Tyler Formal Gardens served as an outdoor parlor for George F. and Stella Elkins Tyler, original owners of the former baronial estate known as Indian Council Rock, a nearly 2,000-acre Bucks County property on a hilltop overlooking Neshaminy Creek. The estate, whose original name came from a nearby cliff where early Native American tribes once counseled, was designed by the Philadelphia firm Willing, Sims and Talbutt and included a mansion, service cottages, support buildings, and four-tier Italianate gardens. Considered a typical country estate of the early twentieth century and believed to be the last of the great estates ever built in the country, it later became home to Tyler Hall and the formal gardens, which were placed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1987. George Frederick Tyler, born in 1883, was a prominent banker, progressive farmer, and avid sportsman, while Stella Elkins Tyler, born in 1884, supported the arts and later studied sculpture under Boris Blai. After George Tyler died in 1947, Stella lived on the estate until 1962, and upon her death in 1963, Temple University inherited 200 acres while the remainder became park land now known as Tyler State Park. The Bucks County Authority acquired the property in 1964, and Bucks County Community College opened there in the fall of 1965. Covering one acre, the gardens were influenced by French and Italian horticulture and featured gravel walkways, fountains, sculptures, parterres, a swimming pool, and tennis courts. Formal restoration began in 1999, with projects including hedging and planting beds, fountain plumbing, Stella Tyler's statues, gravel pathways, lawns, replica gates, a marble bench, concrete urns, terraces, patios, stairways, and retaining walls.