History grows here.
Surrounding the historic homes of Nook Farm, the Stowe Center’s nearly three-acre campus offers gardens, remarkable trees, outdoor sculpture, shaded pathways, and places to gather and reflect.
The grounds are free and open to the public daily from dawn to dusk.
At the heart of the campus, just behind Harriet Beecher Stowe’s home, a new shade garden surrounds one of the landscape’s most remarkable trees: Connecticut’s largest Star Magnolia.
Designed by Claudia Dinep of Outside Landscape in West Hartford, the garden extends across the drive and into the lawn between the Stowe and Twain houses.
The garden includes new dogwood and cornelian cherry trees; inkberry, chokeberry, rhododendron, mountain laurel, and hydrangea shrubs; grasses and ferns; and perennials including coral bells, Solomon’s seal, foam flower, wild geranium, columbine, amsonia, and penstemon. Most of the new plants are native to New England.
Created with significant volunteer support, including planting assistance from the Green Apprentices of KNOX Hartford, the garden was supported by a grant from an anonymous donor.
On the north side of the Day House, a meandering pathway leads through another new shade garden.
Custom wooden arbors created by Hartford-based Fresh Start Works mark each end of the pathway. Built around an established stand of rhododendron and Ohio buckeye, the garden includes additional Ohio buckeye and mountain laurel along with spring bulbs, ferns, hosta, columbine, and Solomon’s seal.
Seating provides a cool place to pause beneath the canopy, and this section of the pathway is illuminated in the evening.
The garden and its furnishings were supported by a Love Your Block grant, administered by the City of Hartford in collaboration with Hartford Gives.
Many of the new plants in Harriet’s Backyard are native to New England, adding seasonal color and texture to the landscape.
Trees
Star Magnolia · Dogwood · Cornelian Cherry · Ohio Buckeye
Shrubs
Mountain Laurel · Inkberry · Chokeberry · Rhododendron · Hydrangea
Woodland & Perennial Plants
Ferns · Wild Geranium · Columbine · Solomon’s Seal · Foam Flower · Coral Bells · Amsonia · Penstemon
Two works of sculpture have found a home within the gardens.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Near the Stowe House, a life-size bronze sculpture by artist Brenda Councill depicts Harriet Beecher Stowe seated on a bench reading the 1848 freedom narrative of Josiah Henson.
The sculpture was made possible through a generous gift from Rosamond Warren Allen.
Carol Kreeger Davidson
The Day House garden features an abstract sculpture by Connecticut artist Carol Kreeger Davidson (1929–2014).
The work was given to the Stowe Center by the Marks family in memory of Leta Weiss Marks (1932–2025).
