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Use these links to go to a particular section or scroll down to see them all. Click on any image for a larger photo.
The Garden Office and Visitors Shelter
Woodland Garden Scenes
Upland Garden Scenes
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The Garden Office and Visitors Shelter |
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The old Cabin Office and the Newer Visitors Shelter - 7 decades apart |
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In 1912 a tool shed was moved onto a flat area in the Woodland Garden south of the bog and downhill from the South entrance. That building served as tool room, office, visitor center, shelter and all other purposes until 1970 when the new shelter shown below was completed and dedicated to Martha Crone. The little building was known as "the little cabin" and as the "garden office". It was at first unheated but later heated by a small wood stove and on cold April days Martha Crone would report that water froze in the watering buckets, stove or no stove. It served Eloise Butler, Martha Crone and Ken Avery for a total of 58 years. The photo at left was taken on Feb. 29, 1936 (leap year day) by Martha Crone while on snowshoes. Photo courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection. |
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Photo Left: The "little cabin" in February 1956. The stovepipe for the small stove clearly visible. The sign by the front door changed often over the years. This one reads "Office of Curator - Wild Flower Garden". Photo from a Kodachrome taken by Martha Crone, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection. |
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Photo Left: The current Garden Office and Visitors Shelter, built by the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden and given to the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board in 1970 with a dedication to Martha Crone. Photo dated spring 2008 - Friends of the Wild Flower Garden.
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More Winter Views - five decades apart |
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| Fifty-two years separate the photo at right and the second winter scene below. The "little cabin" that was the Garden tool room, office, visitor center & shelter is seen tucked into the winter snowdrifts on March 9, 1953. It is visited occasionally in the winter by the Garden Curator, Martha Crone, as the winding depression in the snow, which is the path from the front gate, indicates. All is quiet on a brilliant winter day - the kind Martha would be thinking of when she wrote "What a Fairyland the woods present after a snowstorm. The new snow muffles the echoes, and there is a new beauty where only bare bleakness existed before." (The Fringed Gentian™, Jan. 1955). |
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Photo above from a Kodachrome taken by Martha Crone, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection.
Right, 52 years later in early 2005, the replacement for the "little cabin", the Martha Crone Visitors Shelter, sits under a blanket of snow. To compare the locations of the two photos, look at the next photo. Photo - Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc. |
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Right: In this photo from April 20, 2008, we see the Martha Crone Visitors Shelter on the plateau of level ground that sits midway between the front Garden gate and the lower elevation of the woodland bog. At lower left center in the photo is the open patio area with three benches which are on the approximate site of the earlier Garden Office shown in the top photo. That would place the new Crone Shelter (in the top photo) to the far right of the old Garden Office. Photo - Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc.
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The Old Garden Office Site |
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In 1912 a tool shed was moved onto a flat area in the Woodland Garden south of the bog and downhill from the South entrance. That building served as tool room, office, visitor center, shelter and all other purposes until 1970 when the new shelter shown below was completed and dedicated to Martha Crone. The little building was known as "the little cabin" and as the "garden office". It was at first unheated but later heated by a small wood stove and on cold April days Martha Crone would report that water froze in the watering buckets, stove or no stove. It served Eloise Butler, Martha Crone and Ken Avery for a total of 58 years.
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| The photo above was taken in the fall of 1935. Martha Crone was finishing her third year as Garden Curator. The gentlemen at the far left are sitting on a pair of wooden "settees". One of the men on the right is sitting on the large boulder that bears the Memorial Tablet for Eloise Butler that was dedicated on May 4th, 1934. The office at this time is unheated. Photo courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection. |
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In the photo at left from October 2008, we see the current arrangement of the site of the old Garden Office. The boulder with the memorial table is at bottom right. At bottom left are a pair of limestone benches donated by Moana Odell Beim in honor of her father, Clinton Odell. They replaced the old settees in 1960. The old office would have been approximately where the patio benches are in the center of the photo. Photo - Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc. |
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Right: The old office was replaced in 1970 by the new visitors shelter that was built by the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden and given to the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board in 1970 with a dedication to Martha Crone. It sits in a position that would be off to the right of two photos above. The boulder with Memorial Tablet for Eloise Butler is visible at lower center. Photo - Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc.
For a complete history of the creation of the Martha Crone Visitors Shelter see this article: "The Old Office Replaced." |
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| At right is a detail of the pair of Kasota limestone benches, dedicated to Clinton Odell and presented by his daughter, Moana Odell Beim; they were installed in 1960 and replaced the pair of wooden "settees" shown in the top photo. Clinton Odell was the founder and first president of The Friends of the Wild Flower Garden. Moana Odell was president of The Friends 1975-1976. The bird bath between the two benches, also of Kasota limestone, is dedicated to Amy H. Odell, spouse of Clinton Odell, and presented by family and friends. Photo - Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc. (No larger photo) |
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Woodland Garden Scenes |
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Mallard Pool and the Rustic Bridge - 7+ decades apart |
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In the photo at left we see Eloise Butler crossing the rustic bridge at the head of the Mallard Pool. The year is 1932. She has physically weakened due in part to neuritis and from burns received in 1929 when a heating pad caught fire while she was sleeping. The development of this pool was long on gestation and short on actual building. She had dreamed for many years of creating an aquatic pool for special plants and the site at the north end of the Garden where the bog drains out was the best site in the Garden, but she could not move the idea to reality until 1932 when the pool was quickly constructed by an unemployed man and another was employed to build a rustic bridge of tamarack poles to span the small stream the flowed into the pool. When a mallard was soon seen in it, it became the “mallard pool.” Eloise had planned extensive plantings around the pool and these were completed by Martha Crone in 1933. Photo courtesy Minnesota Historical Society MH5.9 MP4.1 r354 |
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In the photo at left, we see the current version of the rustic bridge located further into the Garden from where the original was. The Garden border was shortened in later years and only the southern part of the original pool area is now within the Garden fence. The pool was renovated some years ago and is under consideration for restoration again today, as the progress of time and changes in the environment have worked their ways on the area. It is easy to see that the open water pool of 1932 is now much filled in with grass and sediment and it has only a small amount of open water in the summer months.
Photo dated April 16, 2008 - Friends of the Wild Flower Garden |
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Left: The pool area is still appropriately named, as these Mallards indicate. They were found scouting out the pool area on April 29, 2008.
For more information on the bog area at Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden see the article "The Bog at Eloise Butler".
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Hepatica Hill - Fifty years apart |
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| A lost beauty: In the photo above left, taken on April 17, 1955, we see an extensive grouping of Hepatica on the west Woodland Garden hillside, appropriately named "Hepatica Hill." Hepaticas were nurtured in the Garden by both Eloise Butler and Martha Crone. In the years after this photo was taken the tree canopy of the Woodland Garden was changed dramatically - especially with the onslaught of Dutch Elm Disease. Early spring ephemerals such as the Hepaticas, require sunlight during the early spring, but then depend on the shade of the unfolding tree canopy for summer protection. Most of this extensive grouping, and of other spring ephemerals, was lost. The Hepaticas are of two species: Sharp-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis Schreb. var. acuta) and Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis Schreb. var. obtusa) - - - the two hepatica species native to Minnesota. What a difference a day makes. The photo at right was taken on April 16, 1955, one day before the photo at the left. On a clear sunny day the entire hillside comes alive on an early spring day. Photos from Kodachromes taken by Martha Crone, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection. |
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Left: Here is the same hillside on April 24, 2008. A little early that year for the plants to have bloom but the hillside is the same. The conifers in the background are larger, the path is now timber bordered and young trees are growing in the hillside. The area was extensively replanted in 2005 in an attempt to reconstruct the plant community. A certain number of new young trees have also been inserted to provide summer protection.
You can read an article by current Garden Curator Susan Wilkins on The Restoration of Hepatica Hill. |
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Trees and Paths in the Woodland Bog |
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| The tree canopy of the Woodland Garden has changed considerably over the 100+ years of the Garden's existence. One change forces another which causes another. In the photo above taken on Oct. 30, 1948, we see an extensive grouping of birch bordering the bog area of the Woodland Garden. While birch are not a long-lived species, the changes in the amount of water in the bog area have depleted their numbers such that today, in the 2008 photos shown below you will see very few birch. Photo from a Kodachrome taken by Martha Crone, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection. |
In 1946 Garden Curator Martha Crone wanted visitors to have a close-up view of aquatic plants that were in and by the open water pool in the bog, so a trail through the center of the bog was added. In the photo above taken on Nov. 8, 1951, we have a partial view of the bog, taken from a different location from the left hand photo, and showing the extensive birch grove. The new path is seen, snow covered, running from the bottom left corner towards the left center of the photo. This spot is somewhere between the current Garden guidepost #'s 29 and 30. Photo from a Kodachrome taken by Martha Crone, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection. |
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| Below: In the two 2008 photos below we are looking out through the barren trees of April, across the bog and toward the west hillside. This is a somewhat similar perspective to the photo at the top left. We see a birch or two, but the extensive grove no longer is there. The photo below left is taken near Garden Guidepost #32 and the other photo at right from further north near Guidepost #33. Gardener Cary George reported in The Fringed Gentian™ in September 1990 that a large number of the old birch had been lost in the drought that occurred in the last years of the 1980 decade. |
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Foamflower in the Woodland Bog |
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Changes in plant groupings over 50+ years. In the photo at left, taken on May 31, 1952 we see an extensive grouping of Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia L.) along the Woodland path leading to the open bog area. This is near where Garden Guidepost #29 is located today. Large lush ferns mark the right side of the path.
In 1946 Garden Curator Martha Crone wanted visitors to have a close-up view of aquatic plants that were in and by the open water pool in the bog, so this path through the center of the bog was added. She was very fond of creating mass groupings of plants as this extensive group of Foamflower shows. Photo from a Kodachrome taken by Martha Crone, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection. |
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| Below left: The same turn of the path on June 5, 2008. Foamflower still grows here but the specimens are usually found only as single plants. Instead, other native plants are present - Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum L.) in particular is found here as shown in the photo. Below right: The same part of the path in late April, 2008 showing the topography more clearly. |
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East Woodland Path to the Shelter |
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East Woodland: In the photo below taken on May 15, 1952 we see the east path of the Woodland Garden leading uphill from the bog area to the site of the Garden Office, which we see the back side of at upper right center. Garden Curator Martha Crone has placed a number of plant identification markers along the path and we see extensive ferns. Photo from a Kodachrome taken by Martha Crone, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection. |
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Left: Here in early October 2007, 55 years later, we see the same path. Far fewer ferns grow along this area than in 1952. On the upper left center we see smoke from the chimney of the Martha Crone Visitors Shelter fireplace - a feature Martha Crone never had in the Old Garden Office. The Crone Shelter is partially visible through the foliage. |
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Left: In this mid-April 2008 view, taken from a slightly different angle, we see the same path, now bordered by timbers and covered with cedar shaving mulch. The old Garden Office would have been located just off to the right of this photo, replaced in 1970 by the Martha Crone Visitors Shelter, shown in this photo.
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Open Water in the Woodland Bog |
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| In the early years of the Garden there was a small open pool in the bog. In 1939 a spring had been tapped on the west shore of that open pool in the bog and it supplied a good flow of water. In later years Garden Curator Martha Crone wanted visitors to have a close-up view of aquatic plants that were in and by the pool, so a trail through the center of the bog was added in 1946. As a result of the dryness that could seriously affect the bog area in certain years, Martha Crone had two more pools dug out in 1947. There were now three in total including the original bog pool. In 1948 she had them enlarged. In the photo below right, taken on May 27, 1950, we see what was called "pool #3." This is only two years after the pool had been enlarged. These pools in the bog subsequently silted in and swamp grass took over and the pools had to excavated several times, to preserve the open water. |
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| Gardener Ken Avery and assistant Ed Bruckelmeyer did the first excavation in 1961, removing swamp grass and digging out to a depth of 18 inches. The pools were not connected and if rainfall was not sufficient, the pools would be filled with a hose run from the city water supply in the Upland Garden, one pool at a time. So when Ken and Ed dug out the pools they created a channel from one to the other so that filling one would cause the others to fill also. By 1965 the pools were only 6" deep so Ken dug them out again, this time to a depth of two feet. By 1979 the pool channel was silted in and had to be dug out once more. Photo from a Kodachrome taken by Martha Crone, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection. |
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| Right, in a photo from June 23, 2008, we see the vegetation of the bog today. It was such a chore to keep the pools open that after digging them out in 1965 they were left to silt in. Without open water, a number of the water plants that Eloise Butler and Martha Crone had set out can no longer grow. There can be standing water in the bog in the spring and during very rainy periods, but not open pools. |
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Right, in a photo from April 2008, the topography of the bog area is clearly visible. The perspective is from the opposite direction from the photo above. The path follows that established by Martha Crone in 1946. In the spring the lack of open water creates a perfect environment for Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris L.) which is prolific in the bog in early May.
For more information on the bog at Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden see our article on "Bog History" |
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Upland Garden Scenes |
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The Entrance to the Upland Garden - 1948 and 2008 |
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Left: The entrance path to the Upland Garden on Oct. 15, 1948 showing the path leading uphill along the boundary fence with the west loop path branching off to the left at lower center. At the end of the visible part of the fence is a large oak and the oaks of the central hill and beyond showing at center left. There is no evidence of the Wild Plum that is now at the top of the hill to the left of the path. (Photo from a Kodachrome taken by Martha Crone, courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection.) |
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| Below: The same scene in early Spring (April 16, 2008). The fence is now covered with vines, the oak is much larger and has a bench beneath in the shade. The conifers behind the oak are obviously much larger as are the trees in the background. Except for the width, the paths are in the same location. |
Below: A similar camera angle in summer (June 27, 2008) with full vegetation. The intersection of the path branching to the left at lower center is just visible. |
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Upland Hillside Early Plantings |
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| The Upland Garden area was added to the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden in 1944. In the photo at right taken on July 30, 1950 we can see the progress made by Garden Curator Martha Crone in transforming the landscape from the domain of sumac and scruffy weeds into a wild flower garden. The path running diagonally from center left across the image is the center hillside path that runs between the current Guideposts 39 to 41. Martha often did mass groupings in her introduction of plants to the Garden and you can see some of that in this photo. Photo from a Kodachrome taken by Martha Crone, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection. |
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| In the photo below left we see a similar view today, but in early spring, (May 6, 2008) so the topography is clearly visible. Trees are clearly larger. In the photo below right, in summer, but taken from a different perspective, we see the same hillside on July 28, 2008, two days short of 58 years later than the photo at the top. The path runs across the center of the foliage but is hidden by the plant growth. We see a different plant community. Undoubtedly, some of the same plants are present, but it is more diverse, with no mass grouping of plants. |
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Upland Central Hillside 60 years ago |
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| In 1944, with the assistance of Clinton Odell, the Minneapolis Park Board (name at the time) added the large upland section to the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden. Garden Curator Martha Crone began work immediately in the new addition. Besides doing whatever clearing work was required on the new land, she set out 210 new plants in the area in 1944. These plants were of 30 different kinds that she had collected on four field trips that summer. In 1945 she set out another 4,000, again from field trip collections and from the assistance of others. In some instances she reports that native soil was also brought in for certain plants. She also completed 2,000 feet of new trails that year. For the next several years she set out new marker labels (250 alone in 1946) that were obtained courtesy of Clinton Odell. |
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In the photo at left, taken in May 1948 of the west side of the central hill in the new addition, we see some of Martha's work. Some of the paths shown were removed in later years. We see blooming plants, bags that are either new work to be done or act as protection for plants already set. We also see a number of the marker labels and some evidence of Martha's preferred mass groupings. Photo from a Kodachrome taken by Martha Crone, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection. |
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Left, in a photo from June 2008, we see the same hillside from a slightly different angle, but a month later in the season, with much more vegetation growth. At bottom right center is the intersection of the paths at Guidepost 41. The two short diagonal paths shown above running toward the right from bottom center and intersecting the main path seem to have been removed over the years. Photo - Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc. |
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Left, we have the same view as above, but a month earlier in 2008, the same time of season as the 1948 photo. Note the difference in ground cover - the plant community of the hillside today leaves a large amount of dry residue in the spring that was not present when the hillside plantings were being established. Photo - Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc. |
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| Photo at top of page: The Old Garden Office in the fall of 1935. Photo courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection. |
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| ©2010 Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc. Photos not otherwise credited are the Property of The Friends. "www.friendsofeloisebutler.org" 111710 |
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