Interview with George A. Weymouth

In 1967, George A. "Frolic" Weymouth and a group of concerned purchased a Chadds Ford meadow slated for industrial development and preserved it as open space. They founded the Brandywine Conservancy and, shortly afterwards, rescued yet another nearby site on the banks of the Brandywine River from industrial development, turning its abandoned mill building into what is now the Brandywine River Museum. The following is excerpted from an interview with Mr. Weymouth.

"The Brandywine Conservancy started very simply: we wanted to obtain conservation easements to keep the river safe. We had always used it for recreation. We didn't tube in those days, we canoed a lot, and we used to swim in it. And so we said, "Stop the factories, and let's preserve the river visually." We started the Conservancy for reasons of beauty, and how beautifully that worked - have the area around the river privately owned yet publicly used. It was a wonderful solution, and people were very supportive. Then we became more scientific and started programs to preserve the ecology of the river and its flood plains.

There was also the phenomena of the artistic tradition here in the valley. The land was an essential impetus and part of the basic philosophy behind the Wyeth family and many of Howard Pyle's students. The environmental impact on their art was enormous; just look at Andrew and Jamie Wyeth's paintings. Had new factories and housing developments gone up right here in the middle of Chadds Ford, it would have stopped the painting tradition that had been going on for near 70 years.

I remember the day we bought what is now the museum. It was hot and I was wearing a straw hat to protect my head from the sun. Admiral Fahrney, a wonderful guy who lived nearby, had agreed to bid for us at an outdoor auction. We had just started the Conservancy and bought the meadow and I didn't want all the community people to be alarmed that we were trying to buy everything. The deal was that when I took my hat off, as a signal, Admiral Fahrney was to stop bidding. The Conservancy had only about $100,000 that we could possibly borrow at the time; we had no more to spend if the bidding topped that. Well, when the bidding got up to $100,000, I took my hat off.

Several minutes later, the bidding stopped at $150,000, whereupon the Admiral came back and shook my hand and said, "Congratulations, you got it!" I was incredulous, "But I just took my hat off!" What had happened was that the sun was very strong and I had unthinkingly put my hat back on, and the Admiral thought I meant for him to go on bidding. If it wasn't for that hat, we would never have gotten the building.

I don't think that my age - I was 31 when we started the Conservancy - was a factor either way. If there was a problem locally we'd say, "Let's do something about it. Let's get a group of people together." We had no idea that the Brandywine Conservancy was going to become this big when we started. There were not many major environmental causes at the time. When I made speeches to raise money, I didn't use the words "environment" or "ecology," because people didn't understand the meaning of those words. It was all so new at the time. But people loved what they had here, and they appreciated the river. That's why we had so much support."