The Architecture and Community Heritage group of Fort Wayne (ARCH) will offer its annual Home and Garden Tour on Saturday, June 16, 2012. The tour will be held in the historic Wildwood Park Neighborhood located at the corner of North Washington Road and Freeman Street near Jefferson Pointe. The Wildwood Park Neighborhood has been nominated as a Historic District to the National Register of Historic Places.
Wildwood Park is one of Fort Wayne's favorite neighborhoods
The tour features architecturally significant homes and planned roads and parks designed by nationally prominent landscape architect Arthur Shurcliff. While Shurcliff’s name might not ring a bell to most people, he was quite a prominent landscape artist during the early 20th century.
In 1928 Shurcliff was hired by John D. Rockefeller Jr., and the Boston architectural firm of Perry, Shaw & Hepburn to serve as Chief Landscape Architect for the restoration and recreation of the gardens, landscape, and town planning of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. It was the largest and most important commission of his career. He also designed a number of prestigious sites in Boston, including Old Sturbridge Village, the Charles River Esplanade, and the zoological park at Franklin Park. Shurcliff designed Carter’s Grove in Virginia, Greatwood Gardens at Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont, the Wells brothers’ estates at Sturbridge, Massachusetts (creators and founders of Old Sturbridge Village), and the Richard Crane estate at Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Contact ARCH for more information and to purchase tickets.
Wildwood Park may have been one of Shurcliff’s few designed areas outside of New England. Why did Shurcliff, who lived in Boston, accept a commission for Wildwood Park located deep in the heart of America’s Midwest? The answer is anyone’s guess. That unknown factor makes the tour that much more intriguing.
The tour includes a dozen houses and gardens in a variety of architectural styles. Presentations will be offered about period architecture and style as part of ARCH’s 2012 Community Education Program.
Contact ARCH for more information and to purchase tickets at 260.426.5117 or information@archfw.org.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
12:00 – 5:00pm
Advance tickets: $10; Day of the tour: $12
