People admire the Shakespeare Garden in the 1930’s. Courtesy of Evanston Photographic Services.
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Shakespeare Garden
Nestled in a quiet, central section of the Evanston campus, the tranquil Shakespeare Garden is hidden from view by a double wall of hawthorn hedges. The peaceful spot has added beauty to the campus for more than 90 years.
Memorializing the Bard
The Garden Club of Evanston established the 70- by 100-foot plot of land in 1915. The Drama League of America sparked the impetus to create the garden by suggesting that groups commemorate the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. A product of our wartime sympathy for our British allies, the garden also celebrated the ties between America and England.
Renowned landscape Architect Jens Jensen designed the garden in an intricate "knot style" to recreate the Duke of Buckingham's heraldic badge, as illustrated in the Elizabethan Gardner's Labyrinth.
Planting was completed in 1920. All of the garden's flowers, shrubs, trees, and herbs are mentioned in Shakespeare's plays. Among the more than 50 allowed plants are rosemary, lavender, thyme, hyssop, rue, lemon balm, columbine, old rose, oxeye daisy, Japanese anemone, daffodil, pansy, poppy, nasturtium, and marigold. The Shakespeare Garden still contains many of the original hawthorns that were started from seed in France and which form the formal garden's base.
Additions to the Garden
In 1929, an Elizabethan-style stone bench and fountain designed by Hubbard Burnham were installed. The bronze and stone fountain was dedicated in memory of Burnham's mother, Margaret Sherman Burnham, an early Shakespeare Garden Chairwoman and wife of internationally known Architect Daniel H. Burnham. The fountain features a bronze relief of Shakespeare's head with quotations from As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Winter's Tale.
A new sundial was added to the west end of the garden in 1990 in memory of Jean Whitton Haskin, a former garden club Chairman.
John Brookes, a distinguished English garden designer, visited the garden in 1990 and suggested a few changes that are now reflected in the garden. In addition to moving the sundial, Brookes suggested a more traditional English garden style with more mixed plantings and more emphasis on perennial plants.
Tending the Shakespeare Garden
Garden club members, many of whom are Northwestern alumni, continue to serve as the garden's caretakers. They assess the garden's color and pattern and vary summer annuals each year.
For the past 85 years, major funding for the Shakespeare Garden's plants and materials is raised from the club's plant sales during the Annual Evanston Garden Fair held in Raymond Park each spring.
The Shakespeare Garden is a popular site for garden tours, marriage proposals, and weddings. It is open year round to all visitors.