a foot of compost from everything growing and dying," Orpello said. "And then that was gently broomed off. A couple of rains later, Pegasus showed up."
Orpello estimates it will cost about $30 million to finish the restoration, but he says he is not focused on the money but on the message.
"It's such a great story of resiliency," Orpello said. "And this whole entire hillside erupted back into life when the world had shut down."
- In:
- COVID-19 Pandemic
- Delaware
Jim Axelrod is the chief investigative correspondent and senior national correspondent for CBS News, reporting for "CBS This Morning," "CBS Evening News," "CBS Sunday Morning" and other CBS News broadcasts.
TwitterveryGood! (11998)
Related
- Israel lets Palestinians go back to northern Gaza for first time in over a year as cease
- 'Greatest fans in the world': Phillies supporters turn Baltimore into playoff atmosphere
- Run, Don’t Walk to Anthropologie to Save an Extra 40% off Their Sale Full of Cute Summer Dresses & More
- Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl rings have a typo
- Spooky or not? Some Choa Chu Kang residents say community garden resembles cemetery
- 2 killed and several wounded in shooting during a Juneteenth celebration in a Texas park
- What Washington Post planned to write about LSU women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey, but didn't
- Reese Witherspoon Debuts Jaw-Dropping Nicole Kidman Impression While Honoring Her
- Krispy Kreme offers a free dozen Grinch green doughnuts: When to get the deal
- Grab Your Notebook and Jot Down Ryan Gosling's Sweet Quotes About Fatherhood
Ranking
- Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing
- Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs returns key to New York City in response to video of him attacking singer Cassie
- Who are hot rodent men of the summer? Meet the internet's favorite type of celebrity
- How Elon Musk’s $44.9B Tesla pay package compares with the most generous plans for other U.S. CEOs
- See you latte: Starbucks plans to cut 30% of its menu
- Nashville police officer fired, arrested after OnlyFans appearance in uniform while on duty
- Fight breaks out in Italian Parliament after lawmaker makes move on government official
- From chickens to foxes, here's how bird flu is spreading across the US
Recommendation
Buckingham Palace staff under investigation for 'bar brawl'
Screw warm and fuzzy: Why 2024 is the year of feel-bad TV
Louisiana Chick-fil-A has summer camp that teaches children to be workers; public divided
Fight breaks out in Italian Parliament after lawmaker makes move on government official
$73.5M beach replenishment project starts in January at Jersey Shore
The fizz is gone: Atlanta’s former Coca-Cola museum demolished for parking lot
Princess Kate shares health update on cancer treatment, announces first public appearance in months
You may owe the IRS money on Monday — skipping payment could cost you hundreds of dollars