Our History

From backcountry to downtown, our roots are in Greenwich.

It was July 1914, and while Greenwich was a small town with charming rural quality, times were changing. Trains and automobiles brought a rapid increase in population and commercial expansion, and Greenwich was undergoing a metamorphosis from a rural farming and fishing economy to a more sophisticated suburban community.

Concerned about the disappearance of the town’s rural character, eight ladies with a mutual interest in gardening convened for a meeting, and the Greenwich Garden Club was formed.

The Club responded in its earliest years to its civic and conservation responsibilities. The hospital, library, and railroad station were in dire need of landscaping improvements and maintenance, our roadways and roadsides needed landscape beautification, and wildflowers needed to be saved from bulldozers and over-picking.

The Club’s early committees—the Roadside, the Forestry, the Wildflower—reflect a determination to protect and preserve the beauty of Greenwich.

In 1920 the Club became a member of the Garden Club of America and in 1929 a charter member of the Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut. Membership in these organizations has provided the Club with structure, a powerful collective voice, a broader opportunity to exchange ideas, and a network of clubs that work together on common interests to make a greater impact on a local, state, and national level.

The desire to care, and to care for, continued to lead Club members to work on the beautification of our town and many of its institutions so that all might share in the magnificent splendor and vitality of flowers, plants, and trees. Throughout the decades, Club members have shared their passion and expertise through teaching, writing scholarly articles, initiating local and national legislation, and founding organizations to educate and encourage public interest to support these efforts. Art found increasing expression in gardens, flower arrangements, photography, and flower shows, and Club members have been fortunate recipients of both awards of excellence and the rewards from the satisfaction of work well done, made by the mind and heart.

The Club has grown larger and expanded its activities since that July day when an idea blossomed, but the compelling vision that originated one hundred years ago continues to motivate. It is inspiring that friendship, the joy of service, and creative and constructive work will forever be paramount to the Greenwich Garden Club.

(adapted from Beyond the White Gloves, The Centennial History of the Greenwich Garden Club, 2014)