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Home > Miscellaneous > Allerton Park
Allerton Park, Monticello, Illinois
June 03, 2006
On June 3, 2006, I was in Illinois and I went to Allerton Park.
Robert Henry Allerton began creating his estate, which he called "The Farms", around the turn of the century (1900), and gave it to the University of Illinois in 1946. It was renamed Robert Allerton Park.
It was stipulated that the park be used for educational and research purposes, as a forest, plant and wildlife reserve, as an example of landscape gardening and as a public park. In 1971, the US Department of the Interior designated one thousand acres within the park boundaries as a registered National Natural Landmark.
This is the entrance to the park.
On this map you can see where we parked.
We walked through the Vine Walk to the Buddha Pavillion.
This is a view looking through the Vine Walk toward the Buddha Pavilion.
A map showing the locations of the Buddha Pavillion, the Fu Dog Garder and the Goldfish Pond.
This is the Buddha Pavillion. The cast-iron upper portion was originally from New Orleans and was found by Robert Allerton on an estate that was being destroyed in Chicago. He bought it from the wrecking company and had the pavillion built to hold it.
A close-up of one of two Siamese Buddhas in the pavillion.
A view of the Fu Dog Garden from the pavilion.
The Hari-Hara (Creator-Destroyer) statue in the pavillion.
One of the Fu Dogs.
From the Allerton Park web site:
19th and 20th century Fu Dogs created by unknown artists are possibly the most appealing of all the park art objects.
The gorgeously colored lapis-lazuli blue cermic Fu Dogs were purchased by Allerton in pairs from European and American art dealers in 1932 and were placed in aspecially designed garden at the end of the vine walk.
Not all in the garden now are originals.
Because of theft and winter freezes that cause great damage, four were expertly reproduced by University of Illinois Professor of Art Donald Frith.
It is impossible to tell which four.
More Fu Dogs.
Fu Dogs guarding the entrance to one of the trails.
The goldfish pond.
The end of the Vine Walk near the Buddha Pavillion with Korean Fu Dogs on the columns.
Allerton Mansion
This photo shows the front of the Allerton Mansion, now a conference center.
This was probably the stables originally.
Looking out from the front steps to the pond in front of the mansion.
This map shows the locations of the mansion and the Avenue of the Formal Gardens.
One of the statues of "Primitive Men" between the mansion and the gardens.
From the Allerton Park web site:
This is one of two husky, rather blocklike male nudes that represent primitive man arising from the earth, each pushing, as he emerges, a great chunk of land or rock from his shoulder.
Made of limestone and modeled after Glyn Warren Philpot's Primitive Men 1922, they were made as a consequence of Philpot's stay as Allerton's houseguest in September 1921.
The figures stand 84 1/2 inches high and are located on the pathway leading from the lake to the Brick Garden.
Here is a map showing the location of the Walled Garden.
The entrance to the Walled Garden with the Sea Maidens on the columns.
The statue "Girl with the Scarf" in the center of the Walled Garden.
After the Walled Garden was the Square Parterre Garden.
The Square Parterre Garden.
Then came the Triangle Parterre Garden.
The Triangle Parterre Garden.
This map shows the location of the Seasonal Gardens.
A walkway through the gardens with the Assyrian Lions on the columns.
A statue in the gardens - Adam, the Creation of Man.
A statue in the peonie gardens - the Three Graces.
A statue in the gardens - the Marble Faun.
Here is the location of the Chinese Maze Garden.
The maze with the Chinese Goldfish.
An apple tree in the Chinese Maze Garden.
This map shows the locations of the Avenue of the Chinese Musicians and the Sunken Garden.
Avenue of the Chinese Musicians.
Entrance to the Sunken Garden with the Guardian Fish on the columns.
The Sunken Garden.
The Sunken Garden.
The Death of the Last Centaur.
From the Allerton Park web site:
"The Death of the Last Centaur, by the eminent French artist Bourdelle (1861-1929), regarded by many of his contemporaries as the greatest sculptor of his generation, himself thought this sculpture to be the "summit" of his achievements.
This park sculpture was made with gold embedded in bronze and is one of only five in the world.
Allerton bought the 112 inch high sculpture directly from Boudelle in his Paris studio shortly before the artisit's death in 1929.
"
The Death of the Last Centaur.
The Sun Singer.
From the Allerton Park web site:
"This bronze sculpture stands 147 inches tall.
It is one of three colossal Sun Singer statues created by Carl Milles (1875-1955).
Allerton saw one of those in Stockholm in 1929, and personally sought out Milles in his studio to commission a reduced-scale version.
Misunderstandings about size developed because of language difficulties, however, and when this spectacular figure in all its enormity arrived from Sweden, the original plan to put it close to the house was scrapped.
Instead, in 1932, it was set in a wide circular base surrounded by low shrubbery in the dramatic isolation of an enormous meadow at the far end of the estate.
"
The Sun Singer.
Former site of the Lost Garden.
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