Robert Allerton Park

The Robert Allerton Park is a park, nature center, and conference center located in the rural Piatt County township of Willow Branch, (T 18 N, R 5 E) near Monticello, Illinois, on the upper Sangamon River. The park and manor house, The Farms, are attributed to owner Robert Allerton, industrialist heir, artist, art collector and garden designer. Robert donated the complex to the University of Illinois in 1946.Indentures by and between Robert Allerton and The University of Illinois. Document signed by Robert Allerton, George D. Stoddard and Park Livingston; notarized by Esther F. Ahlberg, State of Illinois, County of Cook, 14 October 1946. Transfer of property located in County of Piatt, Township 18 North, Range 5 East of the Third Principal Meridian. Printed copy pp. 1, 7

The National Park Service registered the Robert Allerton Estate as a National Historic Place on July 18, 2007. The Allerton Natural Area within the park was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1970.

As of 2007, the park was used by approximately 100,000 visitors per year. It has been described as "a vast prairie turned into a personal fantasy land of neoclassical statues, Far Eastern art, and huge European-style gardens surrounding a Georgian-Revival mansion".

About Robert Allerton

Robert Henry Allerton (1873–1964) was heir to a Chicago banking and stockyard fortune created by his father, Samuel Allerton (1828–1914), one of the founders of Chicago's Union Stock Yards. Robert was artistically inclined from his youth, and he studied art for four years in Munich, Paris and London. In 1897 he returned to Illinois and settled on one of the family's farms near Monticello. Two years later he began work on the imposing brick mansion. Throughout the next forty–seven years Robert Allerton transformed the country house, The Farms, into a central Illinois showplace estate, with activity climaxing in the 1920s and early 1930s. In 1932 John Gregg (1899–1986), who would become Robert Allerton's legally adopted son in 1960, was employed full time to design new gardens and interior features in the house and help with the farm management. Gregg had been working for Chicago society architect David Adler (1882–1949) until the effects of the stock market crash in 1929 caused a drop in house design commissions. Gregg took the Allerton surname in 1965 following Robert Allerton's death.

Allerton also pursued ties with the University of Illinois. In September 1920 while living at The Farms he was asked by the university to serve as an advisory member to the Campus Plan Commission. The commission finished its work by October 1922 with the completion of the plan for the area south of the Auditorium by Charles A. Platt (1861–1933) and was discharged at that time.Tilton, Leon Deming and Thomas Edward O′Donnell (1930) History of the Growth and Development of the Campus of the University of Illinois. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. pp. 89, 121 In 1926 Allerton established the Allerton Scholarships in American architecture. Annually, he invited graduating students in architecture and landscape architecture to The Farms.

Gift to the University of Illinois

After the Great Depression, World War II, and U.S. federal income taxes made it more difficult to staff and operate stately homes like The Farms, the Allertons moved to Lawai-Kai (now Allerton Garden), Kaua'i, Hawaii, in 1946, after deeding the Piatt County property to the University of Illinois. At the time, taxes on Allerton land accounted for one-fifth of all tax revenue to support public works in the Willow Branch Township. The university, however, disputed its obligation to pay taxes on the estate, citing itself as a non-profit, tax exempt state institution. The Township, not wishing to lose a significant portion of its tax funding, protested. The university was found in 1949 to be in delinquency of unpaid real estate taxes. A later Illinois Supreme Court ruling resolved the matter: the university would make an annual payment in lieu of taxes to Piatt County. The public park and woodland acreage are today tax-exempt; only the income-generating farmland is taxed.

When deeded to the University on October 14, 1946, the 5,500 acre estate was worth approximately $1.3 million. Adjusted for inflation, it would be worth nearly $20 million in 2022 dollars.

The estate was logically divided into three areas. The principal area of 1,500 acres, originally known as the Woodland Property, was renamed the Robert Allerton Park. A smaller area of land located north of the park area was put to use for the Illinois 4-H Memorial Camp and its related recreational programs. Finally, the third and largest area composing 3,775 acres of land in eight different farms all north of the Sangamon river was farmed by tenants and the income used to support the rest of the park.Danforth, Par and the University of Illinois (1951). Robert Allerton Park. University of Illinois Press. Urbana-Champaign, IL.

In 2007 the north farms were turned over to the University of Illinois Endowment in return for shares entitling the park to a percentage of the annual return on the endowment investments. The tenants are required to submit cash bids for leases on the land they farm.

The Allerton farms in Robert Allerton's time consisted of Piatt North No. 1-8 (PN No. 1-8) and Piatt South No. 1-6 (PS No. 1-6). PN No. 1 was the headquarters for the farm operations.Thompson, Stephen A. (2002). Historic Resources Survey and Evaluation of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Allerton Related Properties, Piatt County Illinois. Office for Planning, Design & Construction, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign pp. 21-31 The last of Allerton's buildings at this site were the c.1862 farmhouse, demolished in 2014, and the c.1912 Amenia wooden grain elevator that burned on 15 April 2015.″Old Allerton bin near Cisco burns″. The News−Gazette (Champaign, Illinois). 17 April 2015, p. B-3.

PN No. 2 became part of Allerton Park and has been used as a diversified farm. The c.1880 farmhouse was demolished in 2013, but several farm outbuildings remain. PN No. 1, 3–5, 7-8 are tenant farms turned over to the Endowment in 2007. PN No. 6 field acreage became part of PN No.4 when the farmstead buildings were demolished to make room for the WILL AM/FM/TV transmitter tower and equipment building in 1966.Thompson 2002, pp. 77-79

Along with Robert Allerton's gift to the University of Illinois in 1946 he gave the six farms south of the Sangamon River to the Allerton Trust to be administered for the benefit of The Art Institute of Chicago. PS No. 1 was sold to the university in 1993 and added to Allerton Park. PS No. 2-3, 6 were sold to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in 2000–2002. PS No. 4 and 5 were sold at auction in November 2000.

After the university took possession of the estate in October 1946 the park remained closed to the public because it lacked staff and amenities. The first event on the grounds was a gala garden party on 16 May 1947 to celebrate the inauguration of George D. Stoddard (1897–1981) as president of the University of Illinois. An open house on 24 May gave the public a glimpse of the future park, but the grounds remained closed until 1949.

Several years were required to prepare Allerton House as a conference center, with the first conference being held in June 1949. This was a Seminar on Educational Radio with participants from all over the United States and several foreign countries. The two-week conference was directed by university specialists in mass communications.Stephens, Carl, ed.(1950). Illini Years, a picture history of the University of Illinois. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. p. 114.

Allerton was a philanthropist for most of his life. Today, both Robert Allerton Park and Allerton Garden in Hawaii are open to the public. Allerton also made significant gifts and bequests to the Honolulu Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Gardens

Allerton Park's gardens consist of a formal garden, and a sculpture walk extending westward from the end of the formal garden. The gardens incorporate many pieces of sculpture and ornaments.

The gardens are laid out along an axis oriented on the course of the Sangamon River, which runs from northeast to southwest through the park. Directions in the park are generally given as if the axis was straight east and west.

Fu Dog Garden

This garden, featuring an array of 22 blue porcelain Fu Dog statues in front of white fir trees, was originally commissioned in 1932 to display Allerton's collection of the ceramic statues. The focal point of the garden is these 22 statues mounted on concrete pedestals. Standing behind the pedestals are opposing rows of fir trees that form the garden's outer border. To allow enough sunlight to reach the garden, the surrounding woods were cut back approximately 100 feet. North of this garden stands the House of the Golden Buddhas, a folly that permits an aerial view of the garden.

Herb Garden

Located behind the stable, the Herb Garden, also called the Kitchen Garden, is characterized by its many green herbs and a green porcelain Fu Dog statue. It was redone into its present form in 1997, and plantings were started in 1999. In the years since then a sundial, an urn and a Longshadow planter have been added. Plantings were removed from half the garden in order to use it as a staging area for the Allerton House roofing project in 2015–2016. This area was replanted in May 2019.

Brick Walled Garden

The oldest garden on the Allerton Estate, the Brick Walled Garden was constructed in 1902 and is characterized by its tall, red-brick walls. It was originally a vegetable garden with bean trellises and a dipping pool in the center for irrigation. In the 1940s the plantings were changed to grassy quadrants bordered with hedges.Thompson 2002, p. 159. The pool was replaced by the present center feature, the Girl with the Scarf sculpture. The sculpture, a white concrete figure by Lili Auer (1904– ), was added to the garden in 1942.Scheinman, Muriel (1995). A Guide to Art at the University of Illinois; Urbana-Champaign, Robert Allerton Park, and Chicago. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. pp. 111-112.

Owing to the decay of the brickwork, the garden was restored in the summer of 2010. Large parts of the walls were entirely demolished and rebuilt. Eight stone fruit baskets and six orb finials, or globe stones, dating from 1905 were restored to the new walls. New walkways, including an ADA wheelchair ramp, were installed, along with new plants, flowers, espaliered apple trees, and other landscape elements.Burgin, Martha and Maureen Holtz (2009) Robert Allerton, the Private Man and the Public Gifts. Champaign: The News-Gazette, Inc. p. 38. In 2019 the pea gravel walks were converted to hard pebble aggregate to make them wheelchair accessible.

Triangle Parterre Garden

This garden was defined by towering arborvitae trees and annual flowers in triangular hedge parterre patterns in recent years. In spring 2019 the garden was cleared of vegetation and replanted with new arborvitae and boxwood hedges to bring it more in scale with Robert Allerton's original design. On the gateposts at the east and west ends are two stone animal sculptures called Assyrian Lions patterned after an ancient prototype.Thompson 2002, p. 160 A stair tower pavilion built in 1987 stands beside the common wall with the Peony Garden. This replaced an earlier tower built to enclose the stairs to the now closed Wall Walk along the Peony Garden.

Peony Garden

This garden was designed to showcase nearly 70 varieties of peonies and is enclosed on three sides with concrete walls. The north wall has a cantilevered Wall Walk intended to permit visitors an aerial view of the garden. Due to age and deterioration of the wall, the walkway was closed by the 1980s.