Tudor Place Garden Washington DC
Description
Tudor Place Garden – My Capital Gardens USA.co.uk
Thomas Peter, the son of a successful Scottish tobacco merchant, and his wife Martha Custis Peter, granddaughter of George and Martha Washington, purchased land in Georgetown in 1805 to build a grand house. They used an $8,000 legacy from the first US president and Tudor Place was completed in 1816, remaining under the ownership of six generations of the Peter family until 1983.
Steeped in history, the stately grounds of the Tudor Place estate include five acres of beautifully landscaped gardens, retaining the rolling green lawns, parterres and woodland developed by Thomas and Martha Peter, along with the elegant boxwood for which Tudor Place is renowned. The Peters originally planted the English Boxwood Ellipse as the focal point for the approach to the main entrance of the house, but during the Civil War trespassers plundered the boxwood for Christmas wreaths and in 1862 the remaining bushes were moved inside the garden for safekeeping.
The sloping South Lawn contains specimen trees planted in the early 19th century and visitors can see many wonderfully scented heirloom roses. Centrepiece of the Flower Knot is a sundial from Crossbasket Castle, the Scottish ancestral home of the Peter family.
You can’t miss the large tulip poplar in the southeast corner of the lawn, which is 20ft in circumference and over 100ft tall. In 2002 it was designated the Millennium
Landmark Tree for the District of Columbia by the America the Beautiful Fund.
The garden is open daily, except national holidays, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, and admission is $2.
Contact details
1644 31st Street NW
Washington DC
20007
001-202-965-0400
1644 31st Street NW
Washington DC
20007
001-202-965-0400
