Director’s Note: Restoring the Rock Garden’s Grape Arbor
Since 2012, the George Eastman Museum has invested more than $5 million on restoring George Eastman’s mansion and gardens — a National Historic Landmark. Until 2021, the projects related to his residence — including the Palm House, porte cochere, Conservatory roof, East Porch, Colonnade, 68 windows, and several dormers.
After we completed work on the Bruce B. Bates Colonnade, we promptly turned our attention to the adjacent Schuyler C. Townson Terrace Garden. Its pergola has now been beautifully restored, the garden has been made more accessible, and the flower beds are almost fully replanted (with great thanks to our hardworking staff and volunteers).
Yet, it is the Rock Garden — located on the north end of Eastman’s estate, near University Avenue — that most urgently needs restoration. For more than a century, its grape arbor has been exposed to Rochester’s annual freeze/thaw cycle, which has led to severe deterioration and instability. Extensive wood rot has compromised its structural stability. To protect the safety of museum visitors and community members who use our property as a park, fencing has been erected to restrict public access to the Rock Garden until restoration work is completed.
The Rock Garden restoration project will address necessary and urgent repairs to the grape arbor so that all museum visitors and community members may safely enjoy it. Restoration work will assure that this structure in the original Rock Garden design is sustained for future generations. Significant accessibility improvements on the paths to and within the Rock Garden will provide a welcoming experience for all visitors regardless of physical limitations.
In 2019, the Eastman Museum received a $600,000 grant from the New York State Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to support restoration of all three of our historic garden structures. In 2022, the restoration of the Terrace Garden and its pergola was completed at a cost of $540,000 (20% higher than estimated), of which $405,000 was funded by this grant.
The restoration of the Rock Garden has been postponed because of dramatic construction cost increases. In spring 2023, a public bid process resulted in three bids that were more than twice the amount of the cost estimates in the 2019 grant application. Because construction costs have increased precipitously, the Rock Garden restoration has been extracted from the original grant project and will be undertaken separately. (We expect the restoration of the West Garden and its loggia to begin next year.)
The Rock Garden is historically significant. Alling Stephen DeForest provided the overall landscape design for the Rock Garden and collaborated with J. Foster Warner, who designed its grape arbor (1921) as an integral part of the garden. When Eastman resided here, this setting was used for relaxation, entertaining, as a backdrop for promotional photography for Kodak film, and as a source for grapes for jellies. The Rock Garden has remained a key part of our visitors’ experience.
This July, we will apply to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for a $500,000 grant to restore the Rock Garden and its grape arbor. The project cost is estimated to be about $1,100,000. We have already secured $350,000 of private funding for the project, and our fundraising efforts continue. Grant funding from New York State will assure that this project is completed and that the Rock Garden may be reopened and fully accessible.
To donate to this important project, please contact Lisa Ann Seischab at (585) 327–4642 or lseischab@eastman.org.
We would greatly appreciate your letters of support — which are due on July 24 — for our application for a $500,000 grant from New York State for our project, Restoring the Rock Garden’s Grape Arbor. Please contact Ruth Wagner at (585) 3274937 or rwagner@eastman.org for more information.
Bruce Barnes, PhD
Ron and Donna Fielding Director
July/August 2023 Bulletin
