Gardens surround and beautify the President's House, which opened in 1920. The grassy terrace behind the house looks out over Paradise Pond and the Mill River, beyond the boathouse toward Mount Tom.
The garden was redesigned in 2016 to open views of the garden to passers-by. Today, the garden still includes medicinal, culinary, fragrance, and herbs with a household use, designed as a parterre, with hedged, geometrically laid-out beds. The garden was renamed the Happy Chace ’28 Garden to honor the late Beatrice “Happy” Oenslager Chace ’28, whose daughter and son-in-law, Eliot Chace Nolen ’54 and Roly Nolen, provided support for the renovation project. Visitors can now stroll the fragrant paths, sit and relax in the pavilion, and also view the garden from above.
The statue of St. Francis of Assisi was sculpted and donated by Francis Rich, class of 1931.