Beverly -- Ayer Memorial Garden at Beverly Hospital

In 1973 the North Shore Garden Club dedicated the Ayer Memorial Garden at Beverly Hospital that it conceived, funded, and maintained for 30 years, until the hospital unveiled its expansion plan in 2003. The garden was set in a one-third acre grassy courtyard, bordered on three sides by the building. On the fourth side a serpentine, honeycombed four-foot-high brick wall was built to screen the parking lot. There was a deep border against the building walls, a winding aggregate path, and shell-shaped motifs in the corners. Three corners were places for contemplation, and the fourth had a rock garden with ferns, a pool with koi and water lilies, a wooden bridge, and a waterfall shaded by a hemlock. There were several sculptures including a bronze snow goose next to the pond, a small boy gazing up at a balloon, a sitting young man with his head on his knees and arms wrapped around his legs, and a resting fawn. The borders were planted for continuous bloom with rhododendrons, pieris, leucothoe, mountain laurel, viburnum, azaleas, spring bulbs, ground cover, and annuals. In 1989 parts of the garden were replanted or upgraded with 22 shrubs and a canoe birch. By 2000 some plantings had succumbed to disease, overgrown allotted spaces, or were incompatible with the heat-generating brick walls. The garden and serpentine wall were renovated and repaired, and a new sprinkler system was installed. After learning in 2003 that the hospital's building plan would compromise or destroy the garden and its shell-shaped hardscape the club held a Farewell to the Garden Party. In 1979 the garden was honored by the American Association of Nurserymen with The Environmental Improvement and Community Beautification Award at a ceremony at the White House in Washington DC. Persons associated with the garden's design: Vincent N. Merrill, FASLA (landscape architect, 1972-1974); Ingrid Wagner (garden designer, 1988-1989); Betty Stone (garden designer, 2000-2003).