Visitor Center in June 2012.
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Established | 1891 |
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Location | Bronx, New York |
Public transit access |
Metro-North Railroad:
Botanical Garden New York City Subway: Pelham Parkway New York City Bus: Bx12, Bx12 SBS, Bx19, Bx22, Bx26 |
Website | |
New York Botanical Garden
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Location |
Southern and Bedford Park Boulevards Bronx, New York 10458 |
Coordinates | 40°51′49″N 73°52′42″W / 40.86361°N 73.87833°WCoordinates: 40°51′49″N 73°52′42″W / 40.86361°N 73.87833°W |
Area | 250 acres (100 ha) |
Built | 1891 |
Architect | Lord & Burnham Co. |
Architectural style | Victorian era |
NRHP reference # | 67000009 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | May 28, 1967 |
Designated NHL | May 28, 1967 |
The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden and National Historic Landmark located in the Bronx, New York City. The 250-acre (100 ha) site's verdant landscape supports over one million living plants in extensive collections. Each year over one million visitors visit the garden's remarkable diversity of tropical, temperate, and desert flora, as well as programming that ranges from exhibitions in the Haupt Conservatory to festivals on Daffodil Hill.
The Garden is also a major educational institution. As of 2016, more than 1,000,000 people annually—among them Bronx families, school children, and teachers—learn about plant science, ecology, and healthful eating through NYBG's hands-on, curriculum-based programming. Nearly 90,000 of those visitors are children from underserved neighboring communities, while more than 3,000 are teachers from New York City's public school system participating in professional development programs that train them to teach science courses at all grade levels.
NYBG operates one of the world's largest plant research and conservation programs, with nearly 600 staff members.
The Lorillard family owned most of the land that later became the New York Botanical Garden. That land and adjacent acreage was acquired by the City of New York and set aside for the creation of a zoo and botanical garden. The Garden was established on 28 April 1891 on part of the grounds of the Lorillard Estate (formerly owned by the tobacco magnate Pierre Lorillard) and a parcel that was formerly the easternmost portion of the campus of St. John's College (now Fordham University). The Garden's creation followed a fund-raising campaign led by the Torrey Botanical Club and Columbia University botanist Nathaniel Lord Britton and his wife Elizabeth Gertrude Britton who were inspired to emulate the Royal Botanic Gardens in London. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1967.