Open year-round, the park is approximately 345 acres (140 ha)[1] of land mostly situated along the Brandywine Creek.

Much of the park has been preserved as a mix of wilderness and open space with walking trails and scenic views of the creek and surrounding woods.

Much of the park consists of cultivated lawn that slopes gently upward to a large knoll overlooking the Brandywine.

The 115-foot tall stone structure, which was built between 1899 and 1901, serves as both a water tower and an observation tower as its top floor is an observation deck with large arching windows that provide a 360 degree view of the park and the city of Wilmington.

The tower is directly across the river from the DuPont Experimental Station, where the company produced gunpowder in the early 20th century.

[14] The park (and the vocational school which previously occupied the site) is named after Harry Fletcher Brown, a prominent chemist and philanthropist who served as a Vice President of the DuPont Company and developed gunpowder innovations that helped win World War I.

The Hobbs Tract is 62 acres of land adjoining Valley Garden Park, the former summer estate of U.S.

The estate had served as the location of Twin Lakes Brewing Company and was the childhood home and art studio of painter George Alexis Weymouth, Hobbs' brother.

The park dated back to 1910, when it was formed by land donations from William Poole Bancroft and Alfred I. du Pont, as the two men saw the opportunity to create a new public park during the planning for du Pont's adjacent Nemours estate.