Northwestern’s Historic Shakespeare Garden

A Chicago landmark garden, designed by renowned landscape architect Jens Jensen, is hidden from view behind a double row of hawthorn hedges in a quiet central section of Northwestern University’s Evanston campus.  This tranquil garden has added beauty to the campus for more than 90 years.  The garden was established in 1915 when it became a project of The Garden Club of Evanston because of war time sympathy for our British allies and to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.  Jensen designed the original plan in an intricate “knot style” and planting was complete in 1920.  The many flowers, shrubs, trees and herbs chosen for the garden are mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays and are well suited to the Midwest climate.  The Shakespeare Garden contains many of the original hawthorns that were started from seed in France and which form the formal garden’s base.  These historic hawthorns are the reason the Garden was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.  The Schmechtig Landscape Company is proud to have maintained these historic hedges since 1999.  We respect and appreciate the beauty and historic significance of this site.  Evanston Garden Club members continue to serve as the garden’s caretakers and we continue to help them maintain the Shakespeare Garden.  The garden sees courtings and weddings. Students come to eat their lunches there. At graduation time, they bring their parents for snapshot posing. Gardeners find their way there to learn and to appreciate its beauty. Ever-changing and yet never-changing, Shakespeare Garden serves as a center for happy comings and goings, as well as for quiet meditations. As Shakespeare himself said, “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”  Schmechtig Landscapes encourages you to visit Shakespeare Garden at 2121 Sheridan Road (between Maple Ave & Library Pl) in Evanston, IL