Rising gracefully across 35 acres of verdant rolling hills and shaded ravines, the historic Hills and Dales Estate began in 1832 as a small formal garden first planted by Nancy Coleman Ferrell. Her daughter, Sarah, expanded it in 1841, transforming the site into the renowned Ferrell Gardens.
The distinctive stone terraces and retaining walls were constructed during the antebellum period using enslaved laborers. By 1888, the grounds burst with color and fragrance, featuring an impressive collection of rare plants and trees: the creamy white blooms of calla lilies, the delicate purple of nun’s orchids, the glossy green of magnolias, and the soft scents of banana shrubs all mingling with the earthy aroma of Japanese cedars, weeping cypresses and rhododendrons. Following Sarah’s death at the age of 86 in 1903, textile industrialist Fuller E. Callaway and his wife, Ida, purchased the property.
