Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park
| Alfred B Maclay Gardens State Park | |
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IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
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| Location | Leon County, Florida, United States |
| Nearest city | Tallahassee, Florida |
| Coordinates | 30°31′08″N 84°15′04″W / 30.51889°N 84.25111°WCoordinates: 30°31′08″N 84°15′04″W / 30.51889°N 84.25111°W |
| Area | 1,176 acres (4.76 km2) |
| Established | 1953 |
| Governing body | Florida Department of Environmental Protection |
The Alfred B. Maclay State Gardens is a 1,176-acre (4.76 km2) Florida State Park, botanical garden and historic site, located in Tallahassee, in northwestern Florida. The address is 3540 Thomasville Road.
The gardens are also a U.S. historic district known as the Killearn Plantation Archeological and Historic District. It received that designation on August 16, 2002. According to the National Register of Historic Places, it contains 18 historic buildings, 4 structures and 4 objects.
The gardens began in 1923 when Alfred Barmore Maclay (1871–1944) and his wife, Louise Fleischman, bought the site. Maclay named his gardens Killearn, after the birthplace of his great-grandfather in Scotland, and developed them continuously until his death. His wife continued their development, opened them to the public in 1946, and in 1953 donated some 307 acres (1.24 km2) of their estate, including the gardens, to the Florida Board of Park Service. In 1965 the gardens were renamed in Maclay's honor, to avoid confusion with the new adjacent development called Killearn Estates.
The backbone of the garden plantings are azaleas and camellias. Trees include bald cypress, black gum, cyrilla, dogwood, hickory, holly, Japanese maple, oak, plum, redbud, Liquidambar, and Torreya taxifolia. Other plantings include Ardisia, Aucuba, Zamia integrifolia, Rhododendron chapmanii, Gardenia, ginger, jasmine, Oriental magnolia, mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), Nandina, palmetto, sago palm, Selaginella, Wisteria, and Yucca filamentosa.
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