Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, which includes the Coe Hall Historic House Museum, is an arboretum and state park covering over located in the village of Upper Brookville in the town of

Oyster Bay, New York The Town of Oyster Bay is the easternmost of the three towns which make up Nassau County, New York, United States. Part of the New York metropolitan area, it is the only town in Nassau County to extend from the North Shore to the South Shore ...

. Near the end of America's

Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Wes ...

, the estate named Planting Fields was the home of

William Robertson Coe William Robertson Coe (June 8, 1869 – March 15, 1955) was an insurance, railroad and business executive, a major owner and breeder of Thoroughbred racehorses, as well as a collector of Americana and an important philanthropist for the academic di ...

, an

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

and

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

executive, and his wife Mary "Mai" Huttleston (née Rogers) Coe, the youngest daughter of

millionaire A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. Depending on the currency, a certain level of prestige is associated with being a millionaire. In countries that use the short scal ...

industrialist

Henry H. Rogers Henry Huttleston Rogers (January 29, 1840 – May 19, 1909) was an American industrialist and financier. He made his fortune in the oil refining business, becoming a leader at Standard Oil. He also played a major role in numerous corporations a ...

, who had been a principal of Standard Oil. It includes the 67-room Coe Hall, greenhouses, gardens, woodland paths, and outstanding plant collections. Its grounds were designed by

Guy Lowell Guy Lowell (August 6, 1870 – February 4, 1927), was an American architect and landscape architect. Biography Born in Boston, Lowell was the son of Mary Walcott (Goodrich) and Edward Jackson Lowell, and a member of Boston's well-known Lowe ...

, A. R. Sargent, the

Olmsted Brothers The Olmsted Brothers company was a landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape architect Frederick Law O ...

, and others. Planting Fields also features an herbarium of over 10,000 pressed specimens. The name "Planting Fields" comes from the

Matinecock Matinecock is a village located within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 810 at the 2010 census. History Matinecock incorporated as a village on April 2, 1928, in order to ...

Indians who cultivated the rich soil in the clearings high above Long Island Sound.

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 Helen may refer to: People * Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world * Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress * Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places * Helen, ...

– wife of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

lawyer James Byrne – purchased six farming properties which she collectively referred to as "Upper Planting Fields Farm". The Byrnes hired landscape architect

James Leal Greenleaf James Leal Greenleaf (July 30, 1857 – April 15, 1933) was an American landscape architect and civil engineer. Early in his career, he was a well-known landscape architect who designed the gardens and grounds of many large estates in Connect ...

between 1904 and 1910 to create hedges, perennial borders, and

espalier Espalier ( or ) is the horticultural and ancient agricultural practice of controlling woody plant growth for the production of fruit, by pruning and tying branches to a frame. Plants are frequently shaped in formal patterns, flat against a struct ...

ed fruit trees. Though notable features from this period are the Rose Arbor, the Circular Pool and the Green Garden Court, Coe recalled in later life, "Mrs Byrne had done very little in the shape of landscaping. She had a small lawn around the ridge of the residence" and next to it a cornfield. Most of the property, Coe recalled, was "just a jungle of scrub, locusts, and other trees". In 1913,

purchased the house and estate, and began today's plantings and landscaping under the guidance of the Boston landscaping firm of

and A. Robeson Sargent, son of Charles Sargent, founder of the Arnold Arboretum. In 1915, Lowell and Sargent oversaw transport of two gigantic beeches from

Fairhaven, Massachusetts Fairhaven (Massachusett: ) is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on the South Coast of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River flows into Buzzards Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean. The town shares a harbor wi ...

, the childhood home of Mary "Mai" Huttleston (née Rogers) Coe (who was the daughter of

of Standard Oil). The trees, with root balls 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 the journey. Unfortunately, the second beech tree has recently died, and was taken down in February 2006. However, the “Fairhaven Beech” will live on: seedlings were collected from the tree from 2000 to 2005. Massive purchases of rhododendrons were made in England, Japanese crabapples and cherries, and forest and specimen trees, lindens, Scotch and red pines, oaks. Through the English nurseryman Glomar Waterer, who had sold Mr Coe the rhododendrons, came an offer in 1916 of an unusually fine collection of

camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species, with some controv ...

s located in Guernsey, for which the Camellia House was constructed by "Bobo" Sargent in autumn 1917, and filled with the plants grown in tubs that were shipped the following spring. Most of them were selected varieties of ''

Camellia japonica ''Camellia japonica'', known as common camellia, or Japanese camellia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Theaceae. There are thousands of cultivars of ''C. japonica'' in cultivation, with many colors and forms of flowers. In the U.S. ...

'' but there were six ''

Camellia reticulata ''Camellia reticulata'' (syn. ''C. heterophylla'')
is a

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

style and faced in

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

. It was designed by the firm of Walker & Gillette and was completed in 1921. Images from a book of English country houses inspired its architecture, especially those of

Moyns Park Moyns Park is a Grade I listed Elizabethan country house in Birdbrook, north Essex, England. The home of the Gent family, until the late 19th century, was once owned by Major-General Cecil Robert St John Ives, maternal grandfather of Ivar Bry ...

, 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 estate was deeded to the

state of New York New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. state ...

in 1949 (during Mr. Coe's lifetime) to become a state park.

The main gardens

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

delphinium ''Delphinium'' is a genus of about 300 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, native throughout the Northern Hemisphere and also on the high mountains of tropical Africa. The genus was erected by Carl Linn ...

iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...

es,

peonies The peony or paeony is a flowering plant in the genus ''Paeonia'' , the only genus in the family Paeoniaceae . Peonies are native to Asia, Europe and Western North America. Scientists differ on the number of species that can be distinguished, ...

, and

poppies Poppies can refer to: *Poppy, a flowering plant * The Poppies (disambiguation) - multiple uses *'' Poppies (film)'' - Children's BBC remembrance animation *"Poppies", a song by Patti Smith Group from their 1976 album '' Radio Ethiopia'' *"Poppies", ...

. It is currently being restored to this original form. After the unexpected death of A.R. Sargent in 1918, the Coes appointed the

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

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

s. 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 ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...

. The Rhododendron Collection shows over 1,000 types of azalea and rhododendron. The Camellia Greenhouse ( Lowell & Sargent, 1917; revised and extended by

, 1917–1922) was built specifically to house the

Camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species, with some controv ...

collection, originally of 114 full-grown plants; currently the collection consists of over 300 plants. It was James F. Dawson's idea to sink the tubs directly in the ground, rather than trundle them out seasonally, the usual procedure for camellias grown in greenhouses. The Main Greenhouse ( Lowell & Sargent/

) was constructed between 1914 and 1929, with a Hibiscus House added in 1929 for the Coes'

Hibiscus ''Hibiscus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. The genus is quite large, comprising several hundred species that are native to warm temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. Member species ...

collection. Today, the Main Greenhouse offers large collections of

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...

s, cacti and succulents, houseplants,

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes exce ...

s and

Begonia ''Begonia'' is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Begoniaceae. The genus contains more than 2,000 different plant species. The Begonias are native to moist subtropical and tropical climates. Some species are commonly grown ind ...

s, as well as seasonal displays of Chrysanthemum, Poinsettia,

Hydrangea ''Hydrangea'', () commonly named the hortensia, is a genus of over 75 species of flowering plants native to Asia and the Americas. By far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Korea, and Japan. Most are shrubs tall, ...

Coleus ''Coleus'' is a genus of annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, sometimes succulent, sometimes with a fleshy or tuberous rootstock, found in the Old World tropics and subtropics. The relationship among the genera ''Coleus'', '' Solenostemon'' and ...

, etc. The North Border features the Holly collection, Dwarf Conifer Garden, Conifer Trail, Heather Garden, and Species Rhododendron. The

Holly ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

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 A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...

, etc. The nearby full-scale conifers can reach over tall, and include Sequoia,

Dawn Redwood ''Metasequoia glyptostroboides'', the dawn redwood, is a fast-growing, endangered deciduous conifer. It is the sole living species of the genus ''Metasequoia'', one of three genera in the subfamily Sequoioideae of the family Cupressaceae. It now ...

Larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains fur ...

, Fir, Spruce and

, with a large assortment of Rhododendron species under the canopy. The Heather Garden features low growing

heaths A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

and

heathers ''Heathers'' is a 1989 American black comedy film written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann, in both of their respective film debuts. The film stars Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, and ...

, as well as Rhododendron, Azalea, and other flowering plants. The Dahlia Garden offers several hundred varieties of show-quality

Dahlia Dahlia (, ) is a genus of bushy, tuberous, herbaceous perennial plants native to Mexico and Central America. A member of the Asteraceae (former name: Compositae) family of dicotyledonous plants, its garden relatives thus include the sunflower, ...

s. Finally, there are over of woodland at Planting Fields, with miles of walking trails through the woods. Before some recent losses the Long Island Horticultural Society reported that eighteen of the trees at Planting Fields were the largest of their species on Long Island.Allen 1984:24.

College campus period

During an interim period between 1955 and 1964, in addition to its role as Planting Fields Arboretum, a park, the land was used as a temporary campus for a State University of New York (SUNY) college of science and engineering, which was known as the State University College On Long Island at Oyster Bay (SUCOLI) while donated land in Stony Brook, NY was being developed into the new permanent campus. In 1962 Stony Brook University moved to its new home, and transitioned for a two-year period between the campuses. At first all activities were located inside Coe Hall, but as the college grew, dormitories were moved to the stables and temporary dome structures were erected on the grounds for classes and laboratories. Subsequent to Stony Brook University moving to its permanent campus in Suffolk County, the site became home to another SUNY endeavor, the Center for International Studies and World Affairs ("ISWA"). When this SUNY undertaking was shut down in 1968, all facilities and grounds became the current day Planting Fields.

Planting Fields today

Today it is operated by Planting Fields Foundation, and Planting Fields, with its world-renowned arboretum and the Coe Hall mansion, is a popular attraction. The wrought-iron gates, built in

Sussex, England Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English C ...

in 1712 for

Carshalton Park Carshalton Park is a public park in Carshalton, in the London Borough of Sutton. It is situated south of the High Street, in the area bounded by Ruskin Road, Ashcombe Road, Woodstock Road and The Park. Carshalton Park and some of the surrounding ...

, were imported by Coe in 1921 and have been used as a setting for numerous motion pictures. Planting Fields also hosts an annual summer concert series, primarily focused on jazz. While the park entirely lies within Upper Brookville, the parcel of the park in which the famous

gates are located is in the Village of

. Because most Gold Coast villages wanted to remain business free areas, many do not have their own post offices or ZIP Codes. Therefore, Oyster Bay Post Office which serves this area of Upper Brookville is displayed as the official USPS mailing address. Planting Fields Arboretum was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1979. an
''Accompanying seven photos, from 1978''
/ref>

References

External links