Rectory & Garden

    The next-door Rectory occupies the top three stories of a classic 1860's brownstone townhouse on a quiet tree-lined street. This includes a “parlor floor” with formal living room, dining room and kitchen; private living room and master bedroom (with dressing room and bath); and three smaller bedrooms (with bath). The parish office and rector’s study occupy the first floor, which has a small gem of a lovingly tended garden in the rear.
The Garden of Good Shepherd
By Fred Timm

It’s unusual to have a flourishing garden in Manhattan, but we at The Church of the Good Shepherd have the extraordinary good fortune to have one the blooms from February through the first frost. Even many long-time parish members know little about its history, so I will share what I know. It may have been started by the original owners of 236 East 31st Street when it was a private residence, back at the turn of the century. Legend has it that someone’s ashes were buried in the garden long ago, before my time.

When I first saw it in 1982, the garden was full of hosta, English ivy and ailanthus trees, which were imported as exotica from China by Olmsted and Vaux when they designed Central Park in the 1860's. They are also the “tree that grew in Brooklyn.” By by the time I arrived, they were considered “weed trees,” and they dropped a great many leaves into the gutters of Good Shepherd.


A previous rector wasn’t much of a gardener and he didn’t like cleaning the leaves out of the gutters, so he decided the trees had to go. I didn’t want them to go--after all, they were greenery in Manhattan–but out they went. Surprisingly, without the trees, I could see a garden with great potential. I bought eight rose bushes and started planting and tending. I also started adding plants left over from Easter and other holiday decorations, like lilies and hydrangeas. Little is left of my original work in those first years, but some still remains, including a fragrant hanging begonia.

Two beautiful magnolia trees (a pink and a creamy yellow) fill the garden with blooms every Spring. In the height of summer, our clethora attracts butterflies with its spicy fragrance. Every Fall, I plant tulips, which Father John often refers to in his Spring sermons. Holly brightens the greenery in the late Fall and helps put us in a holiday mood. Alas, you need a male and female plant to produce berries, and our male plant, pet-named Stallion, died this year. We shall have to get a new one to keep the lady company.

The garden also has an anonymous benefactor who in the past took us on plant and planter shopping sprees. Thus, the ornate fountain and pedastal, the St. Francis statue, the collie, several lions and a zodiac wall plaque grace the garden, as well as an onslaught of rhododendron. The huge boulder that provides a smooth floor to the rear section of the garden was free – Nature put it there when the glaciers moved through here eons ago.

We have opened the garden to the public with an annual Easter Egg Hunt, regular after-church coffee hours, wedding parties and even occasional parish barbecues.

We are truly blessed to have our beautiful Good Shepherd Garden oasis and tending it is one of my great joys.