The History of Innisfree

Innisfree is a public garden blending Japanese, Chinese, Modern, and ecological design principles in Millbrook, New York. Its distinctive sloping, rocky landscape, which forms the literal and visual foundation for the garden, is set within a natural bowl wrapping around the 40-acre Tyrrel Lake. This bowl, with no other signs of human intervention visible beyond the garden, creates a profound sense of intimacy and privacy at Innisfree, one of its defining characteristics.

Drawn to the region, Walter and Marion Beck began developing Innisfree as a private estate in the late 1920s. Walter, an artist, and Marion, a gardener, were particularly interested in the landscape and, in the early 1930s, began developing picturesque gardens based on Chinese and Japanese design principles. The result is a distinctly American stroll garden organized around placemaking techniques used in ancient Chinese villa gardens, described by Walter Beck as “cup gardens.”

The Becks met Lester Collins early in 1938 when Collins was an undergraduate at Harvard. That spring, this trio began their long and remarkable collaboration on Innisfree. Throughout his 55-year association with the garden, Collins sculpted the land and choreographed movement through space. He created the dreamlike sequence of vignettes that defines Innisfree.

Innisfree became a public garden in 1960 under the leadership of Collins. Until his death in 1993, he expanded on the earlier garden, using a process of iteration, revision, and a deep understanding of natural processes to create a seamless composition embracing earlier and later work on the landscape. All the while, he maintained the cup garden concepts and the spirit that he and the Becks envisioned for Innisfree. The last feature he designed, the Water Sculpture on the Upper Terrace, was completed in 1994 to his design.

On September 3, 2019, Innisfree was listed on the National Register of Historic Places—the perfect way to mark Innisfree’s 60th season as a public garden. The period of significance, 1930 to 1994, recognizes the entire design arc of this exceptional site, which met the criteria for national significance in landscape architecture and the higher bar of “exceptional significance” set for anything completed in the past 50 years. The nomination received a 2019 New York State Historic Preservation Award from the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.