Maclay Gardens: A New York Financier's Winter Eden

In nineteen twenty-three, a New York financier named Alfred Barmore Maclay and his wife Louise purchased property just north of Tallahassee for their winter home and began designing a garden. Maclay designed the gardens to peak in bloom during winter and early spring, precisely when he would be in residence. Camellias became the backbone of the design, with many cultivars.

Maclay worked on the gardens until his death in nineteen forty-four. In nineteen fifty-three, his wife Louise donated the gardens and surrounding land to the state of Florida. It opened to the public as Killearn Gardens State Park and was later renamed in his honor.