Then tea was served in Port Royal Parlor, after which guests were taken to their rooms, Gilliand said. In the hall, it was mandatory for guests to sign the guestbook. The weekend guests arrived on Friday afternoons and were received in Port Royal Hall.
du Pont’s likes and dislikes, it did not take much to make him happy.”
du Pont put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Maurice, you have learned your lessons well, you are not color blind any longer.” This shows you that when you knew Mr. du Pont replied, ‘Oh yes, I have had this set of china for a long time, and this is the first that I was able to match it successfully.’ As I was standing nearby, he looked at me with the corner of his eye and winked, but he said, ‘I must admit to you it was Maurice who achieved this masterpiece.’ After dinner, Mr. On one occasion when guests entered the dining room, they exclaimed, ‘Oh, Harry, Harry what a beautiful combination,’ and Mr.
#Winterthur artisan market free#
du Pont would give me a free hand to make a selection. du Pont would ask me my opinion and then would say, ‘Maurice, Maurice, you must be color blind!’,” Gilliand remembered. On Wednesdays, a gardener would bring flower samples into the house for du Pont and Gilliand to match with china, table mats, and glassware for the dinner. On the weekends, the house would be filled with 16 to 18 house guests, with other visitors present only for meals, making two dozen people for a formal dinner. du Pont was in complete charge of the house and planned everything, planned all the menus, and planned all the table settings,” Gilliand said. “Well, yes, much more so because any other house where I worked, the lady was in charge, but here Mr. “Was the operation here different in any way from the other houses you had worked in? Was Mr. “Just as he was head gardener,” the interviewer observed. du Pont was the head butler,” Gilliand replied. “And you directed the rest of the staff?” the interviewer inquired. du Pont for the rest of the staff,” Gilliand recalled during an interview that is part of ongoing initiatives to preserve the history of the estate. “My duties were to set the table, of course, serve the meals, serve the teas, and serve cocktails and all that, and I was the man responsible to Mr. Gilliand nonetheless accepted and went on to learn a lot from du Pont. Gilliand was flattered when du Pont made the offer, although he noted that du Pont warned him at the time that he was demanding and expected perfection. After two years, Gilliand was promoted to butler. There were about five footmen and a butler among a staff of 20. Gilliand’s wife, Doris, was hired as a chambermaid, and the couple lived in a small house on the estate. Gilliand came from France to America in 1930 and he worked in houses on Long Island before coming to Winterthur.
As Gilliand would quickly learn, du Pont was a renowned horticulturist with specific tastes, a love of food, an eye for décor, and a complicated disposition that could be prickly and kind, oftentimes at once. Today we’re going to tell you some stories that were collected in 1973 from Maurice Gilliand, who began in 1944 to serve as a footman to Winterthur Museum founder Henry Francis du Pont (1880–1969). Winterthur has been home to three generations of the du Pont family, and it was a self-sufficient community where more than 250 people ran a thriving farming operation that included beef and dairy cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, horses, fruit, and vegetables. Terrific Tuesdays this year will tell the story of the families who lived, worked, and played at Winterthur for decades before it became the museum, garden, and library that it is today.Ĭrafts, games, and demonstrations- all inspired by families who called this place home- will introduce history, art, conservation, and storytelling to kids ages 3 to 10 and the adults they bring along. We have Story Time scheduled for July 6 and 20, and our popular Terrific Tuesdays begin July 4 and continue weekly in July and August from 10 am to 3 pm. In fact, this fall we’re expanding our family programming on Saturdays, so stay tuned for more on that.īut summer is here, and there is much to do. Today, Winterthur is still about family, with the Enchanted Woods play area enthralling young children for hours and upcoming programs that will entertain and educate family members, young and not-as-young alike. Family has been at the heart of Winterthur’s story since the du Ponts settled here more than 200 years ago.
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