Historic Mount Hope Estate & Winery

The Home of Charles & Daisy Grubb and the Setting for Our Show

What a grand property this Mount Hope Estate, with a history spanning four continuous generations of the Grubb family, dating back to the original patriarch, Peter, of nearby Hopewell, who established the famous iron furnace in Cornwall. Peter’s son, Henry Bates Grubb, built the Federal Mount Hope Mansion in 1800 and laid out the formal gardens that surround the house today.

Henry’s son, Clement Bates Grubb, purchased the estate in 1885 and it was Clement’s daughter, Daisy Elizabeth Brooke who was the last of the family to live in the Mansion. It was she who Victorianized the manor home in 1895.

Daisy was the harbinger of entertainment at the Estate, holding concerts, poetry readings and dramatic productions. Indeed, Daisy herself painted some of the ornate artwork on the ceilings, having studied fine art in Florence, Italy. She added a ballroom for dancing and a billiard room where the men could retire after dinner to smoke their cigars.

Miss Daisy passed away in 1936, and the Estate was subdivided and sold. It passed through several owners until December 1979, when it was purchased by Chuck Romito, himself a patriarch of sorts if you consider he’s certainly the father of what we today lovingly call the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. The Mansion is utilized for the highly popular Edgar Allan Poe Evermore and A Dickens of a Christmas. There could not be a better setting to bring the works of both Poe and Dickens to life.

Today, the second and third floors of the spacious Mansion are used by the staff of Mount Hope Estate as offices. Extensive renovations to the home have been undertaken and continue today, all with an eye and an ear for entertainment and culture, and with the understanding that the Mansion at Mount Hope is to be a home for all to enjoy. We think Miss Daisy would be pleased.