Virginia Historic Garden Week 2016 Is By Tradition April’s Last Week

The monetary total of revenue from admissions to garden and historic restoration projects and from charges for hotel stays and restaurant visits fits into economic impact. 

The guidebook gives information on 34 Virginia Historic Garden Week 2016 tours, on 48 Garden Club of Virginia restoration projects and on non-tour places to visit. The first guidebook entry has particulars on Ashland’s college, cemetery, five tour sites, local businesses, museum and visitor center 15 miles (24.14 kilometers) north of Richmond. The last entry identifies Roanoke’s five tour sites and Fincastle Presbyterian Church, Hollins University, Mill Mountain wildflower garden, "Salvage Dawgs" film set and Taubman Art Museum.

Proceeds from sales of the 80,000 guidebooks printed and sold worldwide join those from yearly tours to support conservation, landscape restorations, research fellowships and state parks.

Headquarters in the 171-year-old Kent-Valentine House built at 12 East Franklin Street from Boston-born architect Isaiah Rogers’ plans keep the Garden Club of Virginia centrally located.

Situation at the center of national communication and transportation networks lets 3,300 volunteers move 507 tour signs and 2,000 arrangements filled with 5,730 tulips to sites. It means that 365-day preparations between Virginia Historic Garden Week 2015 and Virginia Historic Garden Week 2016 pay off, just like original triggers 89 years ago. Garden Club of Virginia archives note the need in 1927 to plant trees at Monticello and to save trees planted by 3rd U.S. President Thomas Jefferson.

Online inflation calculators offer $95,000 as today’s equivalent of the $7,000 raised by the Albemarle Garden Club flower show and serving as historic garden week’s inspiration. 

Records place first-ever garden week project restorations at 240-year-old Kenmore Plantation, home of Fielding and Betty Lewis, brother-in-law and sister of 1st U.S. President George Washington.

Mulberry Row’s Kitchen Road to Monticello’s enslaved and freed labor, qualifies as one of the more recent restorations targeted by Virginia Historic Garden Week proceeds. Other projects range from Bacon’s Castle to Bruton Parish Church, John Handley High School, Ker Place, Monticello, Mount Vernon, Poe Museum and Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library. 

The Garden Club of Virginia subdivides the Commonwealth into six regions, from whose foremost, signature garden restorations and historic preservations the current year’s rotation is selected. The 84th and the 85th Virginia Historic Garden Weeks take place from April 22 to April 29, 2017, and from April 21 to April 28, 2018.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Preston Lake, a mixed-use neighborhood east of Harrisonburg, makes a first appearance in Garden Club of Virginia's Historic Week in 2016 with "a Charleston townhome, a cottage, and two manor homes" (Guidebook, page 97).
Preston Lake's Historic Garden Week participating properties are located at 3317 Preston Shore Drive, 3094 Clubhouse Hill Road, and 3216 and 3217 Henry Grant Hill.
Preston Lake panorama by Richmond-based oil and watercolor artist Beth Marchant: Historic Garden Week in Harrisonburg April 27, 2016, via Facebook March 17, 2016, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=980373452076032&set=a.297688940344490; via Facebook March 17, 2016, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=980373452076032&set=ecnf.100066608876479%2F/

Kent Valentine House: historic headquarters for Garden Club of Virginia
Virginia Landmark Register (VLR) listing date October 6, 1970; National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) listing date December 18, 1970; NRHP reference no. 70000882
12 East Franklin Street, Monroe Ward, downtown Richmond; Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) photo: No known restrictions, via Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) @ https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/va0560.photos.162568p/

"Virginia Historic Garden Week" (2:23)
Uploaded April 22, 2016, by Culpeper Media Network to YouTube ~ URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuGUOajXNdk

"Historic Garden Week 2016 Guide Book Cover Shoot" (2:24)
Uploaded June 3, 2015, by plantPOP to YouTube ~ URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzAvXzT6DcY

Isle of Wight's Davis Day House comprises the 1809 original house, made of locally-made Flemish bond bricks, and two 21st-century built wings (Garden Club of Virginia Historic Garden Week April 23-30, 2016, Guidebook, pages 106-107).
(top) illustration by Richmond-based oil and watercolor artist Beth Marchant
15400 Mokete Trail, Smithfield, Isle of Wight County, South Hampton Roads subregion, southeastern Virginia: Historic Garden Week in Southeastern VA, via Facebook March 14, 2016, @ https://www.facebook.com/historicgardenweekpsf/posts/the-davis-day-house-c1809-fascinating-and-fabulous-for-its-original-section-and-/975523879206354/

Cadwallender, Jeanette Rowe. 9 April 2016. “Cadwallender: The Surprising History of Garden Week in Virginia.” Richmond Times-Dispatch > Opinion > Columnists and Commentary.

• Available @ http://www.richmond.com/opinion/their-opinion/guest-columnists/article_21273904-b441-51c9-8002-04492eb3544a.html

Ellsworth, Karen Cauthen. 26 February 2016. “America’s Largest Open House is Virginia’s Oldest Volunteer Tourism Project: Historic Garden Week April 23-30, 2016 in its 83^rd Year.” Garden Club of Virginia > Historic Garden Week > Pressroom > Historic Garden Week 2016 Press Release.

• Available @ http://www.vagardenweek.org/main/pressroom

“Historic Garden Week April 23-30, 2016.” Garden Club of Virginia > What We Do > Historic Garden Week > Tour Guidebook > Historic Garden Week Guidebook > 2016 HGW Guidebook.

• Available @ http://www.gcvirginia.org/main/historic-garden-week

Tyre, Alex. 4 April 2016. “Garden Club of Virginia Presents Restored Landscape to Monticello.” Monticello > Press > News Releases.

• Available @ https://www.monticello.org/site/press/garden-club-virginia-presents-restored-landscape-monticello