Originally dedicated in 1977, the African American Cultural Garden was mostly dormant. The African American Cultural Garden delegation has developed a plan for building the garden along Martin Luther King Boulevard, which is itself a fitting tribute to the mission of the Cultural Gardens. The art and sculpture proposed below is no longer under consideration. […]
Dedicated September 22, 2012. Present were Albanian President, Mr. Bujar Nishani, Albanian Ambassador to the US, Gilbert Galanxhi; and Cleveland’s Sister City Mayor, Mr. Baftjar Zeqaj of Fier, Albania. Garden Architect James McKnight and Associates. Phase 1 on the Garden features the bronze statue of Mother Teresa, one of the most well known Albanians, by […]
In May 1935, the Parent Teachers Association Council presided over the dedication of what was then known as the American Cultural Garden with the help of schoolchildren and their mothers, who sang folk songs. Those same schoolchildren collected pennies toward the purchase of a bust of Mark Twain sculpted by Frank Jirouch. It was unveiled […]
There are two sections to the American Legion Peace Garden. One celebrates international contributions with intermingled soil and is designated the American Legion Peace Garden ofNations. The other celebrates distinctive “American” contributions. It is designated as the American Legion Peace Garden of States. Here in soil from historic shrines of the nations of the world […]
Dedicated September 19th, 2010, the Armenian Cultural Garden celebrates the distinctive identity of the Armenian people. Designed by architect Berj A. Shakarian, the site plan is devised in the form of the “vesica piscis”, a sacred geometric symbol representing Christ and by extension the conversion of Armenia as the first Christian nation in 301 CE. […]
The Azerbaijan Garden was dedicated on May 12, 2008. Khanlar Gasimov’s sculpture, “Hearth,” stands at the center of the Garden. Made of polished stainless steel, the bowl-shaped sculpture allows viewers to see the reflection of the earth and sky in its exterior and interior curves. It was inspired by the 12th century Azerbaijani poet Ganjavi […]
Originally inaugurated by Leo Weidenthal, Shakespeare Garden was the seed that eventually led to the formation of the Cultural Gardens. Dedicated in 1916, the Shakespeare bust and the Shakespeare Garden (now the British Garden) were dedicated as part of a celebration that stretched across the world. Cities and nations located within Britain’s sphere of colonial […]
Established in 1985, the Chinese Cultural Garden reveals much about the complex history of China. The garden was a gift of the city of Tapei and its business community. The garden was modeled after the Chinese Imperial Palace. The plaque acknowledging the gift says: On behalf of the people of Taipei We present this Chinese […]
Dedicated on June 3, 2012 the Garden extends from East Blvd to MLK Jr. Drive. Phase I of the Garden is now in place. Features Croatian-Cleveland sculptor, Joseph Turkaly’s Immigrant Mother statue in a Licitar or heart shaped plaza wreathed with red roses and white flowers, benches of intensely white Brac stone, and a Slapovi […]
Dedicated in 1935, the Czech Garden was designed by landscape architects B. Ashburton Tripp and Maurice Cornell. At the center of a circular lawn, flanked by an Eagle Pylon and a Lion Pylon, is a sculptured frieze depicting the history of the migration of Czechs to the United States. Atop the frieze and facing the […]
In 1966, the city’s Estonian community unveiled a symbolic flame to Estonia–then a state within the USSR. Designed by Oberlin graduate and prominent architect Herk Visnapuu, the Estonian Garden features an abstract sculpture, an inscribed flame, at its center. Sculptor Clarence E. VanDuzer designed the inscribe flame that represented freedom from bondage, and hope for […]
Originally dedicated in 1958, the Finnish Garden was rededicated in 1964, celebrating Finnish cultural identity in the face of Russian imperialism.
The German Garden was the second Cultural Garden to be constructed, after the Hebrew Cultural Garden in 1926. German-American Karl Wolfram was instrumental in creating the Cultural Gardens and in developing the German Cultural Garden. Like the Hebrew Garden before it, the first German cultural figures to recognized were poet-philosophers (Goethe, Schiller, and Heine), musicians […]
Laid out in the shape of a cross, the Greek Cultural Garden was formally dedicated on June 2, 1940. Dignitaries leading the ceremony included the Greek Minister to the United States, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Americas, Mayor Harold Burton, and future United States Senator Frank Lausche. Two Doric columns frame […]
The Hebrew Garden was designed by T. Ashburton Tripp and was the first garden in what was to become the Cultural Gardens. Dedicated in 1926, it is a monument to the Zionist movement, as well as the vision of Leo Weidenthal, who was instrumental in the founding of the Cultural Gardens chain, or Poets’ Corners […]
The Hungarian Cultural Garden began with the dedication of a bas-relief to composer Franz Liszt on the site in 1934; it was completed and formally dedicated in 1938. The Garden is constructed on two levels along the upper boulevard, and overlooks lower East Boulevard. Designed by a well-known architect of Budapest, Hungary, its design is […]
Dedicated in 2005, the Garden was the first to be added to the chain of gardens since 1985, when the Chinese Cultural Garden was inaugurated. On October 1, 2006, a ten foot tall, one ton bronze, sculpture of Mahatma Gandhi was dedicated. In 2007 the Heritage, granite pillars were dedicated.
Dedicated October 29, 1939, the principal feature of the Irish Cultural Garden is the sandstone walk’s Celtic cross design. October 3, 2009 marked the re-dedication of a refurbished Garden with a renovated and enlarged northern section. Victor Herbert’s pillar was moved to the east-central area. The Garden has been sponsored over time by numerous groups, […]
With the dedication of a bust of the poet Virgil, the Italian Cultural Garden was opened on October 12, 1930 before a crowd of 3000 local Italians celebrating Columbus Day and the 2000th anniversary of Virgil’s birth. Over the next decade, the Italian Garden Delegation added sculpture, as well as designed and constructed the formally […]
On October 8, the Latvian Cultural Garden was dedicated. The garden was designed by landscape architect Albert Park and assisted by local architect Kalvis Kampe. There are unusual colored flagstone walk’s that lead visitors as they meander through the sculptural works. The garden’s focal point is a granite sculpture designed by Latvian artists Girts and […]
Dedicated in October 1936, the Lithuanian Cultural Garden extends from East Boulevard down three levels to Martin Luther King Boulevard. According to Clara Lederer, in Their Paths are Peace , the “original design was drawn up in Lithuania by Professor Dubinecras, and was modified to fit the boulevard topography by the City Plan Commission of […]
Located at the corner of St. Clair and East Boulevard, the Polish Cultural Garden was dedicated in 1934, with the planting of an elm tree from Poland. Originally designed as a sunken, hexagonal court, the Polish Garden was designed with organic material from Poland. At its center stands an octagonal fountain, built primarily with small […]
Dedicated in 1967, the Romanian Cultural Garden lies immediately south of the St. Clair Avenue bridge over MLK Jr. Drive. The seated bronze sculpture of the renown George Enescu, Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher, is the principal feature of this large park-like setting for the Garden. In addition to the statue, there is […]
In June 1939, the plot of land that makes up the Rusin Cultural Garden, located along East Boulevard, was dedicated. Rusins, sometimes called Carpatho-Russians (based on a common mispronunciation) or Carpatho-Rusyns, emigrated to Cleveland from the Carpathian Mountains, primarily in the period from 1880 to World War I. Immigrants from the Carpathian Mountains were sometimes […]
Dedicated on October 5, 2008, the Serbian Garden features a central plaza with marble cube and circular concrete seating with the Garden’s message. From this plaza a trail meanders, parallel to MLK Jr. Drive, to the south where it ends in a plaza dedicated to Tesla. From the plaza north you find busts of King […]
The Slovak Cultural Garden is comprised of three acres, spanning two levels, from East Boulevard to Martin Luther King Boulevard. At its heart is a sandstone terrace that opens onto an oval-shaped lawn and which sits between busts of Stefan Furdek and Jan Kollar, initially dedicated in 1932, the Slovak Garden was rededicated in 1934, […]
Originally the Yugoslav Cultural Garden, the Slovenian Garden is located near the intersection of St. Clair Avenue and East Boulevard, adjacent to the Polish Garden. Over 100,000 people paraded in support of the Yugoslav Garden’s dedication on a rainy morning in May 1938. Dignitaries included Mayor Harold Burton, Governor Martin Davey, Senator Robert Bulkley, Judge […]
Dedicated May 29, 2011, the Syrian Garden is located on both MLK Jr. and East Blvds. between the Hebrew and American Gardens on land set aside for this Garden in 1929. Construction began August 11, 2010. Designed by Misses Raghal Helal and Nagham Nano, architectural graduate students at Damascus University, Syria. Elements of the design […]
Dedicated in 1940 the Ukrainian Cultural Garden on MLK Jr. Drive is almost halfway between St. Clair and Superior streets. At the entrance to the Garden is the imposing bronze statue of Lesya Ukrainka, the pen name of Larysa Petrivna Kosach-Kivtka. A very popular poet and writer and the chief female writer in the Ukraine. […]