Skylands (estate)

Skylands
Skylands manor
Location Ringwood State Park, Ringwood, New Jersey
Coordinates 41°7′30″N 74°14′14″W / 41.12500°N 74.23722°W / 41.12500; -74.23722Coordinates: 41°7′30″N 74°14′14″W / 41.12500°N 74.23722°W / 41.12500; -74.23722
Area 96 acres (39 ha)
Built 1922
Architect John Russell Pope
Architectural style Tudor Revival
NRHP reference # 90001438[1]
NJRHP # 2405
Significant dates
Added to NRHP September 28, 1990
Designated NJRHP February 28, 1990

Skylands is a 1,119 acres (4.5 km²) estate property located in Ringwood State Park in Ringwood, New Jersey, a borough in Passaic County in the state of New Jersey. The Skylands property consists of the historic Skylands Manor mansion, The Castle at Skylands Manor and the New Jersey Botanical Garden; the botanical garden is 96-acre (390,000 m2) and it is open to the public year-round. The Skylands property is within the Ramapo Mountains and it is maintained by the Skyland Association. The property is marketed with the garden as New Jersey State Botanical Garden at Skylands.

The house and gardens, including formal gardens and specimen plantings, were built in the 1920s by Clarence MacKenzie Lewis, a New York City stockbroker and civil engineer. Lewis hired architect John Russell Pope to design the 44-room Tudor revival manor house. The manor is a reproduction English mansion featuring rectangular, bay and oriel windows. A nine-hole golf course once graced this property.

In 1966 the entire estate was bought by the State of New Jersey to form a State Botanical Garden whose settings include a Lilac Garden, Magnolia Walk, the Wild Flower Garden, the Crab Apple Vista, an allée of 166 trees extending almost a half-mile, and the Perennial Garden. The entire section now comprises slightly over 4,000 acres (16 km²) of parkland.

The Winter Garden included New Jersey's largest Jeffery pine (Pinus jeffreyi). Its east side features a weeping beech beside a century-old upright beech, as well as a Japanese umbrella pine. Other interesting non-native trees include an Algerian fir (Abies numidica) and Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica).

See also

References

  1. National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. "Penn Station eagles come to roost in the Highlands". www.hiddennj.com.
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