On September 9, 1913, the initial meeting of the Litchfield Garden Club was held at the Lindens on North Street, home of the Misses Edith and Alice Kingsbury. Nine Litchfield women were present. Three others were interested, but were unable to attend.Mrs. Samuel Gage led the meeting. Her sister spoke about how to form a garden club and also reported on a new national organization, The Garden Club of America. The ladies decided that day to form the Litchfield Garden Club.The first officers were Mrs. Gage, president; Mrs. Charles Curtis, vice president; Mrs. Henry Monroe, treasurer; and Miss Alice Kingsbury, secretary. The Executive Committee consisted of the four officers and meetings were held on Tuesdays every other week from May to October. Each member was to select a plant or plants for study and outside speakers would be invited to speak at meetings.

In June 1914, the Club voted to increase the membership of the club to 15 members. In the following months, membership rose to 25; honorary members were appointed; and the Club held its first fundraiser, collecting $250 at a Red Cross sale. The members learned about horticulture and gardening and accomplished their first civic project in 1915 in conjunction with the Village Improvement Society: $10 was spent for plantings at the Litchfield train station. In June 1915, Mrs. Gage affiliated the Litchfield Garden Club with The Garden Club of America, paying the first year’s club dues herself. During a meeting held on July 9, 1916, the members were asked to state whether they wished to accept luncheon invitations and become a social club or remain an active working organization. A vote was in favor of remaining an active working club. A constitution and bylaws were written and distributed. In 1937, the Club joined the Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut, a state organization under the aegis of what is now called National Garden Clubs, Inc. In 1966, the Club adopted a year-round schedule.

Throughout its history, the Litchfield Garden Club has been active in a range of projects. In 1915, the Club sponsored its first flower show in conjunction with the Litchfield Grange. In 1917, the Club became involved in war relief efforts. An official committee formed, The Garden Club Auxiliary to the Farm Bureau, cooperating in efforts to raise vegetables. Flower shows became yearly events and in 1919, the Club purchased the Lawn Club, renaming it The Playhouse, to be used by Litchfield as a permanent place of amusement in the village. By 1920, the Club was offering scholarship aid to students attending an agricultural school. In the 1920s and 1930s, activities included school gardens, plantings at the railroad station and library, the wild flower garden at the White Memorial Foundation, tree plantings, and the placement of wild flower posters in Litchfield and Torrington movie houses. In 1947, a flower show was held at the Tapping Reeve House where garden flowers and wildflowers were arranged in the 18th century manner. In 1955, plantings were done at the Oliver Wolcott Library, the Historical Society, and on traffic islands and books were donated to the Library, a practice that continues today. In 1957, the Club started its Civic Fund and raised $800 with a Kitchen Tour and Christmas Sale, the proceeds going for planting at the new Litchfield High School. By 1958, members were doing weekly flower arranging at the library and planting town window boxes. Priscilla Liggett and Eileen Greene FitzHugh studied trees for planting on North and South Streets and began the effort to get Litchfield designated as a Historic District, which was accomplished in 1959. Over the years, maples, birch, shadblow had been planted, and in 1960 the original 13 sycamores were replaced on North and South Streets. As elm trees succumbed to Dutch elm disease, the Club planted new elms.

In the 1970s, the Club hired Visions, Inc. to develop a plan to restore the Litchfield town green. In 1975, the Club held its first house tour. In the 1980s, a club sweepstakes was established in horticulture and design and projects included landscaping at the Court House, planting daffodils with Connecticut Junior Republic boys and Brownies, a Middle School Outreach Program, installing benches and lighting for the green, planting trees at Center School and the Bantam Borough Hall, and planting trees and installing fencing at Community Field. In the 1990s, the Club began implementation of the Visions, Inc. plan. A tree inventory was taken and the Treescape Plan was born. A butterfly garden was designed and planted at the White Memorial Foundation. The America the Beautiful Foundation awarded the club a grant in recognition of the its community work. The Club continues to sponsor White Memorial Foundation classes and The Garden Club of America and Federated Scholarships.

1913

The Litchfield Garden Club is founded

1914

The LGC joins the Village Improvement Society in planting trees and shrubs at the railroad station at the foot of West Street

1916-2012

The LGC provided books and periodicals for the local public library on gardening, botany, environmental and conservation topics

1916

The LGC established a Committee on the Preservation of Wildflowers, its first conservation effort

1917-1919

The LGC led the efforts to produce and can local foods during WWI, providing scholarships to train women to teach canning and volunteering at the local canning center

1921

The LGC helped raise public awareness of the need for local tree preservation with a public meeting

The LGC helped Litchfield school children plant gardens

1922-1955

Alain C. White and his sister May White leased 150 acres of Land to be developed by the LGC as a “Wild Garden” for the LGC to use in the preservation of native trees, shrubs and flowers

1923

LGC established an annual Arbor Day planting of tree with school children

1920s-1930s

The LGC conducted a successful campaign against local roadside billboard advertising

1930s-1950s

The LGC provided Litchfield schools with nature films, books on conservation and prizes for students’ essays on nature topics

1950

The LGC established a “Civic Fund”

1950-1952

The LGC gave local public school teachers scholarships to the Summer Conservation Workshops at Storrs to train to teach conservation in the schools

1954

The LGC began annual project to plant the watering troughs on the West Green and at the head of North Street

1955

The LGC landscaped and planted the 4 traffic islands in the Town

1957-2012

The LGC joined with the White Memorial Foundation to have Gordon Loery, their new full-time conservation director, give a course of classes on conservation to Litchfield 6th Graders

1958-2012

The LGC increased the funding to add a day’s “Outdoor Class” to the 6th Grade Conservation Course

1960

The LGC replaced 12 of the 13 sycamore trees originally planted on North and South Streets by Oliver Wolcott, Jr.

1964

LGC members Graham and Deborah Thompson spearheaded the founding of the Litchfield Land Trust, which was incorporated in 1968

1968

The LGC joined in the fight in Hartford to get the Connecticut highway department to remove some of the 68 road signs within a radius of 250 feet in the center of Town

Member Hildegard Plehn, working with the LGC, convinced the town to establish the Litchfield Conservation Commission and served as its Chairman

1960s

Hildegard Plehn renewed the LGC’s focus on local conservation and environmental efforts

1960s

The LGC replanted numerous trees to replace the dying elm trees in the Borough

1970

The LGC funded the White Memorial Foundation’s Bird Sanctuary at the new Nature Museum

1973

LGC member Doris Hamlin headed the first local celebration of Earth Day with an “Eco Action Parade” and school programs

The LGC planted 10 sycamore trees on North and South Streets

Under the leadership of Doris Hamlin, the LGC opened the 1st Litchfield recycling facility on Goshen Road and members served as volunteer recyclers

1976

LGC members Hildegard Plehn and Doris Hamlin convinced the town to establish an Inland Wetlands Commission on which they both served

LGC provided plantings at Wells Run, Litchfield’s elderly housing project

1977

The LGC led Litchfield officials to establish the Litchfield Civic Beautification Commission

1978

The LGC funded an “Action Plan for the Litchfield Green”

The LGC Conservation Committee produced the map of “Litchfield’s Ring of Green,” showing conserved land in the town

1979

A LGC study found 89 elm trees in the borough in need of removal because of disease

1981

The LGC held a public panel discussion on “Conserving CT,” with members of the Connecticut Conservation Committee

The LGC provided the permanent foundation and brick terrace for the new “Visitors’ Center” on the green

1982

The LGC initiated an annual program to help Litchfield 4th grade students plant paperwhite bulbs for forcing

1983

The LGC held a public meeting on “An Overview: The Citizens’ Advisory Committee on the Town Plan for the Litchfield Green”

The LGC joined with the Nature Conservancy of Connecticut to do the “Bantam River Watershed Project,” producing an exhibition and “water map”

1985

The LGC donated benches to the green

The LGC led Litchfield in an examination of solid waste management at a public meeting

1986

The LGC held an open meeting titled “Easements: A Conservation Tool”

1987

The LGC sponsored Litchfield’s first hazardous waste collection day, holding a panel discussion for the public

1989

The LGC held an open meeting titled “Conservation in the 1990s"

The LGC provided plantings in front of the Litchfield County Court House

1990

The WMF contributed trees that the LGC helped students at Center School plant on Arbor Day

1992

The LGC provided a beach tree for the new Bantam Borough Hall

The LGC paid to bury electric wires on the green and erect new, reproduction period lamp posts

The tenth year of the LGC program to plant bulbs for forcing with Litchfield 4th graders

1994

The Town of Litchfield opens the permanent recycling center on Little Pitch Road

The LGC funded a comprehensive master plan and launched “Treescape for Litchfield,” a project to plant trees on the traffic corridors leading into town

1995

The LGC held the 25th anniversary of Earth Week, with programs in the schools and a presentation on the green

The LGC updated and remapped “Litchfield’s Ring of Green,” which showed progress in land preservation since 1978

The LGC awarded an America the Beautiful grant to plant trees on state property as part of the Treescape project

1996

The LGC initiated a town tree inventory project

1997

The LGC held a tree identification and measurement workshop on the green

1998

The LGC funded and planted the butterfly garden at the White Memorial Center and mounted an award winning exhibition titled “CT Butterflies”

1999

The LGC helped Habitat for Humanity with plantings at the new affordable housing on Gallows Lane

The LGC held an all day symposium “Give Them an Inch and They’ll Pave a Mile” on highway planning

2000

The LGC presented a Greenways symposium “Byways to Roadways = Highways” with an update on the work of the Garden Club of America’s National Affairs and Legislation Committee

“Project 2000” to plant trees along the Route 202 entry to Litchfield announced by the LGC

The LGC Conservation Committee produced an exhibit on invasive plants

Jan Ohms gave 300 tulip bulbs to be planted by the LGC with Litchfield High School and Forman School students

2001

Members of the LGC helped Litchfield High School Environthon Team members to prepare for ninth national competition

The LGC voted to take part in the town project for a new municipal parking lot behind the stores on West Street

2002

The LGC hosted a public meeting “Are You Ticked Off?” with Susan Perlotto, Connecticut Lyme disease coordinator, and produced an award-winning exhibit on Lyme disease prevention

2004

The LGC project to landscape and plant the new Municipal Parking Lot was completed

2005

The LGC won a national award for its exhibit, “Treescape for Litchfield”

2007

The LGC presented a public meeting with Gina McCarthy, Connecticut Dept. of Environmental Protection commissioner titled “The DEP and Litchfield”

2009

The LGC had an open panel discussion titled “Supporting the Future of Agriculture in Litchfield: Farming and the Community”

The Butterfly Garden at the WMF was updated, replanted, and renamed the Pollinator Garden

2010

The LGC provided new plantings and a shade structure at Community Field

2011

The LGC contributed a bench to the Litchfield Area Business Association’s new sidewalk project on West Street

2013

The LGC celebrates its centennial