Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
A valley of gardens.
An introduction to the Brandywine Creek valley around Kennett Square, where Longwood Gardens grew from a Quaker farm.
On this page
Read the valley from the gardens
Longwood Gardens lies in the Brandywine Creek valley at Kennett Square, in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The Lenni Lenape lived here long before European settlers farmed the land.
A regional guide can give context without turning a landscape into a backdrop. Notice how an old farmhouse sits among later gardens, or how water is led from pool to pool. Respect homes, working farms and places of worship.
Stone, glass and water
Longwood’s buildings range from the Peirce family’s farmhouse to the stone Chimes Tower of 1929 and the glass of the Conservatory, opened in 1921, and the West Conservatory, opened in 2024.
Begin with a detail and ask how it was made, repaired and maintained. A photograph alone cannot tell you who built a fountain or glazed a roof, or the conditions in which they worked.
A Longwood chapter
Longwood shows one side of the Brandywine valley: an arboretum planted by a farming family, saved and enlarged by an industrialist and opened to the public.
Look at the meeting of the two: old trees planted for their own sake, and fountains and glasshouses built for show.
Make room for context
Pair this regional reading with the gardens’ history and the Journal. This is an introduction for visitors, not a claim that our team manages these places, commissions their restoration or represents their makers.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
