Sam Mercer and Eva Aeppli’s Garden of the Zodiac

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Sam Mercer and Eva Aeppli’s Garden of the Zodiac

Category: Parks & Public Spaces

Tags: Eva Aeppli, Garden of the Zodiac, Garden of the Zodiac Gallery, Indian Oven Restaurant, Old Market Historic District, Sam Mercer

Published August 10, 2023 | Updated October 7, 2026

August 10, 2023

Today we’re going to head south from Wyman Heights to the Old Market. Tucked inside the Old Market Passageway is one of my favorite spots: The Garden of the Zodiac.

Sam Mercer first conceived of a private garden in the middle of the Old Market while traveling from his home in Paris to Omaha in 1985. Mercer was a lawyer by trade, and while he never lived in Omaha permanently, he took the lead in saving the city’s original warehouse and produce district that he helped transform into the entertainment district we recognize today. It was, after all, his family that owned some of the buildings in the area.

Entrance to the Old Market Passageway where the Garden of the Zodiac is located.

The garden at 1042 Howard Street was to sit directly behind the Indian Oven restaurant on a gravel lot that contained trash cans and parked cars. The hidden garden would feature a cloister in addition to 22 bronze sculptures that were exhibited in Switzerland. The sculptures were created by his wife, Swiss artist Eva Aeppli, who turned her focus to astrology, producing bronze busts dedicated to the zodiac and the planets. Aeppli was living in Paris when she met Mercer, and after getting married in 1962, the couple occasionally visited Omaha.

Another view of the gold leaf covered heads.

Opened in 1987, the garden was only accessed by going into the Old Market Passageway and then to the Garden of the Zodiac Gallery. The garden entrance was a covered brick walkway lined with 12 walls. A bronze head stood in front of each wall, which each one representing a different sign of the zodiac.

Along the walkway are 12 walls representing the signs of the Zodiac. In front of each wall is a bronze head that symbolizes the constellations.

Further inward from the walkway was a garden open to the sky. The garden’s 10 heads, finished in gold leaf, stood for the planets, the Sun, and the Moon. The sculptures were aligned based on Aeppli’s date of birth on May 2, 1925. In the center of the garden was a small pond stocked with goldfish and surrounded by flowers, plants, and vines. The pond represented Earth.

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