Bellevue State Park
Estate trees, Bellevue Hall, a former horse-training track, and greenway paths invite an easy day in north Wilmington.
Artwork inspired by Stanley Massey Arthurs
The broad oval is the best way to read Bellevue. William du Pont Jr., an avid horseman, made a one-and-an-eighth-mile track here, and its surviving circuit now frames meadow, pond, and quiet walking space. His Bellevue Hall replaced an earlier Gothic-style Woolton Hall; the present building is an event venue, not an always-open house museum.
Beyond the track, find traces of the working estate: a Percheron barn, other outbuildings, and a deliberately varied tree collection. The paved Northern Delaware Greenway gives walkers and cyclists a through-route, while disc golf takes another line across woods and fields. Start with the oval if you have an hour; spend longer if you want to compare formal estate plantings with the less manicured edges.
- Former track
- 1⅛ miles
- Estate owner
- William du Pont Jr.
- Connection
- Northern Delaware Greenway
Quick guide
- Walk the oval
- The former horse track frames a pond and meadow.
- Notice the buildings
- Hall and Percheron barn explain the estate beyond its lawns.
Know before you go
- Circle the pond
- The oval reveals the landscape’s deliberate design.
- Spot working structures
- The barn recalls the estate’s equestrian life.
- Compare trees
- Imported specimens sit beside regional woodland.
- Keep to public areas
- Bellevue Hall is not a walk-in museum.
Good to know
Hall events may restrict immediate grounds, and the building is not a guaranteed public interior tour. The park and adjacent greenway have separate routes.
Notice these
- Horse-track oval
- Bellevue Hall exterior
- Percheron Barn