Bellingrath Gardens and Home is the 65-acre (26 ha) public garden and historic home of Walter and Bessie Bellingrath, located on the Fowl River in Theodore, near Mobile, Alabama. Walter Bellingrath was one of the first Coca-Cola bottlers in the Southeast, and with his wealth built the estate garden and home. He and his wife, Bessie, lived in the home which has since been converted into a museum. The gardens opened to the public in 1932. The site was listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on September 14, 1977, and on the National Register of Historic Places on October 19, 1982.
Video Bellingrath Gardens and Home
Gardens
Bellingrath Gardens and Home encompasses approximately 900 acres (360 ha) along the Fowl River. Sixty-five acres are cultivated with annual blooms and continuous color. The gardens include a bridal garden, a conservatory, a great lawn, the Harrigon/ExxonMobil Bayou Boardwalk, a nature walk, the Asian-American garden, a rose garden, a chapel, the Little Mermaid Fountain, Mirror Lake, an observation tower, and the Delchamps Gallery of Boehm Porcelain. The garden pathways are composed of flagstone that had been obtained from the old city sidewalks in Mobile, where they had been in place since arriving as ballast in sailing vessels collecting loads of cotton for the mills at Manchester, England. The gardens feature live oaks, camellias, azaleas, roses, and chrysanthemums year round. Plants featured in winter are tulips, snapdragons, pansies, ornamental cabbage and kale, daffodils, poppies, primroses, and many varieties of narcissus. Plants featured in spring include more than 250,000 azaleas, hydrangeas, Easter lilies, impatiens, salvia, fuchsia, and Pelargonium geraniums. Plants featured in summer are the more than 2,000 roses, allamandas, hibiscus, copper plants, begonias, ornamental peppers, bougainvillea, caladiums, coleus, vinca, and marigolds. Plants featured in fall are over 8,000 bedded, potted and cascading chrysanthemums, hibiscus, and copper plants. Special events and weddings are held throughout the year in the gardens.
Maps Bellingrath Gardens and Home
History
The property on which the gardens would eventually be constructed were purchased in 1917 as a fishing camp by Walter Bellingrath, president of the local Coca-Cola bottling plant. Bellingrath bought the property to balance his work-life schedule. The transformation from the "Belle Camp" fishing post into what is now Bellingrath Gardens and Home is largely thanks to Bessie Mae Morse Bellingrath, who had married Walter in 1906. Mrs. Bellingrath began developing the gardens with architect George Bigelow Rogers in 1927. The home was completed in 1935, encompasses 10,500 square feet (980 m2) and features hand-made brick salvaged in Mobile from the 1852 birthplace of Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont. Ironwork was obtained from the demolished circa 1837 Southern Hotel, also in Mobile. The house design borrowed elements from many traditions and eras. Some of the most obvious are a formal Georgian staircase reminiscent of an English country house, French doors, and a Mediterranean courtyard.
Walter and Bessie Morse Bellingrath opened their gardens to the public for the first time on April 7, 1932. The home opened to the general public as a museum in 1956, after the 1955 death of Mr. Bellingrath at the age of 86, and features all of its original furnishings from Mrs. Bellingrath.
The Bellingraths had no children, and after Bessie's death in 1943 Walter dedicated the rest of his life to work on the gardens she had worked so hard to create. In 1950, Walter D. Bellingrath founded the Bellingrath-Morse Foundation at the age of 80. The foundation benefits Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama, as well as Bellingrath's church, Central Presbyterian, and his wife's family's St. Francis Street Methodist; these institutions receive approximately 80% of the foundation's earnings. Although the gardens receive income from the Bellingrath-Morse Foundation, two-thirds of current operations are financed by admissions, gift shop and restaurant sales, membership, and donations.
Yearly Events at Bellingrath
Throughout the year, there are a variety of events, which include an Easter egg hunt on the Great Lawn, an Easter sunrise service on the Live Oak Plaza, the Balloon Glow with trick-or-treating throughout the gardens each fall, and the Christmas lights each winter. The gardens are also home to the largest outdoor display of cascading chrysanthemums in the U.S. each fall. During the summer and winter, the community is invited to a series of educational events called "Wonderful Wednesdays".
Christmas Season
Bellingrath Gardens celebrates the Christmas season with a display of over 3 million lights that is known as the "Magic Christmas in Lights". The light show began in 1995; it runs from the Friday after Thanksgiving through New Year's Eve. It features over 3 million lights with 1,000 set pieces in 13 themed scenes spaced around the estate. USA Today included Bellingrath's Magic Christmas in Lights on its 2014 list of the "10 Best Public Light Displays in America"; votes from online readers put Bellingrath in sixth place.
Cascading Mums Display
The first Cascading Mums Display was held on November 3, 1963. On that day, the garden admission fee was waived, and over 14,727 visitors flocked to the gardens. Stock plants for the cascade mums were obtained from Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. While Longwood Gardens' Chrysanthemum Festival, begun in 1921, is perhaps the largest indoor display, Bellingrath's display of cascading mums, columns, spheres and baskets is the largest outdoor display.
Awards
- On December 15, 2014, USA Today included Bellingrath Gardens and Home's Magic Christmas in Lights on its list of the "10 Best Public Light Displays in America"; votes from online readers put Bellingrath in sixth place.
- On June 4, 2015, Dr. William E. Barrick was selected to receive the American Horticultural Society's 2015 Liberty Hyde Bailey Award.
See also
- List of botanical gardens and arboretums in Alabama
Media related to Bellingrath Gardens and Home at Wikimedia Commons
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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