Mother Nature welcomed the 37th Annual Point-to-Point on Sunday, May 3, with weather well-suited to the popular event’s panoply of activities.
The ever-genial George A. “Frolic” Weymouth of Chadds Ford led the Parade of Carriages, driving a 1904 Brewster & Co. Park Drag. A last-minute entry was another Chadds Ford resident, Jamie Wyeth, whose recent retrospective broke attendance records at the Brandywine River Museum.
Many Chadds Ford residents, eager to soak up the spectacle, set up chairs along the parade route from Weymouth’s Big Bend farm to the 1,000-acre estate at Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library.
For the first time, race-goers were given a chance to wager. “Betting” involved paying $5 and filling out an entry form. The winning entry was drawn from all of those who had chosen the winning horse. The prize for each of the four races was $500.
Big hats and big purses won the day, occasionally eclipsed by some elaborate tailgating spreads. The elegant chapeaus did double duty, offering wearers a stylish touch as well as protection from the sun. Purses for the races ranged from $10,000 to $25,000.
Point-to-Point helps support the myriad programs held at the former estate of the late Henry Francis du Pont, who envisioned the property as a public museum as he was expanding it.
Considered the premier museum of American decorative arts, Winterthur reflects both early America and the du Pont family’s life on the property. It boasts a 60-acre naturalistic garden and a research library that serves scholars from around the world.
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