Come visit! Friends of Goodstay Gardens was founded in 1993 to help restore, maintain, and celebrate historic Goodstay Gardens in Wilmington, Delaware. The Friends are an all-volunteer group proud to fund and administer the long and short-term care of this six-acre garden treasure on behalf of the University so the community can enjoy it free of charge. Goodstay Gardens is located on the grounds of the University of Delaware’s Wilmington Campus at 2700 Pennsylvania Avenue within easy walking distance of city neighborhoods. It is situated adjacent to the Goodstay mansion (now closed). The unassuming entry through an arched opening in the tall stone wall belies the pleasure garden that lies beyond, earning Goodstay the nickname, "Wilmington's Secret Garden". Historic Goodstay Gardens is one of the oldest gardens in the state and traces its legacy to the du Pont family like several other prominent gardens in the area: Gibraltar, Hagley, Nemours, Winterthur, Mt Cuba, & Longwood. Planted in the early 19th Century in the American Tudor style, the garden is partitioned into "rooms" with boxwood hedges bordering gravel paths. The property's most recent private owners were Ellen du Pont and her landscape architect husband, Robert Wheelwright. They restored and enhanced the gardens starting in the early 1920s, converting it from a kitchen garden to a pleasure garden with iris, rose, and peony "rooms". Friends of Goodsaty Gardens references this time period and the meticulous records kept by the Wheelwrights to guide design and planting decisions today. Upon her passing in 1968, Mrs. Wheelwright's family left the property to the University of Delaware. Friends of Goodstay Gardens is proud to fully fund and administer the care Goodstay Gardens and it's outbuildings with the support of our loyal donors and volunteers.
