A garden folly

 One day this past week
my daughter and I took a walk to the lake.

We walked down a street that we've walked

down many times before.

But this time, something was different.

This wonderful old building

has magically appeared

in the backyard of an old estate.

It was never ever there before.

It's very old, though you can't tell from my cell phone photos.

The homeowners must have purchased

this wonderful old garden folly

and had it moved here.

A small team of landscapers were

very busy moving dirt, new trees,

and plants. I tried to peek

to take some close up pictures of what
they were working on

but these were the only ones I

felt comfortable in taking ---

 the view from the street.
(My daughter was embarrassed that
I was taking pictures at all!)

In a month from now,

this fantastic new addition will look

like it has been there for a hundred years.

The architectural details are stunning. Original wavy glass window panes too.

This  similar structure Brookline, Massachusetts. Would swear they were the same, minus some figurines.

This one in Medford. Massachusetts

And this last one is from Wakefield, Massachusetts

Wouldn't it be interesting 

to know where this

one was moved from?

(I'll let you know if two figurines appear on the rooftop!)

The following is the definition for a FOLLY taken from Wikipedia:

In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting 

by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal 

range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs. In the original use 

of the word, these buildings had no other use, but from the 19th to 20th centuries the term 

was also applied to highly decorative buildings which had secondary practical functions such

as housing, sheltering or business use.

18th century English gardens and French landscape gardening often featured Roman temples, which symbolized classical virtues or ideals. Other 18th century garden follies represented Chinese temples, Egyptian pyramids, ruined abbeys, or Tatar tents, to represent different continents or historical eras. Sometimes they represented rustic villages, mills and cottages, to symbolize rural virtues.

Partial List of follies in the United States

• Bancroft Tower, Worcester, Massachusetts
• Belvedere Castle, New York City
• Bishop Castle,   Pueblo, Colorado
• Cabazon Dinosaurs, Cabazon, California
• Italian Barge, Villa Vizcaya, Miami, Florida
• Körner's Folly, Kernersville, North Carolina
• Lawson Tower, Scituate, Massachusetts

All older photos credit:

http://downeastdilittante.wordpress.com