Nationality American Name Adam Purple | Occupation Activist | |
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Full Name David Lloyd Wilkie Born November 10, 1930 ( 1930-11-10 ) Died September 14, 2015, New York City, New York, United States | ||
Adam purple and the garden of eden
Adam Purple (November 10, 1930 – September 14, 2015) was an activist and urban Edenist or "Guerrilla Gardener" famous in New York City for his "Garden of Eden". His birth name was David Lloyd Wilkie, although he went by many others, including the Rev. Les Ego.
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Adam purple and the garden of eden
Early life
Born in Independence, Missouri to Richard and Juanita Wilkie as the middle child of seven, his father was a machinist, carpenter and blacksmith while Juanita was a seamstress, gardener and bookkeeper. In 1945, Richard was trying to put out a fire when he was electrocuted and died. Adam served in the U.S. Army and graduated with a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. He taught at high schools and junior colleges in California and South Dakota. Making his way east, he was a reporter for The York Gazette and Daily in York, Pennsylvania, eventually ending up in New York City in 1968.
The Garden of Eden
Purple is often considered the godfather of the urban gardening movement, and his "Garden of Eden", built by him single-handedly over five years from 1975, was a well-known open, community garden on Forsyth Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
The garden began when the city and the neighborhood were blighted with urban decay. A building was razed in 1973 on Eldridge Street behind Purple’s apartment, and he decided to plant something with his companion, Eve. The process of clearing the lot took some time since the couple would only use hand tool. Modern machinery was considered "counter-revolutionary." He would haul manure from the horse-drawn carriages around Central Park and created a highly fertile topsoil. The garden was ready to be planted in the spring of 1975. The garden was designed around concentric circles with a yin-yang symbol in the center. As buildings were torn down on either side, Purple would add new rings to the garden, allowing it to grow. By the end, it was 15,000 square feet featuring a wide range of produce, including corn, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, asparagus, black raspberries, strawberries, and 45 trees including eight black walnuts. Eve gave birth to a girl named Nova Dawn in November 1978.
In the early 1980s, the city planned to create low-income housing, but there was opposition from neighborhood activists and supporters. The Storefront for Art and Architecture created a group exhibition in 1984 to present alternative designs that would encompass the Garden of Eden into the public housing initiative. The initiative was unsuccessful. In 1985, Judge Vincent L. Broderick of Federal District Court ruled that the demolition was to take place. The garden was demolished on 8 January 1986. Its destruction took just 75 minutes under the large rubber tires of a scoop-equipped highway construction vehicle. After Purple's "Garden of Eden" was destroyed, his friend, artist George Bliss, painted trails of purple footprints around the Lower East Side leading to the garden's former location.
He is one of fifty subjects featured in Harvey Wang's New York, a book of photographs and brief biographies of notable and colorful New Yorkers. He was interviewed by Amy Brost in 2006 for StoryCorps and, with the help of Harvey Wang, created a short film.
Death
Purple died on September 14, 2015, at the age of 84, while bicycling across the Williamsburg Bridge.