Garden of Hope
Covington, Kentucky
Virtual Tour (2017): James S. Bielo
Tucked away on the back side of a working-class neighborhood in northern Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, sits the Garden of Hope...
...Opened to the public in 1958, the Garden was a 20-year project led by Reverend Morris Coers - a Southern Baptist minister who was inspired to “bring some of Jerusalem home” after a 1938 Holy Land pilgrimage...
...Coers hoped the Garden would become a national attraction, and he drew international attention with a visit from the Egyptian president in 1958...
...However, less than two years after the Garden’s opening, Coers passed away...
...Over the next 40 years, the Garden of Hope changed hands numerous times. It remained in a cycle of repair and disrepair until 2002, when Coers’ former church – Immanuel Baptist – hired a new and committed pastor: Ed Kirkwood....
...After clearing the Garden, Rev. Kirkwood found a Covington native – Steve Cummings – to serve as a tour guide. Since 2003, Steve has led more than 8,000 people through the Garden. Here, Steve orients a bus tour of visitors to the Garden in the Welcome area...
...Seen in this juxtaposition of images (July 2017, c. 1965 postcard), the Garden has changed but not tremendously. Note two features. First, the encaged stones in foreground, both landscape materials that Coers brought back from Palestine for use at the attraction. And, observe the 30-foot high cross, made of telephone poles. As the placard indicates, the cross is tied to a miracle story...
...In the 1960s, a widower donated this Sermon on the Mount statue in honor of his wife. They regularly traveled to Cincinnati together, and the Garden was one of her most treasured devotional places...
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...On his tour, Steve tells one of his favorite stories about the statue and directs visitors to the skyline view...
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...From here, visitors proceed down to the tomb…
...For Coers, the centerpiece of the Garden was always the replica of Jerusalem's Garden Tomb. He worked on it continuously for years, right up until its unveiling on Palm Sunday 1958. This calendar from Coers’ home testifies to his schedule…
...Steve gathers visitors in front of the tomb to explain its construction, Coers’ inspiration, and a bit of history…
...Visitors then make their way to “the Chapel,” a replica of a 16th century Spanish mission chapel Coers was inspired to build after a trip to Barcelona, Spain...
...Coers salvaged the bells on top from the last L&N rail line to pass through the Cincinnati area (click the link to the right for an audio sample of the bells chiming)...
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...The chapel has lost a few features, such as the stained glass window visible in this c.1965 postcard. But, its central object remains, a stone from the “Horns of Hatton,” a site near Jerusalem where some say Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. In this video, Steve explains some about the stone and another landscape feature just further down the hill…
...The Western Wall stone was sent to Rev. Coers in 1958 by Solomon Mattar, the warden of Jerusalem's Garden Tomb. In an article following the Garden's opening, The Kentucky Post (September 26, 1958) notes that the stone's positioning adds to its onsite meaning...
...To interact further with this feature of the Garden, explore a 3-D rendering of the object. (Use your cursor to turn the object on its axis and zoom in. Thanks to Claire Vaughn for producing this 3-D model.)...
...The final tour stop is the Carpenter’s Shop, which includes a mural and “ancient” construction tools…
...To end every tour, Steve treats visitors to some (reimagined) Gospel tunes and a closing prayer…
...Before leaving, visitors can take a brochure for free and perhaps purchase a t-shirt…
...After decades of neglect, the Garden seems poised for a revival. Bus tour groups visiting the region for other religious attractions are now including a stop in Covington. It is likely that more people have seen the Garden since fall of 2016 than in many years previous combined.