What to See in Millbrook - Top Sights and Attractions

Botanical garden in Dutchess County, New York. Innisfree Garden is an American nonprofit public garden influenced by Chinese style in Millbrook, New York. The garden was established between 1930 and 1960 as the private garden of Walter and Marion Beck, inspired by scroll paintings of the 8th-century Chinese poet and painter Wang Wei. With the help of landscape architect Lester Collins from Harvard University, individual garden scenes inspired by the Chinese paintings were connected to an overall landscape around a glacial lake, in keeping with the ecological surroundings.

From 1960, the garden was managed by a foundation headed by Collins, and open to the public. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Dutchess County in 2019.^[1]

Burial ground. The Nine Partners Meeting House and Cemetery is located at the junction of NY state highway 343 and Church Street, in the village of Millbrook, New York, United States. The meeting house, the third one on the site, was built by a group of Friends from the Cape Cod region, Nantucket and Rhode Island in 1780.

It was the largest meeting in the Hudson Valley, and many other meetings split off from it. Unusually, it was located near a developed area, and the Friends in it were more prosperous than their co-religionists elsewhere in the region. Its size and use of brick, along with several other architectural features, are unusual for meeting houses.

Attendance at meetings dwindled over the course of the 19th century, and in 1897 control of the property was turned over to the Nine Partners Burial Ground Association. It is still used for occasional Quaker events, and is well preserved from the days of its regular use. In 1989 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of a Multiple Property Submission of Quaker meeting houses in Dutchess County.^[2]

School in Millbrook, New York. The Thorne Memorial School building is located at Franklin and Maple streets in Millbrook, New York, United States. It is a brick structure built at the end of the 19th century, considered the most distinctive public building in the village.

After being challenged by a newspaper reporter's column about the new village's lack of a school, a wealthy local resident had the school built at his expense and donated it to the community. In order for it to be accepted, it was necessary for the village to formally incorporate. It served as its high school until 1962. Today it is used for special purposes and afterschool activities. In 1996 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places along with an adjacent blacksmith's shop.^[4]