By Suzanne Clary
In early June 1960, members of the Rye Garden Club assembled for their year-end luncheon at the Boston Post Road home of Fanny Wickes Parsons. The waterfront estate, called Lounsbury, stretched from Route 1 all the way out to Long Island Sound. Sailboats from American Yacht Club glided by in the distance. Fanny invited everyone to enjoy her garden, which was bursting with fragrances from an apple orchard, rows of delphiniums, zigzag-petaled carnations and a cascade of rambling, shell-pink, heritage roses.
Roses were her passion, but Fanny was just as invested in growing public interest in horticultural education. She regularly organized plant identification exhibits at the Rye Free Reading Room. On the Rye Village Green, which had been donated by her husband John’s family, she and club members arranged charitable sales of spring bulbs and shrubs. In addition to chairing the New York Botanical Garden’s Advisory Council, Fanny also gave talks about roses as an accredited Garden Club of America speaker, publicly advocating organic maintenance and “no DDT.” On many occasions, the Lounsbury gardens were opened to benefit The Osborn Home (where she served as a trustee), the Rye Historical Society, and other like-minded organizations outside of Rye, including the Greenwich Garden Center and the Westchester County Children’s Association.
Fanny won one of the highest honors from the Garden Club of America — The Horticultural Award, which acknowledged Fanny’s distinction in the field and her internationally recognized accomplishments, including medals for perennial border designs. The honor was presented by Mrs. Oliver Everett, whose own daughter-in-law would one day be Rye Garden Club president. Applauding her success were friends like Anne Kelsey, who would help lead the initiative to preserve what is known today as the Rye Nature Center. Edith Read was another of Fanny’s closest confidantes.
Following a gift of 120 acres made by her neighbor Zilph Palmer Devereux in 1966 to create a nature conservancy, Fanny made her own gift in 1977. There was one caveat — she asked that the land be used “solely as a nature conservancy and wildlife sanctuary” and that “no garages or maintenance buildings be erected and that no marinas be built on or near the shorefront of the tract.” A small comfort station that had been built in 1972 with a minimal footprint was the exception.
For a time, the conservancy was safe.
But then a developer threatened to build condos at the Jay Estate next door, threatening the ecology of both properties. A coalition of 62 natural and historical nonprofits including Jay family descendants arose to safeguard the conservancy and the Jay Estate, and Fanny did her part. She agreed to host a Rye-wide family festival in 1986 called “Jay Day,” the proceeds of which funded a legal defense. On the day of the event, the mayor of Rye read a proclamation on the town green. Afterward, supporters cheered as a rider on horseback “pound(ed) off with police escort to Lounsbury,” hooves clattering two miles up the Post Road.
After 58 growing seasons at Lounsbury, Fanny passed away. Although she didn’t live to see it, that citizen-led coalition used civic activism, sheer tenacity, and a belief in nature to prevent the monetization and ruin of an irreplaceable natural area and the landmarked Jay home. In 1992, after 13 years of negotiations, Marshlands and the Jay Estate were threat-free.
Just to be sure, Marshlands Conservancy was legally rededicated in 1997 as passive parkland by the Westchester County Board of Legislators and set aside as a natural park and wildlife sanctuary “for use and development for habitat management and wildlife protection, in an environmentally sensitive manner.” The legislation prohibited activities that might be detrimental to plant or animal life, as well as any activities that would alter existing drainage patterns or result in erosion. Among those who championed this legislation was U.S. Rep. George Latimer.
As we celebrate Rye’s “living landmarks,” Fanny’s life is a casebook study of how intentional acts can promote ecological health and biodiversity in our own backyard. In a recent interview, author and environmentalist Tony Hiss clarified the purpose of preservation: “I’ve always thought that what is important about preservation is you’re not trying to preserve the past. You’re trying to preserve the present. You are trying to make sure that something that has made its way from the past into our lives continues to be part of the lives of people who will come hereafter.” The human species, and hundreds, if not thousands of other native living species that presently enjoy the serenity of the Marshlands Conservancy, and how Fanny envisioned it would be, would agree.
Thank you to the Parsons family, including David Parsons, Fanny’s daughter, and her granddaughter for their participation in this article.
Suzanne Clary is president of the board of trustees at the Jay Heritage Center, which is located at the Jay Estate next to the Marshlands Conservancy on Boston Post Road.
