We are New England’s first and only city-wide arboretum.

Aquidneck Island was a favored summering place for the Narragansetts, like the Wampanoags before them. The rich soil of the Narragansett Basin combined with the tempering effect of the deep waters of the surrounding bay means the forests would have supported a wide variety of species including oak, hickory, ash, tulip, elm, beech, pine and cedar. The colonial period marked the first major decline in Newport’s forests. Colonists cleared land for farms and road. From 1776 to 1779, islanders and occupying British troops faced three harsh New England winters under an American blockade. Houses, wharves, fences and sidewalks—reportedly, even wooden gravemarkers—all became firewood. Most of Newport’s trees, along with roughly a third of its buildings, burned. Newport’s trees slowly returned in the following years. With the advent of the Gilded Age in the mid 1800s, Newport gained new attention as a popular summer destination. Some of America’s wealthiest families built lavish summer “cottages” in Newport and commissioned equally lavish landscapes to frame them. Plant hunters searched the globe for exotic new species, bringing trees from all over the world back to Newport. The Hurricane of 1938 devastated the island’s tree canopy. In the wake of World War II, rapid development meant Newport’s aged tree canopy would face increasing threats as roads expanded but planting declined.