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In their prime , the gardens at turn - of - the-20th - C New York lawyer Samuel Untermyer ’s estate , overlooking the Hudson River , employed more than 60 full - time gardeners , stretched over 150 acres , and had 60 greenhouses . Today , the holding , scaled down to about 43 acres and owned by the surround city of Yonkers , has only one full - time gardener and a lofty goal : to restore the estate and the palisade , Persian - style garden at its sum after 10 of gigantism and decay .
The Persian fence gardens hold in body of water sport key signature to the style , including two channels that intersect at a central basin . The four water elements typify the four rivers of paradise . pic by : Timothy Tilghman / Untermyer Gardens Conservancy .
design in 1912 by William Welles Bosworth , the Beaux Arts designer considerably know for his buildings at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , the garden contain a pillared Temple of Love alight on a bouldered outcropping and a loggia with view of the Hudson anchored by 2,000 - year - honest-to-god cipollino marble column imported from Rome . The Persian garden , with its H2O feature of speech , Hellenic columns , and a temple bearing a photomosaic of the Gorgon Medusa , is considered the slap-up but least - known study of its kind in the Western Hemisphere . designer Stephen Byrns had often confab the Untermyer estate , but one day in previous 2010 he go on in when the fountains were flowing . “ It was just unbelievable , ” Byrns says . “ It was like falling in beloved all over again . ” Partnering with the Yonkers Parks Department , Byrns helped found the Untermyer Gardens Conservancy , a non-profit-making dedicate to the restitution . Horticulturist Timothy Tilghman was hired to spearhead the enormous labor , a challenge , Tilghman say , “ I finger inner to accept . ” So far , he has focalise on the walled garden , replace intrude plants with hundreds of shrubs , perennials , and annuals that could be discover in the garden in its bloom in the thirties . ( He has some top - drawer assist . Marco Polo Stufano , former theatre director of gardening at Wave Hill , a restored estate not far aside in the Bronx , serves as a horticultural advisor for the Untermyer task . )
An designer and a horticulturist are puzzle out on clear 70 year of skirmish and hop to make the Untermyer Gardens one of the greatest public gardens in America . photograph by : Timothy Tilghman / Untermyer Gardens Conservancy .
Tilghman is constantly on the observation tower for clues to the landed estate ’s original shape . Among the hidden auxiliary gardens and enthralling architectural complex body part he unearthed are a last sundial made from plant and an overgrown rock garden . He also pass a lot of sentence on the prosaic work of clearing 70 class worth of coppice , revealing the extensive paths that traverse the estate . “ I call his work the proletariat of Hercules , ” Byrns say . Meanwhile , Byrns and Tilghman keep on to develop their vision for the garden ’s future as a resource for the public . They wo n’t be satisfied but to bring back a significant and unique American garden that has for the most part been forgotten . Says Byrns , “ I want to make this one of the greatest public gardens in America . ”
Timothy Tilghman concenter on reconstruct Samuel Untermyer and William Bosworth ’s sight by replant the 100 - year - old Persian walled garden beds with perennials , shrubs , and vibrantly discolour annual . pic by Timothy Tilghman / Untermyer Gardens Conservancy .
confab the Untermyer Gardens
The basis of the Untermyer Gardens in Yonkers , New York , are open from dawn to dusk every day ( 914/512 - 0436 ) . call in their website , untermyergardens.orgfor more information .
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