close
close

Leafgate Garden or Congregational Park – no matter what you call it, it is in a sad state

Leafgate Garden or Congregational Park – no matter what you call it, it is in a sad state

Roman paved path and circle with bench, some plantings
Paved path and hand-cast bench in Congregational Park, ca. 2015. Credit: Gay Riseborough

As a former director of the Department of Public Art, I learned that there was actually an art installation in the small park behind the First Congregational Church of Evanston at 1445 Hinman Ave. So I went there in 2015 to photograph the artwork so it would be included in the city’s public art map, but it wasn’t.

I had not known about the park, which belongs to the city and not to the church as everyone assumes. It consists of a triangular piece of land that begins behind the church and extends on both sides, at Lake and Grove Streets, until it comes to a point at the east end, at Judson Avenue.

The art installation consists of two hand-cast cement benches, their hand-cast posts, a winding path of “Roman” square and curved hand-cut pavers and carefully selected drought-resistant plants. The garden was in a deplorable state in 2015.

This summer, nine years later, I photographed it again and found it in an even sadder state. Coming from Grove Street, I could see that one tree was completely dead. As I got closer, I saw that the plants I had photographed in 2015 were gone.

Memorial plaque in the ground says "Leafgate Garden"
A memorial plaque embedded in the ground tells the story of the art installation near the First Congregational Church. Credit: Gay Riseborough

There is a plaque at ground level in the park that lists the name of the garden, the artists, the Evanston Arts Council as steward, and Edward A. Johnson as donor. Johnson is the same longtime Evanstonian who gave the city the two large commissioned sculptures by Richard Hunt. above the public library in 1997.

In September 1992, the Evanston Review reported on the garden’s opening, calling it “a public art project with a walkway and benches for meditation.” But the garden is now too open and exposed to allow for much meditation.

I wrote to the artists involved, Gary Justis and Linda “LJ” Douglas, a recently retired couple who now live in Bloomington, Illinois. Justis responded that they “hand-built” the park in 1991, along with “a great volunteer, Mark Slotkowski.”

“At the time of construction, there was an older tree that formed a natural arch over part of the structure. The city removed it in the mid-1990s – I don’t know the reason,” Justis said.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *