Thanks mostly to neighborhood volunteers, Bolton Hill is a lush oasis, with street trees and parks forming a thick green canopy and well-planted and maintained planters and tree wells enhancing the streetscape. It is the collaboration and hard work of the park stewards, BHCA’s greening committee, the Bolton Hill Garden Club, the tree planting volunteers, the Midtown Community Benefits District, and residents that make Bolton Hill’s public spaces attractive and welcoming. The public spaces are there, year-around.
But what about the private green spaces in the neighborhood? Once a year, the garden club hosts a garden walk where neighbors can peek inside a selection of private gardens. This year, 12 private gardens between West Lanvale Street and Lafayette Avenue were on display, as well as three public garden areas and the Tiffany windows at Brown Memorial Church.
John Street Park (1300 block) was a starting point for this year’s Garden Walk on June 7. Celebrating the 70th anniversary of its dedication, the creation of this park was recognized nationally as an exemplary model of how citizens and public agencies can collaborate to create new urban green spaces. The chair of the garden tour, Maria Wawer, opened her garden at 1302 John Street. With an entrance off of Lovely Lane, the lush shade garden surrounds a courtyard with a fountain that connects the main house with the carriage house behind.
Back on West Lanvale Street, the garden walk included Triangle Park, a pocket park near the corner of Mt. Royal lovingly tended by a neighbor with help from community grants and donations. The park provides benches for reflection, is ringed with roses, and has beds of flowering perennials with a central white crepe myrtle. A plaque notes the park’s dedication to Dr. Joseph Costa, who was the Director of Critical Care at Mercy Hospital and died in 2020 from COVID-19 during the pandemic. He lived nearby on West Lanvale Street.
Further down West Lanvale Street is a secluded garden behind the Merganthaler Condominiums. Overflowing with flowers and foliage, the garden is a “mix of old-fashioned favorites—roses, lavender, coneflowers and hydrangea … with trellises supporting climbing blooms.” Louie Wilder, a garden walk attendee, was particularly taken with this garden. “It is like a secret garden. What a surprise to see this beautiful garden tucked away from view when you open the garden gate.”
The gardens at West Lanvale and Bolton Street are popular destinations for neighborhoods to view and gather. The garden at the southern corner is centered around a large koi pond that can be seen and enjoyed through the wrought iron fence along Bolton Street. Across West Lanvale Street and enclosed by a white picket fence, the gardens surrounding the cottage include a colorful progression of bulbs, perennials, and flowering trees and shrubs. The owner can be seen most days lovingly watering her gardens and chatting with neighbors.
At the western end of the walk, attendees were encouraged to explore Linden Green, which was created as part of the Park Purchase Development in 1974. The pond and waterfall form the central focus and are surrounded by lush foliage and tree canopy that provide a peaceful oasis.
The garden walk concluded at the carriage house on the 1300 block of Park Avenue, originally built as an outbuilding for the adjacent Rolando-Thom mansion, now home to the Bolton Hill Nursery School. A stand-alone property since 1930, it once housed a tearoom before conversion into a home. Peter and Susan van Buren purchased the house in 2020 and, according to Susan, “We felt that the house begged for an English cottage garden, something with more flowers and year-round interest.” Intensive work began in 2021, with the removal of 5 hemlocks and a wild cherry along the nursery school fence. “The front inner circle told us it wanted to be a stylized meadow surrounded by woodland plants,” Susan continued. “I never intended to plant Black-eyed Susans, but the birds had other ideas and brought them to us! Friends and fellow gardeners contributed plantings as well.” The van Buren’s placed a kinetic sculpture by Bolton Hill neighbor and artist Paul Daniel in the center of the Circle.
In the rear, master stonemason Pasquale Pascal created the flexible open gravel court and walkways. Artist Linda DePalma is responsible for the lovely green FernGate at the rear of the garden. The van Burens most recent project was replacing the fencing adjacent to the parking pad and adding a restored Victorian gate leading to the side cottage garden.
Susan summed up their work: “The gardens surrounding our cottage are ordered chaos. They are very forgiving. The urban environment for gardeners is very challenging, but the effort is worth the reward.” The 2025 Garden Walk showcased how exquisite public and private green spaces can flourish in the city.
–Sallye Perrin
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