Clarence MacKenzie Lewis was a New York City stockbroker and civil engineer. He hired architect John Russell Pope to design a 44-room Tudor Revival manor house in the 1920s. The result was a reproduction of an English mansion featuring rectangular, bay and oriel windows.
The property originally featured a nine-hole golf course. From circa 1950 until 1966, the estate served as a campus for Shelton College. In 1966, the state of New Jersey purchased 1,117 acres of the property from the college to establish a botanical garden.
Today, the 96-acre New Jersey State Botanical Garden at Skylands covers a large portion of the former estate. The Annual Garden retains its original layout, while the Perennial Garden was restored to Mr. Lewis's original design. The Lilac Garden features more than 100 cultivars, many of which were planted in the 1920s with imports from France and Japan.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Kyle McLonely
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