Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park

New York State, United States

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Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park is a historic estate and arboretum covering over 400 acres in Upper Brookville, New York, on Long Island’s Gold Coast.

Originally part of land cultivated by indigenous people, the site evolved through the 17th to 19th centuries into farmland before becoming a country retreat in the early 1900s. In 1913, William Robertson Coe, a wealthy insurance and railroad executive, and his wife Mai, daughter of Standard Oil magnate Henry Huttleston Rogers, purchased the property.

They transformed it into a magnificent estate with extensive gardens designed by landscape architects including Guy Lowell, A. Robeson Sargent, and the Olmsted Brothers. The grounds include formal gardens, woodland paths, greenhouses with specialized collections like camellias and orchids, and the Tudor Revival style Coe Hall mansion. The estate features more than 20 gardens with diverse plant collections from Europe, Asia, and North America and monumental iron gates imported from England.

After being deeded to New York State in the 1940s, it became a public arboretum and state park, recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. The park offers five miles of woodland trails, educational programs, seasonal floral displays, and tours of Coe Hall, making it a celebrated destination for visitors interested in horticulture, history, and natural beauty.