Marian Cruger Coffin: 100th Anniversary of her Seaside Garden

Marian Cruger Coffin: Pioneer Landscape Architect Marking the 100th year Celebration of Her Seaside Garden, Designed for J. Kennedy Tod at Tod’s Point.

Event Postponed due to COVID-19

In collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society, the Knollwood Garden Club of Greenwich, is pleased to offer to the greater Greenwich community on May 7 the inaugural commemorative lecture on Marian Cruger Coffin (1876-1957), to be given by Nancy Fleming, author of the book, “Money, Manure, and Maintenance – Ingredients for the Successful Gardens of Marian Coffin” (Country Place Books, Weston, MA, 1995). Ms. Fleming’s lecture will illuminate the substantial and unique contributions of Coffin which shaped the formation of the field of landscape architecture and garden design during the first half of the 20th century.

A member of the MIT Class of 1904, she studied Landscape Architecture, graduating at age 28. In 1906 she established her own design business in New York City. Coffin obtained commissions from many prominent family estate owners, most noteworthy her lifelong friend, Henry Francis duPont at his family estate, Winterthur, Delaware, which he inherited in 1908. In Greenwich, Connecticut, the industrialist, J. Kennedy Tod, commissioned Coffin to design the original Seaside Garden, for his estate Innis Arden (now Tod’s Point).

Begun in 1918 and completed in 1920, the Seaside Garden celebrates its 100th anniversary this year – and will be highlighted in this lecture. Nancy Fleming, our lecturer, is a landscape historian, a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and the Radcliffe Program in landscape design. She has been the principal in her own landscape design firm and lectures regularly throughout the Northeast.

Held at the Vanderbilt Education Center of the Greenwich Historical Society, the May 7th event begins at 6:00 pm, the lecture from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm with refreshments and a book signing before and after the lecture. Free admission; donations welcome, $25 suggested donation. Seating limited; reservations advised. For reservations please contact the Knollwood Garden Club at 203-661-6856 or email apalladio@mac.com.

The Marian Cruger Coffin Commemorative Lecture will be offered biennially by the Knollwood Garden Club, given by leading experts, devoted to seminal ideas and historical developments in landscape architecture, garden design, horticulture, and botany – and their impact on our communities and the profession.