Japanese Garden & Tea House

Over a six-month period in 1906, a crew of seven Japanese workers led by landscape designer K. Wadamori transformed what had been a one-acre apple orchard into an authentic Japanese Garden, reshaping a gently sloping lawn into rolling hills, pools, and winding brooks and building the hills from soil removed to create the pools. In Masterpieces in Garden-Making, a tribute to Mrs. Thompson’s gardens, William Hornaday wrote that Sonnenberg’s Japanese Garden in July, 1916, was as perfect and exquisitely beautiful as a vale of paradise could be. The same crew returned in 1908 to build the Tea House, modeled after a tea house in Kyoto, Japan, which served as a gathering place for Mrs. Thompson’s guests and a playhouse for visiting children. The garden remains a favorite place for many staff and volunteers at Sonnenberg, who seek solace there from the daily workload, while restoration and replanting continue to return it to its former splendor.

Canandaigua, New York · United States