The Japanese garden on Middle Campus was created in 1959, designed by John G. Anderson, the College's Building and Grounds superintendent and Director of Physical Plant Planning (Lake Forest College Bulletin, June 1959 [v. 39, no. 6], 2 and 4). This diminutive or room-scaled garden adjacent to the 1893 steam plant/Buildings and Grounds offices referenced seven of thirteen defining elements of such Japanese landscape spaces, as laid out on a Bowdoin College web page: http:www.learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/elements/inro/index.html : architecture, lantern, path, pond, sand and pebbles, shrubs and flowers, and stones and trees. In addition there was, for the space, a notable maiden sculpture, perhaps half of full-size.

This garden appeared right at the moment of a major shift in the College, from the administrations of Presidents Moore (1919-1942) and Johnson (1942-1959), as president and former economics professor (1924-1942) Dr. Ernest Johnson had just died that spring. Acting President (Business Manager) John Howard was presiding for 1959-60, and the faculty was updating programs and undertaking a national search for a new post-McCarthy-era president to fit an institution morphing from a denominational Christian college identity (back) to a liberal arts college one.

This also preceded immediately a building program in the early 1960s, under president William Graham Cole (1960-69) as an expanded student body led to new facilities. The Archives subject photo file also has under campus plans an October 1959 "Campus Plan Study..." dated October 1959. This plan eschewed the rectangular ideas of 1938 and 1947 plans to pick up on some informal forms from a Marshall Johnson plan of 1948. This would have been carried out by the architects Perkins & Will under planning head Anderson, as well. Both the 1962 Johnson Science Center, the first newly-constructed academic building since the 1908 completion of Carnegie Hall, and the 1964-65 Donnelley Library building, with "temporary" (to 1981) classroom space, included Japanese architectural and garden references in their design.  For Johnson the Japanese transparency betwen the structure and the garden or landscape is seen in the link between pavilions A and B especially, with an open walkway on the first floor, with a large boulder to highlight the tie, and the floor to ceiling windows on the second level.  The rock garden setting for the entry to McCormick Auditorium on the lower level of pavilion B is still present and the pebbled band around the circular Johnson C (Chicago Programs) remained until the 2000s.  This Japanese influence was also notable in the Donnelley structure and landscape before its 2002-04 renovation and expansion.  The basic mass was a tea house on steroids, with a bridge over a pebble stream (northeast corner), stylized lanterns on the walkways to the entrance (east), and horizontal evergreens at the four corners to catch snow.  Again a pebble band, recreating a stream bed, went around the building, replaced to avoid flooding in 2004. 

The 1959 garden can be described as a template for these new buildings, plus the faculty and student housing on Rosemary (now Rosemary House) and South Campus, 1961-65. The garden space was across the path from North to Middle Campus from the Physical Plant office, with stockade fencing on the north and west sides to protect if from wind, with the west wall of the structure across the path as a wind break from the east. The space then was only "open" to the sunny southern exposure. The east and south sides had stone curbing, according to the attached photographs, with a tall traditional gate way into the space following a pebble and stepping-stone path north past a rock with a lantern resting on it to the pond. The eastern, or  campus pathway, side also had a low (ca. 18-24") protective horizontal fence post barrier to the walkway. 

The Photos:

1. Looking south southwest from the campus pathway, this view shows the traditional-form lantern on a rough-hewn rock, the pathside barrier fence, the south-facing traditional gate, and the pebble path with stepping stones; June 1960. Milton A. Merner, photographer. 

2. Japanese garden from the south southeast with Acting President John R. Howard (b. 1922), left, and College board chair Carrol Sudler, right, apparently June 1959 (Commencement?). The newly appointed president from Williams College, William Graham Cole (1960-69; d. 2011 age 93), was the speaker; Mr. Howard accepted the presidency of Lewis & Clark College, Oregon (1960-81).  One the two women was Ruth Bahlert, according to a note on the rear of he photo.  Milton A. Merner was the photographer. 

3. View from the south into the garden through the traditional gate, and showing the pond toward the northwest corner, with Sandra Davis (Worth) gazing at it, September 1962. There are established perennials, vines, and small trees and shrubs, as well.  Creative Photography is credited for the image, at 334 East Westminster, Lake Forest. 

4. The traditionally dressed maiden sculpture (pressed stone?), at the northwest corner of the 1959 Japanese garden, Middle Campus.  With pine tree branches behind, in front of the stockade fencing.  The undated photograph is by Thomas H. Livermore. 

5. This early (or late?) 1959 view of the Japanese garden from the south southeast, with a woman student, may precede the establishment of the perennial plantings, though the pond, sculpture and bare deciduous shrubs are shown. Also notable at this stage is a spotlight for night viewing by passers-by, apparently, to the right of the base of the sculpture.   

Merner, Milton A.

Creative Photography (Lake Forest, Ill.) 

Livermore, Thomas H.