Scott Sunken Garden

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Scott Sunken Garden is a historic garden in Lansing, Michigan. It was created around 1930 on the site of the former home of Justice Edward Cahill. The outer foundation walls measure 51 by 79 feet, with a central lawn about 28 by 45 feet. Short limestone walls surround the court, with raised flower beds and limestone steps on the west and east sides that lead to a small water pond near the grotto at the center.

The garden was redesigned after 1930 by Nick Kriek, a Dutch-born immigrant who ran the nearby Cottage Gardens nursery. Kriek planted bulbs, annuals and perennials and introduced several species to the area.

The Greater Lansing Garden Club has cared for the garden for decades and restored it in 1985 after years of neglect. The garden is tied to themes from the 1930s, including the Golden Age of American Landscape Design, immigration, civil rights and Lansing’s beautification efforts. It is considered eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, meeting criteria B and C, as a notable example of early 20th-century formal landscape design and a significant local achievement by Kriek.

Although the house that once stood near the garden no longer exists, Scott Sunken Garden remains a distinctive urban landscape. The City of Lansing owns the site, and the Greater Lansing Garden Club continues to care for it, preserving a historic green space in the heart of the city.