Skip to Main Navigation Skip to Content

Mission

Connecting People, Plants, and Place

The Morris Arboretum at the University of Pennsylvania is a 92-acre historic public garden and educational institution located 15 miles from campus in the Chestnut Hill area of Philadelphia. It promotes an understanding of the relationship between plants, people, and place through programs that integrate science, art, and the humanities. The Arboretum conducts four major activities: education, research, outreach, and horticultural display. As the official Arboretum of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Morris Arboretum provides research and outreach services to state agencies, community institutions, and to citizens of Pennsylvania and beyond.

William Cullina
F. Otto Haas Executive Director
Address
100 Northwestern Avenue (in Chestnut Hill)
Philadelphia, PA 19118
Phone
215-247-5777
Sustainability

Morris Arboretum’s parking lot is a demonstration lot for sustainability. The first of its kind, the parking lot has filtered into the earth about 31,863,304 gallons of precipitation from the Wissahickon watershed. This equates to a lifetime of drinking water for more than 1,000 of our neighbors downstream, or the annual tap water used by about 4,000 households, or one day’s average tap water use by 366,245 Philadelphians.

Cost Containment & Revenue Development

The Arboretum was rated one of the Best of Pennsylvania wedding venues in 2017 by Wedding Spot. Revenue from weddings, parties, meetings and retreats supports the Arboretum’s mission to plant and support trees.

Sustainability

The Horticulture Center, which provides work space for the Arboretum’s horticulture, public programs, and facility staff achieved the highest level of LEED® Certification: Platinum.

Innovation

With support from the National Science Foundation, botanists at Morris Arboretum are assembling a digital record of hundreds of thousands of plants from the mid-Atlantic region.

Main building at Morris Arboretum