Harkness Memorial State Park

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Harkness Memorial State Park (230 acres) is a park and botanical garden located at 275 Great Neck Road, Waterford, Connecticut, on the Long Island Sound. It is open to the public every day during the daylight hours.

The park was formerly Eolia, the estate of Edward S. Harkness, heir to a fortune initiated by his father's substantial investments in John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, who purchased the mansion in 1907. From 1918 to 1929, extensive improvements were performed by noted landscape designer Beatrix Jones Farrand. Eolia was left to Connecticut in 1950 and became part of the State Park system in 1952.

It contains a 42-room mansion surrounded by a site containing an Italian Garden, Oriental Garden, Cutting Garden, and greenhouses.


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