The history of this garden began in 1889, when Frank Rockwood Moore built an elaborate Tudor Revival-style home and graded the steep hill behind it to develop a garden. By 1896, George and Bertha Turner purchased the home and spent the next 17 years transforming the hillside into a magnificent garden. Features included a system of pathways, rock staircases, basalt landscape features, reflecting pond, greenhouses, and trees, shrubs, perennial flower beds and rose garden. By the time the City of Spokane purchased the property in 1945, the once-beautiful gardens had been forgotten. In 1998, City staff discovered remnants of the original landscape while cleaning parts of Pioneer Park. This set in motion efforts to restore the garden, which is Washington's only known historic garden from the period.

The City hired AHBL to prepare the cultural landscape report to aid in the preservation of this historic garden. Upon completion of the report, AHBL designed the plans to direct restoration of the historic elements. This included creating a planting plan to replicate the original garden by researching historic photos and other resources. Restoration work was implemented in phases, beginning in 2003. The restored garden opened to the public in August 2007.

images courtesy of Lynn Mandyke