Garden Project
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FREER HOUSE GARDEN PROJECT
As part of the Freer House Restoration Campaign, the leadership of Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute, WSU and visionary community leaders have come together to create a new plan for the restoration of the Freer House courtyard garden and landscape. A Garden Project Committee has been formed and historically appropriate plantings have been identified with advice from David Michener, Ph.D., Curator of Matthaei Botanical Gardens, University of Michigan, based on research by Thomas W. Brunk, Ph.D. A detailed garden plan funded by the Americana Foundation and created by K.C. Runciman Landscapes is now in place.
OUR VISION
Our vision is to allow the garden to serve both as a place for contemplation and as an inviting setting for outdoor events hosted by the Freer House, Wayne State, and the community. The plan will reintroduce the gentle arc of Freer's original carriage path as a walkway from Ferry Street and restore the garden using trees and plants authentic to Freer's aesthetic vision but with sustainable, low level maintenance requirements. Replication of the long lost former Peacock Room entrance railings and a newly designed garden fence will compliment and enclose the space.
View Garden Project Brochure View An Art Collectors Garden Exhibit
HISTORY OF GARDEN
The gardens and landscaping surrounding Charles Lang Freer's residence on Ferry Avenue were unique and notable in their day. Originally installed in 1892 and redesigned in 1906, following a major addition to his house, the gardens received the same careful attention to detail given to the interior and exterior of his home. Freer consulted with his architect, Wilson Eyre, and his "New York artist friends," especially Thomas W. Dewing, in devising the quiet beauty and harmonious character of his gardens. A blend of Asian and Western plant varieties reflected Freer's interests in 'points of contact' between American and Asian art. An Asian stone lantern given as a gift from S. Yamanaka served as an ornament for the courtyard. The gardens, visible from the windows of Freer's home, served as a visual repose and counterpoint to the shimmering surfaces and the extraordinary art contained there in.
In 1920 the Merrill Palmer School acquired Freer's home and adapted the courtyard garden into an outdoor play lot for the nursery school children enrolled in its progressive early childhood education program. The plants and shrubs were replaced by swing sets and sandboxes as 'fresh air and exercise' were seen as integral to healthy growth. With construction of new buildings on the Merrill Palmer campus, the playground was relocated and the courtyard returned to garden use. In 1965 a minimalist green garden was designed by Eleanor L. Roche. In the decades since, however, the courtyard garden and landscape has declined to a deteriorated and barren state, far distant from the glories of "Mr. Freer's Garden."