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The Miller's House Garden is located in the Colonial Industrial Quarter of Historic Bethlehem, across the grassy mill race from the Luckenbach Mill, near the Monocacy Creek. The 40 x 70 foot garden is patterned on a Germanic four square plan, circa 1870. In that period the nation was struggling through an economic depression. Locally, the mill owned by David and Andrew Luckenbach was being rebuilt, following a fire in 1869. The research and planning stage of the garden began in January, 1983. Archives were searched for references to gardens from the Colonial period to the Victorian age. Restored gardens were visited and an experimental herb garden was planted as part of the program. Historic Bethlehem, Inc. and Miller's House Garden Committee members conducted an archeological dig at the proposed garden site. In 1984 this dig established the location of the lower retaining wall that existed on the bank of the 19th century mill race. HBI planned and supervised the construction of the stone walls by students from a masonry class of the Bethlehem Vocational-Technical School. The Garden received its symbolic beginning with the planting of Vinca minor and a Franklinia tree on September 16, 1987 in celebration of Constitution Day. Because of low winter temperatures that tree has since been replaced with a flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida), a tree that had been quite useful to native Americans. Although the date of 1870 was chosen as the restoration date for the garden, the plantings include varieties of the 1782 period, materials of the Victorian era, old time roses and kitchen garden herbs and vegetables. The maintenance of the garden continues and its color and character changes with the seasons. In the spirit of the late 1800s, the Bethlehem Garden Club formally dedicated the Miller's House Garden to the community and welcomes visitors to walk paths from the historic past into a blooming future. |