Hey Menlo Park: This week is last opportunity to visit Sunset’s wonderful gardens
One Menlo Park resident, who also is a Sunset employee, alerted us about this post by Erika Ehmsen, also a Sunset employee:
“As we begin boxing up our Cliff May ranch house in preparation for our dual moves to Oakland’s Jack London Square and Sonoma’s Cornerstone, we’ll be closing the gates to Sunset‘s gardens on October 30, 2015.
“The last self-guided tour of our gardens — designed for us by influential landscape architect Thomas Church — will be at 4:00 pm this Friday, with our doors closing to the public at 4:30 pm.
“Garden tours are free and available 9:00 am to 4:00 pm weekdays through October 30. No reservation is needed unless you’re bringing a group of 10 or more; complete tour information is on our website.
“When you arrive, stop in the lobby to pick up a free brochure that will guide you on a walking tour of our 7-acre gardens, including our 3,000-square-foot Test Garden and — in the main garden — planting beds representing major climate zones of the West: hardy succulents and cactus for the arid deserts of Southern California and the Southwest, majestic California oaks and coast redwoods, lush dogwoods and rhododendrons of the Northwest, and more.”
Photo caption: At Sunset’s current campus, a permeable path winds from the lobby of the Cliff May–designed ranch house through 7-acre gardens. (E. Spencer Toy/Sunset Publishing)
Delfina Herrera Hoxie October 27, 2015 at 1:27 pm
Are you closing this venue? I was born in Palo Alto and toured Sunset gardens many times. I know you will be missed.
Eric Westlund October 29, 2015 at 9:05 am
After they leave Menlo Park I sure hope there are no plans for yet another high rise condominium project to ruin the rural feeling around here.
Eric Westlund October 29, 2015 at 9:05 am
After they leave Menlo Park I sure hope there are no plans for yet another high rise condominium project to ruin the rural feeling around here.
Marilyn Wersted Knorr October 29, 2015 at 9:51 am
Sad. The old Menlo Park has been devastated. Was a quiet town, bedroom community with no high end stuff in the 60’s. Burgess Park a great expanse of lawn, where we swam, played tennis, and did flips on the trampoline in the gym. Now, the park is broken up into small areas and has lost it’s charm. Sunset was an indelible landmark, done in good taste. Our mothers lunched there, and Cliff May was a household name, since my father knew his architects. Sunset is just about the last of the nice, small town.