Located in Wilmington, Delaware, USA, the Nemours Estate is a magnificent estate covering approximately 200 acres. It was built between 1909 and 1910 by the renowned American industrialist, inventor, musician, and philanthropist Alfred I. du Pont (1864–1935) as a gift for his second wife Alicia. The estate is named after the town of Nemours in northern France, the ancestral home of his great-great-grandfather Pierre Samuel du Pont. Every year after Halloween, the Nemours Estate begins its Christmas decorations, with the mansion and gardens adorned with colorful Christmas trees, lights, and traditional ornaments.
The main mansion of the estate was designed by the prominent architectural firm Carrère and Hastings, modeled after the Petit Trianon of Versailles, with a French Neoclassical architectural style. The mansion spans approximately 47,000 square feet and is furnished with precious 18th-century French furniture, antiques, paintings, tapestries, and art treasures.
The estate’s gardens cover over 200 acres and feature the most exquisite formal French gardens in North America, including a colonnade, a Reflection Pond, Temple of Love, and numerous fountains and sculptures.
Within the estate, there is also the Chauffeur’s Garage built in 1914, showcasing rare vintage cars collected by the du Pont family, including Rolls-Royces, Cadillacs, and other classic models. Alfred I. du Pont was the first person in Delaware to hold a driver’s license.
After Alfred I. du Pont’s passing, he left an estate of approximately $40 million and instructed through his will the establishment of a charitable trust to maintain the estate and benefit the public, especially in caring for disabled children. Since 1977, the Nemours Estate has been open to the public and has welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Established in 1936, the Alfred I. du Pont Trust has evolved into Nemours Children’s Health, now one of the largest children’s healthcare systems in the United States, providing pediatric care, research, and preventive services. Alfred I. du Pont once said, “I have always believed that everyone in the world has a duty to do what they can to alleviate human suffering.”
The du Pont family ranks 22nd on the Forbes 2024 list of the richest families in America. The du Pont family’s wealth is estimated at $18.1 billion, with over 3,500 living relatives. The family owns one of America’s oldest companies, DuPont.
In 1800, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) fled France with his two sons, Victor-Marie du Pont (1767–1827) and Eleuthère-Irénée (E.I.) du Pont (1771–1834), during the French Revolution to establish themselves in the United States. In 1802, E.I. du Pont noticed the poor quality and high prices of gunpowder in the US, prompting him to establish a gunpowder mill on the banks of the Brandywine River near Wilmington. In 1902, the three cousins of the du Pont family – T. Coleman du Pont, Pierre S. du Pont, and Alfred I. du Pont – acquired the DuPont Company from their elders. They transformed the company from a dynamite manufacturer into a diversified, research-based chemical company.