The following article is from the 1994 GCGC yearbook (with additions).

"The Granite Center Garden Club was an outgrowth of an organization of men who called themselves The Flower Growers’ Association. The objective of the garden club, established in 1938, with thirteen charter members, was to increase the knowledge of horticulture and better methods of gardening to promote the conservation of natural resources, to participate in the community through garden club projects and to maintain contact with the Federated Garden Clubs of Vermont and the National Council of State Garden Clubs (now National Garden Clubs, Inc.).

Projects completed by this club are too numerous to mention. Decorating the public library at Christmas has been done for many years. This included a reading of a Christmas story to the children which was graphically illustrated by props and costumes. The library grounds have been landscaped over many years, with hedges and decorative trees. Donations to the library for books have been made yearly and many of the Club's flower shows were held there. Landscaping around the new Central Vermont Hospital was started in 1968 and continuing. $1,000 was given the hospital for trees, and flower beds were made at the area.

Flowers and services were started at the Veterans' Hospital in 1952. The Garden Club has participated in state projects at the Veterans' Hospital and at the State Hospital in Waterbury. Help was given the JCs in landscaping Main Street in Barre as well as money donated for trees, for continual care, trimming and fertilizing.

Forty crabapple trees were planted on Municipal Auditorium Hill, and the new Spaulding High School was the recipient of trees to landscape the grounds. Plantings and ground care were given to the Goldsbury Monument, the site of the first house in Barre. A donation is sent annually to Land Trust and to VINS.

Plantings of flowers are made each year at the City Park, and in 1971 evergreen shrubs were placed at the McFarland Nursing Home; each year tulips are planted for spring blooming and then are replaced with summer flowers. Floral table arrangements have been made annually and holiday arrangements supplied during Christmas and springtime. Christmas wreaths were placed in all windows at this nursing home.

Starting in the 1960's and through the years many moneymaking projects have been completed, such as plant sales in the spring and sales of dried arrangements in the fall. Money earned this way is used to benefit community projects.

In 1972 a Citizen’s Award Program was initiated and Certificates of Merit for outstanding gardens and landscaping were awarded. Many flower shows, in and out of state, have been attended and many field trips taken. Tours, open to the public, of the homes and gardens of Garden Club members proved very popular. The Granite Center Garden Club is proud of its record!"

The nature and scope of our projects have changed some since 1994. We still decorate Aldrich Library for the Holiday Season, continue the geraniums (actually pelargonium) in the Gazebo, tend the Maple Avenue, St. Monica and Washington "lozenge" median beds, but it seems to me that as a club we have become much more "hands-on" gardeners. The Upper Berlin Street bed, a.k.a. The Lily Bed, was begun in 1998-99, the big Washington Street Triangle Bed began in 2002, and the Lower Berlin, a.k.a. the Renaissance Bed, was first planted in 2003. Christine Rousseau began championing, and getting grants for, the Butterfly Gardens in 2000. That's when the Barre City Butterfly Garden was christened followed in 2002 by the award winning Barre Town Butterfly Garden.

Both the Aldrich Library Planter Boxes and the Fountain, a.k.a. the Trough, have been done and then not done and now done again in the last couple of years. We’ve planted trees and plants for Habitat for Humanity projects in 2001 and 2005 on Prospect Street and in 2002 on the Onward Street project. In 2002 club members landscaped the Travis Mercy Skateboard Park in Barre Town. 2006 we dedicated red maple trees at BCEMS and East Barre Park as memorials to the six children that have died in accidents in the last few years.

The Garden Club dedicated a memorial to Dr. Ernest V. Reynolds on October 10, 1998. On the eastern side of Currier Park, the memorial consists of a granite bench surrounded by bushes and flowering plants.

Our participation in the Palletteer's Annual Art Show began about 1995. Each year members create and maintain bouquets to decorate the show which is now part of the annual Barre Days celebration. We've also appeared in the Barre Days Parade several times since 1999.

I find it interesting how organizations and the work that their members do changes over time. I look forward to seeing how the Granite Center Garden Club grows and changes in the next several years.

Burton Bell