The gate on East Coast Highway isn't the way in anymore. Sherman Library & Gardens has shifted its public entrance to Dahlia Avenue while crews work through what the garden describes as ongoing improvements to the grounds, the kind of project that comes with occasional construction noise and a few roped-off corners you'll notice if you've been walking the brick paths for years. That's the easy part to adjust to. The harder part is the calendar. The garden closed to the public once this month, and two more closures are posted before Halloween.
If Sherman Gardens has been your Sunday-morning stop, or the place you take out-of-town family because the koi pond and the tea garden do more talking than you have to, the actual local knowledge this fall isn't the new entrance. It's knowing which Sundays won't work, and what the neighborhood has lined up instead.
The Days the Garden Isn't There
Sherman Gardens posted a straightforward notice covering three dates. The grounds closed to the public on Sunday, September 13, no maintenance reason attached, just the date. The next closure lands Friday, October 2 through Sunday, October 4, when the entire property shuts down for a private ticketed event. A third closure follows on Sunday, October 18, again with no reason listed. Between the one that already happened and the two still ahead, the garden will have been off-limits on four of its usual open days across a five-week stretch.
| Date | What's Happening | Public Access |
|---|---|---|
| Sun, Sept 13 | Posted closure, no reason listed | Already passed |
| Fri–Sun, Oct 2–4 | 2nd Annual Botanical Ball | Closed to the public |
| Sun, Oct 18 | Posted closure, no reason listed | Upcoming |
That middle row is the one worth planning around now, because it's not a maintenance day. It's a gala.
Two Different Events, Two Different Gardens
The Botanical Ball on Saturday, October 3, is only in its second year, and it's built as a formal fundraiser rather than a neighborhood open house. Champagne and appetizers start at 6 p.m., a live auction runs at 7:30, and the evening closes with dancing under the garden's string-lit canopy until 10. It's billed as the party of the season, and the closure that surrounds it, the full Friday-through-Sunday shutdown, tells you this is a rental of the entire 2.2-acre property, not a ticketed add-on to a normal open day. If you're not one of the sponsors or ticket holders, this is the weekend to plan around the garden rather than through it.
Contrast that with the Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce's Fall Festival Meet and Greet, a longer-running community gathering that draws several hundred residents, businesses, and neighbors onto the Chamber grounds each year. The Chamber's own description of the event promises live bluegrass music, a pie-baking contest, barbecue from Beach Pit BBQ, lawn games, and a view of the garden's autumn foliage from just outside the fence. The two events sit a few weeks apart on the same calendar. The Botanical Ball is a ticketed evening whose proceeds support the garden's programs, its library and art collection, and its grounds, and the Fall Festival is a community gathering hosted by the Chamber.
Knowing which is which helps you avoid arriving at the gate on Saturday, October 3, expecting an open garden.
The Rest of the Calendar
Once the garden's closures clear in late October, the next fixed point on the Corona del Mar community calendar is the annual Christmas Walk, set for Saturday, December 6, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., organized by the Chamber and returning for another year along the village's main strip. It's a longer runway than the fall closures, but worth marking now if you're the kind of household that plans holiday weekends around it rather than discovering it the week of.
Where to Go Instead When the Gate's Locked
The village a few blocks from the garden hasn't slowed down while Sherman Gardens sorts out its entrance. CdM Restaurant, at 2325 East Coast Highway, has been open since 2019 under Hollywood producer McG and restaurateur Jordan Otterbein, the same pair behind Newport Beach's A Restaurant, with Executive Chef Elvis Morales running a rotating seasonal menu built around long-standing regulars like the cacio e pepe and chicken piccata. Below the dining room, Under CDM runs as an unticketed speakeasy, open to walk-ins seven nights a week with no password and no reservation required, which makes it a reasonable stand-in for a night when the garden gate is locked and you want somewhere else within walking distance.
A few doors down, Five Crowns has anchored the village as a steakhouse built in the style of an English country inn, and its attached gastropub, SideDoor, has run as Corona del Mar's only English-style gastropub since a 2009 refurbishment of the same building. Both have already posted their 2026 holiday hours: SideDoor closes for Thanksgiving Day, November 26, while Five Crowns stays open, a detail worth knowing now if a holiday dinner reservation is on your list before the season gets crowded.
Rogers Gardens' Farmhouse restaurant rounds out the short list of rooms locals point to for ambiance in the village, another option within a short walk of the garden gate on a night when the usual stop isn't available.
What Changes and What Doesn't
None of this displaces Sherman Gardens as the neighborhood's default answer for a slow morning or a visiting relative. The koi pond, the rose collection, the pepper tree patio, all of it is still there once the gate reopens. What's changed is that the gate itself now has a different address, and the calendar around it has gotten more crowded with events that aren't simple open-garden days. A Sunday routine built on the assumption that Sherman Gardens is always open now needs a second glance at the calendar first, at least through the third weekend of October.
If you've been meaning to walk the tea garden before the light changes for fall, do it before October 2. The gate will be there. Just not that weekend.
Michael Balliet has spent 25 years reading the details that make a neighborhood work before he ever talks about a listing in it. If Corona del Mar's fall calendar, or the market underneath it, is on your mind, Michael Balliet is worth the conversation.
