Hannah Carter Japanese Garden

The Hannah Carter Japanese Garden is a Japanese garden in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California. Completed in 1961, the garden features streams, a waterfall, a tea house, and blooming magnolia and camellia trees.

Location

The garden is located in a residential neighborhood at 10619 Bellagio Road in Bel Air, Los Angeles.[1][2][3]

History

The 1.5 acres (0.61 ha) site was originally developed in 1927 by oilman Gordon G. Guiberson as a Hawaiian garden on the Harry Calandar Estate by landscape architect A.E. Hanson (1893-1986).[2] It was dedicated to his mother, Ethel L. Guiberson, who founded the Beverly Hills Garden Club in the early 1930s.[2]

The Japanese garden was designed by Nagao Sakurai in 1959 and constructed between 1959 and 1961.[2][4][5][6][7][8] It would also be rehabilitated in 1969 by UCLA Professor Koichi Kawana after heavy rainfall.[2]

In 1965, it was purchased by Edward W. Carter (1911-1996).[7][8][9] Carter named it after his second wife, Hannah Carter.[9] The same year, Carter, who served as Chair of the University of California Board of Regents, donated it to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).[3][4][5][7][9] The donation included their house uphill from the garden. Edward Cater died in 1996. Hannah Carter lived in the house till 2006. After she died in 2009, the regents of the university asked a court to release them from the commitment to maintain the garden forever and allow the sale of the house and garden at auction.[10]

Since 2011, the garden has been closed to the public allegedly because of rising costs, deferred maintenance, and lack of attendance as a result of limited parking.[5] On March 3, 2012, the garden was listed for sale by Coldwell Banker.[3][5][9][11] However, the prospective sale was opposed by the American Public Gardens Association, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Bel Air Garden Club, the California Garden and Landscape History Society, the California Preservation Foundation, the Cultural Landscape Foundation, The Garden Conservancy, the Los Angeles Conservancy, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the North American Japanese Garden Association, etc.[1][5][6] On July 27, 2012 the Los Angeles County Superior Court halted the listing by issuing a preliminary injunction. Judge Lisa Hart Cole described the action of UCLA and the Regents as "duplicitous."

The Regents appealed the preliminary injunction. On September 16, 2013, the three judge Court of Appeal unanimously upheld the preliminary injunction.[12]

A trial date has been scheduled beginning July 20, 2015 at the Santa Monica Courthouse of Los Angeles Superior Court.[5][10]

Overview

It features winding paths, a waterfall, and a stone pagoda.[13] Moreover, the main gate, garden houses, bridges and family shrines were built in Japan and reassembled in California.[2][14] The garden includes only plants that grow in Japan.[2][15] For example, it includes the following trees: pine trees, redwood trees, apricot, magnolia, maple and plum trees, California Live Oak trees, pittosporum, and purple beech trees.[15]

References

  1. 1 2 Los Angeles Conservancy
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Lanna Pian, "The Hannah Carter Japanese Garden: A Hidden L.A. Treasure", Los Angeles City Historical Society, May 2012
  3. 1 2 3 Laura Coleman, 'Fate Of Bel-Air's Hannah Carter Garden Still Up In The Air', Beverly Hills Courier, August 30, 2013, pp. 1; 18
  4. 1 2 Editorial, "UCLA's garden spot", Los Angeles Times, January 22, 2012
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Official website
  6. 1 2 Garden Conservancy
  7. 1 2 3 USC: Secret Gardens: Welcome to the world Japanese Gardens
  8. 1 2 Albert George Pickerell, The University of California: A Pictorial History, Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1968 , p. 275
  9. 1 2 3 4 Charles A. Birnbaum, "UCLA Violates a Long-Standing Regent's Bequest and Endangers One of the Rarest Private Japanese Gardens in the United States", The Huffington Post, May 02, 2012
  10. 1 2 Groves, Martha (September 30, 2015). "UCLA and Hannah Carter heirs settle suit over Japanese garden in Bel-Air". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  11. ↑ 'UCLA Plans to Sell Its Historic Japanese Garden', KCRW, January 30, 2012
  12. ↑ Groves, Martha (February 15, 2015). "UCLA, heirs wrangle over fate of a tranquil Japanese garden". Los Angeles Times.
  13. ↑ UCLA's garden spot, The Los Angeles Times, January 22, 2012
  14. ↑ "Guide to Life at UCLA". Gardens. UCLA. Archived from the original on February 2, 2015.
  15. 1 2 A Garden That Reminds Me Of Tokyo

Coordinates: 34°04′57″N 118°26′40″W / 34.08251°N 118.44456°W / 34.08251; -118.44456

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