Brandywine Museum of Art

The museum is a program of the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art. It opened as the Brandywine River Museum in 1971 through the efforts of local painter "Frolic" Weymouth, who also served on its board. The facility had been Hoffman’s Mill, a gristmill built in 1864 that was among the conservancy’s first preservation efforts. Prior to its purchase by the conservancy, the facility had operated as the Lexington Lumber Company. (Its main competitor, further down the Brandywine in Chadds Ford, was the A. Duie Pyle Lumber Company.)

In 2014, the Brandywine River Museum changed its name to the Brandywine Museum of Art. In September 2021, the museum's lower level was flooded due to the remnants of Hurricane Ida with mechanical systems, lecture rooms, classrooms and office spaces damaged and estimates around $6 million. The museum still opened for the holiday season in limited capacity later in the year.

Location

The museum, sometimes referred to as the Wyeth Museum, is housed in a converted nineteenth-century mill overlooking the banks of the Brandywine Creek. The glass-walled lobby overlooks the river and countryside that inspired the Brandywine School earlier in the early 20th century.

Wildflower and Native Plant Gardens

The Brandywine Wildflower and Native Plant Gardens are gardens at the museum. The gardens were established in 1974 to a design by F. M. Mooberry. In 1979 Lady Bird Johnson dedicated the gardens to Ford B. Draper and Henry A. Thouron for their contributions to the Brandywine Conservancy. The gardens include wildflowers, trees, and shrubs set within landscaped woodlands, wetland, flood plain, and meadow.