Founders Memorial Garden
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Front of original 1857 building in the garden. Originally a home for professors, it has been a sorority house, women's dormitory, departmental office, and dining hall. It is now a part of the headquarters of the Garden Club of Georgia.
Back of side structure belonging to the 19th century house on the gardens. It now houses the Founders Memorial Room which displays memorabilia about the 12 original founders of the first garden club in America.
The boxwood garden area. A garden area set up as labyrinth of shrubbery with labelled plants along the edges. An old sundial stands in the middle as an aesthetic reminder of the past.
Part of the lawn area of the gardens, next to a side entrance. There is a small statue of a goddess as the focal point and the lawn is surrounded by colorful flowers. The back of the lawn has a small fountain where many couples get engaged.
Front door of the headquarters of the Garden Club of Georgia. The GCG funded the Founders Memorial Garden as a tribute to their founders and legacy.
National Register of Historic Places marker.
A portion of the gardens looking over the rest of the university's campus and busy streets.
Another view of the lawn facing toward the house.
Sign at a side entrance in the midst of campus. The Founders Memorial Garden is supported by the College of Environmental Design at the University of Georgia.
A tribute on the outside of the home to the original Ladies Garden Club founded in 1891.
The back of the headquarters room and the other view of the boxwood garden.
A tribute to Dean Hubert B. Owens who helped create and plan the Founders Memorial Garden along with his staff and students in 1939.
Statue commemorating the 25th anniversary of the National Council of Garden Clubs. Presented to the Founders Memorial Garden in 1954. The Ladies Garden Club was the first garden club in America and set the precedent for gardens clubs across the US.
These iron benches are placed throughout the garden's paths. They are each dedicated to various supporters and friends of the Garden Club of Georgia and the Founders Memorial Garden.
Founders Memorial Garden's Perennial Garden c.1944
Founders Memorial Garden's Boxwood Garden c.1940
Founders Memorial Garden c.1944
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
Originally commissioned by the Garden Club of Georgia in 1936, the garden was officially completed in 1946. The Founders Memorial Garden memorializes both the founders of the Ladies Garden Club of Athens and veterans of the US Armed Forces. Designed by UGA landscape architecture program founder Hubert Bond Owens, the Founders Memorial Garden possesses more than three hundred plant species over 2.5 acres of land. It consists of a terrace, two courtyards, a boxwood garden, an arboretum, and a perennial garden.
Organized in 1891, the Ladies’ Garden Club of Athens was the first garden club in the United States. The first meeting was held in Mrs. E.K. Lumpkin’s Parlor. Mrs. Lamar Cobb served as the Ladies’ Garden Club’s first president. At first, membership to the organization was select and could only be obtained through invitation. By 1892, membership was reportedly open to every woman who had an interest in gardening. The Ladies Garden Club became the Garden Club of Georgia in the twentieth century and decided to honor their founders and the first American garden club by creating the Founders Memorial Garden in Athens, Georgia. Mrs. Robert (Louise) Neely, the president of the Garden Club in 1946, raised over $4,000 for its creation and added a Living Memorial Arboretum to the plans to honor the men and women of Georgia who had served in World War II. Restored in accordance with the nineteenth century fixtures and trappings of the Lumpkin House, the smokehouse on the property of this memorial garden was turned into an exhibition space and repository for the artifacts of the Ladies Garden Club.
Located on the University of Georgia’s North Campus, the Lumpkin House and Founders Memorial Garden were both listed on the Georgia Register of Historic Place and the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The American Society of Landscape Architects commended the Founders Garden landscape design in 1999. Enclosed by iron fencing and brick walls, arboreta or collections of trees are surround the Lyndon house, the Robert J. Hill courtyard, and adjacent smokehouse. The boxwood garden, located behind the smokehouse, has a sundial at its center and celebrates Georgia’s agriculture through its landscape design. The design within the boxwood’s four quadrants each represent a peach, a watermelon, a Cherokee rose, and a cotton bulb. The boxwood garden is lined with a red brick walkway and surrounded by a white picket fence. A terrace garden separates the boxwood garden from the one hundred and twenty-five feet long perennial garden. Installed in 1954, a statue recognizes the 25th anniversary of the National Council of Garden Clubs. The perennial garden faces an oval koi pond and is enclosed by a serpentine brick wall lined with planting beds.
At the center of the Founders Memorial Garden, the Lumpkin House is a Greek Revival style house with welcoming arm stairs built in 1857 for faculty housing. From 1898-1919, the Lumpkin House served as a combined student residence hall and dining hall. In the 1920s, the first Dean of Women, Mary Lyndon resided in the Lumpkin House. After serving as a sorority house for Phi Mu, this historic building housed the Department of Landscape Architecture from 1939-1956. In 1963, the Garden Club of Georgia leased the building from the university and established it as the headquarters for the historic garden club. First meeting at the Biltmore Hotel in Atlanta, the Garden Club of Georgia was established in 1928. The Garden Club of Georgia is now headquartered at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens.
Today, the memorial garden is a vital part of the University of Georgia’s campus. Open to the public, it is a popular spot in the city of Athens and the university campus, especially for special events, engagements, and photoshoots. The garden is used by the College of Environment and Design for educational purposes. Every semester, students of the College of Environment and Design create art installations for this teaching garden. Apart from student use, the Founders Memorial Garden and Founders Memorial Room can also be rented out for special events.
Sources
- Boxwood Garden, Hubert B. Owens Collection, Box 20, Owens Library, School of Environment and Design, The University of Georgia
- Cothran, James R. Garden Club of Georgia. New Georgia Encyclopedia, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/garden-club-georgia. Accessed 25 March 2019.
- Founders Memorial Garden, Hubert B. Owens Collection, Box 20, Owens Library, School of Environment and Design, The University of Georgia
- Founders Memorial Garden. New Georgia Encyclopedia, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/file/6036. Accessed 18 March 2019.
- Founders Memorial Garden. UGA’s College of Environment + Design, https://ced.uga.edu/about/facilities/fmg/.
- Harris, Allyson. “Garden Provides a Haven.” The Red and Black, vol. 85, no. 10, 1978, pp. 3, Digital Library of Georgia, https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/gua1179162/1978-10-10/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=01%2F01%2F1763¬text=&date2=12%2F31%2F2017&words=founders+Founders+Garden+garden+memorial+Memorial&searchType=advanced&sequence=0&index=2&proxdistance=5&rows=12&ortext=&proxtext=&andtext=Founders+Memorial+Garden&page=1
- “National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form.” National Register Digital Assets, 1968, npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/584ff7db-e912-4dc1-bf34-e8f71286a7ac?branding=NRHP. Accessed 24 March 2019.
- “New Unit of Founders Garden Completed on Lumpkin Street.” The Red and Black, vol. XLVL, no. 1, 1941, pp. 6, Digital Library of Georgia, https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/gua1179162/1941-09-26/ed-1/seq6/#date1=01%2F01%2F1763¬text=&date2=12%2F31%2F2017&words=founders+Founders+Garden+garden+gardens+Memorial+memorial&searchType=advanced&sequence=0&index=0&proxdistance=5&rows=12&ortext=&proxtext=&andtext=Founders+Memorial+Garden&page=1
- Perennial Garden, Hubert B. Owens Collection, Box 28, Owens Library, School of Environment and Design, The University of Georgia
- The Garden Club of Georgia, Inc. | About Us, Garden Club of Georgia, gardenclub.uga.edu/foundersgarden.html. Accessed 24 March 2019.
- “University of Georgia Founders Memorial Garden.” The Cultural Landscape Foundation, https://tclf.org/landscapes/university-georgia-founders-memorial-garden.