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Elizabethan Gardens are a showplace
Beauty and history abundant at coastal North Carolina town
By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER, Daily News Correspondent
(Editor’s note: The following is one in a series of articles featuring historical sites and other places of interest in and around our area.)
MANTEO — Where early colonists once strived to make a new lives, a living memorial of flowers and towering live oak trees now draws visitors to this majestic spot on Roanoke Island.
The Elizabethan Gardens, created by the Garden Clubs of North Carolina, along with the adjacent Fort Raleigh National Historic Site and Waterside Theatre, home of “The Lost Colony” outdoor drama, pay tribute to those first English settlers in the New World, who journeyed here as part of Sir Walter Raleigh’s Roanoke Voyages of 1584-1590.
Construction on this 16th century-inspired garden began June 2, 1953, the day Elizabeth II was crowned queen of England. But it was the inspiration several years earlier of a group of philanthropists, including noted North Carolina author and historian Inglis Fletcher, who felt that such a garden would be the perfect complement to Fort Raleigh.
The proposal was presented to the garden clubs in 1951 and the organization, comprised of thousands of women from across the state, set a modest goal of erecting a 2- acre garden budgeted at $10,000. However, the gift of priceless statuaries, bird baths, stone steps and benches, and a fountain from the Georgia estate of John Hay Whitney, ambassador to the Court of St. James, resulted in the more elaborate gardens that can be viewed today.
The Elizabethan Gardens formally opened on August 18, 1960, which was the 373rd anniversary of the birth of Virginia Dare, the first child born in the New World to English parents. Since then the attraction has expanded and is considered a “must see” for gardening enthusiasts who visit the area each year.
One enters the gardens through a gate house designed to reflect the 16th century style of architecture prevalent in Europe; this gate house contains a small gift shop, and more importantly, several examples of rare furnishings, among them a circa 1592 oil portrait of Queen Elizabeth I.
The centerpiece of the gardens is the Sunken Garden, which features the Italian fountain with pool and statues from the Whitney collection.
The statues represent Apollo, Venus, Diana and Jupiter and are set among an ever-changing array of flowering plants and trees that include, depending on the time of year, crape myrtle, pansies, vinca and begonias.
Another high point of a visit to the gardens is The Queen’s Rose Garden, designed in 1976 to honor Queen Elizabeth II. A rose bush sent by the Queen from the royal garden at Windsor Castle is included here.
But perhaps the most poignant feature of the gardens is an exquisite statue representing an adult Virginia Dare, who as a child mysteriously disappeared along with the others in the so-called Lost Colony. This statue, carved in Rome in 1859, stands in a sheltered spot at the foot of an ancient live oak tree indigenous to the area. The statue, like the real Virginia, has an interesting history. It lay on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for two years, a casualty of a shipwreck off the coast of Spain. It was retrieved and later exhibited in Raleigh. The bare-breasted rendering sparked controversy in the early 1920s, and it eventually found a home at the estate of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and author Paul Green, who wrote “The Lost Colony” outdoor drama. Green donated the statue to the gardens, allowing Virginia Dare to return to the place of her birth.
History aside, The Elizabethan Gardens offer magnificent views of nature in all its glory, from yucca and sea holly, native to the Outer Banks, to cultivated daylilies, tea roses, tulips, hydrangeas and camelias. One should allow plenty of time to wander its many garden paths and explore every nook and cranny.
The Elizabethan Gardens are open year round. For more information, visit www.elizabethangardens.org or call (252) 473-3234.
Elizabethan Gardens side notes:
Did you know?
The Elizabethan Gardens are popular for couples wishing to be married outdoors in a truly unique setting.
The ornate iron gates that stand at the entrance to the gardens given by C. Douglas Dillon, former undersecretary of state and secretary of the treasury; the gates once hung at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Innocenti & Webel, an internationally renowned landscape design firm, planned the gardens at the request of The Garden Clubs of North Carolina.
An ancient live oak in the gardens is believed to have been living when the first colonists landed in the New World in 1585.
Potted plants cultivated from specimens in the gardens are usually available for purchase at the gift shop.
By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER, Daily News Correspondent
(Editor’s note: The following is one in a series of articles featuring historical sites and other places of interest in and around our area.)
MANTEO — Where early colonists once strived to make a new lives, a living memorial of flowers and towering live oak trees now draws visitors to this majestic spot on Roanoke Island.
The Elizabethan Gardens, created by the Garden Clubs of North Carolina, along with the adjacent Fort Raleigh National Historic Site and Waterside Theatre, home of “The Lost Colony” outdoor drama, pay tribute to those first English settlers in the New World, who journeyed here as part of Sir Walter Raleigh’s Roanoke Voyages of 1584-1590.
Construction on this 16th century-inspired garden began June 2, 1953, the day Elizabeth II was crowned queen of England. But it was the inspiration several years earlier of a group of philanthropists, including noted North Carolina author and historian Inglis Fletcher, who felt that such a garden would be the perfect complement to Fort Raleigh.
The proposal was presented to the garden clubs in 1951 and the organization, comprised of thousands of women from across the state, set a modest goal of erecting a 2- acre garden budgeted at $10,000. However, the gift of priceless statuaries, bird baths, stone steps and benches, and a fountain from the Georgia estate of John Hay Whitney, ambassador to the Court of St. James, resulted in the more elaborate gardens that can be viewed today.
The Elizabethan Gardens formally opened on August 18, 1960, which was the 373rd anniversary of the birth of Virginia Dare, the first child born in the New World to English parents. Since then the attraction has expanded and is considered a “must see” for gardening enthusiasts who visit the area each year.
One enters the gardens through a gate house designed to reflect the 16th century style of architecture prevalent in Europe; this gate house contains a small gift shop, and more importantly, several examples of rare furnishings, among them a circa 1592 oil portrait of Queen Elizabeth I.
The centerpiece of the gardens is the Sunken Garden, which features the Italian fountain with pool and statues from the Whitney collection.
The statues represent Apollo, Venus, Diana and Jupiter and are set among an ever-changing array of flowering plants and trees that include, depending on the time of year, crape myrtle, pansies, vinca and begonias.
Another high point of a visit to the gardens is The Queen’s Rose Garden, designed in 1976 to honor Queen Elizabeth II. A rose bush sent by the Queen from the royal garden at Windsor Castle is included here.
But perhaps the most poignant feature of the gardens is an exquisite statue representing an adult Virginia Dare, who as a child mysteriously disappeared along with the others in the so-called Lost Colony. This statue, carved in Rome in 1859, stands in a sheltered spot at the foot of an ancient live oak tree indigenous to the area. The statue, like the real Virginia, has an interesting history. It lay on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for two years, a casualty of a shipwreck off the coast of Spain. It was retrieved and later exhibited in Raleigh. The bare-breasted rendering sparked controversy in the early 1920s, and it eventually found a home at the estate of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and author Paul Green, who wrote “The Lost Colony” outdoor drama. Green donated the statue to the gardens, allowing Virginia Dare to return to the place of her birth.
History aside, The Elizabethan Gardens offer magnificent views of nature in all its glory, from yucca and sea holly, native to the Outer Banks, to cultivated daylilies, tea roses, tulips, hydrangeas and camelias. One should allow plenty of time to wander its many garden paths and explore every nook and cranny.
The Elizabethan Gardens are open year round. For more information, visit www.elizabethangardens.org or call (252) 473-3234.
Elizabethan Gardens side notes:
Did you know?
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