Geneva Garden Club, Friends of Fabyan to dedicate Tea House to late Darlene Larson

GENEVA – The Geneva Garden Club and Friends of Fabyan will dedicate the Japanese Tea House in a celebration and memorial for the late Darlene Larson from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday at the Fabyan Japanese Garden, 1925 S. Batavia Ave., Geneva, in the Fabyan Forest Preserve.

A long-time Geneva resident and Geneva Garden Club member, Larson died in 2018.

The Japanese Tea House will be dedicated to her memory to honor Larson for her efforts in restoring the historic 1914 Fabyan Japanese Gardens.

The event is open to the public. Light refreshments will be served, the release stated.

According to the Geneva History Museum, Larson’s family hosted a Japanese exchange student and during a gathering of exchange students from across the country, the final activity was a picnic at Fabyan Forest Preserve.

Larsons was embarrassed at the garden’s rundown condition.

The Fabyan Estate, with its land along the Fox River, had been sold to the Kane County Forest Preserve upon Nelle Fabyan’s death in 1939. It appeared that the Forest Preserve had only cared for the land by mowing and putting out garbage receptacles.

Larson spearheaded the first renovation of the Japanese Garden, making a proposal to the Geneva Garden Club that they do the work, according to the history museum.

She founded the Friends of Fabyan in 1979 to continue the preservation of the estate in on-going support for historical renovation and Island projects which include the Villa Museum and the Windmill.

In 1975, U.S. Rep. Tim Hall, a Democrat from Livingston County, visited the Japanese Garden and asked for the Geneva Garden Club to be put into the U.S. Congressional Record for its work on restoring the Japanese Garden. Hall died in 2008.

The Tea House features an authentic ceremonial tea table that the Geneva Garden Club and Friends of Fabyan commissioned in Larson’s honor.

A plaque will be presented and the Tea Table will be dedicated to Larson’s memory.