When the Morgan Family donated the Bellefield Mansion and surrounding estate land to the National Park Service in 1975, the acquisition made many improvements to the Home of FDR National Historic Site possible. The Wallace Visitor Center would be built on the land, including improved site entrance lanes and parking areas, and the local NPS administrative headquarters could be moved out of Springwood and into Bellefield to help spare Roosevelt's historic home from excessive use and foot traffic. A third very important detail of the acquisition would not be appreciated for the next 20 years, until a local family with an interest in landscape architecture would uncover the jewel hidden beneath black plastic and surrounded by deer-eaten hemlocks on the southern side of the mansion.

The garden at Bellefield, designed and erected around 1912, was Beatrix Jones’ (Farrand) approximately thirtieth commission, completed when she was 40 years old and already a very well established and respected professional landscape gardener – her preferred term for what we would call a landscape architect.  Unfortunately, the planting plan and horticulture records of the original gardens were lost to time, but we have the detailed drawings of Farrand’s designs for the garden bed layouts, walls, trellis systems, gates, and a southern summer house gazebo which was never built.  Another key unfinished element of the Bellefield designs has beckoned to us from her handwritten notes on the garden’s original drawings: the labeling of an exterior portion of the garden walls and hedges as “Wild Garden.”

It has been a goal since the beginning of the interior garden’s revival to realize this wild garden as a way to accomplish three significant goals:

• 1. To display an example of a wild/natural design element very important to Beatrix Farrand’s historic aesthetic

• 2. To incorporate the use of native trees, shrubs and plants as a way of championing Farrand’s early use of these species and connecting her to modern horticultural trends, and

• 3. To connect the Beatrix Farrand Garden at Bellefield to the greater NPS site, both with increased accessibility and an improved visual desirability. 

Already, you may notice that thousands of square footage of plant beds have been established, a woody layer of shrubs and trees have been planted, and below the ground over 2,000 bulbs are ready to emerge in the spring of 2024!

The Realization of the Wild Garden

Inspired by the importance of Farrand’s pioneering work and a completed Cultural Landscape Report, BFGA and the National Park Service embarked on a collaboration to realize this feature at Bellefield. In 2015 NPS Horticulturist Anna de Cordova, local landscape designer Heather Whitefield, and former BFGA Horticulturist Anne Symmes began the process of researching Farrand’s other wild gardens to glean a list of her signature plants that could be appropriately installed at Bellefield. A major list of bulbs, herbaceous plants, woody plants and trees was created, and a list of site improvements was devised. For the next 6 years, the aspirations for a realization of the garden would take a backseat to the creation of our documentary film, a worldwide pandemic, and the need for significant new funding.

Coincidentally, Bob Ouimette was becoming a Beatrix Farrand enthusiast, after discovering her ties to Edith Wharton and The Mount, and researching her gardens.  Bob, who grew up in the area, made a visit to Bellefield and was intrigued by the yet unrealized plans for the Wild Garden.  What followed was a substantial gift, part seed money and part challenge that ignited further giving by more than 150 additional donors, including local residents, businesses, Beatrix Farrand enthusiasts, and members of the Morgan Family, former residents of Bellefield.   With that great momentum we have now reached the $150,000 goal needed to complete the project plan, including all preparations, plant installations, accessibility improvements, and a fund to ensure future seasons of care for this significant investment in our garden. The priceless collaboration and support of the National Park Service has also continued to make this project possible every step of the way. The wild garden project is being phased in over a period of years, first addressing circulation issues that will enhance visitor interaction with the formal garden, specifically using the naturalistic plantings to link the formal garden with the Wallace Center and on to the extensive trail network throughout the Park.

We thought of no more suitable time than the 150th birthday of Beatrix Farrand in 2022–which coincided with the 110th anniversary of her design of our garden– to announce to the public that we were breaking ground to realize her wild garden at Bellefield. Educational and cultural programming will be developed around the project, involving our community in this unique moment in the site’s history as well. With the excitement of the evolving and experimental nature of this garden in a historic space, comes the need for additional support.  We welcome donations to support the establishment efforts of these thousands of new plants over the coming years.