Samuel P. Dinsmoor

Garden of Eden
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
File:Garden of eden.jpg
Location	2nd and Kansas Ave., Lucas, Kansas
Coordinates
Area	1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built	1905-1907
Architect	Dinsmoor,Samuel,P.
NRHP Reference #	77000595
Added to NRHP	April 28, 1977

Samuel Perry Dinsmoor (March 8, 1843 – July 21, 1932) was an United States teacher and eccentric sculptor from Lucas, Kansas. Dinsmoor served in the Civil War for three years on the side of the north in the Union Army and then taught school in Kansas. When he retired in 1905 he began a second career as a sculptor.

Garden of Eden

Dinsmoor built and moved into a log cabin on a lot that he named the Garden of Eden. The cabin is a twelve-room house; the logs are made up of limestone quarried near Wilson Lake. Dinsmoor designed his landscape and spent the rest of his life creating the garden, which contains over 200 concrete sculptures. The sculptures and design of the house reflect Dinsmoor's belief in the Populist movement and his religious convictions.

The final resting place for Dinsmoor and his first wife, Frances A. Barlow Journey, is inside the mausoleum in one corner of the lot. As part of a tour, visitors are allowed to view Dinsmoor in his concrete coffin, which is sealed behind a glass wall. Inside the mausoleum is also a double-exposed photo of a live Dinsmoor viewing his deceased body inside the coffin.

The garden is open to the public and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

See also

• Ferdinand Cheval
• Enoch Tanner Wickham
• Howard Finster
• Simon Rodia

External links

• Garden of Eden