April 2026.
Columbus’s Topiary Park is notable for two distinctions--it is the only park based entirely on a painting, and it was the former site of the Ohio Institution for the Deaf & Dumb, a deaf school. Compared to the better-known Schiller and Goodale Parks, I think Topiary Park gets passed over a lot, making it one of Columbus’s hidden gems.
Topiary Park is located at 480 East Town Street in the Discovery District neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by Residences at Topiary Park to the north, Town Street and houses in the East Town Street Historic District to the south, Washington Avenue to the east, and the Columbus Metropolitan Library and Cristo Rey Columbus High School to the west.
History
The land that is now Topiary Park today was formerly the campus of the Ohio Institution for the Deaf & Dumb. The impetus to found a school for the deaf in Ohio was through the efforts of Reverend James Hoge, who saw a letter from an institution in Pennsylvania that was accepting students from Ohio. After a census of Ohio’s deaf population, in January 1827, the Ohio state legislature voted to establish a school for the education of the deaf, and a board of trustees was created. Its location in Columbus was selected because of its central location and the proximity to state government. It opened under that name (remember the idea of euphemism creep--though “dumb” is rather unfortunate-sounding now, it was appropriate medical terminology for the time for “mute”) on October 16, 1829, in rented space at 9 North High Street. When the school opened, it only had one student (a boy named Samuel W. Flenniken), but it quickly grew to ten by the end of the school year and 23 during the following year.
Ohio’s legislature acquired land for a permanent campus in February 1829. At that time, it was outside of the city limits in a rural area. However, the state’s funds were being used to dig canals at the time, and it could not afford to build a new building at that time. The institution briefly occupied a house at 50 West Broad Street from 1830 to 1831, then the Franklin County Courthouse until 1832, and finally at 28 North Front Street until 1834. Its first purpose-built buildings were constructed between 1832 and 1834, which had everything needed for 60 to 80 students to live and learn on the campus, including a school, dormitory, and dining hall. However, as 100 students enrolled at the institution in 1845, a southern wing was added to the 1834 building between 1845 and 1846, which increased capacity to 150 students.
Engraving of the 1868 building. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
By the 1850s, the Ohio Institution for the Deaf & Dumb was known across the state, once again straining its capacity. The state legislature had debated moving the campus to a more rural location, which the institution’s leadership opposed. Instead, the state legislature approved the construction of a new building in 1864, due to the 1834 building’s status as an “uncomely relic of modern antiquity.” This building was designed by George Bellows in the Second Empire style, with “plain and substantial construction” and room for 350 students. Ground was broken on the site on June 30, 1864, its cornerstone was laid in autumn 1865, and it opened on February 11, 1868 at a cost of $650,000. During construction, typhoid fever broke out in the school, resulting in the deaths of five students. It was briefly closed while the epidemic occurred.
Life at the Ohio Institution for the Deaf & Dumb was not just traditional classroom education. Students gained working experience through classes in the workshop with tradesmen. Early classes were a disaster, as the foremen were not experienced with teaching deaf students and tried to instruct them as they would hearing students. It took until 1863 for shoemaking, one of the early trades that the students learned, to be taught properly. One Mr. P. P. Pratt (who was deaf and mute), a skilled shoemaker, instructed the students much more effectively. Along with printing and book-binding, shoemaking took place in an 1856 building separate from the main building, which was replaced with a larger building in 1882 as demand for the work increased. By 1888, carpentry and tailoring were two other trades that students were able to specialize in. With the skills they learned, students were able to be employed in factories after they aged out of the program. Additionally, other students commonly went on to teach at other institutions across the country.
For most of the institution’s lifetime and since 1866, students had a 10-year term at the school. (Historically, it was shorter). It was divided into three levels, much like primary school is today. Interestingly, it was the first school to not discriminate in salaries between hearing and deaf teachers. Students spent four and a half hours in class a day and two and a half in the shops, on a rotating schedule that changed monthly.
The 1868 main building and 1899 school. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
Along with the aforementioned main building and shop, several other buildings were built on the campus to accommodate different functions. A conservatory was built in 1880, which grew flowers for the school’s chapel. The most prominent of these additional buildings is the school building, which was built in 1899 by firm Richards, McCarty, & Bulford to expand the institution’s teaching capacity. I cover that building’s history in its own article.
In 1904, the institution saw its largest attendance, which was 532 students. That year, their name was changed to the much more palatable Ohio State School for the Deaf, and the State Department of Education was in charge of teaching students.
Overhead view of the Mid-Century Modern campus in 1981. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
By the 1940s, the 1868-vintage building was showing its age, and both school administrators and the state legislature were concerned about its state of repair. A commission to identify the need for a new building was established, and 235 acres of land in Beechwold were purchased in 1941. This site would eventually be the home of the Ohio School for the Deaf and the Ohio State School for the Blind. However, its construction was delayed until after World War II ended and the construction of the highway system in Columbus was complete. The new Mid-Century Modern campus opened in 1953, and it has been used ever since.
Aerial view of the campus in 1974. Note the missing roof towers, which were removed in 1970. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
With the departure of the Ohio School for the Deaf from their original campus, the buildings stagnated. The State of Ohio used the main building and school until the 1970s, and they were abandoned thereafter. The main building had suffered an absurd amount of fires by this point (at least 15), and fire officials called for its demolition. After another fire in October 1981 that effectively gutted the building, which was suspected to be arson, it was demolished that year. The only survivor was the school building (now Cristo Rey Columbus High School), as preservationists camped out inside to save it.
The park prior to 1989. Note the now-demolished powerhouse that once belonged to the deaf school. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
Though most of the buildings were gone, the green space of the campus remained. It was first developed as a park called “Old Deaf School Park” in the mid-1980s. However, the idea of the park’s topiary art came from local artists James and Elaine Mason. Elaine was the one who came up with the idea, and James did the work sculpting the figures in 1989. This entourage, along with artificial hills and a water feature, is meant to resemble Georges Seurat’s painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, a well-known work of Neo-Impressionist art. The park was used as part of the AmeriFlora ‘92 exhibition. Its gatehouse, the main entrance, was built in 1998 in the Postmodern style by Sullivan Gray Bruck to respond to the French theme of the park.
Photos
One of the gates into the park on Washington Avenue:
Cast-iron fencing:
The park’s main entrance faces Town Street and is styled as a French chateau. Aside from the lack of wear, it mostly looks the part, even including a slate roof, stone accents, and operable shutters.
Walking into the park, we can see the common meandering paths, and even a hint of the topiary way in back:
Ohio Historical Marker:
A view of the gatehouse from inside the park, where the tall chimney can be seen better:
It seems like a few pieces of the old school building are still kicking it by the gatehouse. Here is an ornamental pedestal or column capital by the retaining wall:
Another, much larger and more weathered piece:
I liked this little planted display, with a spiral-cut shrub of some kind and some bushes layered behind it:
Sorry, my thumb isn’t very green, it’s more black and blue from hitting it with a mallet while trying to build my models for studio. Feel free to correct me on plant species in the comments.
This shot has a couple things going on:
It seems like there was once a road into the park, which now abruptly dead-ends in the foreground. Behind the trees, the recently-constructed Residences at Topiary Park line the little alley on the north end of the park (Library Park North). Finally, the idyllic nature of the garden is spoiled a bit by the massive glass box rising up behind.
Looking towards the center of the park and the topiary figures:
I guess sculpting with plants has its challenges--the figures all look rather portly. Maybe they’re in need of a trim?
Another angle, which includes some figures sitting down:
More figures, with Cristo Rey HS in the background:
I never took a picture of the “proper” angle of these sculptures, which is by the metal easel sculpture near the middle of the park. I just assumed that it was some sort of commemorative plaque and disregarded it. As a result, I don’t have a direct recreation of Seurat’s painting, but I got a bunch of different angles of the figures alone.
There are even a few sailboats and a rowboat on the “River Seine” here:
As part of the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s most recent renovation, it was connected to the park in the rear. Here’s a view of that from inside the park:
Having the “only park in the world based on a painting” sounds like a dumb roadside tagline to get you to stop at some tourist trap, but in Columbus’s case, it’s actually rather quaint. The park was very lively with locals and students from Cristo Rey that were getting out, so it is definitely appreciated.
Sources:
Architecture: Columbus by Robert Samuelson
AIA Guide to Columbus by Jeffrey Darbee
https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/memory/id/44592/rec/39
https://web.archive.org/web/20210910045600/https://osd.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/osd/about/history
https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/p16802coll19/id/6368/rec/2
https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/p16802coll19/id/4887
https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/ohio/id/21713/rec/5
https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/p16802coll28/id/140919/rec/1
https://www.wosu.org/news/2017-07-03/curious-cbus-whats-the-story-behind-topiary-park
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