Gibraltar Estate was built in 1844 and has stood at the western edge of Wilmington since. Its terraced gardens were designed between 1916 and 1923 by Marian Cruger Coffin, one of the first women to practice landscape architecture in the United States, and the estate’s perimeter and retaining walls are built from Brandywine granite quarried near the site. The marble path, staircase, and upper promenade connecting the mansion to the gardens below are original to Coffin’s design. None of it was visible when EHS arrived. Decades of invasive growth had consumed the full extent of the grounds, and what lay beneath it was not fully known until the work was underway.

EHS held responsibility for all masonry and grounds. The clearing came first, systematic and thorough, and what it revealed shaped everything that followed. The granite walls along the estate’s perimeter, behind the greenhouse and outbuildings, emerged from the growth in need of extensive structural repair. The upper promenade was uncovered in the process; it had been buried so completely that no one knew it was there. The marble staircase and path came up intact. Each discovery required a different assessment and a different hand. Repairing historic Brandywine granite to structural standard, in the original material, to the gauge and coursing the original masons used, is precise work. It demands knowing what you are looking at before you decide what to do about it.

The walls are repaired and standing. The promenade is restored. The marble stairs are back. The grounds are clear and planted, and the property looks the way a site on the National Register of Historic Places should look. Coffin’s design is visible again.

Gibraltar Estate · Wilmington, DE