Leach Botanical Garden & Estate
On the northern slopes of Mt. Scott there is a wooded park that seems to have come straight out of a pre-war novel. Gentle sloping hills, wide paths of untrodden snow, manicured treelines that filter the dim sunlight, and exotic plants in crystalized slumber beneath the cold of nuclear winter, all set beneath the cliffs that form the northern edge of Happy Valley.
A single large estate building sits at the center of this magical locale, and it is beneath this structure that the real magic is located.
The Leach Botanical Garden was once the home of some of America's most beautiful science. The preservation, study, and care of plant life from all over the world. A park where a visitor might feel themselves transported to another place and time simply by visiting an exotic patch of life in a curated environment of tranquility among nature. Samples of trees, flowers, and everything in between could be freely experienced by any who wished to take a break from the chaos of modern living.
All of which was made possible by the technological marvels taking place beneath the Estate. There, top agricultural and horticultural scientists would experiment with breeding and genetic modification of the plants under their care to create fascinating results. Flowers that bloomed during the night, extinct species of pitchers brought back to life, trees that held marvelous colors year-round, and so many more were carefully created in sealed environments catered to cradling life.
Nowadays the labs perform a similar, though far less glamorous function. Gone are the days of beauty and artifice in science, now the pinnacles of pre-war horticultural knowledge are used to simply survive. Hydroponic gardens have been converted into farms capable of yielding some of the only edible crops in the entire region.
Barely.
The sole occupant of the Leach Estate is a former resident of Vault 56 named Lee May Lewis. She alone keeps the facility up and running (alongside a handful of old Mr. Farmhands of course), and every day of hers is spent fighting against the facility's failing operations. The G.E.C.K. used to operate the hydroponic farms is failing, and crop yields have dwindled while demand continues to increase. She claims to have an idea on how to fix the lab and fortify Portland's self-sufficiency problems, but she cannot do it alone.
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