Garden Club members tour Chance Gardens

June 19, 2013 at 6:00 a.m. | Updated June 18, 2013 at 11:47 a.m.

Members and guests of the Twin City Garden Club  traveled to Centralia Tuesday, June 11, for a visit to the A.B. Chance Gardens and Historical Society Museum.

The rose garden adjacent to the gardens was ablaze with the blooms of over 400 different types of floribunda and hybrid tea roses. The Chance Garden was  built in 1936 as a horticultural attraction by the Chance family in appreciation to the community for supporting the company

through the years.  Chance had taken a world tour in 1927 and was impressed by gardens he saw and returned to Centralia to build his own.

The garden features water pools, rock formations, shrubs and trees a massive stone arch and a wishing well. The gardens are listed on the National Historic Registry and attracts thousands of visitors every year with some returning during the year to admire the changes of the season.

The group then toured the Historical Society Museum, a beautiful Victorian style house built in 1904, and later purchased by A.B. Chance in 1923.   The Chance Foundation  then donated it to the Historical Society in 1947.  The house  contains elaborate details such as carved woodwork, leaded, curved, beveled and stained-glass windows. 

A special room is devoted to Civil War history and the Chance Co. room.   The home is furnished with period furniture and for this month followed a musical theme with a variety of instruments displayed about the home. The tour guides were Centralia Garden Club members Dorothy Thompson and Federated Garden Clubs of Missouri treasurer, Marjorie

Motley.

During a business meeting after lunch the group met and made some decisions about planting at the Proctor Park garden bed.  Members will meet at Longfellow's Garden Center to make purchases for planting. 

Volunteers were asked to provide arrangements for the Finke Theater for the play production next week.  Gloria Longan is making plans for the club's participation in the library's summer program.

The next meeting will be on July 9, at 10 a.m., at the United Methodist church.  The program on floral design will be presented by the Grow and Glow Garden Club of Tipton.

Guests are always welcome.  Call 796-2981 or 796-2895 for more information.