George Ward built Sibyl Temple in 1929 on the brow of his twenty-acre mountaintop Vestavia estate, marking the entrance to the lower ten acres where he planned a wildflower and bird sanctuary. He modeled the Temple of the Sibyl gazebo after the hilltop temple in Tivoli, Italy, and it was constructed of red-hued sandstone quarried in the area. Ward intended it to be the monument to his resting place and wanted to be buried in the cave beneath it, but when he died in 1940 he was buried in Elmwood Cemetery. In 1947 Charles Byrd bought the Vestavia estate and painted Sibyl Temple white. In 1958 Vestavia Hills Baptist Church purchased the property from Byrd, and when the church later built a new sanctuary, the gazebo was incompatible with the architecture. The church gave Sibyl Temple to the Vestavia Hills Garden Club on November 15, 1972. In 1973 the Alabama Department of Transportation granted permission to place it in the roadside park on Montgomery Highway, and its disassembly and relocation were masterminded by Bill Harbert with the resources and personnel of Harbert Construction Corporation. The eight solid concrete columns, with steel rods embedded in the foundation and dome, were removed individually from the eighty-eight-ton structure and remade to exact measurements. The sixty-three-ton dome was too heavy to be lifted onto the repositioned columns at this site, so the columns were removed again, a structure of H beams was built, the dome was placed on top, and each column was then set in place again. The Garden Club held a dedication ceremony on April 8, 1975, and many professionals, businesses, and friends assisted with landscaping and beautification. In 1985 Sibyl Temple was listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage, and the Sibyl Temple Foundation, an incorporated entity of the Vestavia Hills Garden Club, and the City of Vestavia Hill maintain the temple and gardens.