Downtown Gardens
The Rutland Garden Club volunteers in many areas of Downtown Rutland, including the planting of flower boxes and hanging baskets. The Garden Club maintains gardens for The City Police Department, The Chaffee Art Center, The Rutland Free Library, and The Main Street Park Veteran’s Memorial. They received the “ Downtown Hero” award for beautifying Rutland and gained recognition from the National Garden Club for their efforts.
Depot Park Garden
Depot Park, home to a former railroad station, features three gardens and “The Leash.” The garden club created a park with “head turning, traffic stopping” beauty with the help of The Boys and Girls Club, 4-H, and the Rotary Club.
West Street Pocket Garden
Filled with red tulips, this garden features sculptures by Christopher Spath, Evan Morse and Amanda Sisk.
Rutland Police Department Garden
Designed in 2002, 1000 yellow tulips were originally planted in the Rutland City Police Department garden on Wales Street to honor men and women in the services.
River Street Pocket Garden
Located at Downtown Rutland’s entrance at the corner of Strongs Ave & River Street, this garden features many annuals and perennials.
Boxes and Planters
The Garden Club selects plants for and organizes several seasonal planter pots, permanent flower boxes and seasonal hanging baskets throughout Downtown Rutland.
Vest Pocket Garden
A beautiful garden in the intersection of Evelyn Street and Merchants Row, planted in the late 1990’s.
The Rutland Garden Club
The Rutland Garden Club plants pots before distributing them in Downtown Rutland during the Spring & Summer.
The Rutland Garden Club, established in 1914, initially began beautifying Rutland with flower shows and floral programs. The club planted their first garden in Main Street Park and members of the club provided landscape design and plantings for a new local elementary school in Rutland — the Northeast Primary School — in the 1950s.
Later on the club started work for the Rutland Regional Medical Center, a local community center, and a city park as they focused their efforts on beautifying the Rutland community. These projects brought the club to life here in Downtown Rutland and the Garden Club now plays an important part in the development and place-making of the community.
The club volunteers to improve the face of many downtown shops and works with different organizations in Rutland to make the city a desirable location not only for its visitors but for its residents, too. Members today continue to beautify Rutland, just as their predecessors have been doing for 105 years.
Nearby Gardens
Chaffee Art Center Garden
Located across from Main Street Park on Route 7, the Chaffee Art Center features perennials that are commonly used in a Victorian New England garden. Shrubs and plants are moved and added from time to time including annuals for color in the Spring and Fall. Photo credit: Seven Days.
Godnick Adult Center
The Rutland Garden Club manages four different garden projects at the Godnick Adult Center. Originally designed and landscaped in 1976, the Godnick Adult Center gardens debuted in 1979 with several areas dedicated as memorials to members — including crocuses on the center’s side bank for Ginny Mitchell, a charter member of the 1914 club, and the Lorilee Foley garden, full of shrubs and perennials near the gazebo.
The memorial garden is part of a lovely and serene area where picnics, weddings, and even exercise classes are enjoyed. The Godnick Adult Center is a very busy place and attendees are always grateful to see the flowers and shrubs in bloom.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Garden
Located on the Westside of Route 7 South next to the Main Street Park is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Garden. The memorial was carved by a Vietnam Veteran and the marble was donated by a Rutland businessman. After interviewing many of the veterans, a landscaping design was created around the memorial to provide the “peace, reflection, and solitude” that the veterans had requested.
Valerie Cleary and Becky Rizzi from the Rutland Garden Club designed the garden and it was installed in May of 2000. Valerie, the veterans, and members of the Rutland Garden Club continue to maintain the garden today.
Blue Star Memorial Highway Garden
Located on Route 4 East across from the Godnick Adult Center, this garden is denoted by a Blue Star Memorial Highway Plaque. The Blue Star Plaques identify thousands of miles of highways across the United States established as a living memorial for members of the armed forces. Rutland’s commemorative plaque was dedicated in 1947 honoring Vermonter and World War II General Leonard F. Wing.
Green Mountain Boy
In 1915, the Ann Story Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution gifted the Green Mountain Boy statue to the city of Rutland. Sculpted by Raymond Porter, the statue is the only work of art dedicated to all Green Mountain Boys who fought in the Revolutionary War. Find this garden in Main Street Park near the Center Street intersection.