When I set out to write about the rose garden in Hartford’s Elizabeth Park I was primarily focused on its role as the first municipal rose garden in the United States. This is a bit of an obsession with me, trying to understand how innovations and “firsts” in garden and landscape design impact historical trends. A visit to Elizabeth Park was high on my list.
Bequeathed to the city in 1894 by Charles Murray Pond, the park is named in honor of his beloved wife, Elizabeth. Pond stipulated that his gift, of approximately 90 acres, be forever held and used as a public, botanical park. His estate provided a generous fund for design, maintenance and the acquisition of additional land. The rose garden, the park’s central and most enduring feature, is a testament to his affection.
Sarah Aldrich Pond (1840 – 1891) + Charles Murray Pond (1837 – 1894) images courtesy of Elizabeth Park
Designed by Swiss landscape architect Theodore Wirth, the rose garden was opened in 1904. Wirth, superintendent of public parks in Hartford at the time, interned at Kew Gardens in London and the Jardins des Plantes in Paris. His European training and familiarity with municipal formal gardens contributed to its design.
1909 Postcard: Courtesy of the Connecticut Historical Society and Museum
1909 Survey Map
Wirth’s original rose garden was a perfect square with a circle in the middle, an acre in size containing 132 rose beds.
The Elizabeth Park Conservancy, dedicated to preserving, maintaining, restoring and protecting both the rose garden and the park it is set within, uses this design as its logo.
At the center of the square is a rustic octagonal summer house designed by Wirth, accessed by turf walkways that are accented with wood and iron arches.
The arches are covered with climbing roses that only bloom once a year, typically in late June and early July. Should you visit plan accordingly as on my visit last year, in mid-July, they were no longer in bloom. Fortunately, the undated historic postcard above depicts the roses in all their glory.
Set on a four-foot rise, the summer house provides a secluded counterpoint to the garden, while its openings offer framed views of its design.
The summer house was reconstructed of red cedar in 2005 using Wirth’s original plans.
A semi-circular south garden was added in 1912, when the garden became one of the original test sites for the American Rose Society’s All-American rose selections. In 1936, a semi-circular north garden was added to balance the design, expanding the garden’s size to approximately 2.5 acres.
The third largest rose garden in the country (the 14-acre Municipal Rose Garden in Tyler, Texas, is listed as the largest) the garden at Elizabeth Park contains 15,000 plants of more than 800 varieties featuring hybrid tea, climbers, hybrid perpetual, and floribunda, shrub, and pillar roses.
Julia Child (floribunda)
Opposite the rose garden are a series of garden rooms including a perennial garden, a shade-rock garden and a heritage rose garden. Additional gardens, maintained by horticultural societies, are sited near the greenhouses.
A farmstead, comprised of historical buildings and greenhouses, built by Lord & Burnham Company of New York, was assembled by Wirth in 1897. The Caretaker’s Cottage, one of the oldest buildings in the park is sited here and houses the Elizabeth Park’s Conservancy’s Information Center and offices.
While the formal rose garden is the centerpiece of the park, it also includes 101 acres designed in a naturalistic style with serpentine roadways, mature trees, ponds and vistas deigned by Wirth in consultation with the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted. In 1906 Wirth left Hartford for Minneapolis, where he developed its park system and also created the second municipal rose garden in the country.
One of the unexpected stories that I learned about Elizabeth Park while researching this piece is about the poet Wallace Stevens. A successful insurance executive Stevens, who never learned to drive, walked to work each day (a route that is memorialized) and spent many hours in the park, which is described as one of his favorite places.
A path in the park that surrounds the Pond House cafe contains artwork
Three of his poems provide direct reference to the park but undoubtedly many more were conceived as he traversed its paths and walked through its gardens. I envy Stevens his familiarity to this place whose beauty, which provided him inspiration on a daily basis, cannot be fully appreciated in a singular visit.
Oil Painting “Winter Wonderland” (Elizabeth Park, Hartford, Connecticut) by Daniel S. Dahlstrom
Elizabeth Park is on the national register of historic places. It is open 365 days of the year, dawn to dusk, free of charge. Should you visit, the Pond House Restaurant, is located near the entrance to the park.
For a full schedule of park activities, including the 2018 Garden Lecture series featuring garden and lifestyle experts, including Charlotte Moss, visit www.elizabethparkct.org.
Copyright © 2018 Patrice Todisco — All Rights Reserved
