The Mary May Binney Wakefield Arboretum was home to ten consecutive generations of the same family, beginning with John Davenport in 1706 and continuing through Mary “Polly” Wakefield, who died in 2004.  Before her death, Polly created the Mary M. B. Wakefield Charitable Trust to preserve and restore the buildings and gardens that she and her predecessors built.

Polly Wakefield trained as a landscape architect and plant propagator. She developed her plant collection over a 50-year period, working closely with the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University where she studied propagation techniques. She developed her own collection from seeds and cuttings from trees of the Arnold Arboretum. Polly loved the Kousa dogwood and patented 8 cultivars that are cold hardy and have lovely fruit and flower displays. The Wakefield collection consists of more than 400 species and cultivars of woody plants. Plant material includes many Cornus, Acer and Magnolias, as well as a wide array of trees with unusual bark.