This week the Garden Club of Oak Park-River Forest celebrates its centennial. During the last century, the club has evolved from a small group of women with an interest in flower arranging to a larger group with a mission to encourage gardening in its broadest sense: from horticulture to ecological awareness to beautification, gardening and education. As the club begins its second century, members are looking back at their past in order to inform the future of the club.
Roots
Club historian Mary Ellen Warner, who is charged with organizing the club’s history, noted that in 1913, a group of Oak Park women began the Applied Arts Circle of Unity Church, an organization representing the arts, including flower arranging. When World War I began, the circle members disbanded, but a small group met to form a garden club.
Six women met in the home of Mrs. James Heald in 1917 and drafted a constitution. They held their first regular meeting on March 7, 1917 at the Nineteenth Century Woman’s Club with 148 prospective members.
The garden club began with a community service-minded agenda. The first year, members instituted a flower exchange and sent cut flowers to the sick in homes and hospitals. During monthly meetings, members presented informational programs. Noted landscape architect Jens Jensen, for instance, offered a program on landscape gardening in 1919.
After World War I ended, membership greatly increased and, with the addition of many members from River Forest, became known as the Garden Club of Oak Park-River Forest in 1920. Community beautification projects begun in the 1920s included tree planting in local parks, a wildflower garden in Keystone Park, garden boxes for Cook County Hospital and flowers at both Hephzibah Children’s Association and the Oak Park-River Forest Day Nursery.
In 1927, when the Garden Club of OP-RF entered a Chicago flower show with 29 similar clubs from throughout the state, the Garden Clubs of Illinois was formed, which eventually became part of the National Council of State Garden Clubs.
Today, the garden club meets the second Wednesday of each month, from September to June, often at Cheney Mansion in Oak Park. Members attend workshops and take field trips. The annual Garden Walk of OP-RF fundraiser, co-sponsored by the Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory raises funds for scholarships for college-bound students interested in pursuing horticultural-related studies.
New and experienced members
Warner has been a member of the club since 1974. Newly married and new to the area, she was interested in gardening and meeting others in the community. Her mother-in-law, a garden club member herself, introduced her to the group. Over the years, Warner has served in many roles for the club: secretary, president, historian, and chairman of the garden therapy program, ways and means, garden walk and flower shows.
For Warner, the club has been educational as well as social. “Going to the meetings over the years and attending Garden Club of Illinois classes has broadened my knowledge,” she said. “You also learn so much from each other.”
Warner has found much meaning in her long-term involvement with the garden club.
“It’s been a huge part of my life,” she noted. “It’s been my outreach into the community. I’ve met so many wonderful women through the club. Through our activities, you really go out into the community and meet a lot of people who are also involved in community efforts.”
New member Mary Ann Mohanraj has always had an interest in gardening but didn’t have the opportunity to put it into practice on a large scale until she moved with her family to Oak Park about eight years ago.
“At our condo in the city, we had a rooftop deck with potted plants. When we moved out here, we were looking for the schools and some actual land that I could garden in. We ended up buying a foreclosure and did a gut renovation, which meant we were starting from scratch with the yard.”
To advance her interest in gardening, Mohanraj said she Googled “garden club oak park” and started attending meetings. Today, she works on the group’s Facebook page and is excited about outreach to new members.
“I think a lot of new homeowners often are excited to get started on a new garden,” she observed. “The workshops are great in that they offer a wealth of information on different topics.”
For Mohanraj, the club is also about learning a lifelong skill.
“I’m a pretty avid gardener,” she said. “I’m a journeyman. Gardening is so deep, as a field, and there is so much to learn. I’m on the journey.”
Newer member Linda Reisberg joined the club about two years ago and says her interest in gardening goes back to the garden plot her father had behind their Chicago garage when she was growing up. Today, she loves to garden with her son.
Reisberg enjoys the club’s workshops and how the group helps her connect with the community.
“I have volunteered for several projects in the garden club, including helping to decorate rooms in Cheney Mansion for Christmas,” she said, “acting as a docent for the Garden Walk and joining several committees.”