The land that became the gardens belonged to the family of Wayne Pendleton Sewell. Sewell was an actor and booking agent and he married the successful actress,
Hetty Jane Dunaway, in 1916. Her husband wanted to return to his family's land and Dunaway had not been keen. It was said that she was told that she could do anything at the property she wanted. Hetty Jane Dunaway spent eighteen years overseeing construction of Dunaway Gardens, a "theater-garden" on her husband's family's former plantation in rural Georgia. She employed architects and a full-time
stone mason for a decade. The gardens included twelve spring-fed pools, a waterfall, sunken and hanging gardens and a thousand-seat amphitheatre. The swimming pool was created by using explosives to make a hole in granite. There was a Honeymoon House where visitors could stay and the Blue Bonnet Tea Rooms served up meals. The customers included
Roy Disney and
Walt Disney and
Tallulah Bankhead. One local historian noted that television and improved roads, which enabled people to travel to Atlanta to eat and see shows, reduced the interest in Dunaway Gardens through the 1950s. It closed in the 1960s. and an outbreak of arson. It was purchased in 2000, restored and reopened in 2003 after the Bighams gradually uncovered the lost attractions of the former gardens, theaters and swimming pool. The family had been intrigued by their discoveries and they decided to invest more of their savings in restoring the garden's attractions. ==References==