The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places

Jacksonville, Fla. – The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places as of January 25, 2010. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological resources. Since its inception in 1966, more than 80,000 properties have been listed in the National Register. Together these records hold information on more than 1.4 million individual resources--buildings, sites, districts, structures, and objects--and therefore provide a link to the country's heritage at the national, state, and local levels.

“Being listed in the National Register of Historic Places is a wonderful legacy,” said Holly Keris, Cummer Curator. “Although The Cummer has recognized the significance of the Gardens for a long time, it is great to have others recognize it as well. It is fitting that the museum recently changed its mission statement to include the important role our Gardens can play "to engage and inspire" our community.”

Currently, there are 86 properties in Duval County that are listed in the National Register. The Cummer spent several years working toward this acknowledgment. In 2006, the museum began discussing the process to be included in the register, in 2007 began the application and in 2009, presented the application first to the review committee in Tallahassee and later in the year to Washington, D.C.

The Cummer Gardens are unique examples of early 20^th century garden design and many important landscape architects played significant roles in their development. Among them were Ossian Cole Simonds, a prominent Midwestern landscape architect who gave the preliminary form to The Cummer Gardens in 1903; Thomas Meehan and Sons, a Philadelphia firm that designed the formal Gardens; Ellen Biddle Shipman, the “Dean of American Women Landscape Architects,” designed the Italian Gardens; and the fabled Olmsted firm of Massachusetts, which was involved in later phases of landscape improvements.

“The Gardens at The Cummer are nationally significant for several reasons and this is why I felt so compelled to write a book about them,” said Judith B. Tankard, Landscape Historian and Author of A Legacy in Bloom: Celebrating a Century of Gardens at The Cummer. “The most important is that it represents the work of several pre-eminent landscape designers. The second reason, which is equally unusual, is that the garden structure and some of the larger plantings have survived unchanged over many decades. Finally, the determined Ninah Cummer, founder of the museum, without whose foresight in hiring an incomparable team of experts and her own passion for horticultural knowledge, the gardens would never have existed.”

Please join us March 15 through March 17, 2010, for Garden Week at The Cummer where we will be celebrating our nationally recognized gardens and offering many festivities that include lectures, master gardener tours, luncheons, and a fashion show. The Garden publication, A Legacy in Bloom: Celebrating a Century of Gardens at The Cummer is available for purchase in The Cummer store for $39 for hardback cover and $29 for soft back cover.  

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is committed to engage and inspire through the arts, gardens and education. A permanent collection of more than 5,500 works of art on a riverfront campus offers more than 95,000 annual visitors a truly unique experience on the First Coast. Nationally recognized education programs serve adults and children of all abilities.

Contact:
Amy Chamberlin
Associate Director of Marketing
Phone: 904-899-6034
achamberlin@cummer.org
Cell: 904-859-8121