Planting Fields, Oyster Bay, NY
Press Releases

What’s Out There Weekend: Olmsted on Long Island Oct. 22-23 Features Free, Expert Led tours of Parks, Gardens and Open Spaces

Media Contact: Nord Wennerstrom | T: 202.483.0553  | M: 202.255.7076 | E: nord@tclf.org

Part of a nationwide program that reveals the stories of places that are part of our daily lives 

Washington, D.C. (September 27, 2022) – The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) and Planting Fields Foundation announce What’s Out There Weekend: Olmsted on Long Island October 22-23, 2022, featuring free expert-led tours of parks, gardens, estates, cemeteries, and open spaces designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., the father of landscape architecture best known as the co-designer of New York City’s Central Park and the United States Capitol grounds, and his successor firms.  The event is part of the national recognition of this year’s bicentennial of the birth of Olmsted, Sr. and follows the Oct. 20-21 Olmsted Symposium: Situating the Residential Projects of the Olmsted Firm at Planting Fields.  During this weekend of engaging tours, expert guides will provide rich stories, personal anecdotes, and keen observations about each site, landscape architecture, and gardens designed by the Olmsted firm over a seventy-five-year period. All tours are free, but attendance is limited and registration is required. TCLF will produce a printed guidebook for What’s Out There Weekend: Olmsted on Long Island that includes the tour sites (available for purchase in a printed format and free as a downloadable PDF).  TCLF will also add all the tour sites to What’s Out There Olmsted, a profusely illustrated digital database featuring more than 325 North American Olmsted-designed landscapes. TCLF maintains the database in perpetuity. 

TOUR SCHEDULE – All tours are free, but attendance is limited and registration is required. 

SATURDAY – October 22  

  • Locust Valley Cemetery | 9:00 - 10:30 AM | led by Amy Driscoll (Locust Valley Cemetery)  
  • Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park | 10:00 - 11:30 AM | led by Patricia O’Donnell (Heritage Landscapes LLC)  
  • Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve | 11: 00 AM - 12:30 PM | led by Jessica Brassler (The Caumsett Foundation)  
  • Dosoris Cemetery | 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM | led by John Melillo (Dosoris Cemetery)  
  • Memorial Cemetery of St. John’s Church | 12:00 - 1:30 PM | led by Patricia O’Donnell (Heritage Landscapes LLC) 
  • Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory | 12:30 - 2:00 PM | led by Daniel Miller (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)  
  • The Creek | 2:00 - 3:00 PM | led by Thomas Dunne (Independent Historian and Author)

  SUNDAY – October 23  

  • Bayard Cutting Arboretum | 9:00 - 10:30 AM | led by Kevin Wiecks (Bayard Cutting Arboretum)  
  • Munsey Park Incorporated Village| 10:00 - 11:30 AM | led by Andrew Cronson (Village of Munsey Park)  
  • Lattingtown Gold Coast Estate | 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM | led by Henry P. Davidson III
  • La Selva| 12:30 – 2:00 PM | led by Debra Del Vecchio (La Selva)  
  • Conklin Amphitheater (Seminary of the Immaculate Conception) | 2:00 – 3:30PM | led by Bruce Baumann (Seminary of the Immaculate Conception) and Stephen Ubertini  
  • Oheka Castle | 4:15 - 5:45 PM | led by Paul Mateyunas (Gold Coast Historian)

 Coming Soon 

  • Nassau County Civic Center
  • Welwyn Preserve

What’s Out There Weekend: Olmsted on Long Island dovetails with TCLF’s web-based What’s Out There, the nation’s most comprehensive searchable database of historic designed landscapes. The database currently features more than 2,500 sites, 12,000 images, and 1,200 designer profiles. What’s Out There is optimized for iPhones and similar handheld devices, and includes What’s Nearby, a GPS-enabled feature that locates all landscapes within a given distance, customizable by mileage or walking time.  

“The Olmsted influence on the shape of the nation includes designing great parks, entire neighborhoods, city park systems, and more, and an exceptional body of work survives on Long Island,” said Charles A. Birnbaum, TCLF’s President & CEO. “We are pleased to partner with Planting Fields to make accessible and raise the visibility of this unique and irreplaceable legacy of great landscape architecture.”

Planting Fields Foundation President and CEO Gina J. Wouters stated: “We are delighted to partner with TCLF to publicize What’s Out There Weekend: Olmsted on Long Island. This series of expert-led, guided tours of some of Long Island’s lesser-known historic gardens, parks, and estates designed by the Olmsted Firm, immediately follows our October 20-21 Olmsted Symposium at Planting Fields. We hope that these two interrelated events will serve to highlight the enduring appeal and historic importance of the Firm’s singular vision in creating places. Long recognized as a place of recreation, I am thrilled to have Planting Fields Foundation serve as the catalyst for creating greater awareness and celebration of the collective heritage of Olmsted on Long Island. We are grateful for our close collaboration with all our site partners, and especially to TCLF for sharing our commitment to creating access to the history and legacy of these distinctive locations.”  

What’s Out There Weekend: Olmsted on Long Island is made possible by the generous support of the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.  

About Planting Fields 

Planting Fields Foundation strives to preserve and make relevant to all audiences the heritage of Planting Fields, an early 20th century 409-acre estate, designed as an integrated composition of the built and natural world. Founded in 1952 by William R. Coe, the Foundation is a not-for-profit public educational foundation charted by the New York State Board of Regents and tax exempt under the status of a 501(c)(3) organization. Located in Oyster Bay, New York and originally landscaped by the Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, Massachusetts, the grounds feature 409 acres of greenhouses, rolling lawns, formal gardens, woodland paths, and outstanding plant collections. The original historic estate buildings remain intact, including Coe Hall, a 65-room Tudor Revival mansion designed by Walker & Gillette. The interior of the house is a showcase of artistry and craftsmanship and features a distinctly American aesthetic through original ironwork commissions by Samuel Yellin and murals painted by artists Robert Winthrop Chanler and Everett Shinn. Planting Fields is included in the National Register of Historic Places. To learn more about Planting Fields Foundation, please visit our website at www.plantingfields.org.  

About The Cultural Landscape Foundation 

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1998 with a mission of “connecting people to places.” TCLF educates and engages the public to make our shared landscape heritage more visible, identify its value, and empower its stewards. Through its website, publishing, lectures, and other events, TCLF broadens support and understanding for cultural landscapes. TCLF is also home to the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize. 

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