Original wooden bridges, circa 1909. Courtesy Lois Cook.

history continued

According to E.T.H. Shaffer’s Carolina Gardens, the garden began “as simple and unassuming.” As recounted by Sarah in 1937, who was by that time Mrs. Henry Walters, “One day while walking through my beloved woods I noticed a great clump of native pink azalea that down South we call wild honeysuckle. It was so lovely that I had it transplanted it to a leafy moist spot near the house.”

An additional recollection by Mrs. Walters recounts a similar epiphany regarding the discovery of a towering southern magnolia in full bloom. Hence, the azalea and the magnolia became “two children of her own acres,” and that they “should always remain the major accents of the garden to-be.”  Renowned Augusta, Georgia, horticulturalist P.J. Berckmans had family members deliver the first of the garden's camellias and azaleas. These plantings became the basis of the garden's perennial collection and many still bloom today. By the 1930s, the Joneses opened Airlie to the public several days a year during the height of azalea bloom.

In 1948, W.A. and Bertha Barefoot Corbett purchased the Airlie property and moved to the estate, along with several of their grown children. Corbett was a local business owner, with strong ties to the community, and chose to open the garden to the public several times a year, especially in the spring when the azaleas were in full bloom.

However, in 1954, the garden suffered tremendous damage when Hurricane Hazel made landfall in North Carolina. The deadly storm inundated the garden with saltwater, killing hundreds of azaleas and protective shade trees. Hurricanes Bertha and the more destructive Fran caused further damage in 1996.