Historic mansion open for summer tours

Linden Place Mansion, built in 1810 by the seafaring General George DeWolf, has opened for visitors for the 2008 season.

Guided tours of the estate, featured in the film The Great Gatsby with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, will be given Thursdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., Sundays from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. and by appointment through Columbus Day.

Tour highlights include tales of DeWolf family exploits, from their privateering and slave trading to their financial ruin and triumphant return to prosperity during Victorian times. Docents introduce visitors to family members Pomeroy Colt, founder of United States Rubber, now Uniroyal, his mother Theodora DeWolf Colt, who as Madam Colt ran Bristol Society from Linden Place as if she were Queen Victoria and the great actress Ethel Barrymore who married into this most prominent of American families. At the tour's end, visitors are welcome to stroll the sculpture-filled gardens where they will find Greek bronzes and an 18th Century gazebo.

The mansion is located at 500 Hope St. in Bristol.