about
The Nat LaMar and Christopher Adlington Community Garden, affectionately known as The Secret Garden, is a beloved neighborhood green space in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.
The garden was created in 1973 by Christopher Adlington and Nat LaMar. Designed and lovingly tended by Christopher for more than four decades, it reflects an English garden sensibility: a formal structure softened by naturalistic planting, layered textures, and seasonal abundance.
After Christopher’s death in 2015, a community group came together to help restore and care for the garden on Nat’s behalf. Nat then made the extraordinary decision to open the garden to the public for the first time. Following Nat’s death in 2022, he bequeathed the property to the Brooklyn Queens Land Trust (BQLT) so it could be protected in perpetuity for the community. After years of volunteer stewardship, the transfer was finalized in December 2025, securing the garden’s permanent future.
Today, The Secret Garden is open to visitors and welcomes volunteers of all ages and abilities throughout the growing season, typically from March through late December. Over the course of the year, neighbors gather here not only to tend the land, but also to build community through children’s gardening days, book readings, music, neighborhood gatherings, potlucks, an annual solstice jazz night, Halloween trick-or-treating, winter wassail caroling, and more.
christopher and nat
Christopher Adlington (1938–2015) and Nathaniel Reid LaMar (1933–2022) were two pioneers in their era — one white, one Black — who built a life together in Brooklyn and created a garden that became a cherished neighborhood refuge.
Christopher Adlington, originally from England, came to New York as a young man after training as an accountant and stayed for life. He worked in furnishing textiles, but the garden became his great life’s work. For nearly fifty years, he cultivated it with extraordinary care and discipline, shaping the hidden landscape that neighbors now know as The Secret Garden.
Nathaniel Reid LaMar was born in segregated Atlanta and went on to attend Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa as one of the few Black students in the Class of 1955. He became a writer, editor, and mentor, and spent most of his life in Brooklyn living with Christopher. In addition to The Secret Garden, his legacy includes scholarships for Black students at Harvard, Phillips Exeter, and Howard University College of Medicine.
The two men met through the English-Speaking Union. When they settled in Cobble Hill, the neighborhood looked very different than it does today. Nat purchased the lot in 1970, when it was a junkyard, for a few thousand dollars. It remains one of the only unbuilt private lots in Cobble Hill.
Christopher and Nat are remembered with deep affection and gratitude by friends, neighbors, and the many people whose lives were touched by the garden.
garden history
The Secret Garden occupies approximately 2,750 square feet, roughly the size of a standard Brooklyn rowhouse lot, plus a dogleg section that encloses a remarkable oak tree in the northwest corner of the sunken garden. Based on its circumference, the oak is estimated to be roughly 250 years old.
Long before Cobble Hill became the neighborhood we know today, this land was part of South Brooklyn’s agricultural landscape near Bergen Hill. Historical tax photos show a house once stood on the lot in the 1930s, but by 1940 it was gone. The property later became a junkyard until Nat purchased it in 1970.
For decades, the space was truly “secret.” Christopher entered through a discreet wooden gate behind their home around the corner and gardened almost daily, rarely letting anyone inside. The Degraw Street gate opened so infrequently that a fern reportedly grew just beyond its swing.
The garden’s design reflects a classic English style adapted to a small urban footprint. It unfolds in gently rising tiers with brick and stone edging, culminating in a shaded sunken garden. Features include narrow lawns, layered shrubs and flower beds, a weeping cherry, espaliered fruit trees, boxwoods, a vegetable patch, and a hidden lower garden tucked behind an old retaining wall.
Read more about the history of the garden in Julia Lichtblau’s December 2020 essay, “The Value of an English Garden in Brooklyn.”
Stewardship and Gratitude
The Secret Garden exists today because of the care, persistence, and generosity of many people.
We are deeply grateful to the volunteers who have tended the garden over the years, and we offer special thanks to Julia Lichtblau, whose devotion as steward, gatekeeper, and advocate helped sustain the garden’s spirit and played a vital role in securing its permanent protection.
We also thank the many members and supporters of the Brooklyn Queens Land Trust, including Irene Van Slyke (board member emeritus), LinYee Yuan (interim executive director), Mark Jackson (attorney), and all who helped make the garden’s preservation possible.
Founding members of the community garden include Julia Lichtblau, Larry Gile, Chet Kaplan, Allison Morris, Jelena Karanovic, Courtney St. John, Leah and Kyle Bandler, Matt Suter, Cecillia Costa, Claire Skodnek, Veronika Szente Goldston, Thomas Luke Guest, Molly McBride and Erico Cardoso, Saedi Hitner, and Devin Coleman.
