FALL 2003 LEAF QUOTE
"the Italian Cypress & China arbor vita grows well but how they will fare next winter
(which I expect will be hard enough) I cant say"
- John Bartram to Peter Collinson, October 1757
NEW ADMINISTRATION COMPLEX DEDICATED
Saturday October 11th was a beautiful clear autumn day when about twenty friends of the Garden joined together to dedicate the new buildings and celebrate the 275th anniversary of the purchase of the property by John Bartram in 1728. Executive Director Bill LeFevre, Board President Sidney Spahr, Vice President Toni Brinton, and Tom Unkefer of Unkefer Brothers Construction addressed those assembled with tales of the long process, which brought the long-held dream of moving the staff off the third floor of the Bartram house to fruition.
The buildings, designed by architect James K. Dart, are clad in cedar and fit in well with the other historic structures on the site. Supporters donated over $1,250,000 to the project, including major gifts from Dorrance Hill Hamilton, McLean Contributionship, William Penn Foundation, Kitty Muckle, Susan Horsey, Mark and Alice Bower, Mr. and Mrs. Francis Bohlen, Sunoco, Inc., and the Board of Directors of the John Bartram Association. Additionally, Richard E. Heckert generously offers to match up to $10,000 in individual gifts to the building fund in memory of his late wife and long-time Bartram supporter and Board Member Babs Heckert. If you wish to participate in the Heckert match and help complete funding for the project, donations are still being sought for the final $150,000 in expenses.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
The unusually wet spring may have bothered some, but its effect on the Garden was a welcome relief after the past few years of summer drought. The combination of the restored façade of the Bartram House and the lush vegetation and intense bloom this spring made for quite a sight.
While the business of building our new administration complex kept me occupied a great deal of the time, the staff continued to offer excellent programs and service to our members and visitors. Education Director Christy Schneider and her staff, Barbara Klein, Donna Rohanna, Betsy Cashin, Danae Olsen, and Carolyn Scott welcomed over 8000 students and 3000 adults for lessons and tours of the site. With a generous grant from Frederick Heldring, they will be able to expand our program in 2004 to students from schools in some of Philadelphia’s poorest neighborhoods, which previously could not afford even the discounted $4 fee per student.
Head Gardener Jay Danzenbaker spent much of his time this past year caring for the grounds on a new Kubota tractor donated last spring through the generosity of Mark and Alice Bower and FM and David Mooberry. The addition of this piece of equipment has dramatically enhanced our stewardship of the site. Assistant Gardener Nancy Wygant has done a great job caring for our display gardens and developing interpretive materials for them.
Curator Joel Fry continues to amaze me with his encyclopedic knowledge of everything Bartram, and in addition to keeping my eye on preservation, has helped tremendously in our move toward new technologies.
Custodian Bill Butler not only keeps the facilities in order, but also manages to assist in the Garden and help Security Guard Wayne Bruce keep a watchful eye on everything during weddings and special events.
Teddy Ashmead settled in as our first full-time Director of Development, relieving me of the huge burden of handling development on my own, and Assistant to the Director Andrea Taylor continues as the true brains of the operation.
Each summer the Garden experiences a rise in mischief and vandalism, which escalated to new heights this year as we experienced a series of break-ins to our Museum Shop and vehicles in the parking lot. And contrary to popular belief, we are reasonably certain the perpetrators are not from Bartram Village, which continues to be a good neighbor and partner in protecting the site. The staff weathered the stress of these incidents well and has been instrumental in formulating actions and procedures to better protect our site, visitors, property, and staff. The Fairmount Park Rangers and the 12th District of the Philadelphia Police provided quick response and added coverage for which we are deeply grateful.
With the new buildings complete we look forward to building our public dock next summer with the help of the Fairmount Park Commission, the City’s Capital Program Office, and Urban Engineers, Inc. Over 500 people participated in our 2003 series of Schuylkill River Cruises in anticipation of the day when we will connect to the Waterworks and Center City on a regular basis by way of a revitalized lower Schuylkill River. We look forward to seeing more of you on the river in 2004.
RECENT GRANTS
Pew Charitable Trusts $68,000 over three years
McLean Contributionship $30,000
Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission $24,255
Connelly Foundation $18,400
Philadelphia Cultural Fund $10,260
William Penn Foundation $10,000
Sunoco, Inc. $10,000
Independence Foundation $10,000
Christopher Ludwick Foundation $7,500
George Martin & Miriam Martin Foundation $5,000
Henrietta Tower Wurts Memorial $4,000
Philadelphia Committee of the Garden Club of America $3,000
Thomas H. & Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund $3,000
Vanguard Group $2,500
Union Benevolent Association $2,000
Walter J. Miller Foundation $2,000
Barra Foundation $1,700
Berwind Corporation $1,000
Elizabeth Hooper Foundation $1,000
ANNUAL HOLIDAY GREENS SALE AND OPEN HOUSE
Saturday, December 6, 2003 10 a.m.- 4p.m.
(Member’s Preview Friday, December 5th, 12-4 p.m.)
Bartram’s Garden’s Annual Holiday Greens Sale is just around the corner and Chair Dottie Caporali is looking for donations of greens. Especially prized are holly, magnolia, boxwood, cedar, variegated evergreens, and winterberry and other winter fruits. Please remember the Garden when pruning and call us at 215-729-5281 if you can help. Non-members wishing to attend the Member’s Preview may join that day.
THE GREAT DESERT: A BARTRAM TRAIL TOUR THROUGH THE NEW JERSEY PINE BARRENS
Joel T. Fry, Curator, and Dr. William Cahill, author of "William Bartram and the Romance of Learning," led a hardy group on Saturday, June 21st following John Bartram’s explorations through the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Bartram’s more distant trips to New York, New England, and the South are celebrated, but his local collecting activities are less well known even though he probably collected in New Jersey almost every year of his adult life.
The group visited locations with plants Bartram was known to collect such as Webb’s Mill Bog, with an abundance of pitcher plants, orchids, and other rare Pine Barrens natives; The Plains, a unique environment features pine and oak trees that stand only shoulder high where Bartram collected his "Dwarf Pine of the Desert"; and the Pasadena Fish and Wildlife Management Area, where a wide range of Pine Barrens plants are found including Bartram’s "grassy plant" – the turkey beard or Xerophyllum asphodeloides, which was observed in bloom.
We plan to repeat this popular trip next spring. If you have never been to the Pine Barrens to experience this unique environment, watch the mail and website for details and join us.
FAREWELL
Longtime development associate Claire Murray retired this fall after six years of dedicated service. Claire coordinated all membership and annual appeal solicitations and we will miss her on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Claire and her husband Key remain at home in Wilmington, Delaware. But something of Claire remains behind, as she is also the mother of Ted Marvel, the web master of the Garden’s web site www.bartramsgarden.org
IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN…
Each year the John Bartram Association raises a substantial portion of its operating budget through its annual giving campaign. These gifts are in addition to membership support (for which we are also grateful!) and allow us to develop quality public programs, enhance facilities, and maintain outstanding staff to fulfill the Association’s mission.
Last year, individual gifts to the Association’s appeal for operating funds exceeded our goal of $75,000, and for that we are deeply thankful. Our goal this year is $90,000, which we will use to enhance programs and facilities in preparation for increased visitation and the anticipated construction of our dock on the Schuylkill River next summer.
If you did not receive an annual giving letter or have questions or comments please contact Development Director Teddy Ashmead or Executive Director Bill LeFevre at (215) 729-5281. Thank you in advance for your generous support.
REPLANTING OF BARTRAM HOUSE WEST FOUNDATION
The recent Bartram House Exterior Conservation included the digging of a ten-foot deep trench along the west foundation wall of the house. The excavation allowed the installation of foundation drainage to remove moisture from the walls of the house.
During the preparations for last spring’s plant sale, the landscape committee headed by Maggie Dugan organized the replanting of the west foundation with native groundcovers including, Iris cristata, Phlox stolonifera, Sedum ternatum ,Tiarella cordifolia, and Viola labradorica, and ferns Osmunda cinnamonea and Polystichum polyblepharum. Special thanks go to Steve Hutton of Conard-Pyle for his generous donation of plants.
HURRICANE ISABEL
The Bartram Benefit Cruise scheduled for September 18th was postponed until May 26, 2004 due to the arrival of Hurricane Isabel in the Delaware Valley. Benefit Chair Gretchen Riley made the timely call to postpone and promises a fantastic evening on the Schuylkill next spring.
Little damage occurred as the storm passed to the west, but high winds did take their toll on the Garden’s 218 year-old Ginkgo, which lost two major branches in the storm. Coupled with two additional branches lost in an earlier spring storm, our Ginkgo lost approximately 15% of its foliage this season. Peter Del Tredici of the Arnold Arboretum, the leading expert on the species, stated when asked about the impact of such a loss that the Ginkgo, know to live 3000 years in China, is a remarkably hardy tree and almost impossible to kill. Landscape Committee member, arborist Paul McFarland, inspected the damage and arranged for a leading arborist to provide a quote for pruning the Ginkgo and our venerable Yellowwood as well.
If you would like to help the Association cover the cost of this work your donations can be matched through a generous offer by Mr. McFarland, contact Executive Director Bill LeFevre if you wish to participate in this effort to safeguard our most historic trees.
WOODLAND ACADEMY PLANTERS
Three new planters can be found just south of the intersection of Gray’s Avenue and 54th Street in front of the Woodland Academy Day Care Center. Woodland’s Director Sandra Pollard contacted the Garden last summer for advice on "greening" the strip along the curb in front of the their building. Assistant Gardener Nancy Wygant recommended the use of half-barrels as the most cost effective and sustainable solution for the site. Bartram’s donated the planting soil and the children at Woodland Academy planted annuals, which will be replaced with evergreen boughs in the fall. The pre-schoolers at Woodland Academy are frequent visitors to the garden, just a short walk from their site, and often are seen marching down the driveway with Woodland staff toward the playground at the south end of the Garden.
BARTRAM’S HONORED BY PHS
The Common Flower Garden received first place in the Large Community Flower Garden category of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s City Garden’s Contest this summer. Assistant Gardener Nancy Wygant’s skill in nurturing the Common Flower Garden and the Upper Kitchen Garden were praised by the PHS judges who visited on a perfect early summer day. Nancy began working in the Common Flower Garden two years ago following a quarter century of care provided by volunteer gardeners led by Cissy Barrows and Bets Layman who deserve much of the credit for the recreation and development of this historic flower garden.
FAIRMOUNT PARK MEETS AT BARTRAM’S
Last fall the Fairmount Park Commission’s new President, Robert N.C. Nix III decided to occasionally take the Commission’s monthly meetings out of Memorial Hall and on the road.
On October 8th the Commission held their meeting in the Bartram Barn built by John Bartram, Jr. in 1775, now the oldest barn in Philadelphia County. The Commissioners, some of whom had never been to Bartram’s before, were impressed by the renovations to our barn performed in 1999, which allow meetings and events to be held in beautiful and comfortable surroundings.
If you know of any company or organization looking for a unique venue to hold an offsite meeting, the Barn is available for groups of up to forty people. Contact Andrea Taylor at the Garden, 215-729-5281, for rates and information.
BARTRAM MURALS
Several years ago a truck from the School District of Philadelphia arrived at the Garden containing a collection of depression-era murals depicting the life of John Bartram. We invite you to see them now as they hang in the Community Meeting Room in our new Administration Building. Bartram’s travels to the Shenandoah Valley, Georgia, and Florida are depicted as well the founding of the American Philosophical Society, and scenes of his house and farm.
The seven large paintings formerly hung on the walls of Bartram High School in Southwest Philadelphia, itself a landmark building in the Art Deco style built in 1937. The murals were transferred to the Association’s care after being neglected, damaged, and clumsily repaired over decades in the stressful environment of an urban high school.
Since their arrival the murals have been stored in the Associations climate controlled archive. The images were used to illustrate an educational supplement to the Bartram 300 Celebration in 1998, but have not been seen as an entire collection since their arrival at the Garden.
LANDSCAPE COMMITTEE PLANS FOR THE LONG-TERM
A sub-committee of the Landscape Committee, led by Board Member Tim Storbeck, convened this fall to revisit the collections policy of the Garden and develop a framework for the future preservation and development of plantings in the Garden. The committee will evaluate the existing plantings using available documentation, including several past studies, maps and planting plans obtained from the Fairmount Park Commission, and the recently completed Historic American Landscape Survey conducted by the Department of the Interior. The work will include a survey of all remaining historic plantings dating to the Bartram period (pre-1850) and recommendations for future plantings based on the updated collections policy.
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