Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park
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Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park is an arboretum and state park covering over 400 acres (c. 1.6 square kilometres) located in Oyster Bay, New York. It lies between Oyster Bay and Locust Valley on New York, USA's Long Island.
Near the end of America's Gilded Age, the estate named Planting Fields was the home of William Robertson Coe, an insurance and railroad executive, and his wife Mary "Mai" Huttleston (née Rogers) Coe, the youngest daughter of millionaire industrialist Henry H. Rogers, who had been a principal of Standard Oil. It includes the sixty-five-room Coe Hall, greenhouses, gardens, woodland paths, and outstanding plant collections. Its grounds were designed by Guy Lowell, A. R. Sargent, the Olmsted Brothers, and others. Planting Fields also features an herbarium of over 10,000 pressed specimens.
The name "Planting Fields" comes from the Matinecock Indians who cultivated the rich soil in the clearings high above Long Island Sound.
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[edit] History
The history of the present-day property on the famous Gold Coast of Long Island began between 1904 and 1912, when Helen MacGregor Byrne – wife of New York City lawyer James Byrne – purchased six properties collectively referred to as "Upper Planting Fields Farm". The Byrnes hired landscape architect James Greenleaf between 1904 and 1910 to create hedges, perennial borders, and espaliered fruit trees. Notable features from this period are the Rose Arbor, the Circular Pool and the Green Garden Court.
In 1913, William Robertson Coe purchased the house and 353-acre (c. 1.4 square kilometres) estate, and began today's plantings and landscaping under the guidance of the Boston landscaping firm of Guy Lowell and A. R. Sargent. In 1915, Lowell and Sargent oversaw transport of the Fairhaven beech from Fairhaven, Massachusetts, the childhood home of Mary "Mai" Huttleston (née Rogers) Coe (who was the daughter of Henry H. Rogers of Standard Oil). Two gigantic beeches, with root balls thirty feet (nine metres) in diameter, were ferried across Long Island sound in mid-winter. Roads were widened and utility wires temporarily removed to make way. Only one of the two trees survived but it remains today.
The property's first mansion burned to the ground on March 19, 1918; its replacement, the present Coe Hall, was constructed between 1918 and 1921 in the Tudor Revival style and faced in Indiana limestone. It was designed by the firm of Walker and Gillette and was completed in 1921. Images from a book of English country houses and inspired its architecture, especially those of Moyns Park, Athelhampton, and St. Catherine's Court.
William and Mai Coe's interest in rare species of trees and plant collections made the estate a botanical marvel. Mai, who was chronically ill for the last decade of her life, died on December 28, 1924 at the age of forty-nine and is buried nearby. The 353 acre (1.4 km²) estate was deeded to the State of New York in 1949 (during Mr. Coe's lifetime) to become a state park.
[edit] The main gardens
A.R. Sargent created The Italian Blue Pool Garden between 1914 and 1918, with the Tea House built in 1915 to designs by Guy Lowell. Historically this garden was planted with spring-blooming perennials such as delphiniums, irises, peonies, and poppies. It is currently being restored to this original form.
After the death of A.R. Sargent in 1918, the Coes appointed the Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, Massachusetts, with James Frederick Dawson as chief landscape architect, who brought their signature "naturalistic" look to the north side of the property. They completed additions to the Main Greenhouse and Camellia Greenhouse, as well as the Beech Copse, Main Lawn, West Lawn and Heather Garden.
The Green Garden features a circular pool. Nearby Azalea Walks and Vista Path show hundreds of varieties of Azalea and Rhododendron. The Rose Arbor and Rose Garden contain over 680 Tea, shrub, and miniature roses.
The Synoptic Garden displays over 500 types of tree and shrub, arranged in alphabetical order by botanical name.
The Magnolia Collection contains over 80 types of deciduous and evergreen Magnolia.
The Rhododendron Collection shows over 1,000 types of azalea and rhododendron.
The Camellia Greenhouse (Lowell & Sargent/Olmsted Brothers, 1917–1922) was built specifically to house the Camellia collection, which currently consists of over 300 plants. Some come from the Coes' original collection from the island of Guernsey.
The Main Greenhouse (Lowell & Sargent/Olmsted Brothers) was constructed between 1914 and 1929, with a Hibiscus House added in 1929 for the Coes' Hibiscus collection. Today, the Main Greenhouse offers large collections of orchids, cacti and succulents, houseplants, ferns and Begonias, as well as seasonal displays of Chrysanthemum, Poinsettia, Hydrangea, Coleus, etc.
The North Border features the Holly collection, Dwarf Conifer Garden, Conifer Trail, Heather Garden, and Species Rhododendron. The Holly collection includes over 100 different types of evergreen hollies such as English, American, Asian and hybrid forms. The Dwarf Conifer Garden features dozens of varieties of spruce, fir, Chamaecyparis, Juniper, Pine, etc. The nearby full-scale conifers can reach over sixty feet (eighteen metres) tall, and include Sequoia, Dawn Redwood, Larch, Fir, Spruce and Pine, with a large assortment of Rhododendron species under the canopy. The Heather Garden features low growing heaths and heathers, as well as Rhododendron, Azalea, and other flowering plants.
The Dahlia Garden offers several hundred varieties of show-quality Dahlias.
Finally, there are over 200 acres (c. 0.8 square kilometres) of woodland at Planting Fields, with miles of walking trails through the woods.
[edit] College campus period
During an interim period between 1955 and 1964, the land was used as a campus for a State University of New York (SUNY) college of science and engineering, which was known as SUNY Long Island Center. This eventually became the State University of New York at Stony Brook at a new location farther east on Long Island. At first all activities were located inside Coe Hall, but as the college grew, dormitories were moved to the stables and temporary structures were erected on the grounds for classes and laboratories.
[edit] Planting Fields today
Today it is operated by a foundation, and Planting Fields, with its world-renowned arboretum and the Coe Hall mansion, is a popular attraction. The historic gates, built in 1712 in Sussex, England, which Coe had imported, have been used as a setting for numerous motion pictures.
