Photographs ©Debra Schell/ 2015
Minder House, built in 1925, is where Adolph Rosengarten, Jr. lived most of his life. In 1999, under the vision and direction of Chanticleer's Director Chris Woods, the house was razed and construction of the Ruin Garden began. Originally the plan was to use the partially dismantled house as the ruin, but for safety reasons the only part left of the original house is the foundation and the tile "rug."
With the help of landscape architect Mara Baird the new ruin was built on the foundation of Minder House where carved marble, granite and other stone pieces sculpted by Marcia Donahue define the ruin's various spaces. The Minder Ruin Garden was unveiled to the public in April, 2000.
The Minder Ruin Garden is composed of three rooms: a "Great Hall" with a fountain shaped like a large sarcophagus that rests on a mosaic "rug" of tile, granite and slate, a "Library" where the books are sculpted of stone, and a "Pool Room, where marble faces gaze up from the depths of another fountain. It is a landscape theater.
