Bartram's Garden
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John Bartram House
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John Bartram's house and upper garden at Bartram's Garden
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| Location | 54th St. and Lindbergh Blvd., Philadelphia |
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| Coordinates | 39°55′50″N 75°12′45″W / 39.93056°N 75.21250°WCoordinates: 39°55′50″N 75°12′45″W / 39.93056°N 75.21250°W |
| Built | 1728 |
| Architect | John Bartram |
| Architectural style | Colonial |
| NRHP Reference # | 66000676 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
| Designated NHL | October 9, 1960 |
Bartram's Garden is the oldest surviving botanic garden in North America. Located on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, it covers 46 acres (19 ha) and includes an historic botanical garden and arboretum (8 acres (3.2 ha), established circa 1728). The garden is near the intersection of 54th Street and Lindbergh Boulevard, in Philadelphia. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.
Special events at the Garden include an annual spring plant sale, Mother's Day festivities, and a holiday gifts & greens sale. The John Bowman Bartram Special Collections Library contains a vast collection of documents and materials related to the history of the Garden, as well the history of Philadelphia and the development of the field of botany. The non-profit John Bartram Association operates the Garden in cooperation with the Philadelphia Department of Parks & Recreation.
Bartram's Garden Trails make up segments of the East Coast Greenway.
Located on the western bank of the Schuylkill River, the garden is on the site of the farm owned by American botanist John Bartram. Bartram, a Quaker, built the original stone house between 1728–31. He later expanded it, adding a kitchen around 1740 and a Palladian-inspired, carved facade between 1758-70. The house still stands, as does his original garden (circa 1728) and greenhouse (1760). Three generations of the Bartram family continued the garden as the premier collection of North American plant species in the world.
The current collection contains a wide variety of native and exotic species of herbaceous and woody plants. Most were listed in the Bartrams' 1783 broadside Catalogue of American Trees, Shrubs and Herbacious Plants and subsequent editions.
The garden also contains three notable trees:
Bartram's Garden is the oldest surviving botanic garden in the United States. John Bartram (1699–1777), the well-known early American botanist, explorer, and plant collector, founded the garden in September 1728 when he purchased a 102-acre (0.41 km2) farm in Kingsessing Township, Philadelphia County. John Bartram's garden began as a personal landscape. With his lifelong devotion to plants, it grew to become a systematic collection as he devoted more time to exploration and the discovery of new North American species and examples. Its evolution over time both reflected and fostered Bartram's vital scientific achievements and important intellectual exchange. Although not the first botanic collection in North America, by the middle of the eighteenth century Bartram's Garden contained the most varied collection of North American plants in the world. John Bartram was at the center of a lucrative business centered on the transatlantic transfer of plants.
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