Harkness Memorial State Park
Harkness Memorial State Park is a historic preservation area located on Long Island Sound in Waterford, Connecticut. The state park's center around Eolia, a 42-room Renaissance Revival mansion with formal gardens and greenhouses. The park is managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
History
The park was the summer home of philanthropists Edward and Mary Harkness, who inherited the fortune created by Edward's father, Stephen V. Harkness, a substantial investor in John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. The mansion was designed by the New York architectural firm of Lord & Hewlett, constructed in 1906–07. From 1918 to 1929, landscape designer Beatrix Jones Farrand made extensive improvements to the grounds, adding numerous formal gardens.Mrs. Harkness left the property to the State of Connecticut in 1950, and it became part of the state park system in 1952. Eolia—The Harkness Estate was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 as a historic district with 15 contributing buildings and two other contributing structures.