Green Animals Topiary Garden - History

History

The small country estate in Portsmouth was purchased in 1872 by Thomas E. Brayton (1844–1939), He was the treasurer of the Union Cotton Manufacturing Company in nearby Fall River, Massachusetts and he was looking for a country summer retreat. It consisted of 7 acres (28,000 m2) of land, a white clapboard summer residence, farm outbuildings, a pasture and a vegetable garden. The main Victorian home looked out on Narragansett Bay.

It was Gardener Joseph Carreiro, superintendent of the property from 1905 to 1945 who slowly transformed it into a museum of living sculpture. Carreiro was recruited to design and maintain ornamental and edible gardens as part of a self-sufficient estate. Besides planting fruit trees, perennial beds, herb and vegetable gardens, Carreiro experimented with some fast-growing shrubs to unique forms. The first topiaries were started in the estate's greenhouse in 1912 and later moved.

Mr. Brayton died in 1939 and his daughter Alice Brayton took up permanent residence in 1940. Joseph Carreiro was assisted by his son-in-law, George Mendonca. Both gardeners were responsible for creating the topiaries. Mendonca, the son of a nurseryman and dairy farmer, was hired to make repairs in the Brayton garden after a hurricane damaged it in 1938. Mendonca married Carreiro's daughter, Mary, and together they lived on the grounds overlooking Narragansett Bay. Both George and Mary Mendonca both died less than one day apart. Mary on February 1, 2011 and George on February 2, 2011

Miss Brayton renamed the estate "Green Animals" due their proficient work. Each individual topiary was hand tripped and trained using the traditional technique. This took decades. Today, modern topiaries often are trained on a metal frame or trellis to shorten the time the transformation takes place. It was under her direction a menagerie of 30 topiaries was created. During five decades of Mendonca's care, the garden grew into a horticultural destination. Additional hurricane damage was sustained in 1954. The giraffe lost its head and neck. It took five years to grow back with a much shorter neck.

The estate hosted a coming-out party for Jackie Bouvier during the 1947-48 season. She went on to marry President John F. Kennedy. Her stepfather resided in nearby Newport and she was wed in a local church. The estate hosted other dignitaries over the years including Mamie Eisenhower, the wife of President Dwight Eisenhower.

Upon her death in 1972, at the age of 94, Miss Brayton left Green Animals to The Preservation Society of Newport County. Mendonca remained the grounds manager until his retirement in 1985. Each year, Green Animals hosts a children's party, attracting about 1,000 people.