Grassroots effort takes shape in Cedar Rapids to revitalize Shakespeare Garden

CEDAR RAPIDS — As a young mother decades ago, Sylvia Popelka would take her daughters to Shakespeare Garden to sit and have lunch. It was a place “lush with beauty” — filled with long, gorgeous flower beds, she recalled.

“It was just an amazingly beautiful place,” Popelka said.

Over time, she learned about the nearly 100-year-old garden’s history and the efforts that went into keeping it alive, and dove deeper into the works of iconic English playwright and poet William Shakespeare.

The garden is a collection of some or all of the 175 plants mentioned in Shakespeare’s writing. Only about three dozen such gardens are known to exist around the globe. In the U.S., these themed gardens were designed to display solidarity with British allies during World War I.

But in the wake of the devastation that the rising Cedar River waters left behind in the 2008 flood, much of the garden was destroyed. The bust of the bard and some benches survived.

Eventually, in the years after the flood, the Wednesday Shakespeare Club looked to gauge community interest in restoring the garden to its original glory. Popelka, a member of the organization and chairperson of its garden committee, said group members heard from many who appreciated the garden — it was a place where their parents married or high school students had photos taken there.

With enough public support rallied, Friends of Shakespeare Garden formed in 2019 to revitalize the historic Cedar Rapids garden in partnership with a variety of groups including the Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Association, Wednesday Shakespeare Club and the Cedar Rapids Garden Club.

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Through a three-phased effort spanning through 2025, these garden stakeholders are looking to raise funds to refresh the garden with enhanced structures and natural preservation elements. They hope to partner with the city of Cedar Rapids as well as local artists and entertainers to offer classes, concerts, shows and event space to residents and visitors, allowing them to connect with nature and Shakespeare’s works.

“It was so iconic and so much a part of the history of the northwest side, of Ellis Park … and of Cedar Rapids history because the people who made contributions to it,” Popelka said.

Keeping history alive

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Established in 1927, the garden’s original thatched entrance was designed by Grant Wood and Marvin Cone as a replica of the doorway at Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway’s cottage in Stratford, England.

A bronze bust of Shakespeare was installed in 1931 — the first piece of public statuary in Cedar Rapids. It is now housed at Theatre Cedar Rapids for safekeeping.

A mulberry tree — the very species the bard kept in his garden — still stands in the garden today.

Women of Cedar Rapids’ Wednesday Shakespeare Club, a group that formed in 1895 and still meets to read and discuss Shakespeare’s works, coordinated with the city in 1926 to commit 1.4 acres of land in Ellis Park to creating the garden.

“It’s been a gem its whole life. It’s gone through these different iterations as a garden. And I look back to that time for women and what these women did as showing so much resilience. As we've gone through what we've gone through in the last three years — in particular the northwest side — I think that resiliency was what really got me committed,” said Lisa Ramlo, a representative of the Friends of Shakespeare Garden, referring to the burden flooding and the 2020 derecho placed on this part of town.

In the garden’s early days, England native William Woods brought his expertise in English-style gardens to Cedar Rapids’ parks as the city’s parks superintendent for about 40 years.

The Friends of Shakespeare Garden turned to local landscape architect Natalie Ross of Ross Land Studio to help craft a vision for a revitalized historic garden with modern flair. It also will be entirely accessible to those with disabilities.

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Barb Rhame, a member of the Wednesday Shakespeare Club, said future flooding is another concern, so Ross has kept flood mitigation measures in mind with the design. Shakespeare plants will be located in raised planters outside of the flood zone.

The first phase will bring woodland gazebos with seating, decorative pavings and steel canopy structures. The reproduction of Shakespeare’s bust will be tucked away in a Shakespeare Sanctuary with a steel lattice arbor among plantings of native trees and understory plants.

In the second phase, the stage patio will come to life. The stage will be level with the ground, marked with a steel canopy structure overhead. Signage will educate visitors of the garden’s historical, ecological and cultural elements.

Finally, in the third phase, stone seat walls will provide views of a restored stream. The 8,000-square-foot lawn will be complete with limestone edging. Bioswale plantings will slow and treat rainwater, pollinator gardens will fuel native insects, and tree plantings will be done in coordination with Cedar Rapids’ ReLeaf effort to restore the tree canopy lost in the derecho.

The Cedar Rapids Parks and Recreation Department has been involved to provide feedback on the garden’s design and maintenance. Soon, the city will bid out construction work on the garden, said Al Pierson, president of the Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Association, with work to start by spring or summer of 2024 if not earlier.

“It’s taking that historic garden and keeping it historic,” Rhame said.

Event will launch revitalization

With plans for the revitalization firmed up, Pierson said the Friends of Shakespeare Garden are preparing to kick off the public-facing portion of its campaign to revitalize the garden with the Midsummer Garden Art Fair. The free event is a celebration of Shakespeare and the arts taking place in the garden at 7 p.m. Saturday.

About $400,000 has been raised of the approximately $700,000 project, Ramlo said.

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Stephanie Wagor, festival director for Five Seasons Chamber Music Festival, said the people who come to the festival will bring a lawn chair, a blanket, look around and want to simply spend time in the garden.

This year’s event is planned to feature music, dancers, readings by Wednesday Shakespeare Club President Pat Martin and a performance of the balcony scene from “Romeo and Juliet.” There will be cookies in the shape of Shakespeare’s head, lemonade and water available, but attendees may bring other alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages to consume.

“Even without the total revitalization, it has a real charm about it,” Wagor said. “ … It feels like a neighborhood even though the people are coming from all around Cedar Rapids.”

Through the revitalization effort, it’s the garden enthusiasts’ hope that the words of the bard himself will ring true: “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com