Source

State Archives of Florida, Collection M91-5

Description

An invitation to tea during the opening of Killearn Gardens. The invitation was sent by Mrs. Alfred Barmore Maclay (Louise Fleischmann Maclay), Mrs. Alfred Barmore Maclay Jr. (Mary Jane Holzman Maclay), and Mr. and Mrs. Noel F. Bowers.

Date

1954-01-24

Creator

Maclay, Louise Fleischmann
Maclay, Mary Jane Holzman
Bowers, Noel F.
Bowers, Noel F., Mrs.

Format

Invitations

Coverage

Postwar Florida (1945-1968)

Topic

Social Life And Customs

Subjects

Entertaining
Parties
Tea parties

Geographic Term

Tallahassee
Leon County
Killearn Plantation and Gardens
Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park

General Note

Killearn Plantation and Gardens (later Maclay Gardens) was designed and planted by Alfred Barmore Maclay starting in 1923. Maclay featured camellias as the "backbone" of the gardens design but also included hundreds of other flowers. The name "Killearn" comes from a village in Scotland where Mr. Maclay's great-grandfather Reverend Archibald Maclay was born. Alfred Maclay died in 1944, and two years later his wife, Louise Maclay, made the gardens public. In April 1953, Louise Maclay and her children gave the 307-acre Killearn Gardens (including the Maclay House) to the Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials as a memorial to Alfred Barmore Maclay. The Maclay house and most of the associated buildings were constructed circa 1906 to 1909, when the land was used as a hunting plantation. In 1965, the park was renamed Maclay Gardens. In 2002, the park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Killearn Plantation Archeological and Historic District.