Hannah Carter Japanese Garden facts for kids

The Hannah Carter Japanese Garden is a beautiful private Japanese garden located in Bel Air, California. When it was finished in 1961, it was called Shikyo-en. The garden is designed to highlight water, stones, and green plants that stay green all year. It has streams, a waterfall, and a special tea house. You can also see lovely magnolia and camellia trees blooming there.

Experts say this garden is one of the biggest and most important private Japanese-style gardens built in the United States right after World War II. In 1965, the garden was given to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). It was open for people to visit until 2011. After a disagreement about its future, the garden was sold to a private owner in 2016.

Garden's Early Days

The land where the garden sits is about 1.5 acres. In 1927, it was first made into a Hawaiian garden by an oilman named Gordon G. Guiberson. A landscape architect named A.E. Hanson designed it. Gordon dedicated this garden to his mother, Ethel L. Guiberson, who started the Beverly Hills Garden Club.

The Japanese garden we see today was designed by Nagao Sakurai. Work on it began in 1959 and was finished in 1961.

Becoming the Hannah Carter Garden

In 1965, Edward W. Carter bought the garden. He named it after his second wife, Hannah Carter. Edward Carter was also the head of the University of California Board of Regents. That same year, he gave the garden and their house to UCLA.

In 1969, the garden needed some repairs after heavy rain caused damage. UCLA Professor Koichi Kawana helped fix it up.

Changes and Challenges

Edward Carter passed away in 1996. Hannah Carter continued to live in the house until 2006. After she passed away in 2009, the university faced high costs to keep the garden maintained. They decided to try and sell the garden and house.

In 2011, UCLA closed the garden to the public. This was because it was expensive to maintain, and not many people visited due to limited parking. In 2012, the garden was put up for sale. However, many groups who care about gardens and history did not want it to be sold. They believed the garden should stay open to the public.

A court case began to decide the garden's future. In 2012, a judge stopped the sale. The judge felt that UCLA's actions were not straightforward. UCLA appealed this decision, but in 2013, a higher court agreed with the first judge.

Finally, in October 2015, an agreement was reached. Hannah Carter's family agreed to let UCLA sell the garden. The new owners would have to keep the garden as it was for at least 30 years. UCLA also set up a special fund of $500,000 to help with the garden's care.

In June 2016, UCLA sold the garden to a developer named Mark Gabay for $12.5 million. The new owner is not required to open the garden to the public.

What You Can See in the Garden

The Hannah Carter Japanese Garden has winding paths, a beautiful waterfall, and a stone pagoda. Many parts of the garden, like the main gate, garden houses, bridges, and family shrines, were actually built in Japan. They were then taken apart and put back together in California.

The garden only has plants that grow naturally in Japan. You can find many different trees there, such as pine trees, redwood trees, apricot, magnolia, maple, and plum trees. There are also California Live Oak trees, pittosporum, and purple beech trees.