Avenue of the Formal Gardens

The area known as The Avenue of the Formal Gardens was designed by the Mansion’s architect John Borie to connect the house and the formal gardens. It is laid out in two segments, with a curvilinear southern half and a straight northern half, broken in between by a set of low steps. The path was initially narrower than it is today and was lined with Irish juniper interspersed with yucca and other herbaceous plant materials. Plantings were simplified by 1910 with the small herbaceous plantings removed and the evergreens remaining the dominant formal element along the entire length of the path.

Until 1910 there were two rustic arbors situated at the steps, which were replaced by two long stone benches, one on either side of the path. From 1910 to 1922 there was a Korean Fu Dog sculpture behind each bench, which were replaced in 1922 by the Primitive Men, which still remain.

One of Robert’s friends, Glyn Warren Philpot, created two pieces for Robert during separate visits. In 1913 he painted a portrait of his host called The Man in Black. Robert did not care for it and it now hangs in London’s Tate Gallery. In 1921 Robert’s butler, Ted Page was Philpot’s model for a plaster statue of a man pushing through the earth, balancing a load of library books on his shoulders. Robert was so taken with the sculpture that he commissioned two larger and symmetrical replicas from Chicago stonecutter Charles Laing and faced the life-size stone Primitive Man statues opposite each other on the path.

Text in-part courtesy of Maureen Holtz.