John J. Tyler Arboretum


Tyler Arboretum is a nonprofit arboretum located at 515 Painter Road, Middletown Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It is open daily except for major holidays; an admission fee is charged to non-members.
The property's history began in 1681, when William Penn signed a "lease and release" agreement with Thomas Minshall, an English Quaker, for property in Pennsylvania that contained the site now occupied by the Arboretum. Between 1681 and 1944, the property was home to eight generations of the same family. The Arboretum itself started in 1825 when two brothers, Jacob and Minshall Painter, set aside land to systematically plant more than 1,000 varieties of trees and shrubs. In 1944, descendant Laura Tyler bequeathed the property, in memorial to her husband John J. Tyler, to be a nonprofit arboretum.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
Today, Tyler Arboretum attracts 70,000 visitors a year to its 650-acre campus and boasts 17 miles of pathways and hiking trails. The horticultural collections include the following major features: