Secret garden

Built nearly a century ago by famed Broadway producer and Easton resident Winthrop Ames, the Queset Garden was a spacious oasis designed in a distinct Italianate style, complete with a reflecting pool, stone walls, and even a pergola-topped stage. It had been neglected since before the start of the Second World War, abandoned, and ultimately forgotten.

But no longer.

Officials at the Ames Free Library have begun restoring the garden piece by piece, using old photographs and drawings of its features. The goal is to return the property to its former glory, to be used as a public park by library patrons and other town residents.

“Most people didn’t even know it existed,’’ said Kath Holland, an Easton resident who learned of the garden in 2005 from her site engineering instructor while she was studying at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston for a certificate in landscape design. Holland helped initiate the restoration project. “The idea is to create a safe, welcoming place where people can go when it is completed,’’ she said.

Work on the project is now underway; some of the masonry in the garden has been restored while the area is being cleared out, said Holland. The project is to be completed in three phases, and parts of it will be open to the public in spring 2010.

At the Oct. 5 Special Town Meeting, voters allotted $69,400 in Community Preservation Act money to help with phase one of the project. Phase one is expected to cost $175,000, with phases two and three projected to cost a combined $350,000. Officials are looking for private funding and grants to help pay for the rest of the work.

Madeline Miele Holt, executive director of the Ames library, said that in phase one, targeted for completion next summer, the site will undergo “basic stabilization’’ in which a number of features of the garden will be added or improved, such as installation of lighting and pathways, and clearing of the overgrown property.

In the second and third phases, work will include paving, restoration of the stage and fountain, and the addition of outdoor furniture and lighting. It’s not known when the second and third phases will be completed, since funding remains uncertain.

Holt said the library, which leases its land, including the garden, from the town, will look for additional grants. Under the terms of the lease, it is responsible for any restoration work.

Designed in 1911 by Ames, the author of the screenplay for “Snow White,’’ the garden was the place to be when the Broadway producer lived in the adjacent Queset House.

“The garden is part of Easton’s cultural history,’’ Holt said. “The Queset House is a place where Winthrop Ames used to bring famous actors and actresses for the weekend, and the garden is a place where he would hold plays. This is located right in the center of Easton’s historical district. This is right in the center of Easton’s cultural center.’’

But after Ames died, in 1937, the garden quickly became forgotten and overgrown. In the 1970s, some work was done to remove overgrown vegetation; however, the site remained an afterthought until Holland came along.

The Queset House became part of the Ames Free Library in 2007, and the restoration of the garden coincides with renovations at the library, expected to be completed at the end of November.

When the garden opens in the spring, it will receive a unique gift from a local resident. At the recent Special Town Meeting, pictures were shown of what the garden once looked like. One showed a statue, long gone from the garden, that looked oddly familiar to one Eastonite in attendance.

According to Holland, the resident had found the statue on her property when she moved in, and even though it remains to be determined whether it’s the missing statue, it will be donated to the library or a facsimile will be made of it when the garden opens to the public.

Around town, Easton residents say they are anxious to see the restored grounds.

“I think it’s a pretty cool idea,’’ said John Agurkis, who lives near the library. “To think that they discovered this hidden area and are now going to try to pull it back together. It’s pretty exciting to see the opportunities that this project will bring. It’s pretty cool that this is right in our own backyard.’’

Andrew Clark can be reached at andrewclark333@yahoo.com.