Japanese Garden & Tea House

Japanese Garden and Tea House. . , Over a six-month period in 1906, a crew of seven Japanese workers led by landscape designer K. Wadamori, sculpted what was previously a one-acre apple orchard into an authentic Japanese Garden. , They transformed a gently-sloping lawn into a garden of rolling hills, pools, and winding brooks, building the hills from the soil removed to create the pools. , William Hornaday, in his Masterpieces in Garden-Making, a tribute to Mrs. Thompson’s gardens, writes that “a vale of paradise cannot be to mortal eye and brain any more perfect; or one degree more exquisitely beautiful, than Sonnenberg’s Japanese Garden in July, 1916. , The same crew of Japanese workers returned in 1908 to build the Tea House, which was modeled after a tea house in KYOTO, Japan. The Tea House served as a gathering place for Mrs. Thompson’s guests and a playhouse for visiting children. , This beautiful garden is a favorite of many staff and volunteers at Sonnenberg, and they often visit the garden seeking solace from the daily workload. , Restoration and replanting continues as we work to return the Japanese Garden to its former splendor.