Beautiful Gardens and Grounds to Explore on the Byway

The Essex Coastal Scenic Byway is best known for its harbor views, historic seaports, and miles of salt marsh — but tucked among those 90 miles are some of the most beautiful garden landscapes in New England. From grand Gilded Age estates with formal Italian gardens to wild rhododendron thickets along a river bluff, the Byway offers plenty of reasons to slow down, step out of the car, and wander.

Castle Hill on the Crane Estate (Ipswich)

Address: 290 Argilla Road, Ipswich, MA 01938

Admission: Free for Trustees members | $10 non-members | $5 children 12 and under. Great House tours available separately.

Castle Hill on the Crane Estate in Ipswich is one of the most spectacular properties on the entire East Coast. A 165-acre seaside estate set atop a drumlin overlooking Crane Beach and Ipswich Bay, with formal gardens, sweeping lawns, and views that stretch to the Atlantic, it’s hard to miss – and you certainly don’t want to!

The estate was built in the early 1900s by Chicago industrialist Richard T. Crane, Jr., who hired the Olmsted Brothers — sons of the legendary Frederick Law Olmsted who designed New York’s Central Park — to design the landscaping. The result is a grand grass mall called the Grand Allée, nearly half a mile long and lined with evergreens, that cascades from the 59-room Great House down to the water. Flanking the house are the Italian Garden and the Rose Garden, with their ornate stone columns, planted beds, and fountains. The grounds also feature a woodland trail network, a casino complex, and some of the most stunning ocean views you’ll find anywhere on the Byway.

Don’t miss: The Formal Flowers garden tour, which takes you inside the history of the Italian and Rose Gardens from the Crane era to today.

Long Hill / Sedgwick Gardens (Beverly)

Address: 572 Essex Street, Beverly, MA 01915

Admission: Grounds open year-round, daily. Visitor services (including house tours) available Friday–Sunday, mid-April through late September. House and garden tours: $15–$20; grounds free for Trustees members.

This 114-acre estate tucked off Essex Street has been renowned for its gardens for over a century. From 1916 to 1979, Long Hill was the summer home of Atlantic Monthly editor Ellery Sedgwick and his wife Mabel Cabot Sedgwick, an accomplished horticulturist and author of “The Garden Month by Month”. After Mabel’s death, Ellery’s second wife Marjorie — a rare plants specialist who collaborated with the Arnold Arboretum — continued to develop the estate’s extraordinary plant collection.

The result of their combined vision is one of the most thoughtfully designed garden estates in Massachusetts. Long Hill’s five acres of cultivated grounds are laid out as a series of distinct outdoor “rooms” surrounding the handsome Federal-style brick house, each one rendered in an informal “Wild Garden” style and accented with statuary, ornaments, and mature plantings that flow naturally into the surrounding woodland. A 2020 addition, the Summer Garden designed by landscape architect Julie Moir Messervy, adds a stunning contemporary layer to the historic grounds.

Beyond the formal gardens, Long Hill offers a 1.2-mile woodland loop trail through vernal pools and boulders, a children’s garden, an apple orchard, a meadow, and an organic vegetable farm. An interactive online Garden Explorer tool lets visitors look up any plant on the property by name or location before they arrive. If you’re a plant lover, plan to spend a few hours here.

Don’t miss: The annual Long Hill Plant Sale in late spring — a beloved North Shore tradition offering rare and unusual plants from the estate’s own collection.

Lynch Park Rose Garden (Beverly)

Address: 55 Ober Street, Beverly, MA 01915

Admission: Free for Beverly residents (parking sticker required). Non-residents: $15 weekdays, $25 weekends and holidays. Park open 6 am–10 pm.

For further evidence that Beverly’s nickname “the Garden City” is justified, you can visit Lynch Park, a beloved 16-acre waterfront park set on a small peninsula jutting into Beverly Cove. The park’s centerpiece is its elaborately designed Rose Garden.

The Rose Garden, maintained by the Beverly Garden Club, is a classic formal garden enclosed by brick walls with two iconic lion statues guarding the entrance. Stone pillars frame the garden beds, gazebos provide shaded corners for lingering, and the scent of roses in peak summer bloom is hard to leave behind. Sweeping views of Beverly Harbor and the surrounding coastline extend beyond the garden walls, making this one of the most scenic spots in the entire city.

Lynch Park is a full-day destination for families, with two beaches, a splash pad, playgrounds, picnic areas, and a seasonal concession stand. The park also hosts a summer concert series and other seasonal events throughout the year.

Don’t miss: The lookout points along the park’s perimeter for views back toward Salem’s waterfront across the water.

Maudslay State Park (Newburyport)

Address: 74 Curzon Mill Road, Newburyport, MA 01950

Admission: Free. Parking fee: $2. Open year-round.

At the northern end of the Byway, on a bluff above the Merrimack River, Maudslay State Park is one of the most underrated natural and horticultural gems on the North Shore. What is now 450 acres of public parkland was once the grand estate of Frederick Strong Moseley, a Boston banker who hired Martha Brookes Hutcheson — one of the earliest female members of the American Society of Landscape Architects — to design the grounds in the early 1900s. At its peak, the estate included 30 structures and employed 40 staff to maintain the grounds.

The mansion is long gone, but the landscape endures. Maudslay is home to one of the largest naturally occurring stands of mountain laurel in Massachusetts, along with a rhododendron dell, an azalea swamp, Italian and Rose Gardens restored by a dedicated volunteer committee, a stone arch bridge, and a flowering reflection pond. Sixteen miles of trails wind through meadows, pine groves, and riverfront bluffs where primeval stands of white pine tower above the Merrimack. Bald eagles nest here in winter.

The peak bloom season in mid-to-late May, but Maudslay is worth a visit in any season.

Don’t miss: The summer concert series and outdoor theater performances at the Maudslay Arts Center on the park grounds.

Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm (Newbury)

Address: 5 Little’s Lane, Newbury, MA 01951

Admission: Grounds free for Trustees members; nominal fee for non-members. Seasonal hours; check ahead for house tours.

A working farm and historic estate tucked between the Great Marsh and the Parker River, Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm is a quiet step back in time. The property has been farmed continuously since the 1600s, and the grounds feel like a living portrait of early New England agriculture. Visitors can enjoy rolling fields, orchards, a 17th-century stone and brick manor house, and marsh views that seem to stretch forever.

The Trustees of Reservations, which manages the property, has developed the grounds with a working farm and events program that connects visitors to the land across the seasons. The formal grounds surrounding the manor house feature perennial plantings, kitchen garden beds, and quiet corners for sitting and taking in the view. The nearby Great Marsh — the largest contiguous salt marsh in New England — provides a natural backdrop that changes color with every season.

Don’t miss: The view of Plum Island Sound from the farm fields on a clear day — one of the most beautiful vistas on the entire Byway.

Plan Your Visit

Spring and early summer are the peak seasons for garden blooms along the Byway, but every season brings its own rewards. Maudslay and Long Hill are particularly stunning in May and June; Lynch Park and the Crane Estate are at their best through the summer; and Spencer-Peirce-Little is magnificent in the golden light of fall.

Many of these properties are managed by the Trustees of Reservations, and a Trustees membership gives you free or discounted access to all of them — a worthwhile investment if you plan to explore more than one.

For more ideas on what to see and do along the Essex Coastal Scenic Byway, visit coastalbyway.org.