Ralph Hancock - America and 'The Rock'

America and 'The Rock'

On May 31, 1930, Hancock set sail for New York. In order to promote his work in the US, he published an illustrated booklet titled English Gardens in America in which he described himself as being 'Landscape Gardener to HRH the Princess Victoria of England'. The promotional booklet must have worked as Hancock went on to design an exhibition garden at Erie Station in New Jersey. He also staged exhibits at the Massachusetts Horticulture Show where he won several awards, including in 1933 the Presidents Cup. He was also one of the designers of the Lydia Duff Gray Hubbard garden in New Jersey which now forms part of the Garden Club of America Collection. But it was between 1933 and 1935 that Ralph was to embark on one of his most ambitious projects, the construction of spectacular gardens at the Rockefeller Center in New York.

For 75 years, formal gardens have bloomed on the roofs of the British Empire Building and Maison Française. Hancock's “Gardens of the Nations” emulated the cultural styles of gardens from Holland, France, Italy, and England, where each garden had its very own hostess dressed in themed costume. 3,000 tons of earth, 500 tons of bricks, 20,000 bulbs, 100 tons of natural stone, 2,000 trees and shrubs were delivered by the service elevator or man hauled using a block and tackle up the side of the eleven floors of the building. The garden also required 96,000 gallons of water which was lifted by an electric pump.

Hancock was confident that what he had created would allow numerous opportunities for other similar gardens in the US. He declared that “the day of penthouse gardening are over and miles and miles of roof space in every metropolis in this country remain to be reclaimed by landscape gardening”. Throughout the project Ralph was in regular correspondence with both John D Rockefeller and Nelson Rockefeller.

As well as designing and building the gardens Hancock also ran the “Sky Garden Tour”. Visitors were charged a dollar a time. The enterprise did not prove to be profitable and lost approximately $45,000 per year. By 1938 the attraction had closed.

The gardens have evolved from their original form, these two images show the same scene 70 years apart.