Name of Garden:
Kingwood Garden Center
History and Description:
Built in 1926 for Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kelley King, the 47-acre estate opened as a public garden in 1953, one year after Mr. King's death. Mr. King, who was married and divorced twice, never had children. He left most of his estate to the private foundation that continues to operate Kingwood Center today. Mr. King made his fortune in Mansfield, Ohio working with the Ohio Brass Company.
The King home was designed by prominent Cleveland architect Clarence Mack, who made a career of building fashionable homes in Lakewood and Shaker Heights, Ohio and in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Displaced by the Great Depression, Mack began a second successful career in 1935 designing residences in and around Palm Beach, Florida.
The grounds were designed by the Cleveland landscape architecture firm of Pitkin and Mott the same year as the completion of the house, 1926. William Pitkin Jr., who was apparently the senior partner, had a long career designing other country estates, new communities (e.g. Upper Arlington, Ohio), and college campuses.
The garden seems to have had two distinct manifestations over its 75-year history. First was the initial creation. We have two sets of professionally photographed pictures of the garden, taken at about five and fifteen years of age. Mr. King died when the garden was about 25 years old. It must have declined considerably by then because in the early 1950's when Mr. King's estate became a not-for-profit public garden many of the original plants were replaced, and the design was slightly simplified. Most conspicuously, the cock's spur hawthorn, red cedar and arborvitae hedges were changed to American holly, taxus, and hemlock respectively. Now, the second manifestation is twice as old as the first and is showing its age again. Now is a perfect time to plan the third manifestation of this garden around the original and historic 1926 design.
Address:
Kingwood Center
900 Park Avenue West
Mansfield, OH 44906
Admission and Hours:
The gardens are open free of charge most daylight hours seven days a week except a couple of winter holidays. The mansion (closed Mondays) and greenhouse plant sales area have slightly more restricted hours. See below.
Open Hours:
Summer - April 1 - October 31 - Gardens daily 8 a.m.-1/2 hour before sunset
Winter - November 1 - March 31 - daily 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Website:
http://www.kingwoodcenter.org/ |
