Raynham Hall Museum's garden getting restored

Raynham Hall Museum in Oyster Bay has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Margaret Dooley Sullivan Fund to refurbish its historic Victorian garden. The grant, which builds on a previous $125,000 donation from the fund used for the visitor center and building restoration, will enable the museum to refresh the garden while maintaining its historical integrity.

“They were kind enough to give us a grant a couple of years ago to help us finish the visitor center,’” said Harriet Clark, the museum’s director. “So I asked them if they would be interested in helping us to restore the garden as well, and they said they would.”

The grant’s arrival coincided with the Richard Iverson, a professor emeritus at Hofstra University who specializes in 18th-century gardens, joining the museum’s board. Clark said that Iverson’s knowledge was instrumental in revamping the garden, ensuring that it remains as true to the period as possible while enhancing its aesthetic appeal.

“The garden really looks incredible now,” said Clark. “It’s not drastically different, but it’s significantly improved, which was our goal.”

The garden at Raynham Hall, like much of the property, has a rich but somewhat mysterious history. Originally part of the Townsend estate, which once spanned acres down to the water, the exact design of the original garden remains unknown. The museum has some photographs from around 1915, but no detailed plans or descriptions have survived.

“The garden has often been neglected over the years, so this was an opportunity to both refresh it from a historical perspective and improve its overall appearance,” Clark explained. “We’ve restored the herb garden behind the kitchen in the past, but this was more of an overall effort to enhance both the 18th and 19th-century sections of the garden.”

New additions to the garden include four miniature apple trees, a nod to the original apple orchard maintained by the Townsend family. Other improvements include the replacement of daylilies along the Masonic Lodge fence with Irish yew shrubs, chosen for their year-round appeal.

Iverson also worked with the concept of Colonial Revival, ensuring that the front part of the house is surrounded by 18th-century plantings, while the rear garden reflects more authentic Victorian-era landscaping.

“The project is still ongoing,” Clark noted. “Dr. Iverson has done a lot of work with the help of two assistants from Hofstra, and our board president, Dean Yoder, along with the Locust Valley Garden Club, has been instrumental in maintaining and enhancing the garden.”