Blue Ridge Garden Club Celebrates Anniversary
The Blue Ridge Garden Club, founded on Oct. 1, 1925, celebrated its 100th birthday this fall with a commitment to the community and a celebration at historic Thorn Hill.
The club voted to adopt Main Street Lexington’s proposed Courthouse Square renovation, including the relocation of the Veterans Garden, as its centennial project and pledged $10,000 towards this effort.
The first meeting of the club was held at the home of Mrs. William H. Cocke, the founding president and the wife of the fourth superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute. In 1929, in recognition for her work at the VMI Memorial Garden, Mrs. Cocke was honored with the Garden Club of Virginia’s highest honor – the first Massie Medal for Distinguished Achievement.
The garden had been dedicated in 1928 as a memorial to VMI alumni who died in World War I. Securing the services of landscape architect Ferruccio Vitale, Mrs. Cocke planned and financed the garden.
In 1930, the Blue Ridge Garden Club was invited to join the Garden Club of Virginia (GCV), which currently has 48 member clubs across the commonwealth. Subsequently, the club helps to host Historic Garden Week in Virginia (HGW), the only statewide house and garden tour in the nation, which creates an estimated $12.5 million annual economic impact on Virginia communities. Proceeds from HGW tours fund the restoration and preservation of Virginia’s historic public gardens, including plantings at Washington and Lee’s University Chapel, as well as providing graduate-level research fellowships.
Over the years, the Blue Ridge Garden Club and its members have received three GCV Massie Medals for Distinguished Achievement; three Common Wealth Awards, including the first one ever awarded for the entrance to the Chessie Trail; and four de Lacy Gray Memorial Medals for Conservation.
Molly and Dirck Brown’s Roots & Shoots Intergenerational Garden at Waddell Elementary School, which is supported by the garden club, has been a blueprint for school gardens across Virginia.
Louise Gilliam served three terms as president of the Blue Ridge Garden Club (1932-1934; 1946-1947; 1956-1958). Avid gardeners, she and her husband Frank Gilliam, dean of students at Washington and Lee University, entertained club members at their home, Belfield. Dean Gilliam gave Belfield bulbs to the club to sell to boost the treasury. (In 1937, there was a balance of 17 cents.)
To help in the war effort during World War II, the club staged a production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Trial by Jury” in the courthouse and raised $486.
From 1948 to 1950, Mrs. Gilliam served as president of the Garden Club of Virginia. During her tenure the restoration of the Pavilion Gardens at the University of Virginia began. During Mrs. Gilliam’s second term as BRGC president the club was successful in mobilizing the Garden Club of Virginia to help save Goshen Pass from a logging operation (1953-1954). In 1960, the Garden Club of Virginia presented Louise and Frank Gilliam with the Massie Medal for Distinguished Achievement.
Mary Monroe Penick was known as the Blue Ridge Garden Club’s “dogwood president.” During her term (1967-1969), the Blue Ridge Garden Club, in conjunction with the Council of Garden Clubs of Lexington, sold 1,300 dogwood trees. In fact, the club minutes record that Miss Penick’s objective was to make Rockbridge County the “Dogwood Capital of the World.” She was a founding member of the Historic Lexington Foundation (HLF) and was responsible for bringing the National Symphony to Lexington once a year to give a day of concert and education to every school child in Rockbridge County.
Another founding member of HLF, Mary Stuart Gilliam, joined the BRGC in 1956 and played an active role in the club for 50 of her 65 years of membership. She served as president (1960-1962), as well as serving on the GCV board of directors. In 2009, Mary Stuart, along with her daughter Catharine Gilliam Burns, led the opposition to the Boy Scouts of America moving their 2013 National Scout Jamboree from Fort A.P. Hill in Caroline County to Goshen in Rockbridge County. For protecting Goshen Pass, the Garden Club of Virginia awarded Mary Stuart and Catharine the de Lacy Gray Memorial Medal for Conservation in 2010.
Club meetings are educational and fun, said a spokeswoman. In the beginning, refreshments were limited to “tea and one more thing, a fine imposed ($1.00) if this rule is broken.” Plans for an early fundraiser included a carnival with “a band of real Gypsies to tell fortunes, a shooting gallery, ponies for the children to ride, etc.”
At the 1968 Christmas party, the minutes note: “To the great delight of all members present, the program was presented by Dr. William Whitehurst Old III, renowned magician, prestidigitator, and illusionist. Trained as a follower of Blackstone, Thurston, and Houdini, Dr. Old completely confounded the Blue Ridge Garden Club with his magic.”
This year’s programs include setting the holiday table; a trip to the Kent-Valentine House, GCV’s historic headquarters in downtown Richmond; pruning trees and using leaf mulch; starting seeds; and composting. A future club project being explored is a downtown tree walk, with an emphasis on native trees.
Currently, proceeds from the Blue Ridge Garden Club’s annual wreath sales support Boxerwood, Friends of the Chessie Trail, Natural Bridge State Park, Nature Camp, Rockbridge Area Conservation Council, and Roots and Shoots Intergenerational School Garden, as well as Scenic Virginia, Shenandoah Valley Conservancy, and the Garden Club of Virginia.
Club community projects over the years have included raising money for the Mc-Dowell Burying Ground wall; planting hundreds of dogwoods and red buds along U.S. 11 North and in Oak Grove Cemetery; saving Goshen Pass from development; maintaining the Veterans Memorial Garden on Main Street; and supporting Natural Bridge State Park. Club members, said the spokeswoman, strive to be good stewards of the natural beauty of Lexington and surrounding Rockbridge County.
