Linwood

About this property

Linwood Gardens (also known as the Gratwick Estate) is a private residence located at York in Livingston County, New York. The property is a 325-acre (1.32 km2) farm centered around a summer house and surrounded by developed garden areas, woods, and meadows. Most notably, it is home to a historic collection of tree peonies collected and developed by William H. Gratwick III and Nassos Daphnis from the 1930s-1980s. Linwood Gardens was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. William Henry Gratwick Sr. (1839–1899), was born in Albany and moved to Buffalo, NY in 1877 to found the lumber business Gratwick, White and Fryer Lumber Company, with offices in Tonawanda, Buffalo, and Detroit. The company owned timberland in Michigan and six ships to transport the timber on the Great Lakes. The Gratwick family lived at 776 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo in architect Henry Hobson Richardson's last commissioned home, an imposing brownstone, which stood until 1919. William succumbed to colon cancer in 1899, but notably was treated by Dr. Roswell Park of Buffalo during his illness. Mrs. Martha Weare Gratwick, William's widow, donated $25,000 to Dr. Park which assisted in the establishment of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, the first institution in the world to focus solely on cancer research. The remaining fortune earned by William was split among his three children, including his son, William H. Gratwick Jr. When his father died, "Harry" assisted in management of the lumber company but preferred other pursuits, including real estate projects in the Midwest and acting as vice-president of the New York State Board of Charities. With the inheritance he also scouted out a farm property in Livingston County, New York, which proved suitable for the establishment of a summer estate, which was a popular investment for those of means. The property was purchased in 1901 and construction began immediately. Harry worked with Green and Wicks, a prominent Buffalo firm, to design the summer house, and hired Boston landscape architect Thomas Fox to plan out the surrounding roads and garden areas between about 1901–1910. The results still stand today, with some alterations. The gardens were recognized with the Historic Landscape Award from the Landmark Society of Western New York in 2015. When Harry died in 1934, the estate was taken on by his son, William H. Gratwick III. "Bill" was known as a renaissance man; some of his interests included the breeding and showing of heritage horned Dorset sheep, breeding and training Arabian horses for dressage and driving, carriages, sculpture, and local theater and musical productions. His most lasting legacy, however, is the collection of Japanese and hybrid tree peonies that are still curated at Linwood Gardens, many important varieties of which were developed at the property beginning in the 1940s.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

More in Livingston County

Historic places, battles, and census history across Livingston County.

More historic places in New York

Browse all historic places in New York.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

New York history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.