Untermyer Park and Gardens is a 17-acre historic city public park located in Yonkers, New York, Westchester County, just north of New York City. The park is a remnant of Samuel J. Untermyer's "Greystone" estate. Situated on the steep terrain that rises from the east bank of the Hudson River to the cliff above it, the park features a walled garden inspired by ancient
Indo-Persian gardens, a small outdoor Greek-style amphitheater with two facing sphinxes supported by tall Ionic columns, a classical pavilion, stoa and loggias, a rock and water feature called "The Temple of Love," as well as a long staircase from the walled garden to a lookout point overlooking the river and palisades.
Click on the image to view and purchase the garden plan in dwg format
The "
walled garden" owes its inspiration to the great Indo-Persian gardens of antiquity. Like the ancient gardens, the Walled Garden is divided into quadrants by streams and bordered by crenellated walls anchored by octagonal towers.
The Indo-Persian walled garden was intended to mimic a paradise on earth and therefore had features inspired by religious descriptions of paradise. Biblical descriptions of Eden include four rivers (Pison, Gihon, Tigris and the Euphrates) and two large trees (the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil). Islam describes heaven, or Jannah, and includes similar elements: four rivers of life (water, milk, honey and wine) and the Tree of Life. The word "Paradise" itself comes from the Persian words "Pairi" and "Diz" which mean "Around" and "Create (a wall)" respectively. (Source: Untermyer Gardens Conservancy)
The gardens were developed starting in 1916 by Untermyer, a prominent lawyer and civic leader, and were designed by architect and landscape architect
William W. Bosworth, with fountains by
Charles Wellford Leavitt and sculptures by
Paul Manship and other artists. The gardens were regularly open to the public, hosted various kinds of performances, and were considered to be among the most beautiful gardens in the United States.
Owned by the City of Yonkers since 1946, the park has seen a major transformation since 2011 by the
Untermyer Gardens Conservancy and has since been renamed Untermyer Park and Gardens in honor of its founder.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. (Source: Wikipedia)
See the Photo Gallery
