Vegetable Arbor at Farm in Need of Repair

One of the most lovely places on the Domain was in jeopardy of falling in on itself until Paul Mooney intervened to save what is known as the Vegetable Arbor, a gazebo at the historic entrance to the University Farm.

“I remember this place from my whole life,” said Mooney, who is a native of Sewanee. “Everything has grown up around it, and the termites are eating it up, and it looks terrible. I hope we can get it redone. It means a lot to me.” 

At the age of 14, Mooney started working at the University Farm driving a tractor and working in the fields. When he got a driver’s license, he started working for the University Dairy, delivering milk around Sewanee and to people in Palmer. Mooney worked his entire career at the University; he retired in 1997 after 50 years of service.

The gazebo and fence on Old Farm Road was constructed by Martin Johnson, who was the manager of the University Farm. Johnson is also the craftsman who created the stunning ironwork weather vane with Purple Martins on the top of the structure.

Professor Gerald Smith has been looking into the history of the arbor, too. Smith’s “Religion and Ecology” class in 1999 did some restoration work to the structure, but it is in need of full replacement now.

In his book “Sewanee Places,” Smith described the University Farm this way: “From 1899 until 1965, the University farm supplied meat, dairy, poultry, fruit and garden products to the dining halls and to the Supply Store. Much of this garden produce was used fresh in the dining halls or canned for off-season use.

“For convenience in storing baskets of vegetables coming out of the fields, an open-sided wood shelter, or arbor, was built at the edge of the road across from the gardener’s house. Later, this shelter was used to display vegetables for purchase by people who came out to the farm on Saturday mornings. The Vegetable Arbor was constructed of rough-hewn timbers in notched timber-frame style and had a pyramidal roof covered in oak shakes,” Smith wrote.

“This place is where my granddaddy brought the vegetables,” Mooney said, standing in the cold autumn air earlier this week. Mooney’s grandfather, John Samuel Mooney was the farm manager at one time. Mooney lived with his grandparents at times as a boy, when the farm was thriving.

“When I was small I ran around out here with my cousins Ronnie and Larry Goodman,” he said. “We all want to see it restored.”

The project is expected to cost about $9,000. Mooney and friends have collected more than $4,000 so far. Donations can be made to the project by sending them to Gift Records, University of the South, 735 University Ave., Sewanee TN 37375.