Notice how life-size topiaries recreate every figure from Seurat's 1884 painting across this 9.2-acre garden. Officially the Topiary Garden at Old Deaf School Park, it is designed to depict figures from Georges Seurat's 1884 painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, and it is the only park based entirely on a painting. The park's official name, Old Deaf School Park, reflects that it was part of the campus of the Ohio Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, known today as the Ohio School for the Deaf.
The city of Columbus owns the park, and the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department maintains it. You are downtown, surrounded by life-size topiaries trimmed into men, women, children, animals, and boats, arranged to resemble the painting: 54 people, eight boats, three dogs, a monkey, and a cat. The plantings include 220 trees representing 35 different species, and a cast-iron fence surrounds the space.
The park also hosts jazz concerts and sits adjacent to the Main Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library system. Count for your own record: 54 people, eight boats, three dogs, a monkey, and a cat, all trimmed from hedge.