A sundial that belonged to Lois Abernathy's grandmother is featured in the garden that's adjacent to a cow pasture at Mount Pleasant. The couple built the fencing. View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

Gaze at the gardens and enjoy the art, for a cause

Special garden near Bowling Green is among those on town's upcoming Art and Garden Walk to raise funds for the restoration of the historic Pauley jail

Date published: 5/15/2009

BY RICHARD AMRHINE

It was a pleasant day Tuesday to visit Mount Pleasant farm, one of the stops on next week's Art and Garden Walk in and around Bowling Green.

The tour has been organized as a fundraiser by Citizens for Caroline Historic Preservation, whose first project is the restoration of the 1900 Pauley jail on the Caroline Courthouse grounds.

For such a cause, taking in six beautiful local gardens for a mere $10 ticket is a delightful opportunity. Tour-takers will also be treated to the work of area artists, which will be on display and for sale during the event next Friday and Saturday. The artists will contribute a portion of their proceeds to the jail project.

Mount Pleasant is the 1806 home of Lois Abernathy and her husband, Robert Marshall, and if you enjoy beauty, serenity and history, a stop here is certainly worthwhile. It's a 25-acre property along State Route 2, at 12020 Fredericksburg Turnpike, a few miles north of Bowling Green. You can buy a ticket there the day of the tour.

GARDEN'S BEGINNINGS

The couple acquired the property 10 years ago, and while they've done extensive work on the house over that time, there's nothing better, as far as Abernathy is concerned, than working the soil and growing the garden.

"I hope I'm never finished," she said of her gardening. "I would be happy if I take my last breath out here planting flowers. Of course, I hope that's a long way off."

Before moving to Caroline, the couple lived in Richmond's Ginter Park neighborhood. Abernathy got her Mount Pleasant garden off to a strong start by transplanting some 600 plants from the Ginter Park property.

When they arrived at Mount Pleasant there were but a few azalea bushes; today there are more than 10,000 bulbs and plants blooming at different times throughout the growing season.

What helps set this garden apart are the "rooms," as Abernathy refers to them, garden islands here and there on the acres surrounding the house. They're planted amid the expansive grassy areas, against the woods, under trees, surrounding the gazebos--many with seating to enjoy a book or simply to relax and take in nature.

Abernathy planned ahead in establishing the garden areas.

WHAT: The Art and Garden Walk will be held next Friday and Saturday, May 22 and 23, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. WHERE: The tour stops are: 12020 Fredericksburg Turnpike (Mount Pleasant) 224 North Main St. 236 North Main St. 233 North Main St. (Columnwood) 240 North Main St. 120 Hoomes Circle (off North Main via Cary Street) TICKETS: $10, available in advance at the Bowling Green Visitor Center, and on the day of the tour at three tour stops, Mount Pleasant, Columnwood and Hoomes Circle. The Art and Garden Walk will benefit the Citizens for Caroline Historic Preservation's Pauley jail restoration project. In the National Trust for Historic Preservation's online Preservation magazine, writer Kate Nickel reports: "Bowling Green bought its prefabricated jail in 1900 from the Pauley Jail Building and Manufacturing Co. Based in St. Louis, the factory was famous for supplying towns across America with a do-it-yourself kit. Factory workers in Missouri would fabricate and partially assemble steel boxes, then ship them to their destinations, where buyers would finish assembly and add an exterior. Bowling Green built a red-brick facade on its two-story building to mirror its nearby 1835 Jeffersonian courthouse." Nickel also wrote that the jail made national news on a couple of occasions, once in 1958 when Mildred Dolores Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, who had been married in Washington, returned home to Caroline, only to be arrested, jailed, tried for being an interracial couple, and exiled from Virginia. The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the verdict. Perhaps the most famous prisoner was pro basketball star Wilt Chamberlain, who was arrested for speeding and held at the jail overnight. --Richard Amrhine

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Date published: 5/15/2009