Cleveland Cultural Gardens, Cleveland, Ohio,

July 6, 2009

One evening I wanted to go to a garden so I chose Cleveland, Ohio and found the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, a lovely site maintained by Cleveland State University.  Here’s why.

“The Gardens embody the history of twentieth-century America. They reveal the history of immigration to, and migration within, the United States. They comment on how we have built communities and constructed our identities as individuals and collectives. The gardens reveal the stories of the major conflicts that gave shape to the century: World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. They also provide insight into the large social, economic, political, and cultural upheavals that roiled through the nation during the last century: the Great Depression, suburbanization, the Civil Rights Movement, and the deindustrialization of America’s industrial heartland.

Hungarian Garden, Rockefeller Park, Cleveland, Ohio   Item from Cleveland State University Library Special Collections

Hungarian Garden, Rockefeller Park, Cleveland, Ohio Item from Cleveland State University Library Special Collections

This is a story of hope and despair, joy and sadness, conflict and cooperation, growth and decline. The stones, paths, and memories of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens tell us what it has meant to be an American.”

Dr. Mark Tebeau, Department of History, Cleveland State University, author

The Hungarian Garden celebrated its 70th anniversary last year.  It was planted in 1938.

www.culturalgardens.org


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