The 11 Worlds come to an end

On May 2, I told one of the doscents that closing the gardens made me very sad. She replied, "If you're sad, imagine how I feel! Every day I come to work, my heart breaks a little bit more, knowing that these gardens are not going to be here soon. I feel as if I'm providing hospice care to a terminal patient and at the same time I have to do my best to make everyone's visit a pleasant one..." My heart went out to her... so sad!

Someone just emailed me:
Regarding Miss Duke's Will: I don’t imagine she felt it necessary at the time to specify that she would like her visions kept alive and well for others to appreciate. What the heck do they think she started the foundation for? I read her whole Will, thank God she specified that she wanted her pets to remain alive or they probably would have put them down too!
Too true...

One only needs to look a few miles to the East and a few years into the past to find another example of "progress". I am referring to the destruction of the former majestic Pennsylvania Station in New York City. I am reminded of a commuter who commented on the difference between the old Penn Station and the new one which is buried under Madison Square Garden. "In the past when you arrived at Penn Station you arrived in New York feeling like a king and now you feel like a rat." Unfortunately, the destructive act of dismantling Duke Gardens will be lamented twenty, thirty or fifty years from now and of course it will be far too late to do anything about it. I am sure there will be cheese served at the grand opening of the new greenhouse.

@jfetzko

I was at both Grand Central and Penn Station today, as I often am. I don't have to tell you about the contrast.

We were playing with the vaulted ceiling outside the Oyster Bar, doing the whispering thing. A couple was getting wedding photos taken under the azure constellations.

Then back to Penn, where we sit by the line for the fragrant and overtasked bathrooms, and look at the fabulous moving Sculpture (a really good toy for us rats). When the platform is called, 2 minutes before departure, we like to go down the mystery stairs by the pretzel stand and walk through the hot, filthy, crazy-wired half-subway tiled, half-marble tunnel to tracks 1-10. Gotham.

And as we trudged through there I looked up at the incredibly ugly low dusty cracked utility pipe dirty rat-run roof above me, and thought of what was saved at Grand Central, and what was destroyed at Penn. It was a sudden metaphor for the utilitarian mind of whichever millionaire Trustee is pushing this soul-less destruction, compared to the 'conspicuous consumption and personal passion' of Doris Duke.

I think I feel a flickr diptych coming on!

Great picture!

I went to Duke gardens on the last day. It was really sad to think that I won't see the gardens again. I don't understand why can't they keep the gardens. My heart is broken!

I was so sad to find out that Miss Duke's gardens will be no more. I've seen pictures, have heard friends and family rave about them, and have always wanted to see the actual gardens, thinking I would do this "someday". After I heard about the closing I made plans to go with a friend who has been there many times, but we were too late! I love horticulture and history, and the Duke Gardens seem to be - make that "seem to have been" - the perfect example of that blend right here in NJ. How is it that the DuPont family's Longwood Gardens (PA), the Vanderbilt's Biltmore (NC) and so many other places in this country that belonged to the wealthy people of our past are still being preserved and kept open for people to experience, but our little piece of history "costs too much to maintain"? They're trying to get us to believe that it's acceptable to destroy what Miss Duke worked to create and preserve because the property (I can't call it "gardens" anymore) will be "new & improved"?! I'm not buyin' it! It may be too late but I sent Corzine an email from the Save Duke Gardens website anyway. If a protest/rally is organized and publicized (either at the estate or in Trenton) I would love to participate!

It's a sickening disgrace that these gardens will be destroyed.

Greed knows no bounds.

Gj

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It's a scandal and a crime what the trusties of the DDCF has done to Doris Dukes beloved gardens.

Here is some more helpful information:
None of the 11 Trustees who destroyed Duke Gardens were named as Trustees by Doris Duke in her last Will, which specified 5 Trustees (Article TEN.B).
Four of the Trustees who destroyed Duke Gardens were appointed by a court following a lawsuit to remove Miss Duke's named Trustee Bernard Lafferty.
Trustees are compensated $126,078 / year, for 60-78 hours of 'Time devoted to Position' (2005 tax filing, Statement 17, excludes A Fauci and JHT Wilson)
That's $2100 / hour.
The gardeners who worked full time on Doris Duke's Indoor Display Gardens were not paid $126,078 / year.
None of the 11 Trustees make their home in New Jersey (inferred from employment and home addresses), although N. O. Keohane is currently a visiting professor at Princeton.
Some of the Trustees visited the Gardens for the first time in May 2008 (hearsay).
A search finds The Duke Gardens Foundation, Inc in Doris Duke' will (FIVE.C.2)
A search finds no mention of the Duke Gardens Foundationon the current Duke Farms website.
A search finds no mention of the Duke Gardens Foundation on the current DDCF website.
sites.google.com/a/savedukegardens.org/save-duke-gardens/... ***********

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Search tag ... New Jersey

I visited this weekend for the first time. Very sad...No life there at all. Just a bus tour. The main garden next to the visitor center is decaying.

Is this Duke Gardens from North Carolina?
Sarah P. Duke Gardens?

Lovely picture! Brilliant :)

Wow!! Beautiful!!! Nice