Our Current Exhibit

A Blooming History: Celebrating 85 Years
of the Edmonds Floretum Garden Club

April 12 to June 29, 2008

Edmonds Floretum Club in 1922

• Click photo to view larger image •

JULY 1922; Edmonds population was 1000.

Eleven ladies and Mrs. L. P Arp decided to form a garden club. Mrs. Arp decided on the name “Floretum” (a botanical garden devoted especially to the growing of flowers) and they worked towards their first flower show on June 23 and 24 of the next year.

A wooden gavel with a sterling silver ornately engraved plaque inscribed “July Floretum 1922” yielded by first president Mrs. A. Bassett started their long history in Edmonds , WA . Members not answering to roll call were fined 1 cent and all members had to provide 4 flower arrangements per year. They met the whole year at different venues; the high school, the grade school, the library, the National Bank of Commerce, private homes and the Baptist and Methodist churches.

 

85 years later, the Edmonds Floretum Garden Club has a lot of accomplishments to brag about and you have a chance to celebrate with them as the Edmonds Museum presents, “A Blooming History”. The exhibit chronologically highlights activities such as the Great Northern Railway presenting a letter of appreciation in 1924 to the “Edmonds Floretum Society” for the beautiful grounds and flowers at the train station. That same year the Club held a public meeting for input to the beautification of Main Street . In 1956, the Club participated in arranging the hanging flower baskets that graced the city’s streets – a tradition that the Club continues today. (The baskets were put together by club members at a member’s home with plastic and silk flowers until 1960 when fresh plants were used for the first time.) Today the Floretum Club continues to sponsor events to beautify Edmonds .

If you have any Edmonds Floretum memorabilia you are willing to loan for this exhibit, please contact the Museum at 425-774-0900. The exhibit will be open from April 12 to June 29, 2008.

 

The museum is open Wed-Sun, 1:00-4:00pm.
Suggested donations for admission are $2.00 for adults and $1.00 for students

The museum building has two floors. The upper floor features an exhibit gallery which offers temporary rotating displays, a diorama depicting the 1910 Edmonds townsite and waterfront, and the Cook Victorian Parlor. The upper level also houses the administrative office, work rooms, a local history library and an extensive photography archive. The public is encouraged to use the research library, with an advance appointment.

The ground floor consists of the long-term exhibit conceived to commemorate the centennial of the incorporation of the City of Edmonds 1890/1990. "The Changing Face of Edmonds" is an encapsulated, thematic, and chronological history exhibit, interpreting the many changes that have taken place, from the age of exploration and discovery, through the founding and growth of the city, and up to the 1950s when the last mill closed. Highlights of the exhibit include a reconstruction of a room from the 1894 Stevens Hotel, and a working model of a shingle mill, representative of the mills that filled the Edmonds waterfront at the turn of the century.

 


Edmonds Historical Museum • P.O. Box 52 • 118 5th Avenue North, Edmonds, WA 98020 • 425-774-0900
Hours: Wed-Sun, 1:00-4:00pm • Suggested donations for admission are $2.00 for adults and $1.00 for students.


• Site last updated on April 11, 2008•