The Haupt Gardens: Inviting and Insightful

by Joann Stevens, Guest Blogger

Much at the Smithsonian represents more than what meets the eye. The Enid Haupt Gardens, a four-acre expanse designed as a modern representation of American Victorian gardens, is that for sure. Hidden in plain sight are design references to cultural and visual arts of Africa and Asia. In this way, the Haupt Garden pays homage to diverse peoples in, and outside, the US.

At a time when building bridges, not roadblocks, to unity and understanding are needed in public life, the Smithsonian’s educational mission to promote knowledge rings as true in its gardens as its online platforms and in classrooms.  

Rarely have I lunched or rested in this sanctuary behind the Smithsonian Castle without being lured into the nearby Museum of African Art or the National Museum of Asian Art.  The gardens’ spirit guides you there.

The Haupt Gardens opened in 1987 as part of the redesigned Smithsonian Castle Quadrangle.  Janet Hewitt, a blogger for Smithsonian Associates, profiled the garden and philanthropist Enid Haupt for the Torch in 2020 .

Threats to the Haupt Gardens were recently arrested after a $2 billion Smithsonian redesign plan was dropped. This decision saved a rainbow of colorful flowers and exotic foliage, and also kept the diverse cultural stories guiding the garden’s contemplative and peaceful design.

You can thank China for the National Zoo’s pandas and the design of the Moongate Garden. The granite and water-dominated garden, designed by Jean Paul Carihian, was inspired by China’s Temple of Heaven in Bejing. Described as a “masterpiece” of architectural and landscape design, the temple was the most important of Bejing’s imperial temples and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Moongate Garden’s circular pool references the windows in the National Museum of African Art.  Carihian also designed the Fountain Garden next to the entrance of the African art museum, modeling it after the Court of the Lions at Alhambra, a 13^th –century Moorish palace and Fortress in Granada, Spain (Moor is a general term for North African Muslims of Mixed Arab and Berber ancestry.) This garden includes a central fountain, with water channels topping low walls around it to represent the four rivers of paradise described in the Koran. The bubbling center jet symbolizes paradise/eternity itself.

And you thought the Haupt Gardens was just a nice bit of green space in the city.