Welcome to The Beatrix Farrand Society, located at Garland Farm on Mount Desert Island in Maine. Beatrix Farrand (1872–1959) was one of America’s most celebrated landscape architects renowned for private gardens, many of which were located in Maine, as well as consulting work for some of the country’s most prestigious universities and colleges. Over the course of her long and distinguished career, she received more than 200 commissions, mostly from East Coast society families. Only a handful of her landscapes remain intact today, notably Dumbarton Oaks, Eolia (now Harkness Memorial State Park), and the old campus at Princeton University, among others. Garland Farm was Farrand’s last home and garden, where she lived from 1955 until her death on February 27, 1959. Prior to moving to Garland Farm, she lived at Reef Point, her family’s summer estate in Bar Harbor, which she had developed into an educational center.
The BFS was founded on June 16, 2003, as a federally recognized nonprofit Maine corporation to foster the art and science of horticulture and landscape design, with emphasis on the life and work of Beatrix Farrand. It seeks to reinstate Reef Point’s original educational goals, with the establishment of a reference library and collections, regional trial gardens, and educational programs. Restoration of the gardens at Garland Farm began in 2006 with the preparation of a Cultural Landscape Report by Pressley Associates, Inc. Phase I, which includes the terrace garden, was completed in 2011 and Phase II will begin shortly. In addition, the barn was renovated for use as an educational center for workshops, lectures, and other programs. Check back later for dates when Garland Farm will be open to the public in 2013.
