Her dreams were realized when her hand-picked Board of Trustees welcomed more than one thousand guests to the opening of the newly constructed museum, only three years after her death.

Florida Times-Union notice for the opening of The Cummer, 1961.

Ada Cummer's Garden, c. 1920s. Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens Archives.

In the early 1930s, the Cummer family reorganized the property in their compound. After the death of Ada Cummer in 1929, her three heirs—siblings Arthur, Waldo, and Mabel—decided to tear down their mother’s house and divide up the property among them, although Mabel Roe elected to live a few blocks away.

Waldo (1875-1936) and Clara (1873-1958) Cummer took over Ada’s former gardens along the riverfront, removed Fisk Street (a short dead-end street that separated their property from Ada’s), and added a new entrance drive to their house.

Jack Spottswood, Waldo and Clara Cummer's Gardens, c. 1930s. Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens Archives.

They engaged the Olmsted Bros. firm to help them harmonize their existing lot with that of Waldo’s mother. William Lyman Phillips of the firm’s Lake Wales office, worked with Clara and Waldo. Phillips is best known for his work at the Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden near Miami, and the McKee Botanical Gardens in Vero Beach.

Clara Cummer in her Gardens, 1939. Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens Archives.

The Waldo and Clara Cummer gardens were partially obliterated in the early 1960s, when both homes were demolished to make way for a new museum building to house Ninah Cummer’s art collection.  Today, a fragment of the property is owned by the Museum. A restoration of the property is set to begin in the near future, and once again, the English, Italian, and Olmsted Gardens will be reunited along the St. Johns River.

Cummer Gardens, c. 1912. Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens Archives.

Many important landscape architects played roles in the development of the Cummer gardens. Among them were Ossian Cole Simonds, a prominent Midwestern landscape architect who gave the preliminary form to the Cummer compound in 1903; Thomas Meehan and Sons, a Philadelphia firm that gave shape to the English Garden for Arthur and Ninah; Ellen Biddle Shipman of New York, who designed Arthur and Ninah’s Italian Garden; and the fabled Olmsted firm of Massachusetts, who were involved in later landscape improvements for Waldo and Clara Cummer.

Woodward Studio, English Garden, 1923. Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens Archives.

Simonds^’ initial scheme, with naturalistic sweeps of native trees and shrubs, enhanced the majestic live oaks along the riverfront property. These plantings provided the backbone for the enhancements made in 1910 by Thomas Meehan and Sons. Today the English Garden boasts a magnificent wisteria-laden cypress arbor that peaks at Garden Week in March.

Italian Garden, c. 1940s. Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens Archives.

The jewel in the crown is the Italian Garden, one of only a handful of extant gardens designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman. Designed in 1931 on the site of Arthur and Ninah’s garage, this garden was inspired by the famous water gardens at the Villa Gamberaia in Tuscany. The Italian Garden was the perfect companion to the earlier English Garden, both of which overlook the St. Johns River. Two long reflecting pools, flanked by Shipman^’s signature flower borders, frame the view to the green, ficus-covered gloriette.

These gardens reached their apogee in the late 1930s, when they were ablaze with hundreds of azaleas set amidst a stunning collection of garden ornaments. Following Arthur’s death in 1943, Ninah  focused her energies on building an art collection that would become the foundation of the present museum.

She organized the first Garden Club of Jacksonville in 1922 and was the first president of the City Federation of Jacksonville Garden Clubs, later extending her scope to include all of Florida. She was also elected, in absentia, president of the Garden Clubs of America, but declined the honor.

During the Depression, Mrs. Cummer was active in the Mobilization for Human Needs, a charitable program to bring food and supplies to the needy. She often gave lectures around the state on gardening and caring for the needy, and, at one point, had her own radio program to discuss these special interests.

There are also performances April 1 & 2, 2011 at 8:00pm at Player By the Sea.
Tickets $20.00 / $17.00 Students, Seniors & Military

Kristen:  Did you enjoy your experience learning about Mrs. Cummer’s life?

Barbara:  Absolutely.  I  have always been fascinated by the events that occurred around the turn of the century.  Ninah and Arthur Cummer came to live in Jacksonville in 1897.  Being able to read through her personal journals was such a privilege and working with the Cummer staff was a huge help and fun.

Kristen:  Of all the things you learned about her, what did you find most surprising?  Most interesting?

Barbara:  Ninah had a very poetic way of expressing herself.  She also was extremely strong and resilient in public and these qualities are evident in her private life as well.  But, I really prefer people come to the play to find out the most interesting things about her.

Kristen:  What was your plan when you started this process, and has it turned out the way you intended?

Barbara:  My plan was to look for things that spoke to me and to extract those facts and passages of dialogue.  I very early on found the perfect metaphor for her life in her first botany talk to the Garden Club.  Those 10 sentences had a huge impact on the theme of the play.

In the writing of the piece, I now see it more as an oral history and less like a traditional one person play.  And until it is witnessed by an audience I won’t know if it turned out the way I intended.  I do believe that I have been touched by Ninah and thus the audience will be touched as well.

Kristen:  If Mrs. Cummer were alive today, how do you think she would feel about the way her legacy has been handled?

Barbara:  I believe that she would be ecstatic with the growth of the museum and how it is one of Jacksonville’s most important cultural centers.  As far as how she is represented in Sustaining Beauty I believe that she would understand how I weaved her words and feelings into a dramatic poetic piece with sensitivity and heart.

Kristen:  How do you think she would feel about the way the city has grown and changed?

Barbara:  She had a way of looking at the positive and she would be thrilled by Riverside’s energy, the support the community gives to the Cummer Museum, the amount of children who visit the museum, and love that we have our own football team.

She did not like SIGNAGE so that would not thrill her.  And I know that she would be upset with what is happening with the arts in education.  She talks about how other cultures have a respect  for art and a reverence for trees.

I also believe that since Mrs. Cummer had a scientific mind and researched everything herself she would be a supporter of local farmers and concerned about the lack of testing that has been done on genetically modified food.

Arthur Cummer, The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens Archives.

Mrs. Cummer gave birth to a daughter on November 13,1909. Named DeEtte Holden Cummer, she sadly lived only seventeen days. With the death of their only child, the Cummers threw themselves into civic and charitable work. Mr. Cummer, who had become president of the Cummer Lumber Company upon his father’s death in 1909, served as a director and vice president of Barnett National Bank, as well as a leading member of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce and the Southern Cypress Manufacturing Association. Other interests included the Evergreen Cemetery Association, the National Recreation Association, Children’s Home Society of Florida, St. Luke’s Hospital, and the Home for the Aged of Jacksonville. Mr. Cummer also collected rare antique weapons, which he bequeathed to the University of Michigan upon his death on January 2, 1943.

O. Pierre Havens, Arthur Cummer at Age 25, 1898, The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens Archives.

Arthur Gerrish Cummer, originally from Morley, Michigan, was born in 1873, the son of Wellington Wilson Cummer and Mary Ada Gerrish.  While attending the University of Michigan, Arthur met Ninah May Holden from Michigan City, Indiana. Born in 1875, she was one of the few women attending the university; she studied languages. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in June 1895, she returned to her hometown to teach Greek and Latin at the local high school. Two years later, Arthur and Ninah were married in Michigan City.

Immediately after their marriage, the couple moved to Jacksonville, by then the center of the family’s thriving lumber business. In 1903, the Cummers built a large Tudor-style house within the “Cummer compound” on Riverside Avenue alongside the St. Johns River. Living next door were Mr. Cummer’s parents, and alongside them were Mr. Cummer’s brother, Waldo, and his wife, Clara.

Ninah Cummer in her Wedding dress, taken one year after her Wedding, 1898, The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens Archives.

Over the coming months, check back too learn more about the Cummer family, how the museum was developed, and what you can look forward to in the years to come.

Wellington and his wife, Mary Ada Gerrish, built their Greek Revival house at 801 Riverside Avenue in the Riverside neighborhood of Jacksonville in 1897, the same year their son, Arthur, married Ninah May Holden in Michigan City, Indiana.

Times-Union opening day ad, November 1961

One thousand guests attended a preview party the night before, including Jacksonville Mayor Haydon Burns, who said, “The people of Jacksonville have never received a gift comparable in generosity or beauty to the museum… a testament to the heritage of the past and representing the strength and character of those who were leaders of Jacksonville in the past.”

The Cummer Gallery of Art was, indeed, the culmination of the civic, social, and business involvement of a remarkable family. Over the coming months, check back too learn more about the Cummer family, how the museum was developed, and what you can look forward to in the years to come.