Sunday News Journal ❚ SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 2018 ❚ 1F SundayLife NEOCLASSICAL FOLLY GOTHIC TOWER FOLLY Winterthur’s Follies CHINESE PAVILION FOLLY First garden exhibit designed to highlight estate’s architecture, changing landscape LATIMERIA SUMMERHOUSE Betsy Price ❚ Photos by Jennifer Corbett Delaware News Journal | USA TODAY NETWORK interthur Museum, Garden and Library organizers hope their new exhibit of garden structures will be the outdoor equivalent of its Wragingly successful “Downton Abbey” costume exhibit. ❚ That Downton show, which crushed attendance records in 2014, en- twined the real-life story of Winterthur founder H.F. du Pont and his country estate with the fictional Crawley family and their estate from the popular PBS series. The garden exhibit has its roots in the Down- ton one, says Chris Strand, Winterthur’s Brown Harrington director of garden and estate. The museum then surveyed people about what they liked, and many said they would come back for garden events. Winterthur Executive Director David Roselle asked Strand if he’d ever consid- ered a garden exhibit and sent him some ideas. They decided to focus on follies, which are structures such as gazebos placed in the garden to add visual order or interest. To up the ante, they created seven to add to the six that H.F. du Pont included in his gardens as he built them. “A story in a story,” Strand says. See FOLLIES, Page 2F NEEDLE’S EYE FOLLY FAERIE COTTAGE MIRRORED FOLLY OTTOMAN TENT GREEN FOLLY Montchanin financier buys into classic, timeless style Eileen Smith Dallabrida Special to Delaware News Journal | USA TODAY NETWORK WHO: Carol Mayhart, 50, of from these three stylish op- black cocktail dress with mesh Montchanin, partner and fi- tions for the fifth annual event detailing from White House nancial consultant at the Mc- on April 14, her 51st birthday. Black Market; J. Renee black Closkey Financial Group. (For details, go to www.face pumps with ankle straps; pearl WHY: Brandywine in Black, book.com/events/204029989 lariat-style necklace; diamond a pop-up gala, is when Carol 9562954/) stud earrings; and David Yur- Mayhart has the most fun with HER STYLE: Classic and man diamond and sterling her wardrobe, pulling together timeless, but never outdated. bracelet, a 50th birthday gift glamorous, all-black outfits. WEARING, at Buckley’s from her sister Sue. This year’s twist is adding a Tavern in Centreville: Our style setter is Carol Mayhart photographed at Buckley’s touch of gold. She will choose FIRST OUTFIT — Sleeveless See STYLE, Page 5F Tavern in Centreville. SUCHAT PEDERSON, THE NEWS JOURNAL 2F ❚ SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 2018 ❚ SUNDAY NEWS JOURNAL A medieval door on the gothic tower folly (above left) and the interior ceiling of the Green Folly (above right) are seen in Winterthur Museum’s garden follies exhibit. Follies Continued from Page 1F “Follies: Architectural Whimsy in the Garden” opened April 1, offering visitors a one-mile track they can walk in about 45 minutes or ride through on trams to see the 13 follies, which include a Goth- ic-inspired tower, a bright-red Ottoman tent, a Chinese house cribbed from an English estate and the estate’s own fai- rie cottage. A folly is placed in a garden primarily for decoration. But they also provide a focal point as well as amuse the observ- er, frame a vista or create a destination for visitors, Winterthur says in a release. It offers a far more erudite definition than an online one cited by Google that described a folly as “a costly ornamental building with no practical purpose, es- pecially a tower or mock-Gothic ruin built in a large garden or park.” Strand says Winterthur experts re- searched its own follies as well as the history of follies, including a trip to Eng- lish gardens, before settling on what it would add. Planners settled on the un- lucky number of 13 as the design was taking shape. “One of the goals of the project was to get people to go through the garden,” Strand said. “We sort of The Ottoman Tent, inspired by Turkish tents, is one of the new follies at Winterthur Museum. It’s part of the “Follies: draped them like the numbers around Architectural Whimsy in the Garden” exhibit, which continues through 2020. PHOTOS BY JENNIFER CORBETT, THE NEWS JOURNAL the edge of a clock, spacing them so they weren’t too close but not so far apart so it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, my gosh. We need to If you go walk that far?’ ” Follies: Architectural Whimsy in Winterthur has more structures that WHAT: the Garden could be called follies, but they are away from the one-mile circuit. And they WHERE: Winterthur Museum, Gardens were careful not to install anything in and Libary, 5105 Kennett Pike, Winter- what Strand calls the “sacred space” of thur, Delaware places like the March Bank or Sundial Daily, through Jan. 5, 2020. Garden. Some of Winterthur’s existing WHEN: Museum opens at 10 a.m. Tuesday follies are historical, moved by H.F. du through Sunday. During the exhibition, Pont from one place to the estate the the garden will be open until dusk. Latimeria Summerhouse from a Dela- ware estate and the 1750 House, which TICKETS: Included in admission; $20 was the facade of an old New Castle, adults; $18 students and seniors; $6 Delaware, home. ages 2-11;. Du Pont was well traveled, univer- Visit sity-educated in horticulture and FOR MORE INFORMATION: winterthur.org or call (800) 448-3883. worked closely on garden design with childhood friend and architect Marian OF NOTE: The main path through Coffin to place pieces to draw attention the garden is wheelchair and stroller to particular views. The estate is not accessible. alone in incorporating follies in Dela- Landscape ware. A massive folly stretches from The Needle’s Eye Folly rest in a pond on the grounds of Winterthur Museum. SPECIAL PROGRAMS: historian John Dickson Hunt will lecture side to side in the garden of Nemours about follies April 21; Daffodil Days on Mansion and Estate. Others in the area April 14 and other Winterthur events include a pavilion at the end of a long al- ❚ A gothic tower that mimics the den with the cherry trees and March will incorporate the follies; Summer lee of tall cypress at Gibraltar and the towers, sham castles and fake ruins bank are in full blossom and the azaleas Solstice party June 21 will be a progres- cast iron gazebo at Mt. Cuba’s pond. popular in European landscapes in the flowering near Mother’s Day. sive cocktail party throughout the Winterthur’s follies will be placed in a 1700s and 1800s. Joining the tour are these seven Win- follies. way to give visitors a good look at about ❚ A Chinese Pavilion, inspired by the terthur follies: 75 acres of the garden and surrounding Chinese House at Stowe Landscape ❚ The Latimeria Summerhouse, set area, only a small swath of the 1,000- Garden in Buckinghamshire, England, in the Peony Garden in 1929 after being acre estate. A new app that details the but updated with illustrations taking saved from destruction in Wilmington. Long says the planners expect the follies and their route uses GPS to tell from the wallpaper in Winterthur’s Chi- ❚ The Umbrella Seat and Pagoda follies to express themselves differently visitors exactly where they are standing nese Parlor. Gate, which are also from Latimeria and as the time of day and the seasons and “to make it easier for people — well, ❚ A Green Folly, built with Winter- greet visitors as they enter the garden change. “For example, yesterday com- to make it easier for teenagers — to navi- thur tree trunks, beech twig thatching from the Visitor Center. ing in to work we were in a fog, and I was gate,” Strand jokes. and other woodland embellishments. ❚ The 1750 House, a facade of a his- so excited to come in and see the needle The new follies include: Curator Carol Long is betting on the toric house from New Castle, Delaware floating in the pond,” she says. “It was ❚ The Needle’s Eye, inspired by an Neoclassical Folly to provide the best that moved to Winterthur in the 1960s. that moment when fog was coming in 18th century in Yorkshire, England, and views, both to it and from it, providing a ❚ The Brick Lookout, which includes and that gave it a whole different look.” located on pond near the main drive. contrast from its formal design and the the tin roof and cast iron eagle of a for- The Neoclassical Folly, for example, ❚ A Neoclassical Folly made to look always evolving natural world. mer shed that stood at the entrance will have paths mowed to it through the like the entrance of a Greek temple or The view of it from the Winterhazel court for the museum in the 1940s and meadow. “When the grasses are tall and public building. Walk now blooming in purples and 1950s. the wind is blowing, it will be a special ❚ A Mirrored Folly, which reflects the golds should be wonderful, says Long, ❚ The Bristol Summerhouse, found moment looking at the folly and looking surrounding Pinetum and is inspired by who helped plan the exhibit and trav- Sycamore Hill, was re-created by H.F. away from the folly,” she said. “When the covered entrance of the estate’s his- eled to England to research follies there. du Pont based on a structure he had the goldenrod turns yellow. I think there toric train station. Once at the temple, she said, the view seen at The Lindens in Bristol, Rhode Is- will be moments when they are partic- ❚ A brilliant red Ottoman Tent in- of a large white oak tree in the meadow land.