Saturday, May 19, 2012

IMA Ravine Garden


Known as the Ravine Garden, this one-acre area is a part 
of the Oldfields Estatethe former country home of the Lilly family. 
The house was built in the early 1910s by Hugh McKennan Landon 
as part of a real estate development known as the Town of Woodstock.
Landon, an executive with the Indianapolis Water Company, 
commissioned landscape architect Percival Gallagher of Olmsted 
Brothers to design the original gardens for the estate.

The Lilly family purchased Oldfields from Landon
in 1932, making changes to the home after the purchase
as well as other additions and alterations over the years.
The Lilly family lived at Oldfields until 1966,
when J.K. Lilly Jr. died. His wife Ruth had died
the year before and the house and grounds 
were donated to the Indianapolis Art Association
by the Lilly's children, Ruth Lilly and J.K. Lilly III,
to be used as the site for a new museum,
which opened to the public in 1970


A couple was enjoying a quiet afternoon below the Ravine Garden 
on the grounds of the IMA. They are sitting beside a path
bordering the Central Canal which forms the western boundary
between the Museum Grounds, and the 100 Acre Park.
Is it a coincidence that a water company executive built his home
overlooking his company's canal?

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