RESTORING BEAUTY Students clean up gardens behind Wick-Pollock Inn Volunteers hauled away 7 truckloads of debris

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Some have likened it to a secret garden, although it’s probably been around more than 100 years and has been open to the public in the past.

Still, most current Youngstown State University students had no idea there was a stone garden with sunken terraces behind the university-owned Wick-Pollock Inn at 603 Wick Ave.

But once they found out the spot existed, the students have been in the forefront of the effort to clean it up, offering their time and their backs to the process.

The inn has been closed since 1998, although the university is in negotiations with a prospective operator to restore it and reopen it.

Erianne Raib, a YSU student trustee and Student Government Association vice president for university affairs, has been a driving force in organizing work parties and securing assistance with the gardens project over the summer.

The SGA got involved last spring when someone informed Chad Miller, SGA president at the time, of the gardens’ deteriorated state, Raib said.

Most students had no idea the gardens existed, she said.

Funds

Miller brought the matter before the SGA, which voted to put some unused funds it had into the restoration effort, according to Raib.

The money went to buy a pair of wooden benches, flowers and plants and landscaping services.

“It was completely overgrown — everywhere,” Raib recalled, noting that seven small dump truck loads of brush, stumps and branches were hauled away in the initial cleanup effort by more than two dozen students and university employees.

Raib handled the scheduling of volunteers, including some alumni, throughout the summer to help prepare the ground, mulch and plant.

“We’ve been doing weeding,” she said recently.

The restoration effort so far has concentrated only on what Raib called the “sunken gardens,” three terraces that include a lot of stonework, a wooden trellis over a secluded alcove and a nonworking fountain.

“We cannot find photos of the original fountain,” Raib said, explaining that SGA would like to restore it as near as possible to its original condition.

‘Walking gardens’

There are no immediate plans to restore what Raib referred to as the “walking gardens,” accessible from the sunken gardens via a couple of walkways, including one that passes under a stone arch bearing the initials MWP and the date 1930.

It is believed the arch signified the dedication of the gardens to Mary Wick Pollock on her birthday, although it appears the gardens were actually built before that date, Raib said.

Unfortunately, that part of the property is even more overgrown, and it appears that some of its stone walls have seriously deteriorated and perhaps collapsed, she said, suggesting it may be some time before the SGA is ready to tackle that section, she said.

These were originally private gardens, Raib said, but there are stories circulating around campus that Mary Wick Pollock had no objection to visits by children who grew up in the nearby Smoky Hollow neighborhood who came to the gardens to play.

Some of those children are now on staff at YSU, Raib said.

Dr. David C. Sweet, YSU president, has praised the student-led restoration effort and has urged members of the campus community to visit the gardens.

Raib said it’s a place where students and others can go to study or just reflect.

There have been weddings and other celebrations held in the gardens when the inn was operating, and it would be nice to be able to have those things again, she said.

Meanwhile, the restoration goes on, and the push now is to get perennials planted and begin planning for next year, she said.

“We’re definitely looking for funding,” Raib said, asking that people who want to make a financial contribution or just be a volunteer in the restoration effort call her at (330) 219-8362.

gwin@vindy.com