Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Liz Taylor’s S Street Home Ups the Horticulture?
A winding brick path leads back to a garden with enough lawn for a vigorous croquet match. A small greenhouse, a large fountain and apple, fig and cherry trees stand near an espaliered pear by the house. A broad brick porch, which faces a small octagonal house — built for elves or garden tools or both — links the house and the garden.???
This is the house Elizabeth Taylor lived in from 1976 to 1982, when she was married to Virginia Sen. John Warner; the porch and garden are of a scale befitting a movie star.
The rest of us can see the property on the 95th Georgetown Garden Tour on Saturday, May 10.?
Neighbors, busloads of ladies (and a few guys) from out of town and curious passersby made last year one of the busiest in the tour’s long history.?Each year, members of the Georgetown Garden Club comb through the hidden, majestic and unique gardens in the neighborhood, looking for the handful or so that stand out. This year showcases seven private gardens and the grounds of the Georgetown Library.?
Down the hill from Liz Taylor’s old digs, another garden on this year’s tour plays peek-a-boo with P Street. This shady garden seems to be open to the stares of people on the sidewalk, but it curves back into a deeply private space with a tiny building — an office — tucked under a high pointed roof. It is planted with shade-loving plants like Japanese painted ferns, hellebore and euphorbia. Though there is constant activity and bustle surrounding the house, including a busy local school, the garden is tranquil and still.?
The big gardens on this year’s tour soothe with their expansiveness and scale, especially in such a densely packed neighborhood, and the smaller ones dazzle with their clever use of space and high design.
Perhaps best of all for the folks who live, work and visit Georgetown, the tour raises money for local green spaces, parks and public gardens.?Beneficiaries include the library grounds, Book Hill Park, Tudor Place’s gardens, Trees for Georgetown, the rose garden at Montrose Park, Rose Park,?Volta Park’s Habitat Garden, the Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy and Georgetown Waterfront Park.?
On May 10, the gardens will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., rain or shine. Tickets are available at georgetowngardenclubdc.org. On the day of the tour, tickets can be purchased at Christ Church, 3116 O St. NW.?