COLUMBIA, S.C. — With today marking the first day of spring, it's a great time to visit the Wells Japanese garden in the City of Newberry.
The free admission garden, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, recently underwent renovations in 2022. Since then it has been a calm oasis for anyone to visit.
"Fulmer Wells drew from the Golden Gate Japanese park in San Francisco. He was an architect and went to Georgia Tech and then came home and began doing this Japanese garden," landscape architect Laura Dukes said about the origins of the Wells Japanese garden.
The garden was originally designed by architect W. Fulmer Wells in 1930.
"The Wells family that had a house up on Harrington St., This was a part of their garden. So the original design was meant to be viewed from a whole different area than where the public views it from now. So it was meant to be a part of his garden, so you would stroll down this hill and come and enjoy it," Dukes explained.
Forty years following the gardens creation, the Wells family donated it to the City of Newberry, according to the city's parks recreation and tourism Director Collin Shealy, "there was a period where it was under the city's maintenance and it had fallen off a little bit. So, we wanted to really look at putting some time and energy back into it."
The time and energy needed to bring the well's vision back to life started to come together in 2020, and in 2021 funding was secured and renovations began.
"We wanted to put a lot of emphasis on bringing the ponds back to where they were, they had gotten overgrown and so we really wanted to make sure we could bring those ponds back to life," Shealy said.
With help from Laura and others, the renovations fully embody the Japanese garden spirit–specifically the archway entrance.
"It has some unique aspects to it that are typically Japanese elements. For example you have one side that is larger than the other. You would open it for sunrise and sunset or you would open it the other way," Dukes said as she navigated how the entryway worked.
Although Wells wanted the garden to embody what a true Japanese garden would look and feel like, he insisted it included a South Carolina element.
"The South Carolina element that Fulmer well did add to it was having the bald cypresses in there and some saw palmetto. So you would never see those in a Japanese garden but that's our little South Carolina twist," Dukes said as she pointed the plants out.
Renovations were complete by June of 2020 and since, the park has had many visitors and according to Shealy, small intimate weddings as well.
"It's great that it really is able to receive some of the love and it's so meaningful for our folks here," Shealy concluded.