CHATHAM GARDEN CLUB TURNS 40

It was 1968, Lyndon B. Johnson was president and Lady Bird Johnson was the catalyst for wildflower gardens along highways all across America. Today her Texas Wildflower Center is a world class, educational attraction - continuing her dream of beautifying our country with wild flowers. On April 17 of that year, twenty-nine women met at the Chatham, Massachusetts Fire Station and planted the seeds of an organization that would become the Chatham Garden Club. The women were members of the Chatham Woman's Club Garden Department led by Helen Norton, along with a few local gardeners. Helen had petitioned the Woman's Club to allow the formation of this independent group and upon receiving permission, the group was given - $150.66 - which had been raised through flower shows and sales to start their “Chatham Garden Club” treasury. Helen Norton became President and meetings were held in the Fire Station and later at a bank using borrowed chairs from a local undertaker. Membership dues of $2.00 and a membership of 50 was agreed upon.The Club's first beautification project was to create a planter using an “historic” watering trough, located at the corner of Cross and Main.

Through the years, meetings were held at the Congregational Church, then St. Christopher's and, most recently at the United Methodist Church. In October of this year, the Club looks forward to meeting at the new Chatham Community Center. The Club grew and blossomed during the next four decades. Membership burgeoned to 200 regular and 50 sustaining. There have been 23 presidents and innumerable officers, committee chairs and willing volunteers that have made the Club a benefit to the Town. The Chatham Garden Club’s goals are: to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening, the beautification of Chatham; the preservation of Chatham’s natural resources; and the awarding of scholarships to college students. Thousands of hours have been given freely by talented Club members to raise thousands of dollars for civic beautification and scholarships. Monthly meetings start with a “Friendship Tea” where shared interests make for lifelong friends, followed by programs that have been acclaimed as both educational and entertaining.

Among the Club's honors is the Chatham Chamber of Commerce's first "Citizen of the Year" award, presented in 2000. Every October, Club volunteers select and publically recognize town merchants for outstanding plantings that beautify the Town. Today the Club has eleven beautification projects about Town with over eighty volunteers designing, and caring for these gardens. They include the vibrant plantings around the Chatham Lighthouse, the colorful window boxes at the South Chatham Library, the flower borders at Sears Park and the colonial herb garden at the Atwood House Museum, which has a special link to the club. It was designed and planted in 1974 and 1975, both as a bicentennial project and as a memorial to the Club's third treasurer, Mae Hodgdon, who died on the eve of a Club meeting.

Club volunteers also supply floral arrangements at the Atwood House, maintain planters and roses at the Chamber’s Basssett House, care for Chatham Town Hall grounds and window boxes, tend island plantings at Routes 137 and 28, at Queen Anne and Training Field Roads, and sponsor horticulture workshops at the Congregate House. For its 40th Anniversary, a new demonstration garden will be designed, planted and maintained by Club volunteers at Oyster Pond. This Xeriscape Perennial Garden will show the public plants that grow with no fertilization and tolerate dry conditions.

In addition to hosts of annuals, perennials and bulbs, the club has planted many trees around town. For many years volunteers distributed over five-hundred tree seedlings on Arbor Day. The club also helped fund the Chatham Friends of Trees. In 1974, the Club proposed a Kousa Dogwood Tree Beautification Program, with the aim of lining Route 28 from the Harwich line to the Shore Road with these beautiful flowering trees. The initial gift to the town of forty trees, has now grown to more than one-hundred trees planted along well traveled Route 28.

A Garden Club float has appeared in Chatham's Fourth of July Parade and hopes are for a presence in this year’s celebration. Two major fund raisers are held each year. In December, the “Festival of Trees” features a display of small trees and wreaths with Christmas themes that are lavishly decorated by Garden Club members. Most recently, the Festival has been held in conjunction with the Chatham Historical Society at the Atwood House Museum. The other fund raiser is the “Garden Club Market”, held at the Creative Arts Festival in August. There, members set up tables laden with baked goods, flower arrangements and fresh vegetables for sale.

The Club also published a cookbook in 2003, “Tea by the Sea”, which compiled favorite recipes of members and proved to be a popular item at the Atwood House Museum Gift Shop. The creative ideas of the founders have been continued by past and present enthusiastic members, sharing their talents and furthering the Club’s goals.

One way or another, Chatham Garden Club members are ready, willing and able to keep the town blooming for another 40 years. The Club’s 40th anniversary will be happily celebrated at its regular meeting on April 15th at the U.M.C. with a special party arranged by Ruth Lund.