Italian Garden

Creator

WKU Archives

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Creation Date

1929

Description

Regents approve development of Italian Garden near Snell Hall.

The Italian Garden - A Touch of the Renaissance, Teachers College Heights, April 1936:

The Italian Garden on the Ogden campus of Western adds a touch of Renaissance grandeur to the blue-grass slope stretching between Snell Hall and the Nashville Road.

The beauty of the upper level of the Garden is enhanced by "The Four Seasons," a magnificent group of Florentine statuary, procured in Italy by C. Perry Snell as a part of the rare collection of paintings, miniatures, sculpture, and other objets d'art collected Mr. Snell on personal visits to the arts centers of Europe, Central and South America and presented to Western Teachers College in 1929. The four statues, marking the four corners of the garden, face a carved stone urn in the center of the plot and are connected with it by flagstone walks. The walkway of crushed limestone encompassing the upper level of the garden widens before a stone seat which commands a view of the garden and the campus.

A statue of Apollo, also a part of the Snell Collection, is the chief figure of the lower garden. A gravel walk flanked by small statues leads from the steps connecting the two levels to the feet of the sitting Apollo. A special arrangement of cone shaped hedge clumps among the statuary adds to the formality of the garden and contrasts with the higher rows of evergreens, and the redbud, dogwood, pine and cedar trees in the background.

The statues were removed from the garden in 2000 for restoration work. They are now located in Van Meter Hall.