Rock Garden

It was announced that we would be visiting the “Hartman Rock Garden”. Our Grand Court bus was loaded this afternoon, as we left for another “outing”. There were 12 Residents, plus Timi, the Activity Director/bus driver.

Here’s how the “garden” is described on the Internet:

From 1932-1939, H.G. Hartman built a 35’ x 140’ rock garden in Springfield, OH. It contains approximately 20,000 individual stones. Hartman started with a fish pond and then filled his yard with statues, miniature stone castles, cathedrals, and other historic buildings. There are models of the White House, tributes to boxer Joe Louis and the Dionne Quintuplets, as well as religious scenes.

Since his father’s death in 1944, the property was maintained by Ben Hartman, H.G.'s youngest son. However, Ben passed away in 2007 and in 2008, and the property was put up for sale. In 2009, the Kohler Foundation began restoring the site.









Yes, this is actually someone's backyard.

There is a couple there presently, restoring some of the scenes. The man in this picture told me that there are 20 more truck loads of rocks to be brought here, and placed with the others, and that the two of them had been doing this since last April.



The Rock Garden is on the corner of McCain Avenue and South Russell Avenue - west of South Yellow Springs Street in Springfield Ohio - actual address: 1905 Russell Avenue.

There is no charge to walk through the Garden.

We spent maybe a half hour or more there, marveling at the detail of the scenes, and at the thousands of rocks/stones there.

There’s nothing I could say that would adequately describe this scene, so I’ll just share some pictures I took.




Twenty more truck loads?

Whew!