Members-only Annual Picnic & Tour
Saturday, July 19, 2025
10:00 am to 1:00 pm
Esta Barrett Manor & Gardens
6901 Kishwaukee Rd
Rockford, IL 61109
RRVC members and guests are invited to our annual picnic and tour of the newly rehabilitated sunken garden at the Esta Barrett Manor.
Reservations are required.
Click here to registerLocally known as Indian Hill Manor, the country estate was designed for Charles and Esta Barrett by Rockford architect Charles W. Bradley and prominent landscape gardener O.C. Simonds, who created a natural landscape using plants, shrubs and trees native to the area. Completed in 1917, the property was the Barrett’s weekend retreat and gentleman’s farm. After Charles died in 1918, Esta lived on the property, ran the farm, and hosted parties and charity events in the garden.
In 2024, the historic site was renamed Esta Barrett Manor & Gardens. The new name celebrates the sustainable landscape design of O.C. Simonds and shares the remarkable story of Esta Barrett, who stewarded the farmland, native landscaping, wooded areas, and formal gardens until her death in 1947. The Sunken Garden beds were rehabilitated in late 2024 by Seelman Landscape Architecture and Jensen Ecology. The garden now features 5,000 native plants!
Please join us in enjoying the garden’s seasonal color and perennial blooms and a hearty picnic lunch. In case of rain we will hold the picnic in the farm’s pole barn.
Optional tours of the manor’s first floor will be available at the picnic. Click the link above for more details and to register for one of the two tours. The $5.00 manor tour fee will be taken at the door.