Courtyard Complex
The wealthy American country homes of the early 20th century, such as Kingwood, typically attempted to evoke the agricultural function of an English country home. It was common to have a gentleman’s farm with a bit of livestock, some crops, and their appropriate support infrastructure. Kingwood had them all and today’s Courtyard Complex was the former headquarters for the eight workers who took care of Mr. King’s gardens and livestock.
For the first decade or so after opening as a public garden, these service buildings continued to support the operations of the gardens and grounds. Their conversions began in the 1960’s. Since then these buildings have continued to be altered, improved and adapted to their modern public function.
Most recently the Carriage House and its accompanying new patio garden have become a unique meeting and event site with ready access to a beautiful garden to the west and a tree lined courtyard to the east.
The buildings of the Courtyard Complex were the headquarters for the maintenance of the animals, gardens, and grounds. We know that at one time or another, Mr. King kept ducks, swans, turkeys, chickens, one or more horses and cows. Two staff members were designated just for the chickens.
Roost Hall was a chicken coop, The Carriage House housed the equipment, the tall building in the middle (i.e. The Workshop) was the barn with stables, a hay loft, and a caretaker’s office. The greenhouse’s headhouse included a dovecote where pigeons (aka doves) were kept.
The Greenhouse was vastly expanded in the 1960’s and again in the 1980’s when a brick entrance building, The Orangery, was added. This addition helped to complete the enclosure of the courtyard. The courtyard itself has evolved from gravel, to asphalt, to raised beds on top of asphalt. Today it features brick paving, potted plants and a grid of elm trees.
The chicken coop has not housed chickens since the days of Mr. King, although the chicken doors are still in place and can be seen from the Rose Garden. Now called Roost Hall (formerly the Exhibit Hall), it has had a couple of upgrades over the years including the addition of a great window view of the Rose Garden. The former garage was converted to a windowless meeting hall, but in its newest incarnation as The Carriage House, the windows and the many doors to the courtyard have been reopened to make this one of our favorite rental units for private and public events.
The former barn still has the old caretaker office, but as The Workshop it now has public bathrooms, public orientation materials and space to support various activities in the other buildings.
The Courtyard Complex has always been a hub of activity. Once for Mr. King’s estate workers, now it is a hub of visitor activity.
