Stone Roundhouses

The curious little stone buildings in the Martha H. Ashe Garden speak to the fairy tale lover in all of us, but they were built in the 1950s for a more practical purpose: to show the kind of skilled rock work that Joe Howell’s landscape nursery could build. Now, as then, curiosity pulls people to orbit the round houses. Are they gatekeeper’s watch rooms, or perhaps gardener’s shelters? Paned windows and beautifully curved wooden doors argue for either.
These days, and much less charming, KBGA staff uses them mostly for storage of wedding materials for private events. However, the role they play in the fairy tale feeling of the Martha Ashe Garden lives on.