A self-taught horticulturist, experimental scientist, and philanthropist, Bailey purchased his summer retreat between 1911 and 1912 from Joseph R. Clark, a former president of the Board of Aldermen of Brooklyn.

The Green Animals Topiary Garden property, overlooking Narragansett Bay in Portsmouth, Rhode Island was purchased in 1872 by Thomas Brayton, Treasurer of the Union Cotton Manufacturing Company in Fall River, Massachusetts.