Cummer Gardens Restoration Project

Image courtesy of the Cummer Museum.

WLA Studio is working with the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, Florida to restore historic gardens that were severely impacted by Hurricane Irma in 2017. The gardens are situated behind the historic tudor-style home, now a museum, on the bank of the St. Johns River. The gardens date to the early 1900s and include designs by Ossian Cole Simonds, Ellen Biddle Shipman, Thomas Meehan and Sons, and the Olmsted Brothers. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the gardens remained submerged under water for more than 24 hours after the hurricane. This submersion resulted in salinization of the soil, which severely impacted plant material at the site. WLA is assisting museum leadership in assessing and making recommendations for repairs to the gardens.