13480 Congress Lake Avenue
Hartville, Ohio 44632
Phone: (330)877-6652
Fax: (330)877-4165
Copyright ©2008. Quail Hollow State Park, All Rights Reserved.
The Stewart Garden Restoration Committee is a group of individuals committed to restoring the Rock Garden and Perennial Garden and surrounding areas of Mr. and Mrs. Harry B. Stewart, Sr. gardens designed by Warren H. Manning in 1928. This committee and project is the result of an ongoing research project by The Library of American Landscape History (LALH) and researcher Gloria Schreiber, Landscape Historian.
This committee was organized in 2006 after Gloria Schreiber began her research on the Stewart Gardens designed by Warren H. Manning. It has been long known that Manning designed the lost gardens. Currently research is being done to uncover the elements of the Rock Garden through various sources including Manning’s archives in Iowa and Massachusetts. The summer of 2008 began with a Boy Scout, Robert Waters, successfully uncovering the waterfall which revealed the path of the waterfall to the bottom of the hillside located behind the Manor House. The walnut trees growing in the Rock Garden area where also removed in the fall of 2008 as they were not historically accurate.
Stewart Garden Restoration brochures were published late in 2008 by a grant provided by the Roberta and Stan Marks Charitable Foundation. Plans for 2009 include locating the exact location of the pool at the bottom of the waterfall and uncovering the original steps throughout the garden.
We welcome anyone wishing to become involved by contacting Gloria Schreiber at 330.322.3488 or gsyringa@aol.com.
H.B. Stewart Sr. and Minnie Taylor Stewart commissioned Warren H. Manning, prominent Boston Landscape Architect, in 1928 to create beautiful garden areas at their country home in Hartville, Ohio. On a referral from F. A. Seiberling, Manning contacted the Stewarts in September of 1928 and presented a color sketch to them in October. Manning's design included a Perennial Garden, a Rock Garden and Croquet Court with a shrub border enclosing each of them to create garden rooms. The garden walls consisted of many crabapple trees and stone walls. A plant list exists and a letter to Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. F. A. Seiberling from Manning suggested a list of plants that could exchange from each other's properties. Most of the plants have vanished through the years in the gardens except for some of the evergreens and trees. Some of the stone walls that divided the garden areas remain, as well as the Perennial Garden fountain. The basic layout of the Rock Garden can be seen and elements such as another set of steps have recently been found. The Croquet Court is now an Herb Garden created and maintained by the Quail Hollow Herbal Society.