Labyrinthos Photo Library

Historic Hedge Mazes - USA

Hedge mazes first reached the Americas during the early years of the nineteenth century. The Harmonists, a group of religious dissidents, left their native Germany in 1803 and established three communities in Pennsylvania and Indiana between 1805 and 1825. At each settlement they built a hedge maze (although the design was in fact based on the classical labyrinth) to symbolize their spiritual quest, based on a curious mix of mysticism, alchemy, and a belief in the imminent return of Christ. Although all three of the original labyrinths have perished, a recreation of one of these at New Harmony, Indiana survives in good condition.

The fashion for landscape gardening, imported from Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, with its roots in seventeenth-century France and the garden layouts of the Italian Renaissance, gained widespread popularity among the newly wealthy industrialists and entrepreneurs of middle-class America. The development of holiday resorts and the establishment of public parks in cities across the nation resulted in the planting of a fair number of hedge mazes from the 1880's onwards. Early photographs and postcards of these mazes are often the only record of their designs. The collapse of the stock market in 1929 and the subsequent depression brought an abrupt end to the fashion for expensive homes and gardens, and by the time the situation improved, the fashion in garden design had moved on. Many hedge mazes were uprooted and few new ones were created after the 1930's.


*Cedar Hills, Waltham, MA*	*Hotel Del Monte, Monterey, CA*

*Piedmont Park, Oakland, CA*	*CentennialPark, Nashville, TN*

*Great Maze, San Rafael, CA*	*Castle Hill, Ipswich, MA*

*Governor's Palace, Williamsburg, VA*	*Governor's Palace, Williamsburg, VA*

*New Harmony, IN*	*New Harmony, IN*

*plan of New Harmony Maze, IN*	*plan of hedge maze, Economy, PA*

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