Southampton -- St. Andrew's Dune Church

The land surrounding Saint Andrew's Dune Church represents some of the last surviving dunescape in the village of Southampton that the public can enjoy. The planting immediately surrounding the Church and the Magowan Memorial Garden to the west have been steadily improved over the past twenty years. Since the 1920s, all of the improvements to the gardens have involved the direction of members of the Southampton Garden Club. The Trustees annually select a member of the Garden Club as the Chairman of the Grounds Committee, and the then-serving President of the Garden Club is invited to serve as an ex-officio member of that Committee. This eighty-year tradition has expedited rapid recovery after hurricanes and allowed knowledgeable supervision of construction and repair projects. The purpose of the garden is not only to enhance the beauty of the Church, but also to demonstrate the variety of native and ornamental plants that can tolerate an oceanside setting and contribute to the preservation of both natural and man-made environments. in 1987, the garden was redesigned through the generosity of Mrs. Robert A. Magowan and her children and dedicated to the memory of Robert Anderson Magowan, a Trustee for 37 years and former Treasurer of Saint Andrew's. Following Mrs. Magowan's death in 2001, a new memorial table was placed on a stone in the garden.

Persons and firms associated with the garden include: United States Coast Guard-US Life Saving Service (former owners, 1851); Dr. T. Gaillard Thomas (donor, 1879); C. Wyllis Betts (donor of land and church, 1879); Edward H. Kendall (designer of choir and aisles, 1887-88 and 1894); R. H. Robertson (designer of reredos, altar, and decorations, 1893); George E. Wood (designer of belfry tower with main entrance, 1903); Arthur W. L. Fraser (designer of organ tower, 1995); Mrs. Alexander T. Mason & Mrs. William M. Carson (designer of Magowan Memorial Garden, 1987); and Mrs. Richard D. Lisman (designer of expanded garden, 1996).