Club History

1934-1939

In 1934 the club was organized with a small group of men and women meeting for the first time at the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). They elected Mrs. Maurice Lymburner, President and Mr. Charles Miller, First Vice President. Mr. Miller succeeded Mrs. Lymburner in 1936 and Mr. Lyman Jacobson followed him in 1937. Mrs. Charles Little presided in 1938 when The Club was addressed by Mr. William Robinson who spoke about the plants on the National Conservation Committee list of endangered species. A vote was taken then to sponsor a campaign for the protection of wild flowers and shrubs on MDI and plans were made to save some of the rare and endangered flower species. After a few years the Club moved its meetings to the Bar Harbor Congregational Church where the meetings continue to be held. According to the history written for the 50th Anniversary, attendance at early meetings ranged from “so few we had to cancel the meeting to fifty or more”.

Charter Members
A list of the charter members of the Bar Harbor Garden Club, dated January 1934 follows for your information:
Mrs. Gerard Alley, Mrs. John Ash, Miss Maude Blanchfield, Miss Eileen Burnett, Mrs. Prescott Cleaves, Mr. Fred Copp, Mrs. Fred Copp, Mrs. Guy Farrar, Mrs. Maude Furness, Mrs. Percy Kelly, Miss Louise Leland, Mrs. Morrice F. Lymburner, Mr. Morrice F. Lymburner, Miss Beatrice McAvoy, Mrs. Arthur MacQuinn, Mr. Charles Miller, Miss Jane Miller, Miss Phyllis Miller, Mrs. J. Alden Morse, Mr. John Nichels, Mrs. Charles Parker, Mrs. Lena Potter, Mrs. David Rodick, Mrs. Serenus Rodick, Mrs. Thomas Searles, Mr. Thomas Searles, Miss Helen Sherman, Mrs. Erick Soderholtz, Mr. Erick Soderholtz, Miss Alberta T. Thomas.

1940-1949

The Club joined the GCFM at the December meeting, 1940. Mrs. Beatrix Farrand gave an instructive talk about Reef Point, her Bar Harbor House, at a special meeting in 1941. She became an honorary member in 1945 to commemorate her effort in “doing so much to make Bar Harbor garden conscious.” In 1942, the United States had entered World War II and members’ attention turned to planting victory gardens. The Club planted a Victory Garden and distributed Christmas wreaths to Camp Lee Stephenson at Eastport and to the Bar Harbor Naval Base. At that time meetings were held in member’s houses and horticultural articles and plant slips were exchanged. The Club printed its first Year Book in 1945 and adopted Lupine as The Club flower. In September, 1945, the Club made plans for a flower and vegetable show to be held at the YWCA.

The Saint Croix District did not meet during the war, but held its first post war Conference in October, 1945 at the YWCA in Bar Harbor. The Bar Harbor Club hosted the meeting. Mr. Benjamen Hadley, Acadia National Park Superintendent, presented a talk on the history of MDI and the efforts of George Dorr in acquiring land for the Park. The June 1946 Annual Convention of the GCFM was held at the Belmont Hotel in Bar Harbor. The Club participated in the 1949 GCFM planting of the Lilac Memorial Hedge at the Veteran’s cemetery at Togus, the Vererans Hospital in Augusta. At the November 1949 meeting Beatrix Farrand recounted the planting of elms and Norway maples in Bar Harbor by her mother, Mrs. Jones, and Mrs. Charles Hazen Dorr.

1950-2006

At the December 1950 meeting it was noted that “during the roll call a fine of 22 cents was accepted from members who failed to reply with a Christmas verse or prose as provided on the printed programs.” A reference appears in the 1960 records to a club song to be followed by the Gardeners’ Collect and to a fine of sixty cents for failure to respond to the roll call. In that year The Club planted flower beds on the village green in Bar Harbor and on the islands at the corners of Eden and Mt. Desert and Eden and West Street. A wild flower growing competition began in 1960 and Harold Hubler, the superintendent of Acadia National Park, designated a space for the project and helped to landscape it. The Park Service helped with paths, labels, and hauling rock so the mountain habitat might be more authentic in an otherwise rock-less site. The Club realized their dream begun in 1938 when in the fall of 1961 the Wild Gardens of Acadia were established. The Kellogg Medal for Civic Achievement was awarded to the Club in 1977 by the National Council of State Garden Clubs, and the Homer Lucas Landscape Award was given to the Club in 1998 for its dedication to the Wild Gardens of Acadia.

The Club’s first standard flower show, “Acadia Vacation”, took place in 1983 to celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary with Jane Haraden and Janet Meryweather as co-chairmen, and a commemorative tea was held that year on September 13th. In collaboration with the MDI Historical Society The Club planted an heirloom garden at the museum in Somesville in 2004 and continues to help maintain the garden. The Club hosted the GCFM Annual Meeting held in June, 2006. At that time the GCFM celebrated its Seventy Fifth Anniversary. The meeting, organized by Betty Crawford, was attended by over four hundred people and was the largest meeting ever held by the GCFM. The featured speakers were Martha Stewart, Television celebrity, and Patrick Chasse, noted Landscape Architect.

2009

During the year 2009 the one hundred and five members of the Bar Harbor Garden Club (The Club) proudly commemorated their Seventy Fifth Anniversary. A Garden Tour of nine Grand and Gracious Seaside Gardens was held on July 19th. On the tour were two gardens designed by Beatrix Farrand and a historic house which is on the National Register of Historic Places. On September 13th an Anniversary Tea was held at the home of Janet and Steen Meryweather. This event was organized by Betty Crawford, Lindy Stretch, and Michaeleen Ward. For this festive occasion, many members wore hats.

The Club makes contributions of time, expert gardening skills, and financial support to the Wild Gardens of Acadia, the Beatrix Farrand Garden at Garland Farm, the Charlotte Rhoades Butterfly Garden, the Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve (the Asticou Azalea Garden and the Thuya Garden), and the Mount Desert Island Historical Society garden in Somesville. The Club also supports scholarships and school programs for young people on Mount Desert Island (MDI) and contributes to the Student Conservation Association. The Club is a member of the National Garden Clubs, Inc. and the Garden Club Federatlion of Maine and participate in their programs for youth including the Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl poetry contests. Birch Bay Village enjoys a tree The Club planted at their entrance in 2006 and our members provide plants for their Memory Garden. The Blue Star Marker in honor of Captain Ernest Joy was restored and rededicated in 2006. Books in memory of deceased members are donated to the Jesup Library and plantings are provided for the Library landscaping. The Club contributed to the Northeast Harbor Library’s Garden Room, which contains a collection of books and materials on the subject of horticulture. At the February meeting The Club makes and distributes tray favors for nursing homes. The Saint Croix District established a state wide scholarship for college students in memory of Nell Goff, a cherished president of The Club, and the scholarship is administered by a member of The Club. The Inge Webber Scholarship for high school students on MDI was established and is maintained by The Club in memory of another cherished president. A July 4th Pie Sale at The Ball Field in Bar Harbor has long been a fundraiser for the club. The pie sale was supplemented in 2009 by the garden tour.

The Club meets the second Thursday of the month from September through May. Meetings are open to everyone and details of each meeting are posted in the Mount Desert Islander and The Ellsworth American. One may also consult the website.

With the help of the Club archives and friends this history has been compiled by Betty Crawford, Richard Crawford, and Janet Meryweather. —December 2009

Continued from 2010 to 2020

At the time of this writing, the Bar Harbor Garden Club is celebrating its eightieth anniversary of federation by the Garden Club Federation of Maine.  We organized in 1934, and joined the Garden Club Federation of Maine in 1940.  Though never large in number, with membership hovering between seventy-two and 101 over the past decade, the men and women of the Club have had an impressive impact on the horticultural and social history of Mount Desert Island, and had fun while doing so.

Despite our name, our members are from all over M.D.I. (and beyond), and our projects serve many towns here and on nearby islands.  Our stated mission is:  to promote the love of horticulture, to protect and preserve our natural resources, to provide educational opportunities, to contribute responsibly to civic and environmental needs, and to enjoy the fellowship of our members.

As noted in the “Brief History… From 1934 to 2009” by Betty and Richard Crawford and Janet Meryweather, we have done numerous supportive projects, large and small, from our start to the present.  Among these, we have contributed gardening skills and financial support to Wild Gardens of Acadia, Beatrix Farrand Society’s Garland Farm, and the Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve (which encompasses Thuya Garden, Asticou Azalea Garden, and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden).  We encourage young folks from elementary school through college with contests and scholarships.  For the latter we are trustees for the ‘Inge C.B. Weber Memorial Scholarship’, ‘The Peter H. Dolliver Legacy Scholarship’, and the ‘Nell Goff Memorial Scholarship’. We work to honor our Veterans (maintain Blue Star Memorial Marker and ceremonies) and our seniors (plantings and holiday favors at local care residences).  During 2020’s novel Coronavirus we made significant donations aiding two local food pantries, and supporting local farmers by funding two Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares.  We are supportive of libraries and schools who ask our help, from edible plantings and perennials to greenhouse aid and tree plantings.  We partnered with Jesup Memorial Library during their on-going expansion by providing benches in a ‘Pop-up’ garden, promoting the theme “Take Thyme to read”.

Also, noteworthy, our informative monthly meetings are open to the public.  Over the past ten years our speakers have included Bill Cullina of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, and important landscape architects Patrick Chassé and Bruce Riddell.  Other experts spoke on orchids, bonsai, succulents, peonies, rhododendrons, medicinal herbs, mushrooms, apples, blueberries, cranberries, lichens and mosses, shade gardens, and even the sex life of plants, bees and butterflies!

In 2016 we contributed an important oral history about the beginnings of the Wild Gardens of Acadia to the Acadia Centennial Project.  It was included in the time capsule for the Park.  In 2020 we won a Maine Arts Commission Bicentennial Project Grant for our recent project to re-introduce Maine’s native lupine to our landscape.  It is the Club flower.

Speaking of flowers, our biennial garden tours continue to be successful fundraisers. Though labor-intensive, in 2019 more than seventy volunteers worked hard and earned well-deserved kudos from hundreds of appreciative guests.  New in 2020, we began informal “Gardening 101” on-site classes to further members’ knowledge.

In 2017 the Club began publishing a monthly newsletter, ‘The Lupine Log’.  We also successfully preserved our eighty years of history in the Club Archives with an agreement with Jesup Memorial Library as our safe space.  Currently we support a Club Facebook page, and have implemented online payment services on our website to facilitate Club donations, Membership renewals, and Purchasing of Garden Tour tickets.

The Bar Harbor Garden Club has a long and honorable record of service to the Community, and an abiding love of all Things Horticultural.  We share a firm desire to encourage a better appreciation of our Natural World.

Won’t You Join Us?