The six-acre garden project, funded as part of a $5.9-million bequest to the Illinois State University Foundation, honors the late Genevieve Green, a figure on the local music scene, who had a profound love of flowers and nature.
The gardens, slated for completion in the summer of 2007 as part of the Illinois State University’s 150th anniversary celebration, inspires a greater appreciation and understanding of plant species, emphasizing varieties native to the Midwestern United States.
The gardens surround Ewing Manor, which is the Sunset Hill estate of the late Hazle Buck Ewing, a philanthropist who had a keen interest in the environment, international culture, and education. Ewing Manor offers a gracious setting for a wide range of cultural, educational, and social events. The grounds include a wooded landscape; a Japanese garden, a gift from Bloomington-Normal’s sister city, Asahikawa, Japan; and many small gardens connected by a brick pathway..
The Ewing family hired Jens Jensen to design the Sunset Hill landscape in 1927. The new gardens at Ewing Cultural Center reflect Jensen’s original design. Jensen (1860-1951) was a landscape architect of Denmark, Chicago, and Door County, Wisconsin. His portfolio included four of Chicago’s major parks—Columbus, Humboldt, Garfield, and Douglas—plus 15 smaller ones. His advocacy of conservation led to creation of the Cook County Forest Preserve District in Chicagoland, Illinois state park system, and the Indiana Dunes State Park and National Lakeshore.
Ewing Manor is open to potential clients by appointment only.
