{"id":94,"date":"2019-02-02T20:15:24","date_gmt":"2019-02-02T20:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=94"},"modified":"2019-07-07T15:59:51","modified_gmt":"2019-07-07T15:59:51","slug":"lcgc-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=94","title":{"rendered":"LCGC History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The eastern end of Springbank Park was designated for horticultural use by landscape architect William Dilger.&nbsp; This designation is the same today as it was in the original Master Plan for the park in 1913.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On this broad triangle near the Wonderland Road and Springbank Drive intersection, the City&#8217;s first greenhouse was built in 1922.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"280\" height=\"402\" src=\"https:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/1985-grnhs.photoresize.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-103\" srcset=\"https:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/1985-grnhs.photoresize.jpg 280w, https:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/1985-grnhs.photoresize-209x300.jpg 209w, https:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/1985-grnhs.photoresize-70x100.jpg 70w, https:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/1985-grnhs.photoresize-139x200.jpg 139w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 280px) 100vw, 280px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;The current greenhouses opened in 1985.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A large storage building with attached greenhouses was located behind the present greenhouses where currently the compost piles and parking area exist.&nbsp; This building was demolished in 1986.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The City of London expanded the Greenhouses in 1996, at which time the three rows of below ground cold frames were demolished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This newest addition, The London Civic Garden Complex, (designed by local architect Richard Hammond of Cornerstone Architects) opened in September 1996. Three partners were involved in the $1.4 million project: the Garden Club of London, The Manness estate and London Parks and Recreation.&nbsp; The Garden Club provided $250,000 from funds accumulated through flower shows, craft sales and boutiques.&nbsp; The Manness portion came from a $250,000 bequest to the parks department from Keith Manness.&nbsp; The conservatory is now called the Manness Conservatory in memory of his father Samuel, a former city alderman.&nbsp; A large room at the rear of the complex, is home to the Garden Club of London. In 2007, the Garden Club built a storage room to the rear of the lobby.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Horticultural developments have expanded to include extensive gardens (maintained by the City of London) and a Woodland restoration area (maintained by the Garden Club of London).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beyond this tableland, the land slopes to the river where Wonderland Gardens and the Joe McManus boathouse are located.&nbsp; The original Wonderland Gardens was constructed in the early 1930&#8217;s by the Jones family as a bandshell and dance floor.&nbsp; In the summer of 2005 a fire destroyed the original dance hall and damaged the bandshell.&nbsp; The City of London&nbsp; Master Plan calls for a mixture of reconstruction, adaptations and new components such as a new bandshell, open-air pavillion and a smaller food concession building.&nbsp; These structures will be surrounded by landscaped gardens, informal recreational features such as picnic spots, lookouts and trails through natural woodlands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The eastern end of Springbank Park was designated for horticultural use by landscape architect William Dilger.&nbsp; This designation is the same today as it was in the original Master Plan for the park in 1913.&nbsp; On this broad triangle near the Wonderland Road and Springbank Drive intersection, the City&#8217;s first &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-94","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471,"href":"https:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/94\/revisions\/471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendslcgc.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}