History
London Garden Club, 1932
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The Beacon Hill Garden Club was conceived during the last years of the “Roaring Twenties,” a Golden Age of post-war exuberance during which the Beacon Hill neighborhood experienced a resurgence of popularity and a growing sense of community. Following decades of decline, The Hill was again seen as a desirable place to live, and new families arrived to buy up and restore some of the neglected properties.
A common feature of these charming old houses was the walled yard behind the dwelling, an area that in the nineteenth century needfully accommodated such domestic necessities as laundry lines, a wood shed, an out house, and a trash pit. Before long, some of the new residents recognized the potential of these compact outdoor spaces and converted them into pleasant little gardens. And thus it was that in September of 1928, a group of Beacon Hill residents gathered with the purpose of forming a neighborhood club devoted to the pleasures and perils of urban gardening.
It was a diverse group, counting among them five married couples, three single men, and eleven unmarried ladies, and they met at the neighborhood landmark, the “Sunflower Castle,” at 130 Mount Vernon Street, then the home of Gertrude Beals Bourne. By all accounts, Mrs. Bourne was the moving force in the founding of the club. The wife of Frank A. Bourne, a prominent colonial revival architect and founder of the Beacon Hill Civic Association, Mrs. Bourne was a successful professional watercolorist. Among other notable charter members were Miss Eleanor Raymond, a professional architect who is credited with designing the world’s first solar-powered dwelling, and honorary member Arthur Shurcliff, a nationally renowned landscape architect who was enormously influential in the history of American gardening. Mr. Shurcliff’s most important commission, the design of the restored gardens at Colonial Williamsburg, began in 1931. His plans still form the basis for landscape design throughout Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area.
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In its first year the group embarked on two important projects that have subsequently become club traditions. In March of 1929, they exhibited a garden in the New England Spring Flower Show (as the club continues to do every several years to the present day). Two months later, in May 1929, they sponsored an “open gardens” tour, charging $1 per ticket to visit 11 different gardens. The new event was a remarkable success, raising more than $1000. Members were then invited to offer suggestions for using this money. In the following months the club voted its first set of charitable donations and funded its first civic planting projects — much as, today, tour proceeds are allotted annually.
Starting in September 1929, exuberance faded giving way rapidly to a Great Depression. And thus, the Beacon Hill Garden Club came of age during very difficult times. The 1937 “open gardens tour “ netted a dismal $136.47.
But perhaps more than the Depression, the Second World War profoundly affected and altered the founding ethos of the club. In 1940, the tour was canceled. When the tour came back the following year, all proceeds were directed to support the British War Relief. In the following years members would remember never to forget and sent floral arrangements and Christmas stockings to the U. S. Naval Hospital in Chelsea.
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Beacon Hill Garden Club became a member of The Garden Club of America in 1972, and achieved 501(c)(3) designation as a public charity from the Internal Revenue Service in 1977. BHGC is also a member of The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts.
Today’s membership is limited to 60 active and associate members. New members must own and maintain a “hidden” Beacon Hill garden and be willing to open it to the public. At monthly meetings, members are updated on significant issues regarding conservation, the environment, and horticulture.
The annual Hidden Gardens Tour remains the club’s major fundraiser, always scheduled for the third Thursday in May. As visitors stroll at leisure on a self-guided tour along the streets of the Beacon Hill Historic District, scores of neighbors come out to take part in this once-a-year community celebration.
BHGC publishes a small book, Hidden Gardens of Beacon Hill, now in its fourth edition, with handsome color photographs and a primer of sorts to the challenges of urban gardening, especially within a historic site and historic spaces.
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