Delaware
Shhh. This centuries old Wilmington garden is a ‘secret,’ but it’s open for walks, picnics
The ‘secret’ of Goodstay Gardens
UD’s garden off Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilmington is open to the public, free, year-round
One of the best aspects of being a reporter in Delaware is discovering and writing about places I might never have visited otherwise.
When I was a student at the University of Delaware, I took some summer classes at UD’s Wilmington campus at 2700 Pennsylvania Ave. That was more than 30 years ago. I never gave the mid-17th-century Goodstay Center Mansion on the grounds much thought, and certainly didn’t visit the gardens. If you’re taking a summer class, your main concern is to get it over with as soon as possible, especially when it feels like everyone else is having fun at the beach.
I’ve been back to the Wilmington campus maybe once since then to give a talk at its Osher Lifelong Learning Institute about my journalism career, but that was at least a decade ago.
But for several years, I’ve been hearing about and even sometimes mentioning the “secret garden” tucked behind the Mansion.
While on an assignment in downtown Wilmington on a glorious August summer afternoon, I drove by the Colonial Revival-style mansion, behind the white fence off Pennsylvania Avenue, and, on a whim, made a U-turn.
I was finally going to check out the Goodstay Gardens that are free and open to the public daily from dawn to dusk, year-round.
It felt a little like being in a Nancy Drew mystery as I opened the gate of the white picket fence leading to the historic Tudor-style gardens behind the stone colonial house, which traces its roots back to before 1635.
What a find! Let me first apologize in advance to anyone who considers this garden “a secret,” including the lone woman I met on my stroll who told me about the frogs and butterflies she spied during her walk and then said she didn’t want anyone to know about this hidden gem.
OK, so sorry-not-sorry. I’m no gatekeeper when it comes to sharing cool places in Delaware to visit, especially a free urban oasis. I feel compelled to spill the beans. That’s why the boss man pays me.
First things first: This former du Pont family home is nowhere near as sprawling as Longwood Gardens, Pierre du Pont’s former home near Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, which has nearly 200 stunning acres open to the public.
Nor is it as majestic as Nemours Estate, his cousin Alfred I. duPont’s former homestead and French-inspired formal gardens in Rockland, which makes you feel like you’ve been transported to the grounds of the Palace of Versailles.
And it’s also no Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Henry Francis du Pont’s former home with its 60-acre garden, designed by du Pont, that is considered among America’s best.
Please, go to all three if you’ve never been before. All are spectacular, especially in the spring and summer and during the holiday season.
While Goodstay, originally known as Green Hill, might not be so grand as Longwood, Winterthur or Nemours, it’s charming, beautifully maintained, and has deep Delaware history as one of the oldest continuously kept gardens in the state.
It’s also free, and you can bring your dog. You can’t do that at Longwood, Nemours or Winterthur.
Green Hill was the childhood home of artist Howard Pyle, the Wilmington-born illustrator and painter who taught Maxfield Parrish and N.C. Wyeth. (Want to see his works? Go to the Delaware Art Museum, founded to preserve Pyle’s art.)
Pyle had a deep affection for Green Hill and its garden and was wistfully sentimental when he reminisced about its “old-fashioned roses,” beds of tulips and “daffodillies.”
“It was such a garden as you will hardly find outside of a storybook,” Pyle wrote shortly before he died in Florence, Italy, in 1911. “I cannot remember anything but bloom and beauty, air filled with the odor of growing things, and birds singing in the shady trees in such a fashion as they do not sing nowadays.”
In 1868, Margaretta du Pont, Pierre and Alfred’s grandmother, purchased the home and renamed the estate Goodstay from the French phrase bon Sejour, which translates as “have a good stay.”
Her grandson, T. Coleman du Pont, a cousin of Pierre and Alfred, often visited Goodstay when he was home from attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later purchased the property.
Du Pont, who owned the hotels the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, the Willard in Washington, D.C., and the Bellevue-Stratford in Philadelphia, gave Goodstay and its 16 acres to his daughter, Ellen du Pont Coleman Meeds, in 1923.
She then hired landscape architect Robert Wheelwright to restore and enhance the gardens. Wheelwright, who designed Valley Garden Park in Greenville (another must-visit), and Meeds later married. Wheelwright transformed the gardens throughout the late 1930s, making numerous expansions, including the planting of magnolia trees.
After Ellen Wheelwright died in 1968, the property was given to the University of Delaware. In the late 1980s, Wilmington resident Helen Eliason was a leading force in rejuvenating the declining gardens, and the Friends of Goodstay Gardens was formed in the 1990s.
Friends, a nonprofit group, manages the upkeep of the gardens through donations and the hard work of volunteers. Some of the Damask roses still blooming in the gardens date back to the 1920s during the Wheelwrights’ time at Goodstay.
Goodstay is a carry-in/carry-out park with no restrooms or trash receptacles. Artists, photographers, and picnickers are welcome. Dogs are, too, but they must be leashed. High school students in the know sometimes pose for prom photos there. There’s free parking in a lot adjoining the Goodstay Mansion.
Walk through the garden’s gate and get ready to drink in the beauty. Blossoms change with the seasons, and the variety is impressive. Come in April and you’ll find tulips and magnolias; by Mother’s Day, there will be roses, peonies and irises.
During my August visit, I saw deep orange and coral-colored zinnias, tall golden sunflowers buzzing with bees, flowering tobacco plants, tangerine-hued leopard lilies, pink-colored pollinators known as fleabane, and tuffs of lavender-hued verbena.
Crunch down one gravel path and you’ll come upon a bubbling fountain. Go down another, and you’ll find benches to plop down on and read a book or shady areas to spread out a blanket.
Fall promises to bring amaranth, dahlias, asters and salvia. Next time I come (and there will be a next time), I’m bringing my dog (on a leash) and a cup of coffee and maybe a pastry to enjoy at one of the vintage garden chairs and tables at the back of the house.
Just remember, when you leave the garden, the trash leaves with you.
Unfortunately, there’s no exploring the historic Goodstay Center Mansion. At least not for now.
It has been temporarily closed by UD’s Department of Environmental Health & Safety, according to a sign on one of the doors.
When asked why the building was closed, a spokeswoman for the University of Delaware sent a statement: “Goodstay is home to one of the oldest continuously kept gardens in Delaware, with the origins of the garden (and the building there) dating to the 1700s. With older structures, it is important to routinely assess and address any maintenance priorities in order to ensure a safe visitor experience. At this time, only the gardens are still fully accessible to the public.”
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Patricia Talorico writes about food, restaurants, true crime, and Delaware history. You can find her on Instagram, X and Facebook. Email ptalorico@delawareonline.com. Sign up for her Delaware Eats newsletter.
DOVER, Del. (WPVI) — Delaware State Police are investigating a controversial traffic stop making the rounds on social media.
The video shows a trooper forcing a woman out of her car, slamming her to the ground, punching and tasing her.
It happened on July 7, in Dover, Delaware.
But Delaware State Police say the video doesn’t tell the whole story. They released a statement to provide what they call necessary context and clarity.
State police say the woman, identified as 38-year-old Sierra Hopkins, was initially pulled over in the area of S. Bay Road and Lafferty Lane in Dover for having suspended tags, no car insurance, and no driver’s license.
She was issued citations and let go, but then stopped again minutes later by the same trooper on E. Lebanon Road, who decided to follow protocol and have her car towed.
State police say he did this because Hopkins had been cited for the same violations five days earlier.
Things quickly escalated during this stop, with police stating she refused to leave her car, resisting, kicking and scratching the trooper in the face.
It all happened while several juveniles were in the car.
“This is such a vulnerable and tender moment… I’m sure her children were present, which brings another cause of concern because that’s trauma,” said Fleur McKendell, President of Delaware NAACP State Conference.
McKendell says her organization is pushing for a full and thorough investigation.
“It’s really deeply concerning. It’s evoked a lot of strong emotions from myself, my organization, as well as the public. I think it’s important to understand the full context of the content we have viewed before reaching conclusions, so I’m very eager to review available video footage and the circumstances that preceded and occurred during that incident,” says McKendell.
Delaware Governor Matt Meyer is also weighing in on this confrontation.
He released the following statement to Action News:
“Every law-enforcement officer is entrusted with a duty to protect, to serve, and to uphold the dignity and rights of every person, in every community. Policing relies on trust. That trust is not automatic; it is earned every day through mutual respect, integrity and transparency. The people of Delaware deserve transparency, and this administration will not turn away from that responsibility.”
Hopkins was later charged with assault of a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest; driving without a license, endangering the welfare of children and other registration violations.
State police did not mention the current status of the trooper.
Copyright © 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.
Watch the votes take place for the future of the Montchanin inn
Watch the New Castle County Board of Adjustment vote on whether the historic Inn at Montchanin should become a new neuro-rehab site, Dec. 18, 2025.
A medical group that wanted to create a brain injury rehabilitation center at the Inn at Montchanin Village & Spa but was denied by New Castle County’s Board of Adjustment has found a new location in Delaware City.
Delaware NeuroRehab has purchased the two-story Tilton Building at Fort DuPont, a facility that had been part of the Governor Bacon Health Center. The building has been listed for $3.15 million.
A subdivision was approved by the Delaware City Council in April.
The site at 2546 Colter Road will become the state’s first comprehensive post-acute inpatient brain injury rehabilitation center, according to the medical group. It will serve individuals recovering from traumatic brain injuries, strokes, neurological disorders, and other acquired brain injuries.
Construction and renovation for the 57,000-square-foot facility will begin soon, the group’s spokeswoman said. The 28-bed rehabilitation center is scheduled to open in 2027.
The historic Fort DuPont campus is along the Delaware River and the C&D Canal. The land had been a military installation dating back to the Civil War and is named for Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, a Civil War Naval hero. It became a training facility until the end of World War II.
Fort DuPont was acquired by the state in 1947 and hosted the Governor Bacon Health Center. In 1992, it became part of the state park system.
Plans for the 219-acre site include new homes, shops, and gathering spaces while preserving and adapting many of the former military buildings dating back to the 19th century.
The Tilton Building was originally constructed in 1909 and reconstructed in 1936 following a fire, according to a brochure from Emory Hill, a commercial real estate and property management group. It served as the barracks for the First Regiment of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stationed at Fort DuPont. The building housed up to 628 enlisted men and supported the regiment’s engineering operations at the fort.
Later, it was a hospital for children and elderly patients. It was named for Dr. James Tilton, a Delaware physician and the first surgeon general of the U.S. after the Revolutionary War in 1948. The medical facility closed in the 1990s.
Last summer, Delaware NeuroRehab, which has outpatient locations in Dover, Newark, and Lewes, revealed plans to purchase the historic Inn at Montchanin Village & Spa from LeDee Lickle Wakefield, an owner and trustee. The upscale hotel, owned by descendants of the du Pont family, is on a triangle-shaped plot bounded by Route 100 and Kirk and Rockland roads.
In July 2025, an attorney representing Haresh Sampathkumar of Delaware NeuroRehab Inpatient LLC contacted New Castle County’s Board of Adjustment and said the doctor planned to buy the historic Inn, which, in the mid-19th century, was home to laborers who worked at the nearby DuPont Co. powder mills and at Winterthur estate. Wakefield’s parents turned the site into a hotel in the early 1990s.
Sampathkumar wanted to repurpose the historic Inn at Montchanin, located about 10 miles northwest of Wilmington, as a 34-bed short-term recovery facility that would have provided brain-injured patients with physical, occupational, speech, and other rehabilitation services.
Sampathkumar said the rehabilitation center was needed and filled a gap in care for patients who often must leave the state to receive specialized post-acute rehabilitation services.
The doctor said he had no plans to change the exterior of the buildings on the site, other than installing ramps that would have made them compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. He said the 76-seat Krazy Kat’s restaurant, open since 1996 in a former blacksmith shop, and the Inn’s spa, located in a stone barn on the property, would continue to operate.
Delaware NeuroRehab needed a variance from the county Board of Adjustment because the more than 4-acre site is slightly smaller than the 5 acres required for an institutional residential building.
Residents of the affluent Montchanin area, which has million-dollar homes, opposed the plan, while the county’s Land Use Department had recommended its approval. The Board of Adjustment voted against the plan, with one member citing the property was too small for its planned use. The variance was denied in December 2025.
The Inn at Montchanin Village & Spa and the Krazy Kat’s restaurant went back on the market for $7 million this past February. According to a July 9 listing, it is still for sale. The listing said to contact the broker for the current sale price.
The Delaware City location for the Delaware NeuroRehab has the same goals as what were proposed for the Inn at the Montchanin site. Delaware NeuroRehab said the new rehabilitation center will provide an intensive program designed to help patients gain independence and transition back into their homes, communities, and workplaces.
“Too many Delaware families are forced to travel out of state during one of the most difficult times in their lives,” said Sampathkumar, founder and medical director of Delaware NeuroRehab, in a prepared statement. “Our vision is to provide nationally recognized brain injury rehabilitation close to home, allowing patients to recover while remaining connected to their families, caregivers, and support systems, and ultimately return to meaningful daily activities including work.”
The project is expected to create more than 60 healthcare and support positions.
Patricia Talorico writes about food, restaurants and Delaware history. You can find her on Instagram, X and Facebook. Email ptalorico@delawareonline.com. Sign up for her Delaware Eats newsletter.
Measles in Pennsylvania worries Delaware health officals
Delaware health officials are on high alert as measles cases rise in Pennsylvania.
As measles cases increase in Pennsylvania, Delaware health officials say they are on high alert, warning that “infectious diseases don’t care about state borders.”
Dr. Ayanna Buckner, chief physician in the Delaware Division of Public Health’s Office of Epidemiology, said as of July 9, Delaware did not yet have any confirmed measles cases.
But she noted the state is vulnerable given its close proximity to outbreak locations, prior exposure incidents in Delaware and the highly contagious nature of the disease.
She also noted Delaware has already encountered potential measles threats this year, including an exposure linked to an out-of-state patient who sought treatment at Nemours Children’s Hospital and the detection of measles in a Lewes wastewater sample.
“We do feel that our Delaware community is at high risk,” Buckner said. “We spend so much time doing investigations around infectious diseases, and measles is the one that we are on pins and needles about this summer.”
As of July 8, Pennsylvania had 101 confirmed measles cases so far in 2026, up from 94 on July 6. The majority of those were in Lancaster County – 60 total cases this year, including 52 since late April – and Lebanon County – 20 cases. These counties do not border Delaware.
However, four cases have been confirmed in Chester County since April. Chester borders the First State.
“We can’t say, ‘Oh, that’s over there in that state; we’re [OK],’” Buckner said. “Again, because infectious diseases don’t respect state borders.”
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. Quotations are verbatim.
Question: How concerned should Delaware residents be about measles?
Answer: So far this year, the Division of Public Health has issued two health alerts about measles. The first was in February, when an unvaccinated resident of another state who was infected sought treatment at the Nemours Children’s Hospital emergency department. Health officials notified anyone who was potentially exposed and conducted contact tracing.
The second alert came in April, after routine wastewater testing in Lewes detected measles in a water sample.
“We were concerned that a measles case would pop up in Delaware, but that never happened. So we are making a guess that perhaps someone was traveling through the area. But again, if someone with measles travels through here, they could still potentially expose people that they come in contact with in Delaware.”
If a fully vaccinated person is exposed to measles, then visits or cares for an unvaccinated person, what’s the risk to the unvaccinated person?
Everything in the study of infectious diseases is a risk calculation, and a situation like that would be considered low risk. But “that is why vaccination is so important.”
What would you say to someone who is hesitant about vaccination?
“I cannot give a stronger recommendation for them, especially at this time. And I say especially at this time because every meeting I’m in, when I’m meeting with other states, when I’m attending national meetings, we’re always talking about measles.”
Given large-scale public events throughout the region this summer, such as the FIFA World Cup and American 250th anniversary events, “one of our biggest concerns is measles.”
My child isn’t old enough to be vaccinated. Are there common sense precautions I can take?
The first dose for infants is usually given between 12 and 15 months. Some states with outbreaks are recommending that babies get them earlier. Delaware is not one of them. However, it has long been recommended that a baby six months old or older who is planning to travel abroad get the measles vaccine.
“Be thoughtful about prevention and be really vigilant. If someone is telling you they’ve got a rash, they’ve got a cough, really try not to be around them. So often folks are like, ‘Oh, I can’t miss work,’ or ‘I don’t want to miss this playdate.’ But if someone’s sick, don’t bring your baby around.”
If I suspect myself or my child has measles, should I show up unannounced at a doctor’s office?
No. Call ahead and follow the health care facility’s instructions.
Are adults who were vaccinated decades ago still protected?
If you were born before 1957, you are considered immune. If you were fully vaccinated, you’re also considered immune. If you’re concerned, however, your doctor can order a blood test to check for immunity. Such testing is fairly common.
“When we are doing a measles investigation, the first thing we ask is, ‘Are you vaccinated? Can you show us proof of vaccination?’ If we can’t find it in our Delaware database, then we ask people, ‘Can you show us your records?’ If people don’t have them, then we think about whether we need to recommend prophylaxis. But one of the steps in between is people will frequently go and have their (blood) drawn, which can demonstrate immunity.”
If a measles case is identified in Delaware, what happens next?
The process begins by identifying those who were exposed and inquiring about vaccine status. Then, health officials will “make appropriate recommendations about prophylaxis” – or a measure taken to prevent a disease from occurring before it becomes an active illness.
“We will also work with facilities depending on what type of facility it was. If it’s a hospital, we usually can get names and make phone calls to them. But sometimes it’s a public event, and we don’t have someone who can just give us all the names, so we will use social media and/or provide a letter that the facility can provide to inform people. I strongly encourage everyone to follow the Division of Public Health social media pages … We also strongly encourage health professionals, school leaders, business leaders, as appropriate, to sign up for our Delaware Health Alert notification, and that’s on our website.”
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