More on the subject!
In the summer of 2000 when Jennifer Bigham and her husband Roger drove by the kudzu-enveloped ruins of Dunaway Gardens, she instantly knew that this once thriving training center for the performing arts was her destiny. Conceived and built by Hetty Jane Dunaway, an actress on the Chatauqua traveling circuit in the early years of the 20th century, the gardens had their official opening in 1934 after 18 years under construction.
Located about 50 miles southwest of Atlanta, the 25 acres of hillside gardens consisted of rock terraces (the rock came from local farms), a grass amphitheatre and stage, a honeymoon lodge, tea room, natural swimming pool, and a Japanese garden and several smaller spring-fed pools. Various troupes of dancers, lecturers, singers and actors from all over the U.S. came to train and give performances. Walt Disney was a visitor, and Minnie Pearl was the head instructor of the drama school.
Hetty Jane Dunaway died in 1961, and the terraced gardens went into decline. By the time Jennifer saw the property in 2000, kudzu and English ivy smothered most of the acreage, the buildings had disappeared, and much of the rock work had crumbled.
