Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens

The museum began as the home of Arthur and Ninah Cummer, part of a family that made its fortune in Florida timber in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ninah Cummer was a passionate collector and gardener who filled her riverside home with art and shaped the grounds into elaborate formal gardens over decades, working with noted designers of the day.

When she died in 1958 she left her home, her art collection, and her endowment to create a public art museum on the site, ensuring that her gardens and her love of art would belong to the city. The house was eventually replaced by purpose-built galleries, but the gardens she created were preserved and restored, and the institution that bears the family name has grown into the region's leading art museum.

The Cummer's historic gardens are among the most beautiful in Florida, a series of formal terraces, reflecting pools, fountains, and plantings that step down from the museum toward the wide St. Johns River. They were designed in the styles of Italian and English gardens in the early twentieth century, and they have been carefully restored so that visitors walk the same paths Ninah Cummer laid out.

Their most storied feature is the Cummer Oak, an enormous live oak believed to be centuries old, its massive limbs spreading low over the lawn near the river. A tree of that age would have been a sizable oak when Florida was a Spanish possession, and it has become a living symbol of the museum and a favorite gathering spot beneath its shade.

The galleries hold art spanning roughly six thousand years, from ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian pieces to European paintings, American art, and rotating contemporary work. Highlights include European old masters and a strong showing of American painting, so a single visit moves across many centuries and cultures.

The museum's crown jewel is the Wark Collection of early Meissen porcelain, one of the most important collections of eighteenth-century Meissen in the world, tracing the birth of European hard-paste porcelain. Alongside the fine art, the Cummer places real emphasis on education and access, welcoming families and school groups and offering regular donation-based hours so the collection stays open to the whole community.

Spring and fall are the loveliest seasons on the St. Johns, with mild dry days ideal for combining the galleries with a long wander through the riverfront gardens. These shoulder seasons show the plantings at their best and make outdoor time comfortable.

Summer in Jacksonville is hot and humid with afternoon thunderstorms, which makes the cool galleries a welcome midday refuge, and early morning the best time for the gardens. Winter is mild, with cooler clear days that are pleasant for walking, though the occasional cold front off the north Florida coast can make the riverfront brisk.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.