Naumkeag is the former summer retreat of Joseph Hodges Choate (1832-1917). The house was built 1885-1886 and a classic example of a Gilded Age estate.
Website: https://thetrustees.org/content/naumkeag-history/
The existing gardens were designed and constructed by Fletcher Steele in conjunction with Mabel Choate who inherited the property in 1929. Mabel had traveled extensively and as a result, she made changes to the pr-existing formal gardens. One of those changes consisted of a Chinese garden. The garden took 20 years to complete, being finished in 1955, three years before Mabel's death.
The garden is a very good example of turn-of-the-century "Oriental Exotic," when westerners interpreted Chinese and Japanese gardens in inauthentic ways. This garden is unlike any other I have seen in North America. It has elements of traditional Chinese gardens, and even resembles aspects of the Forbidden City, but it also has odd mixtures of Chinese, Japanese, and even South Asian elements, all of which reflect Mabel Choate's travels and interests.
By 2016, the "Temple" garden was restored and is open to the general public as part of tours of the estate property.
