IMA Ravine Garden

Known as the Ravine Garden, this one-acre area is a part 

of the Oldfields Estate, the 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

as the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

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?