Thuya Garden

This semi-formal herbaceous garden in the English style, as reinterpreted for the Down East coast by Beatrix Farrand of Reef Point, was named for the northern white cedar (Thuya occidentalis). It’s part of a 140-acre preserve just outside Northeast Harbor that includes Thuya Lodge, the summer home for almost 50 years of Joseph Henry Curtis, a Boston landscape architect.

After Curtis died in 1928, he gave the property in trust to the Town of Mount Desert, and Charles K. Savage, who also designed the Asticou Azalea Garden down the road, was appointed trustee. For almost 40 years, Savage renovated and improved Thuya Garden, incorporating many original plants from Reef Point when that estate was dismantled in 1956.

Historically, only visitors who arrived on foot could access the Thuya property, and the preserve connects to a series of public paths and trails that also lead to the trails of Acadia National Park. Note that there are no accommodations for food, drink, picnics, or pets at the garden.