Welkinweir
Encyclopedia
Welkinweir is a 197 acres (79.7 ha) nonprofit arboretum
, garden, mansion, and conservation area located at 1368 Prizer Road, Pughtown
, Pennsylvania
near Pottstown
. It is open to the public daily without charge.
Welkinweir was the home of Everett and Grace Rodebaugh, founding members of the conservation-minded Green Valleys Association, who bought the site in the 1930s and spent decades improving it. Their house was built in 1940, building upon a much smaller house, built in two sections c. 1750 and c. 1830. Architect Fridtjof Tobiessen designed the 1940 mansion. The property was placed into a conservation easement in 1976, donated to the association in 1997, and is now its headquarters and educational center. In 2001 the estate was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
Its arboretum includes cherry
, dogwood
, dwarf evergreen
s, franklinia
, magnolia
, Japanese maple, swamp and sugar maple
, and sweetgum, as well as azalea
s and rhododendron
s.
Arboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
, garden, mansion, and conservation area located at 1368 Prizer Road, Pughtown
Pughtown, Pennsylvania
Pughtown is a town in Chester County, Pennsylvania located on Pennsylvania Route 100 just south of Bucktown, Pennsylvania.-References:* *...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
near Pottstown
Pottstown, Pennsylvania
Pottstown is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States northwest of Philadelphia and southeast of Reading, on the Schuylkill River. Pottstown was laid out in 1752–53 and named Pottsgrove in honor of its founder, John Potts. The old name was abandoned at the time of the...
. It is open to the public daily without charge.
Welkinweir was the home of Everett and Grace Rodebaugh, founding members of the conservation-minded Green Valleys Association, who bought the site in the 1930s and spent decades improving it. Their house was built in 1940, building upon a much smaller house, built in two sections c. 1750 and c. 1830. Architect Fridtjof Tobiessen designed the 1940 mansion. The property was placed into a conservation easement in 1976, donated to the association in 1997, and is now its headquarters and educational center. In 2001 the estate was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Its arboretum includes cherry
Cherry
The cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....
, dogwood
Dogwood
The genus Cornus is a group of about 30-60 species of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods. Most dogwoods are deciduous trees or shrubs, but a few species are nearly herbaceous perennial subshrubs, and a few of the woody species are evergreen...
, dwarf evergreen
Evergreen
In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...
s, franklinia
Franklinia
Franklinia is a monotypic genus in the tea plant family, Theaceae. The sole species in this genus is a flowering tree, Franklinia alatamaha, commonly called the Franklin tree, and native to the Altamaha River valley in Georgia in the southeastern United States...
, magnolia
Magnolia
Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol....
, Japanese maple, swamp and sugar maple
Maple
Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...
, and sweetgum, as well as azalea
Azalea
Azaleas are flowering shrubs comprising two of the eight subgenera of the genus Rhododendron, Pentanthera and Tsutsuji . Azaleas bloom in spring, their flowers often lasting several weeks...
s and rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
s.