- April 25, 2024
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The Garden Club of Halifax Country is celebrating its centennial anniversary this month. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
In 1991, the GCHC played a significant role in Florida's adoption of the Coreopsis as its official wildflower, and now the flower is part of the club's new logo. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
GCHC member Cathy Weite participates in a horticulture workshop in the gazebo at Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens on Tuesday, Feb. 15. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
GCHC treasurer Meredith Vincent and Communications Chairman Lisa Watts admire a plant during a horticulture workshop in the gazebo at Ormond Memorial Art Museum. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
GCHC President Linda Armour, Centennial Committee Chairman Kay Acquaro, and Communications Chairman Lisa Watts. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Feb. 28 will mark the Garden Club of Halifax Country's 100th anniversary.
The oldest garden club in the state of Florida, the GCHC is more than just a group of ladies who love plants. In its centennial of existence, members have worked diligently on education, conservation, beautification and historic preservation projects throughout the Halifax area. From the two-decade-long effort to preserve Tuscawilla Park in Daytona Beach to the restoration of Rockefeller Gardens in the 1970s, civic engagement has been a cornerstone of what GCHC is all about.
"I think we've kept true to our mission, and interested women in those things," said GCHC president Linda Armour. "Conservation, the environment, education still stay in the forefront, and then people go into their specialties."
The GCHC was founded on Feb. 28, 1922, by Mrs. Joseph Ellicott in Ormond Beach with 10 members. Together with garden clubs in Jacksonville, Winter Park and Miami, it helped to found the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs in 1924. Since the GCHC's inception, it has grown into a group of 60 members. A member of The Garden Club of America, its community involvement includes the development of the sensory garden at the Museum of Arts and Sciences, the relocation and renovation of the 1885 Emmons Cottage at the Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens, and the restoration of Vadner Park in Ormond Beach, which will have a grand opening in April 2022.
An anniversary event was held at the Anderson-Price Memorial Building on Feb. 8, where members celebrated the milestone and learned more about the club's history. Nine scrapbooks contain 100 years of memories, and Kay Acquaro, chairman of the GCHC Centennial Committee, was in charge of condensing and narrating those memories in a 20-minute powerpoint, in line with the club's centennial theme of "Bridging the Past, Present and Future."
"It was a trip down memory lane for a lot of people," said Acquaro, who has been a member of the GCHC for 40 years.
While four decades of dedication seems significant, Acquaro is not the club's longest-standing member. Lupe Burt —a direct descendant of Frederick Law Olmstead, a landscape architect best known for designing Central Park in New York City and the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, and whose bicentennial birth is also being celebrated by the Garden Club of America this year — has been a member for 60 years.
Armour, who has been a GCHC member since 2012, said one of the main things members love about the club is the camaraderie and friendships that are made. And that leads to interesting anecdotes over the years.
"We always laugh at the first project for Mrs. Ellicott in 1922 and her ladies was to make sure ugly billboards were not in town," Armour said. "And she was going to hire the Boy Scouts to get out with their hatches and chop them down. That is lore that happens to be true. So way back in 1922, they had the idea that cities should be beautiful."
Club member Lisa Watts, chairman of communications, said she has learned a lot since she joined three years ago. She's always loved gardening, but she didn't realize how much more the club did.
"I think the awareness is what I'm so happy to do," Watts said. "When I joined the club, I had no idea about the different things they do like the children's programs and the scholarships. ... I'm really proud to be a part of it, and I hope to be a small part of continuing forward and being a part of a project that, in a 100 years, somebody will say, 'Gosh look what she was part of when she was in the club.'"
GCHC has been a finalist for the Garden Club of America Founders Fund twice in its lifetime. The first time was in 1991 with its "Window in the Forest Children's Garden and Interpretive Center," and then again in 2021 for the Vadner Park restoration project. To additionally celebrate its centennial anniversary, the club created a new logo that pays tribute to its deep-rooted value of native plants.
In 1991, the club played a significant role in Florida's adoption of the Coreopsis as its official wildflower. The new GCHC logo contains this flower.
Centennial celebrations are not over. From March 30-31, the club will host a Garden Club of America flower show, titled "Bridges," at the Oceanside Country Club, located at 75 N. Halifax Drive. It is free and open to the public.
To learn more about the GCHC, visit www.thegchc.com
