How the Elmira Garden Club planted roots and started to grow almost a century ago
Correction: Cynthia Luce was president of the Elmira Garden Club in 2017. A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the president.
A gardening rule is: when weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. For 95 years, the Elmira Garden Club has followed the rules of gardening. The first meeting of the club was held on March 5, 1928 at the Steele Memorial Library.
The idea for a Garden Club was proposed by 18-year-old Elmira high school senior James H. Draper. Apparently, his hobby was growing flowers and he read about garden clubs. In a letter to the editor in February of 1928 Draper wrote, “There are certainly enough people in Elmira who love flowers, enough to form a club … Such a flower society will advertise our city, for everyone is interested in gardens and flowers … Elmira wants to be advertised. Let its garden club help. Rochester is known as the “Flower City.” Why not Elmira as “The City of Beautiful Homes and Gardens … ” He urged people to contact him.
Draper chaired the first meeting attended by 20 to 30 people. A Star-Gazette article on Aug. 5, 1945 about the meeting pointed out that “the aim of the club is to teach the art of gardening and its allied activities and to aid in conserving the natural flora and to cooperate in beautifying the public grounds.” A look at the Garden Club’s 2023 projects demonstrates their commitment to that mission. They are active at: Katy Leary Community Gardens, Fulton Street Cemetery/Orphan Memorial, Wisner Park Veteran Memorial Garden, Chemung County Historical Society Planters, Vietnam Museum Garden, Eldridge Park Planters/Vietnam Memorial Garden, and Diven School Garden. They also have many projects at Woodlawn Cemetery: the median at the Walnut Street Gate, the Hal Roach and John Jones burial sites and the Heller Garden Columbarium.
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In 1934, the club voted unanimously in favor of establishing a Garden Center on the property of the Southern Tier Orphan’s Home Association at Fulton and Franklin Streets. The Association “donated the use of the land and attractive four-room stucco building …” The establishment of the Garden Center is one of the most important civic projects which the Elmira Garden Club has undertaken.” (Star-Gazette, March 7, 1934)
The Orphan’s Home originated in 1866 and was ultimately torn down in 1942. Unfortunately, few records were kept of the burials of children from the home. The Elmira Garden Center was the schoolhouse for grades one and two at the orphanage. It should be noted that for the 1934 donation of the building the club had agreed to maintain the building. On the 15th anniversary of its founding in March 1943, the Elmira Garden Club became incorporated and purchased the building.
Unfortunately, few records were kept of the burials of children from the home. Approximately 56 orphans, ages 1-18, are buried in the northwest corner of the Fulton Street Cemetery in unmarked graves. Of all its projects the Garden Club is especially proud of the Orphan’s Memorial, located in the Fulton Street Cemetery.
On Sunday, May 28, 2017, the Elmira Garden Club dedicated the Orphan’s Memorial at the cemetery. Cynthia Luce, Garden Club President, declared in a proclamation, “The orphans are near and dear to the Elmira Garden Club … As a community service oriented club it was decided that the orphans needed a memorial as the little wooden crosses that marked their little graves no longer exist and records were not kept as to where exactly they are buried … The new wooden cross has been built by Dustin May, a Boy Scout, working on his Eagle badge from Pine City Troop #43. The cemetery stone has been donated by the Lynch Funeral Home.”
In October of 1991, a “marker was discovered” at the corner of Main and Church streets. The removal of a large blue spruce tree uncovered a monument to the Langdon Family and Mark Twain. Apparently, no one knew the history of its placement on that spot, in front of Langdon Plaza, even local historians were befuddled. Eventually, the mystery was solved when it was learned that it had been a project of the civic beautification committee of the Garden Club in 1955.
Wilhelmina Gerard, chair of the committee, was a good friend of the Langdons. The site was selected to commemorate the “spot where a visiting Samuel Clemens literally ‘fell’ for young (Olivia) Miss Langdon.” Mary Hanforth, President of the Garden Club at the time of the placement of the monument, stated that “the materials and the labor were all donated, ‘but I can’t divulge where the plaque was cast … club members were sworn to secrecy.” (Star-Gazette October 8, 1991)
As Mayor of Elmira, in 1992, I had the honor of presenting Elmira native Hal Roach the Key to the City. He was in his 100th year. Actually, I told him it was the key to the back door as when he was 96, then Mayor Steve Fesh had given him a key. Hal was nearing the end of his life and was making plans for his final resting place. The late Donna Kerr-Nowlan, a member of the Hal Roach Society, noted that Roach “always said, Woodlawn Cemetery was the most beautiful cemetery in the whole wide world.” Hal chose to be buried with his family. With no family left in the area maintaining the plot became a challenge. In 2013, the Garden Club assumed the responsibility. Star-Gazette reporter Ray Finger, in an undated article, observed that, “The family gravesite of motion picture pioneer Hal Roach … is already beginning to look nicer since the Elmira Garden Club adopted it.” He went on to report that according to Mary K. Rutan, President of the club, that, “It’s part of the big picture. It is a new project for us. We’re always taking on new projects.”
One project that is not new to the club is caring for the rose garden at the Exedra Monument in Wisner Park. It was dedicated on Memorial Day 1924 before the Garden Club was founded. On that day, “Veterans of 1861, 1898 and 1918 joined patriotic, fraternal and civic organizations of Elmira … in paying Memorial Day tribute to the fallen members of the Grand Army who did their best in saving the Union. Early in the morning, at the unveiling of the Memorial Exedra in Wisner Park no less solemn tribute was paid to Elmira’s fallen heroes of the World War.” (Star-Gazette, May 26, 1924) Care for the flowers at the monument began with that dedication. The Elmira Garden Club formed four years later has cared for the roses paying their tribute to Elmira’s veterans ever since.
Jim Hare is a former history teacher and mayor of the City of Elmira. His column appears monthly in the Star-Gazette.
This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Elmira Garden Club history began with local teenager
