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Awbury
was originally the summer home of the Cope family.
Henry Cope, a Quaker shipping merchant, purchased
Awbury in 1852 and named the estate after the village,
Avebury, England, from which his family originally
emigrated. Awbury soon became a year-round home for
members of the extended Cope family. Various Victorian
and Colonial Revival houses were built between 1860
and the 1920s, forming a unique cultural landscape.
Except for the Francis Cope House (1860) which is
now the Arboretum headquarters, all of the houses
are now privately owned.
Awbury's
grounds were laid out in the 19th century
in the English landscape garden tradition with the
advice of the celebrated horticulturalist William
Saunders, designer of the National Cemetery at the
Gettysburg Battlefield and of the Capitol grounds
in Washington, D.C. Long Vistas are framed by clusters
of trees and shrubs which are interwoven with open
space creating stunning visual contrasts.
Concern
for the preservation of this piece of open space led
to the establishment of the Arboretum in 1916 by members
of the Cope family. In 1984, the Awbury Arboretum
Association was established as a non-profit organization. |
