Greater Westhampton Historical Museum To Open New Gardens

The Greater Westhampton Historical Museum will formally open its new period gardens on Thursday, July 10, from 4 to 6 p.m. with a Garden Tea Party at 101 Mill Road in Westhampton Beach. The gardens were designed by the Westhampton Garden Club to complement the 1790s Foster Meeker House and the 1840 Tuttle House, both moved to village-owned property over the past several years. The gardens are a collaboration between the garden club and the museum.

“We are delighted to have the gardens and landscape that our special houses deserve, and we are happy to have an ongoing collaboration with the Westhampton Garden Club,” said Bo Bishop, the president of the museum.

Garden club President Alicia Whitaker, added, “Collaborating with the museum is part of our mission to beautify our communities and we are pleased to design, plant and maintain these gardens that will be used for education as well as providing seasonal beauty on the campus of the museum.”

Construction of the garden beds and pathways was supported by a grant from the Robert David Lion Gardener Foundation and the Leo Walsh Foundation that was matched by several private donors who will be acknowledged and thanked at the event. The Gardiner Foundation is a prior donor to the museum, and the foundation’s executive director, Kathryn M. Curran, encouraged the museum to invest in the historically appropriate gardens. The Village of Westhampton Beach provided the land and the irrigation to support the gardens. Masonry work was accomplished by Todd Scates, owner of Landscape Solutions.

The gardens consist of a flower border behind the Tuttle House planted with an array of perennials and annuals that were available in the 1940s. An herb garden provides a gathering space between the two houses and consists of beds that contain culinary, medicinal, household and decorative herbs available in the 1700 and 1800s.

To the east of the Foster Meeker house is a dooryard garden that contains a mix of vegetables, herbs and flowering plants that were available in the 1790s. They are interplanted so that herbs and plants that are unattractive to deer and rabbits provide some protection for the edible plants. This garden is surrounded by a donated picket fence.