Martha Brookes Hutcheson (1871-1959) was one of America’s first women landscape architects. After studying for three years in the Landscape Architecture program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she began her practice in 1902. She designed the gardens of over a dozen estates in Massachusetts and Long Island, as well as numerous smaller gardens in New York and northern New Jersey. She became a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1920 and was made an ASLA Fellow in 1935. Her design philosophy and principles appeared in her 1923 book, "The Spirit of the Garden," later reprinted by ASLA in 2001. Created during the Country Place Era, the gardens of Merchiston Farm exemplify the principles in her book and incorporate many native plants and an imaginative manipulation of water as a landscape element. Believing that good gardens could bring about positive social change, she campaigned for the beautification of American streetscapes and towns and sought to educate a wide range of Americans in the principles of garden design through her writings, lectures, and work as a founding member of the Somerset Hills chapter of the Garden Club of America. Merchiston Farm was the home of William and Martha Brookes Hutcheson from 1911 to 1959. The property was given to the Morris County Park Commission in 1972 by Martha Hutcheson Norton and Charles McKim Norton. Placed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 1989, Bamboo Brook Outdoor Education Center embodies the landscape design principles of Martha Brookes Hutcheson and the Country Place Era. Hutcheson contributed significantly to landscape architecture and, because of her integral role in women’s work in New Jersey, is included on the New Jersey Women’s Heritage Trail, which highlights historic sites around the state representing significant contributions women made to New Jersey’s history.