Colonel Robert McCormick (died 1955) instructed in his will that the 500 acre estate at Cantigny be used in a manner that would be "for the recreation, instruction and welfare of the people of the State of Illinois." In 1967, the board of trustees overseeing the Cantigny Estate, hired one of the country's foremost landscape architects, Franz Lipp, and charged him with the task of building an important American garden. Situated within Cantigny Park, Cantigny Formal Garden consits of a series of 20 garden compartments. There is a Fountain Garden, a Green Garden, a Rose Garden, a Dryland Garden, a Bur Oak Garden and many others. Showcased in the Garden is a very extensive use of herbaceous plants including annual and perennial flowers, ground covers and flowering bulbs and a wide variety of trees and shrubs displayed not only in complement to the floral areas, but in an arboretum setting as well.
