State Grant Supports Growth at Garvan Woodland Gardens

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A recent $900,000 grant from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council will support the growth of two popular new projects at Garvan Woodland Gardens. The botanical garden in Hot Springs is a department of the University of Arkansas School of Architecture.

The grant, which is derived from the Arkansas real estate transfer tax, will fund the second phase of the Evans Children’s Garden and will help provide needed infrastructure for the Anthony Chapel and associated buildings. The grant also will support trail improvements, including the completion of a wheelchair-accessible loop from a waterfall to the new rose garden being designed by Little Rock resident P. Allen Smith, a popular garden expert featured on the Weather Channel and PBS.

“This generous gift from the ANCRC nearly doubles their support for the gardens over last year’s award, and reflects their commitment to the full development of Arkansas’ premier botanical garden,” said School of Architecture Dean Jeff Shannon.

“With construction ongoing in the Anthony Chapel area and the Evans Children’s Garden, not to mention the late spring color displays, things at the gardens have never looked brighter,” said Bob Byers, operations director of Garvan Woodland Gardens.

Construction crews are completing the first phase of the Evans Children’s Garden, which was designed by Benham Companies of Lowell, Ark., in consultation with early-childhood specialists and UA landscape architecture faculty. The garden will feature an elaborate tree house, caves, climbing rocks and a swinging bridge. A waterfall, adjustable dike and fallen log bridge are also in the design plan. Council grants in 2003 and 2004 funded planning and design for the children’s garden, and a gift from Bob and Sunny Evans of Hot Springs got the project well under way.

The ANCRC gift also will provide additional parking and trails for the chapel complex, where walls that soar 57’ high into the forest canopy have risen. Construction is 50 percent completed on the 3,400 square-foot Anthony Chapel and work has begun on adjacent bride’s and groom’s quarters and a carillon, all designed by the Fayetteville firm Jennings + McKee. The chapel recalls the famous Thorncrown Chapel located outside of Eureka Springs that was designed by the late Fay Jones, who founded the firm that is now Jennings + McKee. Design and construction of the Anthony Chapel has been supported by a gift from John Ed and Isabel Anthony as well as gifts from Leon and Betty Millsap, Dick and Carol Pratt, and Bob and Sunny Evans, all of Hot Springs, Ark.

Verna Cook Garvan donated the 210-acre Garvan Woodland Gardens to the University of Arkansas School of Architecture in 1985. Located on 4.5 miles of Lake Hamilton shoreline, the Gardens feature more than 128 species of ornamental and native shrubs and wild flowers, 160 different types of azaleas, a four-acre Asian garden with a 12-foot waterfall, three unique bridges and a sandstone pavilion designed by Fay Jones and Maurice Jennings. The Gardens have attracted over 275,000 visitors since it opened to the public in 2002, with over 100,000 visitors expected this year alone.

The numbers continue to grow.

“April’s numbers reflect a 20 percent increase in attendance over the same month last year, and we expect that trend to continue as we complete these new features,” Byers said.

For more information on Garvan Woodland Gardens, including maps and directions to the site, visit http://www.garvangardens.org.