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| airlie's 400-year-old oak tree |
i was super excited to have the opportunity to visit airlie gardens while in wilmington. i had heard of it, and driven past it when visiting eleanor's house, but had never gone inside - and neither had eleanor!
you can read about the history of airlie gardens on its site in more detail. basically, the land got its pick-me-up when the jones family moved to town. sarah jones worked with architect rudolf topel to create much of the garden that you can see today. in 1948, the corbett family bought the property to use as their residence, and continued to care for the gardens up until 1999 when they sold it to the county. now the public may visit it almost everyday of the year and enjoy all that it has to offer!
here are some sneak peaks:
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| inside the butterfly house! |
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| the pergola garden. |
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| smelled like honeysuckle! |
and the main attraction (for me anyway..): the bottle chapel! the chapel was made out of over 4000 colorful glass bottles, metal sculptures, and mosaics. it sits in the minnie evans sculpture garden, in which all the pieces were designed by area artists as a tribute to the late wilmington artist. i loved every inch of the chapel.
it's definitely worth the five dollars to visit airlie. bring your camera. and wear your sunscreen. (that last one is for you, cj.)
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