Rose was part of the team that worked with the Wisconsin-based Kohler Foundation in 2008-09 to help preserve and restore the site. He has served as the Turner Foundation’s liaison on the Hartman Garden project for 14 years.
“Kevin has the knowledge and passion for the Hartman Rock Garden that is needed to move forward as we embark on exciting changes in the coming years,” said Friends of the Hartman Rock Garden Board Chair Marlies Hemmann. “It’s a perfect match.”
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Rose called the job a natural connection with his passion and background.
“I have already been doing this job in many ways for years now,” Rose said. “It’s what I really wanted to do.”
Hartman Rock Garden, 1905 Russell Ave., attracts about 13,000 people annually, and at least 75 percent of the visitors come from outside the region, Rose said.
“It brings people to this community, a lot of people off the highway,” Rose said.
The garden is a nationally recognized art environment by self-taught artist Ben Hartman, who lost his job as an iron molder during the Great Depression in 1932. He drew inspiration for the next 12 years from family and friends, magazines, books, radio and film and built by hand art objects using concrete, metal, glass, stone, wood and whatever else he could find.
The garden includes replicas of the White House, Independence Hall and a castle built with 100,000 rocks.
Ben’s wife, Mary Hartman, maintained his works until her death in 1997.
More than a decade later, the Kohler Foundation purchased and restored the rock garden and worked with the community to create the Friends of the Hartman Rock Garden, which took ownership in December 2009. The garden celebrated its reopening in June 2010.
The Kohler Foundation is known for its involvement in the preservation of artist-built environments, the Friends of Hartman release said.
The announcement of Rose’s new role came as he and Friends of Hartman learned of the death of Ruth Hartman Hoover, who was the daughter of Ben and Mary Hartman. Ruth Hoover was 5 years old when her father started building the Hartman Rock Garden.
“In many ways, he was building it for her,” Rose said.
“Ruth meant a lot to me. She was just a kind-hearted person,” he said, noting historians usually study things in books, but he worked with her on restoring and preserving the garden.
We are sad to announce that Ruth Hartman Hoover has passed away at the age of 96. Ruth was five years old when her...
Posted by Hartman Rock Garden on Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Hoover, 96, was a longtime teacher in the Northeastern district. Services will be Monday at 11 a.m. at Conroy Funeral Home, with visitation at 10 a.m.
Hoover was one of the only people who witnessed the site’s creation and rebirth — and the only person who played an vital role in both, according to a post on the Hartman Rock Garden’s social media page. “Her legacy of kindness and love will live on at the Hartman Rock Garden — as well as in the hearts of those who knew her.”
In addition to his new role at the Hartman Rock Garden, Rose will remain as a part-time adviser and project manager at the Turner Foundation, according to a release.
Hemmann noted Rose’s experience in the cultural tourism sector through his two decades as the historian at the Turner Foundation, a family foundation focused on the revitalization of Springfield’s urban center.
Rose founded the Summer Tour Series in 2004, and it continues today to offer walking, bicycle and coach tours of the region. He has written more than 40 tours himself, from bicycle tours of Yellow Springs’ modern architecture to poetry walks for children.
In 2014, Rose and his wife Marta Wojcik founded the Westcott Center for Architecture + Design as a regional resource for placemaking strategies.
Rose has a bachelor’s degree in history from Wittenberg University and master’s in museum studies at the University of Leicester in England.
He also is past president of the Victorian Society, a national organization focused on the preservation and study of late-Nineteenth and early-Twentieth Century American design, and past board chair of Ohio Humanities, the state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
In his free time, the release said, Rose enjoys restoring the family’s 1881 Stick-Eastlake style house in Springfield’s South Fountain Historic District.
