Drive On Your Own: The Gardens and Graves of Laurel Hill

RAIN DATE: Please also reserve Thursday, October 27 from 10 am to 3 pm on your calendar. Refunds will not be given if you can’t make the rain date.
Enjoy tours of both Laurel Hill East in Philadelphia and Laurel Hill West in Bala Cynwyd with Senior Horticulturist Gregg Tepper, Arboretum Manager Aaron Greenberg, and Education Programs Manager Mackenzie Knight-Fochs (formerly Program Manager at the cemeteries!). See garden highlights and graves of notable horticulturists, including John and Gertrude Wister and Arthur Hoyt Scott and Edith Wilder Scott. 

Established in 1836 as the second garden-designed cemetery in the United States, Laurel Hill East is the nation’s first National Historic Landmark cemetery. John Jay Smith, the site’s founding visionary, had planned for Laurel Hill to be a school of instruction in architecture, culture, landscape gardening, arboriculture and botany. Laurel Hill East was not only established as a permanent, non-sectarian burial place for the dead, but also as a scenic, riverside sanctuary for the living. Together with Laurel Hill West (incorporated in 1869 across the Schuylkill River), the cemeteries form a 265-acre, Level II Accredited Arboretum. The Arboretum at Laurel Hill Arboretum has a curated living collection of over 6,000 specimen trees and shrubs representing over 700 unique species and cultivars, several state champion trees, as well as several site-specific display gardens. There is no better way to spend a lovely fall day than taking in the beautiful art, stunning views, and scenic nature of these two cemeteries. 

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Trips are a member benefit; to learn more about becoming an Associate of the Scott Arboretum, click here.

Important information about this event. Thank you for reading before registering:

• Trips with the Scott Arboretum are a member-only benefit. This drive-on-your-own trip is limited to 25 members of the Associates of the Scott Arboretum.
• To learn how to become a member, click here.
• Online payment is required to register and is open to the first 25 members who sign up. No checks or cash will be accepted.
• Reserve Thursday, October 27 from 10 am to 3 pm  on your calendar as the rain date. Refunds will not be given if you can’t make the rain date.
• Non-vaccinated participants are asked to please wear a mask.
• Restrooms will be available at both cemeteries.
• The addresses and parking instructions will be emailed to participants the week of the trip. 
• Plan to bring your own lunch to enjoy at the cemeteries or eat locally.