Shakespeare Garden

Northwestern’s tranquil Shakespeare Garden has added color, fragrance, texture and beauty to the Evanston campus for over 100 years.

The garden is nestled in a quiet central section of the Evanston campus, just north of Frank W. Howes Memorial Chapel at the east end of Garrett Place, and directly east of the new Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center site, the eight-bed garden is hidden from view by a double wall of hawthorn hedges.

The 70- by 100-foot plot of land was established in 1915 when it became a project of The Garden Club of Evanston members because of wartime sympathy for our British allies and to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. It was a way to celebrate the ties between England and America.

Impetus to create the cultivated plot came from the Drama League of America when it was suggested that interested parties construct gardens memorializing the Bard to mark the tercentennial of his death.