Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum

Blithewold Manor

                   

Bristol, RI. – Situated along the Narragansett Bay, the Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum is a 33-acre estate. In 1896 the estate was purchased by coal baron Augustus Van Wickle and his Bessie Van Wickle McKee. The Blithewold estate served as the summer retreat from their home in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Bessie was involved in planting most of the gardens, structures, and trees on the estate. The Blithewold mansion is a 1908 English style 45-room manor.

Marjorie Lyon, the daughter of Augustus and Bessie, inherited the Blithewold estate. Marjorie continued her mother’s preservation of the estate. In 1976, Lyon bequeathed the estate to the general public for educational purposes.

On November 13, 1911, John DeWolf, Blithewold’s landscape architect, planted one of a dozen sequoia trees on the estate. Today, this tree is the tallest sequoia tree east of the Rocky Mountains. Today there are more than 10 gardens at the Blithewold estate.

“And everywhere nature’s bounteous gifts have served under man’s skillful guidance to create an estate in which new beauties are constantly revealed and the perfect accord between architecture and grounds is ever apparent.” – Bessie Van Wickle McKee, ca. 1910.

 

Blithewold estate in Bristol, R.I.

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