The remnants of Hurricane Ida that hit our region on Sept. 1 will not soon be forgotten in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and at the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art.
As the storm headed north, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) models were predicting a flood level peak of around 14 feet at our campus — home to the Brandywine River Museum of Art. The reality ended up being far worse. USGS sensors in the Brandywine River near the Museum recorded 21.04 feet at the height of the flood, shattering the previous record by four feet.
Floodwaters overtook the Brandywine’s 15-acre Chadds Ford campus in devastating fashion — breaching every building’s lower level and forcing the temporary closure of the Museum.
While all of the art in the galleries at the Brandywine River Museum of Art were safe and unharmed by the storm, the Museum’s lowest level — containing a lecture room, classroom, offices, mechanical systems and more — had significant flood damage, as did 10 other office and mixed-use buildings on the Brandywine’s campus.
Thankfully our three National Historic Landmark properties were spared by the storm, which include the N. C. Wyeth House & Studio, the Andrew Wyeth Studio, and the Kuerner Farm.
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While we counted our blessings about the safety of our staff, art collection and historic properties, once the waters subsided, we also began to see the widespread devastation where floodwaters had been. Preliminary estimates indicate total damages may well exceed $6 million dollars across the Brandywine’s campus.
After navigating multiple closures and reopenings of the Museum due to the pandemic, and now reeling from the aftereffects of this flood, it would be an understatement to say it’s been a challenging year at the Brandywine, but we’ve been heartened by the extreme generosity and support of our community. The Brandywine has also been fortunate in assembling a remarkable team of experts and skilled craftspeople — from structural and electrical engineers to architects and project managers — to help chart the long and complex path forward, which includes relocating equipment and other systems well beyond Ida’s flood level.
While there is still much work left to do before the Brandywine River Museum of Art is fully restored to its prior functionality, we are thrilled to be able to reopen to the public this holiday season, with the return of the Brandywine Railroad holiday train display and highlights from the permanent collection.
The Brandywine’s iconic O-gauge model train display has been a holiday favorite since 1972, and we are grateful that tradition will still be able to continue this year. The display features both toy and scale model trains running on 2,000 feet of track with more than 1,000 delightfully detailed pieces, including locomotives, passenger and freight trains, and trolleys that pass through a small village, a farm, factories, and even a carnival and a drive-in movie theater.
Also returning — albeit in a limited capacity this year — will be the Brandywine’s whimsical Critter ornaments decorating the holiday trees in the Museum’s atrium and also available to purchase during the annual Holiday Critter Sale.
Each year since 1971, these distinctive ornaments have been carefully handcrafted by a dedicated group of volunteers using only natural materials such as teasel, pinecones, acorns, eggshells, flowers and seed pods. All of the ornaments that had been made for this year’s upcoming sale — over 8,200 new creations — were destroyed by floodwaters as well as many decades of Critter ornaments that have been highlights of the holiday display, some of which date back to the early 1980s.
After this devastating loss, the Brandywine’s Critter volunteers rolled up their sleeves, fired up their glue guns and got back to work, quickly creating an amazing range of new ornaments in time for the annual holiday sale, which is being held offsite this year at the nearby Chadds Ford Historical Society on Dec. 4 and 5.
A smaller selection of Critter ornaments and houses also are available for purchase online and can be shipped across the country by visiting www.brandywine.org/critters.
Additionally, the Museum’s holiday trees will still be decorated with Critters for visitors to enjoy, thanks to the generosity of staff, volunteers and others who donated their own Critter collections back to the Brandywine — including some ornaments that had graced the White House holiday display in 1984.
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It’s been a long road to get here, but we look forward to once again welcoming visitors back to the Brandywine this holiday season.
Want to go? The Brandywine River Museum of Art will be open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (closed on Christmas Day), with the Brandywine Railroad train display on view through Jan. 9. Learn more at brandywine.org/museum
Virginia Logan is the Frolic Weymouth executive director and CEO of the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art.