“In a city of world-famous and popular monuments . . . Tregaron was hands down the most popular destination in The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s first-ever ‘What’s Out There’ Weekend.” (The Cultural Landscape Foundation, October 2010 E-Newsletter)
The Tregaron Conservancy is a nonprofit organization founded in 2006. As owner and steward of 13 acres of protected parkland, the Conservancy is restoring, rehabilitating, and maintaining this important historic landscape for public benefit.
In 2006, after more than 25 years of legal disputes, the Friends of Tregaron (the advocacy group that preceded the Tregaron Conservancy) negotiated a landmark agreement that spared the land from development. Tregaron’s landscape is now protected as open green space in perpetuity, and the Conservancy continues its ambitious challenge of maintaining, stewarding and restoring a once-forgotten site and sharing Tregaron’s story.
Thanks to our generous supporters, partners, and volunteers, we have reopened pedestrian trails, meadows, restored stone bridges, footpaths, and stairways, and reconstructed the iconic Lily Pond. We have planted naturalistic “wild gardens” inspired by original plans dating back to 1915. We have planted over 300 trees, hundreds of shrubs, and thousands of daffodils and other perennials. Most of our new plants are native. We have seeded native grass and wildflower meadows to create a new habitat for pollinators and other wildlife.
The park is open to the public every day, free of charge. The Conservancy hosts myriad events throughout the year — landscape and nature tours, school group and summer camp programs, forest bathing, tai chi, yoga, concerts, and other community events for all ages. Our annual events include an Easter Egg Hunt, spring and fall concerts, and volunteer planting and clean-up days.
Why is the Tregaron Estate important?
The 20-acre Tregaron Estate (originally known as “The Causeway”) represents the most important surviving landscape collaboration by noted architect, Charles Adams Platt, and renowned landscape architect, Ellen Biddle Shipman. At the height of her career, Shipman was known as the “dean of women landscape architects” in America. Tregaron is the only country estate designed by Platt in Washington, and one of only a handful of his surviving estates nationwide. Shipman’s garden at Tregaron was by far the largest of her woodland landscapes, and is one of only two known examples of this type of “wild garden” design in the country. In 1979, the entire estate, including the landscape, was designated a Landmark of the District of Columbia. Tregaron was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 and is a contributing feature of the Cleveland Park Historic District (1986).
The Tregaron Conservancy relies solely on private donations. Please contribute to our 501(c)(3) non-profit organization online via the secure online process or mail a check to P.O. Box 11351, Washington, DC 20008. Visit our Donate page for more details. Your support makes all of our work possible.
We hope you will come visit Tregaron—it is a magical place.
