Tillett Gardens Celebrates 50 Years!
By Kimberly Young
Walking into Tillett Gardens, you can immediately feel the creativity flowing and pumping through the air. The brightly colored buildings, beautiful vegetation and rascally iguanas seem to draw you in. Around every corner there is another shop or studio with imaginative treasures and gems. It is hard to believe that Tillett Gardens will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary.
Jim and Rhoda Tillett moved to St. Thomas in 1959 and converted an old Danish farm of cowsheds and barns, with no electricity or running water, into what Jim called "a peaceful sanctuary of creativity and wonderment."
The numbers of people that the Tillett's have touched through the Garden are countless. Every year, there are thousands of new and returning visitors that come to see their favorite shops, visit with Sonny in the silk-screening studio and meet the new artists who have opened studios. One cannot help feeling like they are walking into a magical place of rich history and warmth.
If you have never been to Tillett Gardens or if it has been awhile since you have visited, stop in and reacquaint yourself with the magical ambiance, and help support local artists. Come help keep Arts Alive!
