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Gardners’ Club Hall

Built just five years after St. George was settled, the Gardeners’ Club Hall is considered to be the oldest public building still standing in the city. This small unassuming adobe building pre-dates the courthouse, the Tabernacle and the Temple by several years. Located across the street north and a half-block west of here, the one-room structure was built in 1867 as the meeting place for the Gardeners’ Club, an organization formed to promote the growing of fruit trees, shrubs and flowers.

The Gardeners’ Club was organized in 1865. Joseph F. Johnson, the club’s first president, was a powerful force in the development of horticulture and floriculture in Dixie. In his newspaper the Pomologist, he passed on to the public his extensive knowledge of horticulture. He also demonstrated that knowledge on his own St. George property, which included much of the block upon which the Gardeners’ Club Hall and the Brigham Young Home stand. There he created a veritable Eden in the desert, cultivating trees, vines and flowers, and operating his nursery business. Through the Gardeners’ Club, Johnson, along with other horticultural experts, such as Walter E. Dodge and Luther S. Hemenway, spearheaded a movement which went forward until the Dixie area abounded in lovely orchards, vineyards, and gardens. In addition to being a meeting house and social gathering place, the Gardeners’ Club Hall was the site of early horticultural exhibits displaying the many varieties of fruits, vegetables and plants that could be grown in Dixie.

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This is S.U.P. Marker #72.02, for other markers in the series visit this page.  Other markers in the series located here in the St George Memorial Plaza are: