The Harpswell Garden Club has created several community gardens.

Harpswell Historic Gardens

Ann Standridge tackles some pruning at Centennial Hall garden clean up, May, 2015.

Ann Standridge pruning at Centennial Hall garden clean up.

Our flagship garden is the Harpswell Historic Park, where we designed and maintain an ambitious and varied array of annuals, perennials, and shrubs surrounding Centennial Hall on Route 123.

Harpswell Town Hall Garden

Town Office Garden Clean Up: May, 2015.

Town Office Garden Clean Up: May, 2015.

We designed, planted, and maintain the Harpswell Town Office Garden on Mountain Road, and helped install the Entrance Garden at Mitchell Field on Harpswell Neck.

Union Church

Spring, 2021: new handrails at the old Union Church.

The interdenominational Union Church, located at 553 Harpswell Neck Road in Harpswell, is preserved and maintained by the Harpswell Garden Club. Built by ships’ carpenters in 1841, the church has simple but handsome Greek Revival proportions and Gothic Revival details. It was restored by the Garden Club in 1952, and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

The interior of the Church is true to its original construction with a mahogany pulpit and solid pine floors and pews. The church is available for weddings and special events from June through September.

Naval Chapel Gardens

The Harpswell Garden Club established two gardens in conjunction with the U.S. Navy on the grounds of the former Brunswick Naval Air Station Chapel: The Memorial Garden and the Friendship Garden.

Commemorative plaque on bench in the Memorial Garden.

Commemorative plaque on bench in the Memorial Garden.

The Memorial Garden, dedicated in 1968, designed by noted University of Maine Professor Lyle Littlefield with plantings done by the Harpswell Garden Club and members of the Navy, was meant to honor those airmen attached to squadrons based at the Brunswick Naval Air Station who lost their lives while serving on planes based in Brunswick.

Copper fountain commissioned by the Harpswell Garden Club and donated to the Navy for the Friendship Garden.

Copper fountain commissioned by the Harpswell Garden Club and donated to the Navy for the Friendship Garden.

The Friendship Garden, dedicated in 1972, was meant to honor civilians and former military members stationed at the Naval Air Station, who furthered the close friendship between the surrounding communities and the Navy.  At the time the gardens were established, it’s believed they were the only gardens in the United States on an active duty military base that were established and tended to by a civilian garden club.