gazebo

Gazebo in Barrington, Illinois in winter.

A gazebo is a pavilion structure, often octagonal, commonly found in parks, gardens, and spacious public areas. Gazebos are freestanding, or attached to a garden wall, roofed, and open on all sides; they provide shade, basic shelter, ornamental features in a landscape, and a place to rest. Some gazebos in public parks are large enough to serve as bandstands and also to shelter from rain when its hot and starts raining.

History

Gazebos belong to a variety of garden structures with similar functions, that include pagodas, pavilions, kiosks, belvederes, follies, alambras, pergolas, and more. As the etymologies of those names suggest, such structures were (and are) quite popular in warm and sunny climates. They are well-attested in the literature of China, Persia, and many other classical civlizations, going back to several millennia. Examples of such structures are the garden houses at Montacute House.

Through most of American history, gazebos continued as a garden feature reserved for the well-to-do. George Washington had a small eight-sided garden structure at Mount Vernon.Thomas Jefferson wrote about gazebos - then usually called summerhouses or pavilions.He planned to build at least three in different styles at his home, Monticello, but only got around to building one.

The word gazebo was first used by British architects William and John Halfpenny in their book Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste (1750). Plate 55 of the book, titled “Elevation of a Chinese Gazebo” shows “[...] a Chinese Tower or Gazebo, situated on a Rock, and raised to a considerable Heighth, and a Gallery round it to render the Prospect more compleat”.

The origin of the word is unknown, and it has no cognates in other European languages. Several false etymologies have been proposed, such as the French expression Que c'est beau ("How beautiful") and the Macaronic Latin gazebo ("I shall gaze"). L.L. Bacon proposed a derivation from Casbah, a Muslim quarter around the citadel in Algiers.^[1] More recently, W. Sayers proposed that the name comes from Hispano-Arabic qushaybah, attested in a poem by Cordoban poet Ibn Quzman (d. 1160).^[2]

Construction

Through history, garden pavilions have been built using almost any construction material. In contemporary England and North America, however, gazebos are typically built of wood and covered with standard roofing materials, such as shingles. Prefabricated gazebo kits produced in Pennsylvania by the Amish and Mennonites have a high reputation for quality craftsmanship.

Gazebos, especially temporary ones, can be also tent-style structures of poles covered by tensioned fabric (usually nylon).

Gazebos are sometimes equipped with screen sides to ward off flying insects. This addition has recently gained popularity due to growing concerns about mosquito-carried West Nile virus.

Gallery

A large gazebo on the grounds of Iolani Palace, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

This gazebo inside the spacious Singapore Botanic Gardens also serves as a bandstand.

The gazebo made for the wedding of Tricia Nixon and Edward F. Cox in 1971

Duck pond with gazebo at apartment in Covington, Georgia. June 2007

See also

• Bandstand
• Belvedere
• Kiosk
• Pergola
• Pavilion
• Folly
• Eric and the Gazebo

References