About Us The Friends of Maclay Gardens is a non-profit citizen’s support organization for Maclay Gardens State Park. It is a volunteer community group dedicated to the protection and preservation of the historic Maclay House and Gardens, and the surrounding park lands. Community support helps build a strong constituency for this unique resource and raise funds for restoration, preservation and capital projects. The Gardens were first planted in the 1930s by Alfred B. Maclay, a wealthy New York banker who made his winter home in Tallahassee. After his death in 1953, Mrs. Maclay gave the Gardens to the State of Florida with the understanding that they be preserved as Mr. Maclay had designed them and open for the public to enjoy. Park land surrounding the Gardens offers recreational sites for swimming and wooded trails for hiking, jogging, bicycling and horse-back riding.
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