Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park — Attraction in Tallahassee

At the park entrance the Ranger can give you good information. There is an extra fee to visit the gardens during the blooming season. Pets not allowed in the gardens. But the park is much bigger than just the garden area.

The first turn off leads the the lake, the second area you come to is the parking for the gardens, and you can continue past the parking area and down a dirt road to the back area of the park where dogs are allowed.

We strolled the gardens and met the very helpful volunteer at the house who can give you lots of historical info. Everything was left exactly as the family had it. We missed peak bloom by just a week or two. Visited in late march 2017. Its still a great garden to visit, with lots of garden "rooms" lots of people were there taking photos for engagements & sororities. The previous day a triathlon had been held at the park.

We got our bikes and then rode from the garden parking area to the 4 mile loop around lake Overstreet. There are also other trails you can take for a longer ride if you have a mountain bike. We had hybrid bikes and they were able to do the trail ok but a mountain bike would have been better. Very shady. Lots of poison ivy off of the trail so beware if your walking dogs. I think I also picked up tiny ticks here too, and I was biking not walking.

Its a beautiful treasure...

One of the real Jewels of Florida! Canoeing, Lake Hall, a large expanse of beautiful property and certainly one of the nicest parks on the Eastern Seaboard. If you're in Tallahassee, you can experience not only the gardens, but you can learn how a large parcel of land owned by Mr. Maclay was developed, later, into some of the most important neighborhoods in one of the best areas of Tallahassee. It's a beautiful place and please don't miss it. In most cases, you'll also be able to experience the Maclay family residence and it's particularly beautiful at Christmas time.

The only reason it's a 4-Star is because many of the finer, more colorful gardens really need some attention. I think Mr. Maclay would have kept many of these centerpiece gardens in much better condition than they appear to be in presently. There's a cost to enter the park, but it's well worth it.

A wonderful place to learn about the Renaissance Man know as "Alfred Barmore Maclay [(also an Equestrian). Mr. Maclay] and his wife Louise Fleischmann Maclay, a wealthy banker and financier from New York, created the Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park in Tallahassee, Florida. They purchased the property in 1923, transforming it into a beautiful ornamental garden and their winter home. The gardens were named Killearn after Maclay's ancestral village...

We recently were traveling through Tallahassee around lunchtime and decided to stop off and have lunch. My wife and I always enjoy going to a park or a church property which are usually beautiful settings for a nice leisurely lunch.

On this day we stopped off at the Alfred B. Maclay Garden State Park just north of Interstate 10 in Tallahassee. This must be one of our all-time best lunchtime stops. We entered the park and knew that there was a Lake in the park by looking at Google Maps and the nice person at the entrance booth directed us with an informative park brochure. When we found the lake and parked, children were having fun at the park during an educational pursuit, cross country runners trained in the area and we settled down with our lunch overlooking the water and occasional boats launched.

The park, while beautiful and a throwback to the beautiful natural way of Florida, this park also has a rich deep history. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor visited here back in the 1920s, which the beforementioned brochure educates.

This is such a special place not only in Tallahassee or Florida but in the United States. Flowers were in bloom the day we visited and the temperature was perfect and a slight breeze was blowing making this one excellent place to eat lunch and enjoy a...