Millionaire Alfred I. du Pont showered largesse upon the state's poor, so he had much sway with Governor C. Douglass Buck in steering the Welfare Home commission to his own architect-son in the depths of the Great Depression. The Administration and Hospital Building, a large-scale exercise in red-brick Colonial Revival in a composition of three main blocks, has a muscular, curving Doric portico of limestone that recalls Massena's contemporaneous Temple of Love at Nemours (see
BR26.4
). Walls inside were warm-colored, for psychological benefit.
Delaware Hospital for the Chronically Ill (State Welfare Home)
Delaware Postcard Collection, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Del
Delaware Hospital for the Chronologically Ill
1931–1933, Massena and du Pont. Sunnyside Rd., near U.S. 13