Sacred Places
Bethany House and Garden
Three gardens in sequence on the grounds of a former school for girls.
WHERE
Topeka, KS
SETTING
Neighborhood
PARTNER INSTITUTION
Episcopal Diocese of Kansas
Visit
Where it is
835 SW Polk St, Topeka, KS 66612
What happens here
Neighbors walk dogs on the grounds, and people with insecure housing come for water. The meditation garden hosts outdoor services and other church activities as well as quiet reflection. The culinary garden opens onto partnerships with local culinary classes and vocational programs, and onto urban agriculture.
HOW IT CAME TO BE
The buildings felt imposing.
Drag to see the transformation.
01
The Need
The three-acre site once held the College of the Sisters of Bethany, an Episcopal school for girls that closed in 1928, and now houses the bishop's offices. The grounds, already used by neighbors walking dogs and by people with insecure housing needing water, needed improvement. The neighborhood had no documented public green space, and people had commented that the surrounding buildings felt imposing.
02
The Vision
The Bethany House team saw a chance to engage local groups in nature and strengthen community ties: to invite the local high school onto the land, answer the comments about the imposing buildings, and give the neighborhood green space it did not have. Goals for the property were demonstrating care for creation, building relationships with the neighbors around the grounds, and celebrating the site's historic connection with the education of women. Nature Sacred consulted with the Episcopal Diocese and local landscape architects so the design would carry input from multiple stakeholders alongside the four design elements. Two themes recurred through engagement: respite in nature, and a space for education.
03
The Transformation
Installed in phases, the design runs as three sequential gardens across the site. A prairie garden at the entrance holds limestone boulders for children to play on and is planted to attract pollinators. Next comes a culinary garden with an outdoor classroom, opening the ground to local culinary classes, vocational programs, and urban agriculture. At the back sits an outdoor chapel and meditation garden, a slightly more private space that hosts services and church activities while remaining somewhere quiet to reflect.
WHO TENDS IT
Caroline Howard
Firesoul, Bethany House and Garden
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