New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans Botanical Garden
Part of New Orleans’s City Park, New Orleans Botanical Garden is one of the few remaining examples of public garden design from the WPA and Art Deco Period, remaining today as a showcase of three notable talents: New Orleans architect Richard Koch, landscape architect William Wiedorn, and artist Enrique Alferez.The site contains the recently renovated Conservatory of the Two Sisters, several theme gardens containing aquatics, ornamental trees and shrubs, perennials, and the New Orleans Historic Train Garden.The Train Garden’s buildings are made entirely of botanical materials in a layout approximating the layout of the city itself. As visitors walk on a pathway representing the water surrounding New Orleans, they overlook over 1,300 feet of track carrying streetcars and trains like those that traveled the city in the late 1800s to early 1900s, at 1/22 of their actual size.Designed and constructed by nationally renowned designer Paul Buss, the structures are built to represent actual structures typical of New Orleans houses and are organized by neighborhood. Neighborhood stops along the walkway give brief insight into the history of the neighborhoods and the train or streetcar lines that served them.Open 10:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Tuesday – Saturday; The Train Garden is open during normal Garden hours, but trains operate on a limited schedule — currently on weekends and during special events only. [ info ]