Product Code Database
Topiary Park is a public park and garden in Columbus, Ohio's Discovery District. The park's topiary garden, officially the Topiary Garden at Old Deaf School Park, is designed to depict figures from Georges Seurat's 1884 painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. It is the only park based entirely on a painting.
The park is officially named Old Deaf School Park, as it was part of the campus of the Ohio Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, known today as the Ohio School for the Deaf. It is owned by the city of Columbus and maintained by the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department.
The park is adjacent to the Main Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library system. The branch was renovated around 2015, with one of the architect's goals being to join the library to the park.
The gatehouse, near the southeast corner of the park, is the park's main entrance. The building holds offices, restrooms, and an information desk and gift shop. It was constructed in 1998, designed in brick and resembling a French countryside house to match the park's theme. The building was funded by the City of Columbus, Motorists Mutual Insurance, and the Friends of the Topiary Park.
In 1984, one of the remaining school buildings, the modern-day Cristo Rey Columbus High School, was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The nomination includes all 10 acres of the former campus grounds.
The park was first developed in the mid-1980s as Old Deaf School Park. Topiary Park and its garden was conceived by Columbus artists James and Elaine Mason. It was built as a garden exhibit for the AmeriFlora exhibition that took place in Columbus in 1992, and was sculpted in 1989, along with installation of hills and a small pond, meant to represent the River Seine.
|
|
