HISTORY BLACK POWDER AND HAGLEY MUSEUM 1975.

HAGLEY MUSEUM AND BLACK POWDER HISTORY

OCTOBER 1975

Hagley Museum management decided to restore an long idle

hydroelectric plant which used the energy of Brandywine Creek ,

back in the late 1800's .

Sometime in May 1976 the water driven turbine will furnish

500 kilowatts to the 21 buildings on the 200 acre site which is

located north of Delaware highway 141 on the Brandywine . It was

the home of a black powder factory developed in 1802 by Eleuthere

Irenee duPont from France. Closed in 1921 due to the development of

dynamite which made black powder obsolete.

Eventually the site , named Eleutherian Mills , became an

industrial museum that thousands of people visit every year.

Recently, staff archeologist under James Akerman began probing

the area where the hydroelectric plant stood and historian learned that

Alford I duPont , in 1884, introduced electricity from a steam operated

generator at the site to the mill and two churches in the neighborhood.

The steam operated generator was expensive to operate and in

1892 A. I. and E. I. DuPont turned to the Brandywine Creek for its

energy and built the “New Century Power House” to furnish power to

the mills.

In 1927, six years after the mills had closed, the hydroelectric

plant was leveled..

The Ackerman diggers found a low brick wall around a square,

a 30 foot deep pit filled with old bottles and 1800's machine parts, and

mounting fixtures but learned the turbine and its generator had been

removed 50 years earlier.

Rebuilding should be finished in May 1976 and visitors will see the

generator and governor at work.

The cost, $250,000 , with help from the National Trust for

Historic Preservation , will help with the $50,000 a year electric bill

from DP&L.

Abstract 22 October 2018 by Harrison H. from the October 19, 1975,

Wilmington Sunday News Journal column of Phil Milford.