Seeking Eden - by Staci L Catron & Mary Ann Eaddy (Hardcover)

About the Book

Seeking Eden promotes an awareness of, and appreciation for, Georgia's rich garden heritage. Updated and expanded here are the stories of nearly thirty designed landscapes first identified in the early twentieth-century publication Garden History of Georgia, 1733-1933.

Book Synopsis

Seeking Eden promotes an awareness of, and appreciation for, Georgia's rich garden heritage. Updated and expanded here are the stories of nearly thirty designed landscapes first identified in the early twentieth-century publication Garden History of Georgia, 1733-1933. Seeking Eden records each garden's evolution and history as well as each garden's current early twenty-first-century appearance, as beautifully documented in photographs. Dating from the mid-eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, these publicly and privately owned gardens include nineteenth-century parterres, Colonial Revival gardens, Country Place-era landscapes, rock gardens, historic town squares, college campuses, and an urban conservation garden.

Seeking Eden explores the significant impact of the women who envisioned and nurtured many of these special places; the role of professional designers, including J. Neel Reid, Philip Trammel Shutze, William C. Pauley, Robert B. Cridland, the Olmsted Brothers, Hubert Bond Owens, and Clermont Lee; and the influence of the garden club movement in Georgia in the early twentieth century.

FEATURED GARDENS:
Andrew Low House and Garden Savannah
Ashland Farm Flintstone
Barnsley Gardens Adairsville
Barrington Hall and Bulloch Hall Roswell
Battersby-Hartridge Garden Savannah
Beech Haven Athens
Berry College: Oak Hill and House o' Dreams Mount Berry
Bradley Olmsted Garden Columbus
Cator Woolford Gardens Atlanta
Coffin-Reynolds Mansion Sapelo Island
Dunaway Gardens Newnan vicinity
Governor's Mansion Atlanta
Hills and Dales Estate LaGrange
Lullwater Conservation Garden Atlanta
Millpond Plantation Thomasville vicinity
Oakton Marietta
Rock City Gardens Lookout Mountain
Salubrity Hall Augusta
Savannah Squares Savannah
Stephenson-Adams-Land Garden Atlanta
Swan House Atlanta
University of Georgia: North Campus, the President's House and Garden, and the Founders Memorial Garden Athens
Valley View Cartersville vicinity
Wormsloe and Wormsloe State Historic Site Savannah vicinity
Zahner-Slick Garden Atlanta

Review Quotes

Seeking Eden is an extraordinary book and should be well received by anyone who appreciates our gardening heritage. The authors combine a pleasant style with solid scholarship as they offer important insights into some of the region's most magnificent gardens. It will be a great reference for southern gardeners, both new and old, and it should be required reading for every southern college student pursuing a degree in plant sciences, landscape design, or historic preservation.--William C. Welch "coauthor of Heirloom Gardening in the South: Yesterday's Plants for Today's Gardens"

The recommendation for audience is researchers and people looking for information and complete histories on Georgia's spectacular gardens, impressive structures, and gorgeous houses. The book is highly recommended for public and academic libraries.--Melinda F. Matthews "The Southeastern Librarian"

This well-researched and beautifully photographed book...invites readers to ignore the weather outside, curl up in a warm chair and enjoy a tour of some of Georgia's most gracious and historic gardens.--Helen Lawson "Georgia Magazine"

I was pleased to see the Governor's Mansion featured in this book. I am very proud of the University of Georgia Press and its work to preserve Georgia's history!--Sandra Deal, First Lady of Georgia

Seeking Eden significantly contributes to our knowledge of historic gardens and landscapes, heirloom plants, and early gardening in Georgia. The book should have broad appeal to garden club, garden history, and preservation society members; horticulturists; landscape architects; and scholars as well as nonscholars of the subject. The book essentially updates the status of many of the gardens described in the cardinal publication Garden History of Georgia 1733-1933, published by the Peachtree Garden Club. Not surprisingly a number of those gardens have ceased to exist, although a number of extant gardens still flourish or new ones have replaced the old, all of which are described.--A. Jefferson Lewis III, director emeritus of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia

About the Author

Staci L. Catron (Author)
STACI L. CATRON is the director of the Cherokee Garden Library, Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center, and a past president of the Southern Garden History Society.

Mary Ann Eaddy (Author)
MARY ANN EADDY retired from the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources where she worked first as manager of the technical services unit and then as special assistant to the director. She also taught a graduate course in preservation planning in the Heritage Preservation Program at Georgia State University.