Green Animal is the oldest topiary garden in the United States. It is part of the small, seven-acre country estate in Portsmouth that was purchased in 1872 by Thomas E. Brayton from Fall River, Massachusetts.

The estate has a white Victorian summer residence, several farm outbuildings, a pasture, a vegetable garden and a topiary garden created by the property gardener and superintendent Joseph Carreiro and his son-in-law.

They created about 80 topiaries throughout the property gardens, mostly animals, birds and ornamental figures sculpted from yew, California privet and English boxwood. Brayton’s daughter Alice lived on the estate from 1939 until her death. She left the topiary garden to the Preservation Society of Newport.

Green Animal Topiary Gardens, 380 Corys Ln, Portsmouth, RI 02871

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