We have a gatehouse, constructed in 1963 according to a design by architect Herman York, that has some teahouse-like characteristics. Contemporary newspaper reports describe it as having shoji doors and grass mats, and it is located next to the Hammond’s Zen garden. I’ve attached 3 pictures here, one from outside and one from inside the garden, as well as one looking back at the gatehouse from across the garden’s central pond. Does this look familiar to other NAJGA members? Are there similar “gatehouses” in other North American Japanese gardens? As I try to reconstruct the rationale for the gatehouse in 1963, I wonder if it was meant to fill multiple purposes: a meaningful entrance to the garden, a teahouse-like structure that evoked Japan in the minds of the visitor, and a focus for views from within the garden.