Designed by Albert Kahn and fashioned after Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, the Belle Isle Horticultural Building was opened on August 18, 1904 along with the Belle Isle Aquarium. The Conservatory is divided into five distinct sections: Palm House with its 88 foot dome various palms, the Tropical House which has many species of fruit trees and the Little Water Girl statue dedicated in 1910 by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, a Cactus House with a large selection of cactus and succulents, a sunken Fernery and the Show House, remodeled in 1981, with changing seasonal displays. On the grounds is the Levi Barbour Memorial Fountain designed by Marshall Fredericks, a Japanese Tohro donated to Detroit in 1985 by the city of Toyota, Japan, and the Peacock Sundial erected in 1927. There is also a Lily Pond Garden which was brought back to life in 1988 with the founding of the Belle Isle Botanical Society.
