I can’t tell you how appreciated your work is.”

Sen. Jim Seveney

PORTSMOUTH — Those beautiful plantings outside the library? You can thank the Portsmouth Garden Club for that.

The flowers and the birch “Liberty Tree” in front of Town Hall in honor of veterans? Ditto.

Even that chainlink fence separating the transfer station from scenic Heritage Park was the Garden Club’s doing.

First formed in 1934, the Portsmouth Garden Club has been sprucing up the town ever since. Club members gathered at the Portsmouth Free Public Library on Wednesday, Feb. 13, to celebrate 85 years of making Portsmouth beautiful.

“I can’t tell you how appreciated your work is,” Sen. Jim Seveney told club members before presenting Roberta Stevens, club president, with a legislative proclamation.

Town Clerk Jennifer West presented a town proclamation signed by Town Council President Kevin Aguiar.

“Civic beautification is our biggest motivator,” said Rochelle Kieron, a past president of the club (2005 to 2007) and the event’s master of ceremonies. “At first the town wasn’t behind it because they had to give us some money, but they eventually did.” 

Ms. Kieron shared a past history of the club that was written by Mrs. Howard Libby, former president, in June 1974 on the occasion of the organization’s 40th anniversary. After the club flower (zinnia) was chosen and the mill at Lehigh Hill was selected for its banner design, the group got down to work.

One of its biggest projects early on was the “little park in front of the Town Hall,” which later blossomed into Legion Park. The American Legion originally targeted the plot for a war memorial, but interest waned and the Garden Club received town permission to develop it.

Before religious displays on municipal property were forbidden, the club decorated the park with a creche, Santa and reindeer at Christmastime. (The creche was later displayed at Cozy Corner, where Bank Newport is now located.) The club also used to furnish altar flowers for each church for “Garden Club Sunday.”

During the war years, club meetings were canceled due to gasoline restrictions, although “gas-less” bridge parties were held as fund-raising events for those within walking distance.

Community service

The local club has been about more than just making things look pretty, however.

The Portsmouth Garden Club was the first in the state to support the Victory Gardens Campaign, in which vegetable, fruit and herb gardens were planted at private residences and public parks in wartime as both a way to reduce pressure on the public food supply and as a civil morale-booster. 

In addition, as early as 1941 the club threw its support behind plans to reduce pollution in Rhode Island public waters. The club would go on to organize waterfront cleanups and get heavily involved in an anti-litter campaign. In 1979, the club received a good deal of bad publicity for its outspoken criticism of the town’s sign ordinance.

The club’s bread and butter, however, has always been decorating the town with flowers, plantings, wreaths, memorial benches and more. 

In 1983, the club planted a Colorado blue spruce on the front lawn of the Portsmouth Historical Society along with a bronze plaque memorializing the nine local Marines who had died that year in a terrorist barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon. 

Then-President Ronald Reagan sent the club a letter of thanks for that project. (The group’s vice president at the time took the original and left the club with only a copy, Ms. Kieron said.)

The club has also gotten its fingers dirty at local schools and churches, the library, the police and fire stations, the Portsmouth Community Playground, the Glen Manor House and other spots in town. 

And if you were wondering about that fence near the transfer station? That came from a $5,000 state open space grant awarded to the club.

To learn more about the Portsmouth Garden Club and its many civic beautification projects in town, click here.