Hart House Public Heritage Garden
The Hart House Heritage Garden is located directly behind the historic General William Hart House. The public is invited to enjoy its peaceful beauty year-round. The garden is open daily, dawn to dusk.
Garden Mission
To be a place of respite and remembrance, and
a place to learn from our past and the nature around us.
The garden features native plants and those known here in the colonial and early Republic periods (c. 1635 – 1850), including specimen trees, perennials, herbs, wildflowers, and heritage and modern roses. The garden is a Pollinator Pathway, meaning use of pesticides and herbicides are avoided to support a healthy environment for birds and beneficial insects.
Sign up to receive e-mails for upcoming free concerts in the garden and to receive a weekly alert about “What’s Blooming in the Hart House Heritage Garden.” E-mail contact@saybrookhistory.org or click HERE.
History of the Garden
When the Old Saybrook Historical Society acquired the Hart House in 1974, 12 members envisioned creating an 18th century-style garden in the overgrown area behind the house. Experienced gardeners and members of the local garden club, they tackled the project undaunted by the mass of invasive vines, brush, and bramble.
With no known plans for how the Harts laid out their grounds, Dr. Rudy Favretti, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Connecticut, was consulted for advice on design and appropriate plantings. His knowledge of 17th- and 18th-century historic building landscapes and his on-site direction brought authenticity to the project.
The garden was planted with shrubs, fruit trees, old garden roses, annual and perennial flowers, and all sorts of herbs used during the colonial period. An espalier Bartlett pear tree (Pyrus communis) was planted on the south-side of the house. It still bears an abundance of pears every September.
After two years of hard work the Hart House Heritage Garden was opened in 1976, as part of the nation-wide bicentennial celebration.
The garden is continually renewed. Robert Carter, a restoration architect, enhanced the design with brick pathways, rebuilt a crumbling granite back wall, and placed two large mill stones from a local gristmill to enhance the garden’s hardscape.
In 1998, the Frank Stevenson Archive Building was constructed. This required significant changes to the garden. The fruit trees were replaced by a large square bowling green (called the dingle) sunk below cut-granite stone walls and topped by flower beds. The old garden roses (OGR) were relocated to the dingle next to the new building. These beds feature fragrant, heritage bushes, including R. alba, R. centifolia, R. damask, and R. gallica.
In 2003 the funds for a garden shed were donated in memory of founding historical society members Nan and Robert Childress and built by member Bill Goodhue and his son Ross Goodhue. This was a wonderful and much-needed addition for garden storage. The garden has also been the beneficiary of four Eagle Scout projects, one of which was the 10 × 10 pergola. Classic teak benches offer seating for visitors. These were donated by a descendant of Robert Chapman, one of the original founders of Saybrook Colony.
More recently the Hart House Heritage Garden has focused on native plants. In 2021 the garden became a Pollinator Pathway©, part of the movement to create “public and private pesticide-free corridors of native plants that provide nutrition and habitat for pollinating insects and birds.” Find out more at https://www.pollinator-pathway.org.
One of the newest beds, established in 2025 and designed by longtime garden keeper Linda Kinsella, is designed to attract butterflies.
Herb Garden
Herb Gardens
Herbs are an important part of the garden. Culinary herbs are grown outside the Hart House kitchen, as would have been the custom in colonial times. They are harvested weekly for donation to the Shoreline Soup Kitchen.
The Bonnie Penders Teaching Garden is named for Bonnie Penders who researched and created the garden in 2016. It features plants used for medicinal purposes in the colonial era.
Bonnie also researched and created the bed dedicated to Lady Alice Boteler Fenwick, one of only three Puritan women in the Saybrook Colony in the early 1640s. Lady Fenwick was a known gardener. This bed features medicinal plants, both native to America and those transported by roots and seed from England, that were important to treating women’s health in the colonial period.
“It takes a village and our village is full of laughter, love, devotion, learning and aspiration to create a beautiful and healthy environment.”
– Bonnie Penders
Herb Garden Tour
This is a lovely video which shares a treasure in Old Saybrook: The Old Saybrook Historical Society Herb and Flower Garden. Not only can one learn much about home remedies used during the 18th century but a visit to the garden will restore your peace of mind. It is a wonderful welcoming retreat in downtown Old Saybrook. Thanks to Linda Kinsella and all the residents who volunteer their time and talent to maintain this special place. ~ A. Irons. September 2020
Herb Garden Donation
Donated by Elaine Yang – 2019 Senior Project at Old Saybrook High School.
It is a tribute to Bonnie Penders, a Society Volunteer Gardener and mentor to Elaine and to the commitment of the Society to its public gardens.
The Woodland Garden
The Woodland Garden was created by Marianne Pfeiffer in 1999. This garden, shaded by persimmons and a large tulip poplar, features more than 100 different wildflowers that bloom in succession over the summer.
The garden is especially beautiful in early spring when native ephemerals, such as trilliums, trout lilies, and Virginia bluebells sprout from the cold earth. They finish their cycle and disappear as the days warm, replaced by native ferns, Jack-in-the-pulpits, mayapples, Solomon’s seal, flowering shrubs, and later, black cohosh, golden ragwort, meadow rue, goldenrod, cardinal flower, blue lobelia, and more. Walk through the cool shade along the soft pine-needly path to enjoy the nearly-wild Woodland Garden.
Maintaining the Garden
Dedicated volunteers maintain the garden. Many have years of experience and others are newcomers—to this garden and to gardening. Anyone with a keen interest in learning and becoming part of a dedicated team are welcome to join the group which meets Thursday mornings from April to October from 9 a.m. to noon.
In addition to maintaining the garden, the volunteers create seasonal wreaths for the Hart House front door, create bouquets for the Hart House during the season when it’s open for tours, decorate the exterior for the holidays, and organize free concerts in the garden.
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer in the garden, stop by on a Thursday morning during the season, e-mail contact@saybrookhistory.org, or call 860-395-1635.
Photo courtesy of Chuck Landrey
