Landscape Information
This 6.7-acre park incorporates a hill situated west of the village’s main street, Franklin Avenue. The park was established in 1920 on land donated by Helen Thorne, president of the Millbrook Garden Club, and her husband, Oakleigh Thorne, to commemorate local World War I veterans. The garden club financed the construction of the park and its members, including Helen Thorne, were responsible for its design.
From Franklin Avenue, edged by an ornamental fence, visitors proceed through a ceremonial entrance marked by an iron gate. Brick columns flanking the gate are topped by statuary eagles and include plaques that note the use of native plants in the park’s original design. An axial path leads past a row of apple trees, which recall a historic allée. The path ascends a staircase and crosses a naturalistic pool and cascading brook, whose edges are richly planted with flowering shrubs, perennials, and grasses, before ascending the hill. Additional curvilinear footpaths dramatically navigate the park’s hillocks and rugged terrain interspersed with deciduous and coniferous trees. Atop the hill is a relatively level terrace that features a bosque of maple trees planted in 1920. Each tree honors an individual veteran, identified on a metal plaque embedded in a tiered stone wall at the southern end of the bosque. The ordered rows of maples frame a rectilinear clearing, framed by concrete sidewalks, which include a playground. A flagpole and World War I cannon is positioned at the park’s edge on axis with the linear path, serving as a focal point.
Since the 1940s the park has been owned and managed by a nonprofit organization, The Tribute Garden Inc. In 1948 the organization acquired an approximately two-acre parcel dominated by lawn and edged by maples immediately east of the site, known as the Village Green.
