Untermyer Gardens

Magda and I celebrated our September birthdays with Joe on a bicycle trip to the Untermyer Gardens in Yonkers.  It's easy to find.  Just follow Hudson River Park to the George Washington Bridge, turn right until you reach Broadway and then pedal north 10-15 miles up & down some pretty hilly terrain.

30,000 people visited these gardens on a single day in 1939 but we had the place to ourselves on a Saturday afternoon.  This is the view north when you enter.     

Would you believe we were able to picnic beneath the sphinxes after Joe and Magda waltzed briefly?

Lilies and other vegetation floated in the pool just below us.

The west sphinx shaded us from the intermittent sun.

Lovely colors and patterns could be found in the plantings behind us.

The Circular Temple occupies the western side of the gardens, which first bloomed in 1912 and required 60 gardeners to maintain. The City of Yonkers acquired the property just after the second world war ended and pretty much let it fall into ruin.

Even the water in the basin at the far end is beautiful.

Medusa gazes up from the center of the temple. She seems like an odd choice until you learn on the website that she was the progeny of two water gods, in this case the fountains and the Hudson River.  Sounds like a stretch to me.  Maybe the designer just liked women with snakes in their hair.  I know I do.

The temple overlooks an empty pool.

Creatures of the sea appear in disintegrating mosaic.  Don't tell Samuel Untermyer--who was the first attorney in the United States to earn a million dollars in fees from a single case--but I picked up a tiny wedge of loose tiles and brought it home.

 

A wave mosaic ringed the top.

Magda snapped Joe and me doing a Sistine Chapel pose on our way out.  Man is on the right.

Joe took this lovely portrait of Magda at the Temple of Love.  It's outside the garden proper and overlooks the Hudson River.

The temple is best seen from below.  There used to be waterfalls and pools but now it's mostly broken beer bottles and trash that people have tossed from above. Sad.

Fortunately, the grillwork remains undamaged.

"America's Greatest Forgotten Garden" proclaims the website.  Maybe, but I don't think the three of us will have any trouble remembering our visit for a very long time.  Thanks, Sam!