Sonnenberg Gardens, also known as Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park, is a 52 acres (210,436.7 m²) state park

State park

State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the federated state level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, or recreational...

 located at 151 Charlotte Street, Canandaigua, New York

Canandaigua (city), New York

Canandaigua is a city in Ontario County, New York, USA, of which it is the county seat. The population was 11,264 at the 2000 census...

, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, at the north end of Canandaigua Lake

Canandaigua Lake

Canandaigua Lake is the fourth largest of the Finger Lakes, in the U.S. state of New York. The city of Canandaigua is located at the northern shore of the lake and the village of Naples is just a few miles south of the southern end...

, in the Finger Lakes

Finger Lakes

The Finger Lakes are a pattern of lakes in the west-central section of Upstate New York in the United States. They are a popular tourist destination. The lakes are long and thin , each oriented roughly on a north-south axis. The two longest, Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake, are among the deepest in...

 region of Upstate New York

Upstate New York

Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...

. The house and gardens are open to the public every day, May through October.

The property was once the summer home of Frederick Ferris Thompson

Frederick Ferris Thompson

Frederick Ferris Thompson was a prominent American banker.-Biography:Born in New York City on June 14, 1836 to John and Electa Thompson, Frederick grew up in a life of luxury. He attended Williams College from 1852 to 1854, and was a member of St. Anthony Hall, but left to go abroad at his...

, a prominent banker in New York City, and his wife Mary Clark Thompson

Mary Clark Thompson

Mary Clark Thompson , born Mary Lee Clark, was a noted philanthropist and wife of banker Frederick Ferris Thompson.-Early years:Mary Lee Clark was born in Naples, New York in 1835 to Myron Holley and Zilpha Watkins Clark...

, whose father, Myron Holley Clark, was at one time Governor of New York State. The Thompsons purchased the Sonnenberg property in 1863 and replaced its original farmhouse with a forty-room Queen Anne style mansion

Mansion

A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...

 in 1887. Sonnenberg's gardens were designed and built between 1902–1919, and originally consisted of nine gardens in a variety of styles.

Gardens

Today most of the gardens have been restored, as follows:

• The Conservatory - A Lord & Burnham
  Lord & Burnham
  Lord & Burnham was a noted American boiler and greenhouse manufacturers, and builders of major public conservatories in the United States....
  
   conservatory complex, built between 1903 and 1915, and considered one of the most important residential greenhouse complexes in the United States. The complex includes a domed Palm
  Arecaceae
  Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...
  
   House, with other glass houses featuring orchids, cacti
  Cactus
  A cactus is a member of the plant family Cactaceae. Their distinctive appearance is a result of adaptations to conserve water in dry and/or hot environments. In most species, the stem has evolved to become photosynthetic and succulent, while the leaves have evolved into spines...
  
  , and tropical plants.
• Japanese Garden - A miniature mountainous Japanese landscape, with torii
  Torii
  A is a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the profane to the sacred...
  
   gate. It is said that its Tea House was modeled upon a very old tea house in Kyoto
  Kyoto
  is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
  
  , since destroyed by fire.
• Sub Rosa Garden - A green and white garden, with white marble statuary set off by green lawn, boxwood, and evergreen
  Evergreen
  In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...
  
  s. The fountain is Zeus
  Zeus
  In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
  
  , with Artemis
  Artemis
  Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...
  
   and Apollo
  Apollo
  Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
  
  .
• Rose Garden - A belvedere
  Belvedere (structure)
  Belvedere is an architectural term adopted from Italian , which refers to any architectural structure sited to take advantage of such a view. A belvedere may be built in the upper part of a building so as to command a fine view...
  
   with over 4,000 rose
  Rose
  A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...
  
   bushes. The main beds are red, white, and pink; other beds are more varied in color.
• Italian Garden - Four sunken parterre
  Parterre
  A parterre is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern. Parterres need not have any flowers at all...
  
  s in a fleur-de-lis
  Fleur-de-lis
  The fleur-de-lis or fleur-de-lys is a stylized lily or iris that is used as a decorative design or symbol. It may be "at one and the same time, political, dynastic, artistic, emblematic, and symbolic", especially in heraldry...
  
   pattern, bordered by yew
  Taxus baccata
  Taxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the English yew, or European yew.-Description:It is a small-...
  
  s, with about 15,000 annuals in the bedding. Constructed in 1902.
• Blue & White Garden - Blue and white flowers with a Zelkova
  Zelkova
  Zelkova is a genus of six species of deciduous trees in the elm family Ulmaceae, native to southern Europe, and southwest and eastern Asia. They vary in size from shrubs to large trees up to 35 m tall . The leaves are alternate, with serrated margins, and a symmetrical base to the leaf blade...
  
   japonica tree in the center.
• Pansy Garden - Planted with pansies.
• Moonlight Garden - Mostly white flowers, blooming late afternoon, and many fragrant. Includes heliotrope
  Heliotropium
  Heliotropium is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae. There are 250 to 300 species in this genus, which are commonly known as heliotropes ....
  
  , tuberose
  Tuberose
  The tuberose is a perennial plant related to the agaves, extracts of which are used as a middle note in perfumery. The common name derives from the Latin tuberosa, meaning swollen or tuberous in reference to its root system. It consists of about 12 species...
  
  s and verbena
  Verbena
  Verbena , verbenas or vervains, is a genus in the family Verbenaceae. It contains about 250 species of annual and perennial herbaceous or semi-woody flowering plants. The majority of the species are native to the New World from Canada south to southern Chile, but some are also native in the Old...
  
  s.
• Old-Fashioned Garden - A geometric garden, in which a low boxwood hedge forms the quincunx
  Quincunx
  A quincunx is a geometric pattern consisting of five points arranged in a cross, that is five coplanar points, four of them forming a square or rectangle and a fifth at its center...
  
   pattern of five circles. Each quarter section is a circle crossed by diagonal walks, and an arbor
  Arbor
  Arbor or arbour may refer to:*Arbor , a landscape structure*Arbor or mandrel*Arbor, California*Arbor, a counterweight-carrying device found in theater fly systems...
  
   bisects the fifth circle.
• Rock Garden - Formerly three gardens (the Wild Garden, the Lily Garden, and the Rock Garden), completed in 1916, but now merged to form an informal, wooded garden. Its path winds through a canyon constructed of puddingstone
  Puddingstone (rock)
  Puddingstone, also known as either Pudding stone or Plum-pudding stone, is a popular name applied to a conglomerate that consists of distinctly rounded pebbles whose colors contrast sharply with the color of the finer-grained, often sandy, matrix or cement surrounding them...
  
  , with natural pockets and crannies used for rock garden
  Rock Garden
  The Rock Garden or Rock Garden of Chandigarh is a Sculpture garden in Chandigarh, India, also known as Nek Chand's Rock Garden after its founder Nek Chand, a government official who started the garden secretly in his spare time in 1957. Today it is spread over an area of forty-acres , it is...
  
   and alpine plants. Water includes 500 feet (150 m) of streams, waterfall
  Waterfall
  A waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation:Waterfalls are commonly formed when a river is young. At these times the channel is often narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens...
  
  s, and pools fed by geyser
  Geyser
  A geyser is a spring characterized by intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by a vapour phase . The word geyser comes from Geysir, the name of an erupting spring at Haukadalur, Iceland; that name, in turn, comes from the Icelandic verb geysa, "to gush", the verb...
  
  s and springs.
• Reflecting Pond - Planted with specimen trees by the Thompson's' guests.

Mansion

Built between 1885 and 1887, the 40-room Queen Anne style mansion was designed by Francis Allen

Francis Allen

Francis Allen may refer to:* Francis Allen , was an English politician who sided with parliament in the English civil War and a regicide of Charles I.* Francis Allen , Roman Catholic...

, a noted Boston architect. Allen also designed and oversaw the remodeling of the mansion approximately 15 years after it was constructed.

The mansion's facade

Facade

A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

 is rusticated graystone with Medina sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 trim and gables made from timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

 and stucco

Stucco

Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...

. The roof is slate

Slate

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...

 with lead

Lead

Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

-coated copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

.

Other attractions

In addition to the gardens and mansion, the property hosts the Finger Lakes Wine Center, where a number of local wines are available for tasting and purchase.

External links

• http://www.sonnenberg.org/