Edgar Allan Poe School Garden

The year 1915 is of note because the garden at the newly erected Edgar Allan Poe School succeeded Taggart as the largest school garden in Philadelphia. The garden occupied an undeveloped piece of land between the school and the Clark, Thomas and Co. Furniture Factory just below Passyunk Avenue on the Girard Estate.

In 1916, Caro Miller describes the September 13, 1915 “Fall Reception Day.” She enumerates the displays within the arbor and notes classroom work in language and spelling, artistically framed pressed flower and insect pictures, and canned vegetables produced in two of the gardens she visits.

Further Reading

Bennett, Helen C. 1906. "The School Garden: A New Method of Nature Study". Appleton's Booklover's Magazine

Boyd, James. 1929. A history of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 1827-1927. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

Civic Club of Philadelphia. 1903-1909. Bulletin.

Edmunds, Franklin Davenport. 1913-1939. The public school buildings of the city of Philadelphia from ... . Philadelphia, Pa: [The Board].

Greene, M. Louise. 1911. Among School Gardens. New York : Charities Publications Committee.

Lawson, Laura J. 2005. City bountiful: a century of community gardening in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Philadelphia (Pa.). 1906. Municipal school gardens conducted by the board of public education. [Philadelphia]: [Press of Devine Printing Co.].

Philadelphia (Pa.). 1915. Annual report of school garden activities. [Philadelphia]: [Press of Devine Printing Co.].

Philadelphia (Pa.). 1917. Annual report Philadelphia school gardens. [Philadelphia]: [Press of Devine Printing Co.].

Philadelphia Vacant Lots Cultivation Association. 1901-1906. Annual report of the Philadelphia Vacant Lots Cultivation Association. [Philadelphia]: [The Association].

School Garden Association of America. 1916-. Outdoor education. New York: School Garden Association of America.

University of Pennsylvania, and Will J. Maxwell. 1917. General alumni catalogue of the University of Pennsylvania, 1917.

Generous support for this exhibition is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities CARES Act.