Garvan Woodland Gardens

Last updated
Hot Springs' Lake Hamilton, viewed from a Garvan Woodland Gardens trail. Lake Hamilton.jpg
Hot Springs' Lake Hamilton, viewed from a Garvan Woodland Gardens trail.
Garvan Woodland Gardens' Japanese Garden. Garvan Woodland Gardens' Japanese Garden.jpg
Garvan Woodland Gardens' Japanese Garden.
Flowers near the lake.jpg
Pink Tulips at Garvan Woodland Gardens. The tulips are very abundant every spring. Pink Tulips at Garvan Woodland Gardens.jpg
Pink Tulips at Garvan Woodland Gardens. The tulips are very abundant every spring.

Garvan Woodland Gardens is a 210-acre (85 ha) botanical garden and woodland garden located at 550 Arkridge Road, approximately 6 miles from Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas, United States. Owned by the University of Arkansas, it has the stated mission of education, research and public service. For an admission fee, it is open daily, except on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and the month of January. [1]

Contents

Garvan Woodland Gardens is situated on a woodland peninsula with 4.5 miles (7 km) of shoreline on Lake Hamilton. It features rocky inclines reminiscent of the surrounding Ouachita Mountains, floral landscapes, streams, and waterfalls in a natural woodland setting, plus the fifth-ranked Garden of the Pine Wind Japanese Garden with Japanese maples and tree peonies, a conifer border, and various flower and rock gardens. Its collections display hundreds of rare shrubs and trees, including camellias, magnolias, roses and more than 160 different types of azaleas.

History

The garden site was clear-cut around 1915. It was purchased by the Arthur B. Cook family of Malvern, Arkansas in the 1920s. Arthur B. Cook operated Wisconsin-Arkansas Lumber Company and Malvern Brick and Tile Company until his premature death in 1934. Shortly afterward, a daughter, Verna Cook Garvan, assumed control of the A.B. Cook companies as one of the first female chief executive officers of a major southern manufacturing business. She served as CEO until her retirement in the 1970s.

A self-taught gardener, Verna Cook Garvan began to develop the site in 1956 as a garden and possible future homesite. Over the next 40 years, she planted thousands of specimens. She was intimately familiar with site and laid out each path. She personally chose each new plant and selected its location.

Upon her death in 1993, Mrs. Garvan left the property to the Department of Landscape Architecture of the University of Arkansas, through the University of Arkansas Foundation. The department is now an independent department within the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. [2]

Fay Jones, winner of the American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal and first dean of the University of Arkansas School of Architecture, co-designed Verna Cook Garvan Pavilion, which sits in the center of the original plantings. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malvern, Arkansas</span> City in Arkansas, United States

Malvern is a city in and the county seat of Hot Spring County, Arkansas, United States. Founded as a railroad stop at the eastern edge of the Ouachita Mountains, the community's history and economy have been tied to available agricultural and mineral resources. The production of bricks from locally available clay has earned the city the nickname, "The Brick Capital of the World". The city had a population of 10,318 at the time of the 2010 census, and in 2019 the estimated population was 10,931.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fayetteville, Arkansas</span> City in Arkansas, United States

Fayetteville is the 2nd most populous city in Arkansas, the county seat of Washington County, and the most populous city in Northwest Arkansas. The city is on the outskirts of the Boston Mountains, deep within the Ozarks. Known as Washington until 1829, the city was named after Fayetteville, Tennessee, from which many of the settlers had come. It was incorporated on November 3, 1836, and was rechartered in 1867. Fayetteville is included in the three-county Northwest Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is ranked 100th in terms of population in the United States with 576,403 in 2022 according to the United States Census Bureau. The city had a population of 99,285 in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arboretum</span> Botanical collection composed exclusively of trees

An arboretum is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arboreta are in botanical gardens as living collections of woody plants and is intended at least in part for scientific study.

Euine Fay Jones was an American architect and designer. An apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright during his professional career, Jones is the only one of Wright's disciples to have received the AIA Gold Medal (1990), the highest honor awarded by the American Institute of Architects. He also achieved international prominence as an architectural educator during his 35 years of teaching at the University of Arkansas School of Architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria</span> Botanic gardens at Melbourne and Cranbourne

Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria are botanic gardens across two sites–Melbourne and Cranbourne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden</span> Botanic garden in Miami, Florida, US

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden is an 83-acre (34 ha) botanic garden with extensive collections of rare tropical plants including palms, cycads, flowering trees, and vines. It is located in the city of Coral Gables, Miami-Dade County, just south of Miami, surrounded at the north and west by Matheson Hammock Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fitzroy Gardens</span> Public gardens in Melbourne, Australia

The Fitzroy Gardens are 26 hectares located on the southeastern edge of the Melbourne central business district in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The gardens are bounded by Clarendon Street, Albert Street, Lansdowne Street, and Wellington Parade with the Treasury Gardens across Lansdowne street to the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens</span> Place in Stamfort, Connecticut, U.S.

The Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens in Stamford, Connecticut, contains 93 acres of parkland, gardens, landscapes, and hiking trails that focus on the regional plants, ecology and character of Southwestern New England. The Arboretum is open and accessible to the public every day of the year and is located at 151 Brookdale Road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State University Northridge Botanic Garden</span>

The California State University Northridge Botanic Garden or CSUN Botanic Garden is located in the northern San Fernando Valley, in the southeast section ("quadrant") of the California State University, Northridge campus in the community of Northridge in Los Angeles, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powell Gardens</span>

Powell Gardens, Kansas City's botanical garden, is a 970-acre (3.9 km2) botanical garden in Kingsville, Missouri, United States, 30 miles (48 km) east of Kansas City. It features 6,000 varieties of plants, with 225,000 plants in seasonal displays, and is open to the public, for a fee, during daylight hours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney</span> Botanic gardens in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

The Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney is a heritage-listed major 30-hectare (74-acre) botanical garden, event venue and public recreation area located at Farm Cove on the eastern fringe of the Sydney central business district, in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parks and gardens of Melbourne</span> Parks and gardens in Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Melbourne is Australia's second largest city and widely considered to be a garden city, with Victoria being nicknamed "the Garden State". Renowned as one of the most livable cities in the world, there is an abundance of parks, gardens and green belts close to the CBD with a variety of common and rare plant species amid landscaped vistas, pedestrian pathways, and tree-lined avenues, all managed by Parks Victoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Hamilton and Lake Catherine</span> Man-made lakes in Arkansas, U.S.

Lake Hamilton and Lake Catherine are a pair of man-made lakes located in Hot Springs, Arkansas, serving as a tourist attraction for the area. Both Lakes were developed by Arkansas Power & Light.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgia Southern Botanical Garden</span>

The Botanic Garden at Georgia Southern University is a botanical garden featuring many unique and endangered plants with many native to Georgia. The garden's main entrance is located at 1505 Bland Avenue, Statesboro, Georgia, a few blocks from the main Georgia Southern University campus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design</span> Architecture school at the University of Arkansas

The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, founded in 1946 by John G. Williams at the University of Arkansas, offers education in these fields: architecture, landscape architecture and interior design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auburn Botanic Gardens</span>

The Auburn Botanic Gardens are a botanical garden located in Auburn, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1977 and covers an area of 9.7 hectares. There are two lakes, a waterfall and bridges. Duck River winds through the garden. The garden is maintained by Cumberland Council. It is open daily, and there is a small entry fee on weekends. The Japanese gardens, which have hosted couples from overseas, are one of the main attractions.

Garvan may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marlon Blackwell</span> American architect

Marlon Blackwell is an American architect and university professor in Arkansas. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verna Cook Salomonsky</span> American architect

Verna Cook Salomonsky (1890–1978) was a pioneering early 20th-century American architect known for her work as a solo practitioner in residential communities outside of New York in the 1920s and 1930s and later as an author on architectural design and history. Following the death of her first husband, Edgar Salomonsky, in 1929, she maintained her own practice and designed several hundred homes, including a model home for the New York World's Fair in 1939. In the 1960s, she and her second husband, Warren Butler Shipway, wrote several books on Mexican domestic architecture and design.

Verna Cook Garvan (1910-1993) was a business woman and philanthropist in the state of Arkansas. Her main business holdings included the Wisconsin & Arkansas Lumber Company, and Malvern Brick and Tile Company. She is the founder and benefactor of Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

References

  1. "Mission statement". University of Arkansas. Retrieved February 18, 2016.
  2. "Verna Cook Garvan". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved February 18, 2016.
  3. "History of Garvan Woodland Gardens". University of Arkansas. Retrieved February 18, 2016.

34°26′05″N93°02′44″W / 34.4347°N 93.0456°W / 34.4347; -93.0456