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Evelyn and Warren Willis Garden of Meditation

1938

Formerly known as the Fisher Garden, Hindu Garden

In 1938, Methodist missionaries Bishop Frederick Fisher and his wife Welthy Honsinger Fisher came to speak at Florida Southern College. Impressed by the beauty of the campus, the missionaries, having recently returned from Benares, India, decided to donate their replica of a Hindu temple, which had been given to them by a converted village as a farewell gift upon their return to the United States. The temple sits just south of Joseph-Reynolds Hall adjacent to Edge Hall in front of a reflection pool.

On March 14, 2009, the garden was renovated and rededicated as the Evelyn and Warren Willis Garden of Meditation by their son Dr. W. Waite Willis, Jr. (Class of 1970), the Pendergrass Chair in Religion and a professor at the College from 1978-2024.

Hindu Garden

Willis Garden