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McLaughlin Garden
McLaughlin Garden: Look Closely at a Living Homestead
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McLaughlin Garden invites you to look at a familiar idea—a garden beside a house—with a little more patience. Instead of trying to identify every plant, choose a shape, a color, or a relationship between two growing things and follow it through the visit. The pleasure can be small and particular. A carefully noticed border may tell you more about the place than a hurried circuit intended to take in everything at once.
Bernard McLaughlin and Rena Tribou married in 1936 and made their home on a former dairy farm. Over the next six decades, he developed roughly two acres of garden around the house. The Cultural Landscape Foundation describes broad planting beds separated by lawn paths, with plants acquired from regional gardens and nurseries. A former cow lane became a place for wildflowers and ferns. These transformations give the garden a useful story to carry while looking: the cultivated setting grew from the working arrangement of an older farm.
The Foundation now stewards the South Paris homestead as a cultural landscape and public green space. Lilacs give May a particular attraction, while hostas, daylilies, astilbes, iris, phlox, wildflowers, and ferns extend the subjects through the growing season. Choose your visit for the season you will actually encounter. Looking closely at leaves, structure, and changing combinations can be rewarding even when the flower that first drew your attention is no longer blooming.
A 2026 interview with director Leslie Guenther describes a collection of about 125 lilac varieties represented by some 200 trees. That variety invites comparison rather than a single glance: differences within one group of plants can become the subject of the outing. The same account emphasizes the people who help sustain the garden, including volunteers and a children's program developed with Norway Memorial Library. Horticulture and community activity share the setting, giving a local green space a life beyond its borders.
Tripadvisor contributor NHjo visited during the lilac festival in May 2021 and offered a mixed judgment. The flowering trees and shrubs were pleasant, with seats and shade adding places to pause, but the reviewer found the small garden less impressive than hoped and felt some lilacs were past their best. That response is useful when setting expectations. Come for a compact historic garden and a chance to notice individual plants, allowing the actual stage of flowering to shape the experience.
After McLaughlin's death in 1995, a foundation formed to acquire and protect the property. The house and barn date to the nineteenth century, and the landscape entered the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. Their presence supplies a sense of domestic scale around the planting. Consider the relationship between built forms and growing forms as you walk, without assuming that a garden visit automatically includes access to every historic interior.
Plan around the operator's published garden season and confirm the current arrangements for the barn, shop, and programs. The entrance is at 97 Main Street. Self-guided visits, workshops, and special events offer different ways to engage; a particular activity needs its own current confirmation. Leave plants intact and use permitted visitor space when stopping for a closer look.
For photographs, pair a broad composition with a quieter detail, letting the first establish a relationship and the second give one subject room. Keep other visitors' passage clear while you work. The pair can express what a patient visit discovers: a garden does not need to feel vast to hold a distinctive personal history and several ways of looking.
Fun facts
- A former farm’s cow lane became a wildflower and fern setting.
Before you go
- Check the published garden season and separate building or program arrangements.
- Use the entrance at 97 Main Street.
- Set expectations for a compact garden and the actual stage of flowering.
Visitor perspectives
- NHjo enjoyed flowering trees, shrubs, shade, and seating, but found the small garden underwhelming and some lilacs past their best.
Capture
- Pair a broad composition with one quiet detail from permitted visitor space.
- Keep the passage clear while comparing shapes or colors.
Social
Lilacs and later-season perennial collections give different reasons to visit.
A long gardening project transformed the setting of an older farm.
Variety within the lilac collection rewards comparison.
NHjo found pleasant flowers and shade but was underwhelmed overall.
Choose one detail and give it more time.
Volunteers and community programs help sustain the garden.
Confirm current seasonal and program arrangements before traveling.
A compact place can invite an unhurried visit.
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