Olmstead Garden Pergola - Jacksonville, FL
N 30° 18.913 W 081° 40.549
17R E 435024 N 3353908
This old stone pergola is located in the Olmstead Garden at the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.
Waymark Code: WMQCY8
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 02/07/2016
Views: 7
"First developed in the early 1930s by the renowned landscape firm Olmsted Brothers for homeowners Waldo and Clara Cummer, the garden was maintained by the firm until 1958 when it sold the property to Barnett Bank. For several decades employees of the bank used the garden property as a place for picnics and recreation, including a shuffleboard court.
After the Museum was established, it bought the property in the early 1990s and used it for a summer camp, creating faux archeological digs, according to Holly Keris, chief curator. “The Museum staff ‘planted’ archeological items from various periods so that children could get involved in uncovering history.”
The revival of the original Olmsted Garden has been nearly a decade in the making. Although Olmsted the architect didn’t document the results with “as-built” drawings, correspondence between the firm and Clara Cummer, as well as archival photos, provided a good blueprint for the Cummer’s current staff and contractors to create a near-faithful 21st century facsimile.
Aside from three majestic oak trees, the curved stone wall at the back of the property, the pergola and the feature wall that separates the Olmsted Garden from the Italian Garden, almost everything else is brand new. One historic piece – the Mercury statue – was tracked down in Melrose, FL and returned to sit proudly in the center of the garden."
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