Linden Place Mansion, built in 1810 by the seafaring General George DeWolf, will open for visitors for the 2008 season beginning on Saturday, May 3rd. Guided tours of the estate, featured in the film The Great Gatsby with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, will be given Thursdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., Sundays from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. and by appointment through Columbus Day.
Visitors will see one of the best examples of Federal architecture in New England, from the magnificent Palladian windows to the fluted Corinthian columns, which gracefully flank the front entrance to the mansion. Also of architectural significance are the later added gothic conservatory and four-story spiral staircase.
Tour highlights include tales of DeWolf family exploits, from their privateering and slave trading to their financial ruin and triumphant return to prosperity during Victorian times. Docents introduce visitors to family members Pomeroy Colt, founder of United States Rubber, now Uniroyal, his mother Theodora DeWolf Colt, who as Madam Colt ran Bristol Society from Linden Place as if she were Queen Victoria and the great actress Ethel Barrymore who married in to this most prominent of American families. At the tour’s end, visitors are welcome to stroll the sculpture-filled gardens where they will find Greek bronzes and an 18th Century gazebo.
Today the estate is sponsored by the non-profit Friends of Linden Place, which was created in 1989, based on the urgent need to save the magnificent 1810 DeWolf mansion from destruction or development. Due to the formidable drive of the earliest volunteers, the “crown jewel” of Bristol’s historic waterfront district was saved and is today maintained through visitation, fundraisers, grants and memberships.
