In 1888, nurserymen George Ellwanger and Patrick Barry endowed the Rochester community with 20 acres (8.1 ha) of land which became Highland Park,[1] one of the nation's first municipal arboretums.

Horticulturist John Dunbar, later known in local circles as Johnny Lilacseed, started the park's famous lilac collection in 1892; some of the 20 varieties he installed were descendants of native Balkan Mountain flowers brought to North America by early colonists.

The park occupies most of a glacial moraine, sharing the hill with a water reservoir and Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.

The Rochester Civic Garden Center, housed in Warner Castle, offers public access to a horticultural and botanical library of over 4,000 volumes and sponsors an ongoing series of educational courses.

Regional artist and Head of the Sculpture Department at the University of Rochester, William Ehrich (1897-1960), was chosen to construct this monument, describing it as such: "For the portrayal of Goethe's personality, I considered no particular phase of his life.