History Cambridge Hooper-Lee-Nichols

Five years after the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House was bequeathed to History Cambridge (formerly the Cambridge Historical Society) in 1958, the Garden Club began an efforts to design a simple landscape plan as a miniature representation of the estate that once surrounded the house. One of the current garden’s most significant features – the yew hedges – goes back to the original Garden Club plan.

CP&GC has long worked at the site on many elements of the gardens: donating and planting trees, renovating the c. 1916 Colonial Revival fence and front gate, planting thousands of spring bulbs, restoring the garden’s grape trellis, managing lawn care, completing myriad spring and fall garden cleanups, and funding pruning.

The second oldest house in Cambridge is home to History Cambridge, a private nonprofit dedicated to sharing the stories of Cambridge and its residents. The garden has been a featured component of events, such as the “Forgotten Souls of Tory Row” art installation in 2022.