Morven

Former estate of philanthropist John W. Kluge gave an extraordinary gift of real estate to the University of Virginia Foundation for educational and charitable purposes. Morven, 2,913 acres, includes forty-three buildings and a core property to be held in perpetuity in addition to the renowned Formal Gardens, circa 1930, and the Japanese Garden constructed in the mid-1990s. The formal gardens opened to visitors for the first Virginia Garden Week in 1933, and Morven has remained open to the public for every Virginia Garden Week since. The Formal Gardens, largely unchanged from this era, now represent one of the few intact gardens from the 1930s. In the mid-1990s, Kluge supervised the construction of a four-acre Japanese garden and house, built using ancient techniques and incorporating some 50 plants indigenous to Japan and America. Sculpture by Rodin, Maillol, Moore, and others was interspersed throughout the gardens. After Kluge relinquished his life estate in 2006, the Foundation renovated and refurnished the Main House, Guest House, and Meeting Barn. The Guest House, built during the Kluge era, now holds the Flowerdew Hundred Collection of AmerIndian, English, and African American artifacts unearthed at the Flowerdew Hundred on the James River south of Richmond.