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In their prime of life , the garden at bend - of - the-20th - hundred New York lawyer Samuel Untermyer ’s estate , overlooking the Hudson River , employ more than 60 full - metre gardeners , stretched over 150 acres , and had 60 greenhouses . Today , the property , scaled down to about 43 acre and possess by the surrounding city of Yonkers , has only one full - time nurseryman and a exalted destination : to restore the estate and the palisade , Persian - style garden at its nitty-gritty after decade of giantism and decay .
The Persian wall garden contain water supply have signature to the trend , including two canal that intersect at a central river basin . The four water elements symbolize the four river of Eden . exposure by : Timothy Tilghman / Untermyer Gardens Conservancy .
Designed in 1912 by William Welles Bosworth , the Beaux Arts designer best known for his buildings at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , the garden contains a pillared Temple of Love rest on a rocky outcropping and a loggia with views of the Hudson anchored by 2,000 - year - erstwhile cipollino marble columns imported from Rome . The Persian garden , with its water features , Greek columns , and a tabernacle bear a mosaic of the Gorgon Medusa , is count the greatest but least - known work of its kind in the Western Hemisphere . designer Stephen Byrns had often visited the Untermyer acres , but one day in previous 2010 he happened in when the outpouring were flow . “ It was just unbelievable , ” Byrns says . “ It was like falling in love all over again . ” Partnering with the Yonkers Parks Department , Byrns helped found the Untermyer Gardens Conservancy , a nonprofit dedicated to the restitution . Horticulturist Timothy Tilghman was lease to spearhead the enormous labor , a challenge , Tilghman tell , “ I feel privileged to take . ” So far , he has focused on the walled garden , exchange intrude plant with C of bush , perennials , and annuals that could be found in the garden in its bloom in the 1930s . ( He has some top - drawer help . Marco Polo Stufano , former director of horticulture at Wave Hill , a restored estate not far forth in the Bronx , serve as a horticultural advisor for the Untermyer project . )
An designer and a horticulturist are work on clearing 70 years of brush and hoping to make the Untermyer Gardens one of the outstanding public gardens in America . Photo by : Timothy Tilghman / Untermyer Gardens Conservancy .
Tilghman is always on the lookout for clew to the estate ’s original shape . Among the hidden auxiliary gardens and fascinating architectural structures he unearthed are a inhabit sundial made from plants and an overgrown rock garden . He also spends a lot of time on the commonplace employment of clearing 70 years deserving of brushing , revealing the extensive paths that traverse the the three estates . “ I call his body of work the labor movement of Hercules , ” Byrns read . Meanwhile , Byrns and Tilghman continue to grow their vision for the garden ’s future as a resource for the world . They wo n’t be quenched simply to bring back a significant and unique American garden that has largely been forgotten . enjoin Byrns , “ I require to make this one of the greatest public gardens in America . ”
Timothy Tilghman focuses on reinstate Samuel Untermyer and William Bosworth ’s vision by replant the 100 - year - old Persian walled garden layer with perennials , shrubs , and vibrantly tinge annuals . Photo by Timothy Tilghman / Untermyer Gardens Conservancy .
Visiting the Untermyer Gardens
The grounds of the Untermyer Gardens in Yonkers , New York , are open from cockcrow to crepuscle every day ( 914/512 - 0436 ) . Visit their site , untermyergardens.orgfor more entropy .
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