Westfair Hort

Dear Friends of West Fair Hort,

The Westchester-Fairfield Horticultural Society has celebrated its 100th birthday! This year however, a direct result of diminishing membership due to economic times and shifting personal priorities, the Horticulture Society will be shutting down after exactly 100 years of service and camaraderie.

Founded by a small group of plantsmen working on the area's great estates, the society had grown over the years to include gardeners of every kind, both amateur and professional. During this time one of our proudest accomplishments has been the perennial garden in Strickland Brook Park. Designed and maintained by our members, it has been enjoyed by the entire community.

What will happen now? The WFHS encompasses unique histories:

● For 100 years, there has been a WORKING History created by the men and later women who grew, displayed and talked together

● And in the minds and memories of so many members, and still just partly recorded, there is an ORAL History of an important period of local culture. The records and engraved silver prizes of decades of the highest level competitions will be entrusted to the Greenwich Historical Society.

And now we have an opportunity — as the sun sets on the day-to-day functioning of the organization — to create the ultimate LIVING HISTORY through the everchanging life of a beautiful garden where a hundred years of collective knowledge could produce another hundred years of collective beauty.

The Strickland Brook Park Garden will continue on as an independent project. With your generous support now, we can save and maintain this local legacy for current and future generations. The community and town, with administrative help generously donated by Greenwich Green and Clean, will keep the garden functioning.

And so, on January 1, 2012 you are free to do whatever your fancy dictates. All we ask of you in return is that you contribute whatever you can to a fund at Greenwich Green & Clean, dedicated to the continuing upkeep of Hort's legacy to the community, the beautiful Strickland Brook Park garden next to the Cos Cob Library.