Parks: Where Nature Meets Community

March 08, 2022

GC of East Hampton Celebrates Olmsted 200 at Historic Nature Trail

In 1894, Emma Woodhouse began transforming four swampy acres into an extraordinary Japanese Water Garden located in East Hampton, New York. Complete with two Japanese teahouses, rustic half-moon bridges, 1,500 irises and a profusion of other flowers and plants, this stunning garden was part of the Woodhouse family estate known as Greycroft.

After Emma passed away in 1908, her niece Mary Kennedy Woodhouse took over the care of the iconic garden, opening it to local school children and for public access. Interestingly, Mary K. Woodhouse founded the Garden Club of East Hampton (GCEH) in 1914, becoming the club’s first president. The club was admitted into The Garden Club of America (GCA) in 1915. In time, Mary donated the four-acre water garden to her beloved garden club. Eventually, GCEH invited the Ladies Village Improvement Society and the Village of East Hampton to join them in keeping the land open to the community and overseeing the maintenance of what became known as the East Hampton Nature Trail and Bird Sanctuary.

Over the years, the Woodhouse family and surrounding neighbors gifted additional land, bringing the nature trail up to twenty-four acres of meandering trails through the woods and along a stream, creating a haven for visitors and wildlife. Today, the teahouses, bridges and irises are long gone. The beloved trails and “duck pond”, however, remain an important part of the community with the open space preserved and children visiting and volunteering in the park. The club has looked after the nature trail for more than 100 years.

This fall, as part of the GCA’s PARKS: Where Nature Meets Community initiative, GCEH held a guided tour of the nature trail with horticulturist Vicki Bustamante leading the way, pointing out both the native and invasive plants in the park. After exploring a good deal of the twenty-four acres, the GCEH president led a Weed Wrangle®  focusing on removal of porcelain berry vine, a persistent invasive. To celebrate Olmsted 200, there will be a follow-up event in the spring, when GCEH tackles spreading wisteria which dates back to the original Japanese Water Garden. This ongoing effort at the nature trail is one of many projects that the GCEH oversees for the enjoyment of the community. Additional projects include the design and ongoing maintenance of seven gardens, three community projects, a P4P project to protect native orchids on the East End of Long Island and The Kazickas Botany Scholarship program that takes place in the natural trail documenting the many plant species found there. The members of GCEH look forward to taking care of Mrs. Woodhouse's historic Nature Trail and Bird Sanctuary for another 100 years.

The Garden Club of America is a proud founding partner of the Olmsted 200 bicentennial campaign. The GCA's contribution to the celebration is the unprecedented opportunity for all 199 GCA clubs to connect the needs of their communities with Olmsted’s revolutionary vision for parks and public landscapes by participating in the GCA’s initiative, PARKS: Where Nature Meets Community. Each club project helps their local community public spaces while collectively celebrating Olmsted’s genius for public access to nature across the country.

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