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.