Cheekwood Book

Cheekwood has published its first comprehensive book exploring its historic origins as a private estate and tracing its evolution to the beloved destination that it is today. The book is co-authored by Leslie B. Jones, Cheekwood’s former Vice President of Museum Affairs and Curator of Decorative Arts, and Shanna T. Jones, Cheekwood’s Plant Collections Manager, with forewords by Charles Birnbaum, President of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, and Ridley Wills, acclaimed local historian. The 128-page, hardcover book is richly illustrated with 135 photographs over its four chapters and is being published with Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers, made possible by the generosity of Katherine and Pete DeLay.

The book, titled Cheekwood, offers an unprecedented window into the family home of Leslie Cheek and his wife Mabel Wood, investors in the family Maxwell House Coffee business, and explores the creation of the extraordinary historic estate designed by Bryant Fleming in the 1930s, with its Georgian-revival mansion, formal gardens, and expansive viewsheds and vistas.