Stan Hywet Gardens
Berlin, OH - Events of Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens (pronounced HEE-wet) is located in Akron, Ohio, about an hour from where we are staying in Berlin. It is the former estate of Frank Seiberling who, along with his brother, founded the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. back in 1898. The estate was built between 1912 and 1915. Seiberling and his wife, Gertrude, named the estate Stan Hywet, which is an Old English term meaning stone quarry. They gave it that name because there was an abandoned stone quarry on the property.
We first went to Stan Hywet two years ago. We decided to go back last Wednesday for several reasons. First, we like gardens. Second, we got free admission to the gardens through our membership to the Edison and Ford Estates in Florida. The third reason we went back to Stan Hywet was because there was a Mexican restaurant nearby we wanted to try.
Our GPS always wants to take us northeast to Akron and Canton by way of SR62 through the towns of Wilmot and Navarre. We prefer to take the slightly longer route following CR77 and SR241 that goes through Mount Hope and Mount Eaton because it is more scenic. This time we also decided to take a slight additional detour and go through the town of Dalton so we could stop at the P. Graham Dunn factory and gift shop located there. P. Graham Dunn manufactures inspirational plaques, pictures, and decorative items. There is a 165,000 square foot manufacturing facility and a 20,000 square foot gift shop. Dunn has stores in several other locations, plus they also sell through thousands of other outlets like Hallmark Stores, Cracker Barrel, and numerous independent gift shops and Christian book stores.
Entrance to P. Graham Dunn
The gift shop stocks over 30,000 items including not only finished products, but also unfinished wood blocks, panels and plaques for do-it-yourself crafters. The gift shop is on the second floor and when we got to the top of the stairs, our first impression was that the store goes on forever. You can see how far away the fellow in the red shirt looks in the next photo, and he is about half way from the back. There are two more large rooms behind him.
Gift shop
Margery checking out some of the items in the gift shop
The gift shop has windows on both sides so visitors can look down to the manufacturing floor below. In the next photo, the ladies are unloading and boxing wood plaques after the plaques have come out of one of several machines that apply finish. Some plaques are laser engraved, some are silk-screen printed, and some are carved by CNC routers.
Part of the manufacturing floor at P. Graham Dunn
We spent more time at P. Graham Dunn than we thought we would, but we eventually were on our way again to Stan Hywet. In addition to free admission to the gardens, our Edison Ford membership would have also gotten us a half-price guided tour of Stan Hywet Hall, which is the 65-room, 65,000 sq. ft mansion built by the Seiberlings. We figured the house hadn't changed much since we toured it two years ago so we skipped seeing the inside of the house this time. If you would like to read about our tour of the house from our previous visit and to see photos of the inside, click here.
Stan Hywet Hall
We started our garden tour to the left of the house where the English Garden is located.
English Garden
From there, we continued around to the back of the house. Below are just a few of the beautiful plantings and garden areas we saw.
Interesting combination of textures
Container planting with a complimentary color scheme
Japanese garden
Courtyard
Attractive container plants flank a bench in another courtyard
The 3-acre Great Garden is located on the northern side of the house. In addition to being an attractive addition to the landscape, it is also used as a cutting garden for flower arrangements inside the mansion.
View in the Great Garden
A lone sunflower overlooks a bed of purple cone flowers
Another view in the Great Garden
Adjacent to the Great Garden is the Playgarden. It has a number of things of interest to children like a giant bubble machine and a castle with a climbing wall and a slide. One of Paul's favorites in the Playgarden is an old truck surrounded by flowers.
Old truck in the Playgarden
Also adjacent to the Great Garden is the conservatory. It is a replica of the original Gothic-style conservatory that was built by the Seiberlings back in the day.
Conservatory
Waterfall inside the conservatory with a pink-flowering mimosa tree
Next to the conservatory is the butterfly habitat. Not only are there butterflies...
Monarch butterfly in the butterfly habitat
...but they also have caterpillars. They remove eggs and caterpillars periodically and take them to another location to allow them to feed because the caterpillars have voracious appetites and they can wreak havoc on the limited plantings in the butterfly habitat. After the caterpillars pupate (form cocoons), the cocoons are brought back to the habitat so the butterflies can eventually emerge. The butterflies mate, lay eggs, and the cycle continues over the summer. It takes about a month to go from egg to butterfly.
Monarch caterpillar
After our tour of the garden, we headed to the Mexican restaurant as planned for lupper. The restaurant, called El Meson, is located in a little strip mall in Cuyahoga Falls about 10 minutes from Stan Hywet.
El Meson
El Meson has lunches for around $5 to $7 and dinners for about $6 to $14. We were both pretty hungry so we both had dinners. Margery had a chicken chimichanga, and Paul had a shredded pork burrito.
Paul with his burrito
Although the restaurant got excellent online reviews, we thought the food was okay, but not great. The chips, while very crisp, were kind of thick. We like thin corn chips. Margery's chimi was nice and crisp, but the chicken didn't have a lot of flavor. They served the guacamole salad on top of Paul's burrito, so the lettuce wilted in no time. Not only that, but the burrito had all the beans on one end and all the rice on the other rather than an even distribution throughout.
After lupper we headed back to the RV with a stop at the Walmart in Massillon to pick up a few items. The Walmart we normally go to in Millersburg is a relatively small one. There are a number of things we like they don't carry plus they were out of several items we were looking for the last time we were there. Back at the 5th wheel we relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Pancho's Villa will taste even better when you return!
Posted by: Mike Evringham | August 02, 2017 at 06:43 AM
P. Graham Dunn looks like a place I would like to visit. Lots of positivity for sure.
All these years that we lived in Canton, we have never been to Stan Hywet Hall for anything. What a magnificent garden. I love that they have a section for the children. We need to teach them so much about God's beauty. I love the cornflowers. They add so much color to any garden.
Posted by: Marsha | August 02, 2017 at 09:30 AM