There are several places throughout Massachusetts that honor the legacy of America’s 35th President, John F. Kennedy. A great place to learn about the Kennedy family and JFK’s early childhood is Kennedy’s childhood home in Brookline, Massachusetts, just a couple of miles from downtown Boston.
Massachusetts is filled with memorable historic sites and important dates in America’s history, and one of the most famous is April 19, 1775. On the early hours of April 19th, Paul Revere and William Dawes’ rode to Lexington, Massachusetts to warn John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and other “Minute Men” that 850 British soldiers, also known as “Redcoats”, were coming to nearby Concord to steal the their supply of weapons and ammunition. The Minute Men, a group of local militia, waited at Buckman Tavern for the arrival of the British Redcoats. With the firing of a shot from an unknown source (it’s still debated today who fired the first shot), the American Revolution began.
The island of Manhattan, the most populated borough of New York City, is filled with dozens of neighborhoods from Harlem on the far upper east side all the way down to the Financial District in Lower Manhattan. The Financial District, also known as Wall Street, run the entire southern most part of the island and is the economic capitol of America with the New York Stock Exchange located in the heart of the District. The area was founded by the Dutch in the 17th century and became a bustling area for trade, with the East River on one side and the Hudson River on the other. Today, the Financial District is filled not only with financial businesses, but with plenty of preserved historical sites, museums, and family friendly attractions.
On a recent trip to Wilmington, Delaware (read our full City Guide here), we enjoyed an afternoon at one of the most beautiful estates, and property, in Wilmington, Delaware, Winterthur.
Built in 1839 for Jacques Antoine Bidermann and Evelina du Pont, descendants of the first du Ponts to arrive in the Wilmington area from France, Winterthur is a 1,000 acre estate that includes a 175 room home; museum and research library; 60 acres of gardens, rolling hills, and vistas; and the Enchanted Woods that kids of ALL ages will love. Named after the ancestral Swiss home of Antoine Biderman, the home was sold to various generations of the family, who continued to add to the property. Great grandson Henry Francis du Pont, who was a prominent horticulturalist who also collected American decorative arts, took over the property in the early 1900s and expanded the house and gardens further. Over time, Henry Francis amassed the largest collection of decorative arts in the world- Winterthur has over 90,000 objects in its collection!
Nicknamed the “Versailles of the Brandywine Valley”, Nemours Estate is the 77 room mansion that Alfred I. duPont built for his second wife, Alicia, between 1909-1910. Nemours is also home to the largest French formal garden in North America. (Guests can learn all about the 10 design elements of a French garden on the tram tour). Alfred I. duPont was the great grandson of E. I. du Pont, founder of the DuPont Company, which began in Wilmington in the early 1800s.
Our family recently spent a wonderful weekend enjoying the historic sites, kid friendly attractions, beautiful parks, delicious food, and warm hospitality of Wilmington, Delaware. Spring is the perfect time to visit Wilmington, as many of the historic homes are opening for the season and the gardens are alive with vibrant flowers and plants.