The Mission of Goodell Gardens & Homestead is to create beautiful gardens and natural spaces where people visit to enjoy, gather, learn, and refresh.
- Enjoy the beauty of both manicured gardens and natural spaces.
- Gather for events and celebrations both large and small.
- Learn about plants, land stewardship, and their importance to humanity and the ecosystem.
- Refresh your mind, body, and spirit.
2020 Vision Statement:
Carrie and Margaret Goodell’s desire was that their farm would forever exhibit their passion for plants and gardening, where visitors “may come to enjoy the solitude and quiet, as well as the natural beauty that will be maintained therein for … pleasure and enjoyment.” Goodell Gardens & Homestead celebrates the vision of the Goodell sisters through excellence in horticulture, education, and land stewardship. By offering opportunities to interact with nature, the Gardens delight and inspire. As a rural botanical garden, Goodell Gardens & Homestead fulfills this vision by:
- Creating and caring for manicured gardens, interactive gardens, gathering places, wildlife habitats, and trails.
- Creating programming and events for:
- botanical and ecological education,
- music and the arts, and
- community engagement and enrichment.
- Demonstrating exemplary stewardship of the land, and adaptive reuse of the buildings and artifacts.
- Creating infrastructure to support administration, maintenance, visitors, volunteers, site rentals, and educational programming and research.
- Collaborating with local educational institutions, government bodies, businesses, and other nonprofit organizations.
- Cultivating community engagement and volunteerism.
- Implementing a financial model that ensures sustainable funding to include:
- earned income through admission fees and site rentals,
- community support through memberships, sponsorships, and charitable giving, and grants that fit our mission, vision, and goals.
What is Goodell Gardens and Homestead?
Goodell Gardens & Homestead is a non-profit public garden, accredited arboretum, and community gathering space located in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. The purpose of Goodell Gardens & Homestead is to create an education-oriented public garden and arboretum on the ~80-acre Goodell family farm by emulating the Goodell family passion for gardening and horticulture.
Goodell Gardens & Homestead was created at the bequest of Carrie and Margaret Goodell, the sole remaining heirs to the Goodell family in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. Upon their passing, the Goodell sisters arranged for the institution of a small endowment, held as a donor-designated fund at the Erie Community Foundation, intended to afford the start-up capital necessary to begin implementing the stated wish that their farm be developed as a public garden. Goodell Gardens & Homestead was, thus, incorporated as a non-profit organization in 2001, and has since operated within its stated mission under the direction of its Board of Directors.
The Garden’s historic relevance is derived from the farmstead property belonging to the Goodell family since 1876 (originally purchased by the sisters’ grandfather George Goodell). The Goodell family is also interlaced with the origins of Edinboro, as they were involved in early business, political and educational developments. From a horticultural perspective, the Goodell Heritage Garden is historically significant in the diversity of cultivated plant species held, along with its being a representative of American old-fashioned or heirloom gardening in general.
