I would like to take you on a visit to one of my neighbors.
I love to visit with her. She’s sleeping right now, but when she wakes in the spring, there are all kinds of intimate moments of pure serenity and perfection she’s willing to share.
I say “she” because Sonnenberg State Historic Gardens and Mansion in Canandaigua, New York is so quintessentially feminine, with her flowers and paths to seductive spots perfect for a tryst, her languorous verandas and porches and lacy bedroom curtains.
The Smithsonian Institute has called Sonnenberg “one of the greatest late Victorian gardens created in the United States that has survived completely intact.”
There are nine formal gardens, the 40-room 1887 Queen Anne-style mansion and a Lord & Burnham greenhouse complex. In its Edwardian heyday, Sonnenberg included a working farm that supplied it with fresh dairy and produce, and the farm and mansion employed a significant portion of the population of Canandaigua.
New York City bank financier Frederick Ferris Thompson and his wife, Mary Clark Thompson, the daughter of New York State governor Myron Holley Clark, bought the property in 1863 when it featured just a brick farmhouse on 14 acres.
F.F. Thompson (the city’s hospital is named for him) became one of the nation’s millionaires in banking. The couple purchased additional acreage. Eventually the farmhouse was replaced with the mansion, built between 1886-1887.
This was their version of a summer cottage near Canandaigua Lake.
The nine formal gardens bear the imprint of Mary Clark Thompson, who brought home ideas and art from her many trips to Europe and Asia. But her beloved husband died in 1899. Mrs. Thompson involved hundreds of workers between 1902 and 1919 in a re-design of the gardens primarily by Boston landscape architect Ernest Bowditch, and later, his assistant John Handrahan.
Thousands of visitors from all over the world visit Sonnenberg every year. But somehow – and maybe it’s because the grounds are so expansive – there’s always lots of opportunity to find spots for a little daydream, some shade, and a relaxing meal or cool drink.
It’s not my inclination to tramp through a place like Sonnenberg for the sole purpose of taking in the facts and history as quickly as possible in order to get back in the car (or bus) and put my feet up. I had my fill of that long ago on a terrible bus tour of Europe that cured me of sight-seeing forever.
I’m a wanderer. A contemplative. I like to get a sense of the real life of a place. So if you’re like me, here are a few of my favorite Sonnenberg spots and experiences:
• The gigantic weeping beeches along the drive. Mrs. Thompson invited guests from all over to visit her summer home and plant a tree. Beech branches drape the ground, providing hiding places for lovers and “playhouses” for children.
• The path through the Rock Garden. Always cool, shaded and magical. There are pools of water, mossy nooks, rock towers to climb, a sculpture of Pan, climbing hydrangea – and in its trees, a poignant little burial spot for Mrs. Thompson’s long-departed dogs.
• The veranda facing the Italian Garden and pergola, the Moonlight Garden and the Blue & White Garden. I’m a porch person. Give me a wicker chair, some lemonade, and a view, and I’m transported back in time. You can almost hear the carriages roll up the drive.
• A table at the High Noon Garden Café… a taste of wine at the Wine Center. Love the café’s white picket fence, pots of flowers, and tasty lunches. The Wine Center shows you why the Finger Lakes are being called the Sonoma of the East.
• The terrace adjoining the dining room of the mansion. I love to stand at the dining room – with its fully set table and folding glass doors – and look out at the terrace. What must it have been like to spend a summer evening dancing on the terrace during one of Mrs. Thompson’s parties?
You can’t go wrong anywhere at Sonnenberg, really. That’s just a tiny taste of what you’ll experience if you visit.
Throughout the season (it’s open from May through mid-October) there are several events held at Sonnenberg that include everything from outdoor music concerts in the evening to one of the top juried arts and crafts shows in New York State.
We’ll talk about that next.
Photos by Cindy Harris
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