Widener University has acquired the Taylor Memorial Arboretum, a 30-acre reserve of plantings and natural lands located about a mile north of the university in Nether Providence Township. The arboretum will remain free and open to the public while providing the university with greatly expanded opportunities for research and hands-on learning in the environmental and biological sciences and science education.

The Taylor Arboretum at Widener University was dedicated to the memory of Anne Rulon Gray, a local civic leader, by her husband Joshua Taylor. The couple had purchased the property in 1914 as a retreat from the hectic pace of Chester City. During the Great Depression and World War II, J.C. Taylor spent time here contemplating life’s issues and planting some of the pines on the property. He passed in 1946, and the trust that funds the arboretum was established that same year. Widener University currently holds the trust and operates the arboretum.

Most of the plant collections and specimens that you will find here were planted between 1951 and 1959. There are state champion tree on the grounds. The Korea Juniper and the Laceback Elm are the largest of their species in the state. Presently we are working to bring the ecosystem into a more diverse and sustainable state. Invasive plant species such as Japanese honeysuckle, multiflora-rose and miler-a-minute weed are being removed.

The site of the arboretum was once part of a thousand acre land grant sold to John Sharpless by William Penn in 1682. From 1740 to 1882, the grounds were part of an industrial mill complex that produced lumber, grain and textiles. Joshua C. Taylor, a Chester lawyer, purchased the property in 1914 and the arboretum was dedicated in 1931 to the memory of his wife, Anne Rulon Gray. The trust was established upon Taylor’s death in 1946.