Special Collections Division the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries Vol. XV II* No. 1 * Spring  2003

Collections Grow with Addition of Garden Club Records
by Shirley R. Rodnitzky

Special Collections is pleased to announce the acquisition of the records of the city’s oldest club, the Arlington Garden Club. Nancy Bennett, Arlington Historical Society volunteer, facilitated the transfer from the Fielder House Museum in January 2002. Organized in 1926, the club was created by thirty-one women who realized the need for a social as well as civic organization in Arlington. Gardening and the love of flowers were the motivating interests that blossomed into the Arlington Garden Club. The club’s mission, "to stimulate the love of gardening by example and by sharing horticultural knowledge with the entire community; to aid in the protection of our natural resources and to encourage civic beautification," still guides activities.

Mrs. J. D. Faulkner, the first president, led in sponsoring two new clubs; one for African American members and one for junior members. Also annual contests were held to determine the most attractive yard in town. The club gained significant membership during the height of the Depression when in February 1933, they won $1,000 in a national landscaping competition sponsored by Woman’s Home Companion. The prize was offered to the municipal rose garden that showed the greatest improvement over a two-year period. The city set aside two acres of land just left of the entrance to Meadowbrook Park in east Arlington for the rose garden project. The land was cleared, roses were planted, before and after photographs were taken, and detailed progress reports were sent to the magazine. The prize-winning garden became a tourist attraction, which drew visitors from around the area for several years before the Fort Worth Botanical Garden came into existence. The prize garden was flooded in the early 1950s. A new rose garden designed by Bill LaSalle, a UTA graduate landscape architecture student, was planted with thirty-four antique roses at the Fielder House Museum this Spring and dedicated on June 22.

The club was federated in 1930, and is a member of the National Council of State Garden Clubs, Inc., South Central Region; the Texas Garden Clubs, Inc., District II; and the Arlington Council of Garden Clubs. Members participate in the Annual Flower Show and Sale sponsored by the Arlington Council of Garden Clubs and with the council gives special programs in the community. Activities and projects include a donation to the Wildflower Research Center in Austin, planting trees on Arbor Day to memorialize deceased club members, and the purchase and donation of plants to beautify the Arlington landscape.

The Arlington Garden Club’s history is recorded in seventeen scrapbooks preserved by members from 1963 to 1998. A history of the club, 1926-1985, was written in 1985 and is a part of the 1983-1985 scrapbook. Three Arlington Council of Garden Clubs scrapbooks, and a Garden Study Club scrapbook, 1972-1980, are also a part of the club’s records. The Garden Study Club scrapbook contains a history of the club back to its organization in 1950. An Arlington Council of Garden Clubs scrapbook contains a well-documented history of the Randol Mill Park Nature Area Project including plans, maps, drawings, photographs, memorabilia, and newspaper clippings. In general, the scrapbooks contain letters, programs, photographs, and newspaper clippings organized and annotated by club members to preserve information about their yearly activities. Correspondence, financial documents, minutes of meetings, slides, a guest book, yearbooks, and miscellaneous printed materials were donated in addition to the scrapbooks. Also included with the records is an inventory and evaluation of Johnson Creek created in 1972 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service.

The Arlington Garden Club’s records are open for research. Although not fully processed, an inventory of the six boxes of records, 1955-1998, is available to facilitate use of the collection. For more information, please contact Brenda McClurkin, Special Collections Archivist, 817-272-7512, or email at mcclurkin@uta.edu.

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This page last update on Wednesday, June 25, 2003