Elm Bank Horticulture Center

After being occupied by families named Loring, Broad, and Otis, the property was sold for $10,000 in 1874 to Benjamin Pierce Cheney, a founder of a delivery company that became American Express.

[6] In 1907, Alice and her husband, Dr. William Hewson Baltzell, engaged the architectural firm of Carrère and Hastings to design a Neo-Georgian manor house.

[6] In 1996, an effort was successfully undertaken by Dr. John C. Peterson, President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society to secure a new educational and garden site for Mass Hort in the suburbs of Boston, a long time dream of the organization.

Due to the efforts of Dr. John C. Peterson, support was gained from the MDC, Department of Environmental Management, the Secretary of the Environment and the Governors office to propose legislation that would shortly thereafter be enacted into law by the State Legislature to authorize a land lease of 36 acres of the Elm Bank Reservation / formally the Cheney Estate to The Massachusetts Horticultural Society for a term of 100 years.

John Peterson and Pieter van Loon collaboratively develop a site Master Plan for The Elm Bank Horticulture Center gardens and facilities.

As the overall site and individual garden spaces matured and grew in significance, the society began to charge non-member visitors an entrance fee in 2010,.

This garden also tests unreleased varieties competing for All-America Selections awards, displays previous winners, and grows hundreds of cultivars submitted for evaluation by commercial plant breeders.