Philbrook Gardens

Once known as the Villa Philbrook, the garden was designed in admiration of the Villa Lante in Italy. It was built by Waite Phillips, an oil magnate who came to Tulsa in 1918 and made a fortune. Landscape architect S. Herbert Hare was the designer. He made a terraced garden inspired by the Villa Lante, with box parterres and a central rill, aspiring to the Mannerist Style of garden layout. The walled garden leads on to a naturalistic area with a waterfall, rock garden and rustic garden pool. An avenue of conifers leads to a small loggia. There are two reflecting pools, one of them a swimming pool, with a small temple used as a dressing rooms for the bathers. The estate was given to the city in 1939 and now has the Westby Sculpture Walk, used as an outdoor sculpture garden.