Samuel P. Dinsmoor

Samuel Perry Dinsmoor (March 8, 1843 – July 21, 1932) was a United States teacher and eccentric sculptor from Lucas, Kansas, United States.[2] Dinsmoor served in the Civil War for three years on the side of the north in the Union Army and then taught school in Kansas. When he retired in 1905 he began a second career as a sculptor.

Garden of Eden
Location2nd and Kansas Ave
Lucas, Kansas
United States
Coordinates39°3′33″N 98°32′4″W
Area1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built1905-1907
ArchitectDinsmoor, Samuel, P.
NRHP reference No.77000595[1]
Added to NRHPApril 28, 1977

Garden of Eden

Dinsmoor built and moved into a log cabin on a lot that he named the Garden of Eden. The cabin is a twelve-room house; the logs are made up of limestone quarried near Wilson Lake. Dinsmoor designed his landscape and spent the rest of his life creating the garden, which contains over 200 concrete sculptures. The sculptures and design of the house reflect Dinsmoor's belief in the Populist movement and his religious convictions, it includes a Labor Crucified figure that is surrounded by the people who put him on the Cross, a doctor, lawyer, preacher and capitalist.[3]

The final resting place for Dinsmoor and his first wife, Frances A. Barlow Journey, is inside the mausoleum in one corner of the lot. As part of a tour, visitors are allowed to view Dinsmoor in his concrete coffin, which is sealed behind a glass wall. Inside the mausoleum is also a double-exposed photo of a live Dinsmoor viewing his deceased body inside the coffin.

The garden is open to the public and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. Samuel P. Dinsmoor, Kansas Historical Society
  3. Frank, Thomas, What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2004 p.83


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