The Roscoe–Dunaway Gardens Historic District is a rock and floral garden located south of the historic town of Roscoe in

Coweta County Coweta County is a county in the West Central region of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is part of Metro Atlanta. As of the 2020 census, the population was 146,158. The county seat is Newnan. Coweta County is included in the Atlanta-Sandy S ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, and the adjacent Dunaway Gardens. Part of the district is located in Fulton County. Seventy-nine buildings and two other structures contribute to the historic district.

History

The land that became the gardens belonged to the family of Wayne Pendleton Sewell. Sewell was an actor and booking agent and he married the successful actress, Hetty Jane Dunaway, in 1916. Her husband wanted to return to his family's land and Dunaway had not been keen. It was said that she was told that she could do anything at the property she wanted. Hetty Jane Dunaway spent eighteen years overseeing construction of Dunaway Gardens, a "theater-garden" on her husband's family's former plantation in rural Georgia. She employed architects and a full-time

stone mason In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's ...

for a decade. The gardens included twelve spring-fed pools, a waterfall, sunken and hanging gardens and a thousand-seat amphitheatre. The swimming pool was created by using explosives to make a hole in granite. Dunaway opened the new grounds in 1934 as part of a performing arts training program for performers and other theater professionals. There was a Honeymoon House where visitors could stay and the Blue Bonnet Tea Rooms served up meals. The customers included Roy Disney and

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...

and

Tallulah Bankhead Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (January 31, 1902 – December 12, 1968) was an American actress. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's ''Lifeboat (194 ...

. One local historian noted that television and improved roads, which enabled people to travel to Atlanta to eat and see shows, reduced the interest in Dunaway Gardens through the 1950s. It closed in the 1960s. A few years after Dunaway's death, the gardens closed and they deteriorated under an overgrowth of

kudzu Kudzu (), also called Japanese arrowroot or Chinese arrowroot, is a group of climbing, coiling, and trailing deciduous perennial vines native to much of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and some Pacific islands. It is invasive species, invasive in ...

and an outbreak of arson. The gardens were rediscovered by Jennifer Bigham and she and her family bought the gardens, and a buffer zone, to use as their own second home. It was purchased in 2000, restored and reopened in 2003 after the Bighams gradually uncovered the lost attractions of the former gardens, theaters and swimming pool. The family had been intrigued by their discoveries and they decided to invest more of their savings in restoring the garden's attractions. The site was opened to tourists and for weddings and the gardens are on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roscoe-Dunaway Gardens Historic District Bungalow architecture in Georgia (U.S. state) Gardens in Georgia (U.S. state) Geography of Coweta County, Georgia Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) National Register of Historic Places in Coweta County, Georgia Tourist attractions in Coweta County, Georgia