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.

Cover of 2016 Historic Garden Week guidebook spotlights historic landscape of Fort Monroe National Monument.
Garden Club of Virginia Historic Garden Week April 23-30, 2016: Garden Club of Virginia @ https://www.vagardenweek.org/guidebook-archives/

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

cover of March 2016 issue of The Garden Club of Virginia Journal
The Garden Club of Virginia's quarterly magazine presents activities and interests of the association and member clubs.
cover painting by Nan Mahone Wellborn, a professional artist and member of the Roanoke Valley Garden Club: Garden Club of Virginia @ https://www.gcvirginia.org/main/journal-archives

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