The Coes hired the
Boston firm of Guy Lowell and A.R. Sargent to develop the landscaping
James Greenleaf had begun. Andrew
Robeson Sargent, who had been a friend of the family for a number
of years,introduced Lowell to the Coes.Between 1913 and 1918,
Sargent designed some of Planting |

The trees arrive at the
port of Oyster Bay
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Fields' most
distinctive features, notably the Blue Pool Garden and the exterior of
the Tea House, the North Border and the allèe south of the Tea
House. Shortly before the Blue Pool Garden was completed, A.R. Sargent
passed away.
Lowell and Sargent were also responsible for overseeing the moving
and transplanting of the Fairhaven Beech in 1915. The Fairhaven Beech
is a purple beech tree that was brought from Mai Rogers Coes childhood
home in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. After her father's death, the house
was due to be razed and the land subdivided. Mai wished to save two
large purple beeches she played under as a youngster and bring them
to Planting Fields. The large trees were excellent specimens and would
give the young estate the look of a mature landscape.
In an enormous tree-moving effort, the two beeches were transported
across Long Island sound in the middle of winter and arrived at the
port of Oyster Bay. At the Coes expense, roads were widened and
telephone and electrical wires temporarily removed to make way for the
tremendous beeches with root balls thirty feet in diameter. Only one
of the two trees survived the replanting, and it remains today the signature
tree of Planting Fields.
The Coes hired the prominent architectural firm of Walker and Gillette
of New York to design several outbuildings on the property that complemented
the lamay brick construction of the Byrne mansion including the Hay
Barn, Superintendent's House, and Laundry. A. Stewart Walker and Leon
Gillette would later design Coe Hall.
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