The award is a monthly recognition by OhioTraveler, an online travel and tourism guide. As part of the award, Hartman Rock Garden is featured in a four-minute video on OhioTraveler.com.
“There are rock gardens and then there is Hartman Rock Garden in Springfield, Ohio. Trust me, there is nothing else like it,” said OhioTraveler about the selection of Hartman Rock Garden for the award.
Past winners of the award include the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force and Ohio Caverns.
“It’s great to be recognized for the remarkable destination that the Rock Garden is,” Kevin Rose, board president of the Hartman Rock Garden. “The interesting thing is, nothing has changed. We’ve been receiving visitors for over 80 years, and the visits have always been steady, in the bad years and good years.”
Rose says the Rock Garden — which features ‘in situ’ folk art, an outsider art phenomena where self-taught artists construct worlds out of common household materials like metal, stone and concrete — has thousands of visitors per year from as far as Texas and Florida.
“Some are on trip to see art, and some are on a trip to see Americana,” said Rose. “They visit our stores and stay in our hotels and eat at our restaurants.”
H.G. “Ben” Hartman began the garden in 1932 during the Depression. Hartman constructed stone and concrete replicas of the White House and other landmarks. He built a 12-foot-tall stone castle and made gnomes and homemade lawn ornaments in the form of celebrities.
In 2008, the Wisconsin-based Kohler Foundation bought the property and restored the garden.
Today, the nonprofit group Friends of the Hartman Rock Garden cares for the property.
Hartman Rock Garden is open 365 days a year, from dawn until dusk.
“We’re thrilled that Hartman has been chosen,” said Chris Schutte, director of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce’s Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We always think about Hartman as one of those undiscovered gems.”
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