Hartman Rock Garden is a nationally recognized visionary art environment created by self-taught artist Ben Hartman, who was born in 1882 in Edenville, Pennsylvania, moved to Springfield, Ohio, in 1912, and worked as a molder at the Springfield Machine Tool Company's foundry. After being laid off in 1932 during the Great Depression, he began building a cement fishing pond in his backyard and then spent the remaining twelve years of his life constructing hundreds of hand-made structures and figurines from concrete, metal, glass, stone, wood, and other found materials, drawing inspiration from family and friends, magazines, books, radio, and film, and expressing themes of history, religion, patriotism, and popular culture in a deeply personal space meant to promote his ideals and values. After Ben died of silicosis in 1944, his wife Mary maintained the garden for the next fifty-three years, tending its flowers, preserving its structures, giving tours, and adding small details. Mary died in 1997 at age 91. In 2008, the Kohler Foundation purchased and began restoring the site, and in 2009 local citizens formed the Friends of the Hartman Rock Garden to continue its preservation and interpretation. Since 1932, Ben Hartman's Historical Rock Garden has welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world.
