Garden Memento: Lady Bird Johnson's 1966 Visit to Philadelphia

The First Lady’s 1966 visit to the Demonstration Garden created in 1963 by the Neighborhood Garden Association and Penn State Extension Service located in the Mantua section of Philadelphia (above left); Circa 1960 photograph of Delancey Park (above right), a project that formed part of the Washington Square East Urban Renewal Project led by Edmund Bacon begun in 1959, and, a news clipping of Johnson’s scheduled visit to Philadelphia (below). Photos: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. Louise Bush-Brown Collection, Philadelphia Planning Commission photo in Lewis Mumford’s The City in History: Its Origins and Transformations and Its Prospects (1961), and a 10 June 1966 Philadelphia Inquirer news clipping.

“Lady Bird Johnson did more than plant flowers in public places. She served the country superbly by planting environmental values in the minds of the nation's leaders and citizens.” – Stewart L. Udall in Lewis L. Gould's Lady Bird Johnson and the Environment (1988)

Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson’s schedule for her 1966 visit to Philadelphia included three gardens and one park. Philadelphia would be one of many trips she would make to urban centers to bring her American Beautification message to the people. Johnson’s first stop would be the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Eighteenth-Century Garden in Independence National Historical Park followed by visits to Delancey Park that formed part of Philadelphia City Planner Edmund Bacon’s Washington Square East Urban Renewal Project, the Neighborhood Garden Association/Penn State Extension Service Demonstration Garden located in the Mantua section of the city, and finally the neighborhood-driven Saint Albans Place Garden in southwest Center City. Her Philadelphia visit would last four hours, where in addition to her garden visits, she would receive a medal, give a speech, visit the Dilworth-Todd-Moylan House, have lunch at Bookbinders, and view Philadelphia from the 15^th floor of I.M. Pei’s Society Hill Towers – print reporters noted that she wore no hat during her visit ...

“Mrs. Johnson wore a powder blue dress and jacket outfit with black patent accessories. She arrived with a white hat but never put it on.” – Philadelphia Inquirer, June 11, 1966

(Above) Lady Bird Johnson's visit to the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's 18th Century Garden at Independence National Historical Park (pictured with the Ernesta Drinker Ballard, PHS President) and then to the Neighborhood Garden Association's Demonstration Garden at 38th and Mt. Vernon Streets in the Mantua section of West Philadelphia (pictured with Louise Bush-Brown and Mayor Tate). Film clip from the Lyndon B. Johnson Library moving picture collection created by the White House Naval Photographic Unit, aka the Navy Films. The films consist of monthly reports on the activities of President and Mrs. Johnson from 1963-1969. (Below) The Eighteenth Century Garden created by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society in collaboration with Independence National Historical Park. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service.

“1:23 [pm]. Ar[rived] at 18^th Century Garden in Independence National Park. Greeted by Mrs. Ernesta Ballard, Ex[ecutive] Direct[or] Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. Placed a plaque in the Garden.” – Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, Daily Diary. Friday. June 10, 1966. Lady Bird Johnson's White House Diary Collection, LBJ Presidential Library.

The National Park Service in collaboration with the Pennsylvania. Horticulture designed the Eighteenth Century Garden in 1963. Members of the Horticultural Society, notably “Mrs. George R. Clark, Mrs. W. Beaumont Whitney and Mrs. Howard worked out the eighteenth century garden plan together with Henry D. Mirick, past president of the Society, who is now chairman of the garden committee” were responsible for the project.  Pennsylvania Horticultural Society volunteers maintained the Eighteenth Century Garden for the National Park Service from 1964 through the 1990s.

“The secret is that the garden is planted only with flowers, trees and shrubs available to Philadelphians during colonial times. You won’t find a petunia there, for example. Petunias are an import from Mexico and they didn’t appear here until the 19^th century. You will, however, find geraniums, zinnias, and gingko trees, which were imported to the Colonies by ship captains. There are native red Rome apple trees and Dusty Miller foliage from New Jersey.” – Ernesta Drinker Ballard. First Lady to Dedicate Garden. Philadelphia Inquirer. 5 June 1966

(Above) Film still from Lady Bird Johnson's 1966 visit to the Neighborhood Garden Association and Penn State Extension Demonstration Garden sign at the 38^th and Mount Vernon Streets in West Philadelphia. (Below) The First Lady is greeted by members before entering the garden, and, 4-H member stands in demonstration vegetable garden row [ca. 1968] (Film clip from the Lyndon B. Johnson Library moving picture collection; and, images from the Louise Bush-Brown Collection held by McLean Library, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

“3:28 [pm]. Demonstration Garden for tour.” – Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, Daily Diary. Friday. June 10, 1966. Lady Bird Johnson's White House Diary Collection, LBJ Presidential Library.

The Neighborhood Garden Association and the Penn State Extension Service established the first demonstration garden in 1963. The Demonstration Garden included space for three model front yard gardens, three model backyard gardens, a shrub garden, a perennial garden, a rose garden, a small herb garden, a vacant lot garden, a patio, a garden-in-a-box, and an identification garden. The west side of garden, planned by the Extension Service, included areas for 4-H Club projects such as the Plan and Plant for Beauty Project, the Landscape Design Project, the Cut Flower Project, the Turf Project, and the Vegetable Project.

"When Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, America’s First Lady, visited the Neighborhood Garden Association’s unique Demonstration-Teaching Garden at 38^th and Mt. Vernon sts., during her recent four-hour visit to Philadelphia, among those on the reception committee were: Mrs. Hattie Evans, president of the (North Philadelphia) Berean Garden Club; Mrs. William McNeill and Mrs. Catherine Robinson, past president and present president of the (South Philadelphia) Oasis Garden Club; Mr. William McNeill, Mrs. Alfred Scott, president of the (West Philadelphia) Mantua Garden Club.

"Also, Mrs. Charles Smithwick, Mrs. George Washington, and Mrs. Lawrence Jones, Jr. of the Mantua Garden Club, and Mrs. John Forrester, executive director of the Neighborhood Garden Association.

"The Demonstration Garden, the first of its kind in the United States, and the Neighborhood Garden Association’s Garden Block Program have been sources of inspiration to the First Lady in setting up her “America More Beautiful” Program." – Philadelphia Tribune, 28 June 1966

(Above) News clipping. Philadelphia Tribune (18 June 1966). (Center) Members of the St. Albans Place Garden Club. (1966). City of Philadelphia. Department of Records Archives (Below) St. Alban’s Place Garden (1966). City of Philadelphia. Department of Records Archives

“3:56 [pm]. … driving past St. Albans” – Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, Daily Diary. Friday. June 10, 1966. Lady Bird Johnson's White House Diary Collection, LBJ Presidential Library.

The St. Albans Place Garden Club was founded in 1941 by Claudine Marshall Okamoto (1896-1972) to care for the distinctive central garden plot shared by the 2300 block of St. Albans Place neighbors. Early club members included longtime president Thomas Robert Lewis (1905-1963), Naomi Jackson Pressley (1907-1992), Virginia Curtis Robinson (1910-1998), James Powell and Magistrate William A. Byrd (1908-1950). By virtue of its central garden, the 2300 Block of St. Albans Street was added to the Philadelphia Registry of Historic Places in 1969.

“Hundreds of cheering children and adults braved a heavy downpour Friday to greet “Lady Bird” Johnson whose expressed desire to visit the 2300 block of St. Albans Place, one of the most beautiful blocks, if not ‘the’ most, was hampered by the heavy rainfall at the time she arrived.

“Mrs. Claudine M. Okamoto, chairman of the South Philadelphia Clean Block Committee and complaint chairman of the Rittenhouse Community Council, told the Tribune that ‘there was great disappointment that she could not actually come through the block because of the deluge, but we were glad that she thought enough of us to want to see what we are trying to do to help keep America beautiful.’

“Mrs. Johnson was in town to participate in ceremonies in the Society Hill Section of Philadelphia in keeping with her program of beautifying America.

“it is believed to have been at the suggestion of Mrs. Orville Freeman, wife of the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, who saw the block three weeks ago” – Philadelphia Tribune. 18 June 1966

For more on the history of the St. Albans Place Garden, See: Green Civics: The Early Years of the St. Albans Street Garden Club

Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, Daily Diary. Friday. June 10, 1966. Lady Bird Johnson's White House Diary Collection, LBJ Presidential Librar

Further Reading

Bush-Brown, Louise. Garden Blocks for Urban America. Scribner 1969.

Claflen, George L. Framing Independence Hall. Places, 13 (3) University of California 2000.

Gould, Lewis L. Lady Bird Johnson and the Environment. University Press of Kansas 1988.

Lawson, Laura J. City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America. University of California Press 2005.

Mumford, Lewis. The City in History: Its Origins and Transformations and Its Prospects. Harcourt Brace & World 1961.

National Park Service. Beautification: A Legacy of Lady Bird Johnson. [Washington, D.C., 2021]

Philadelphia Inquirer. [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Philadelphia Inquirer.

Philadelphia Tribune. Philadelphia [Pa.]: C.J. Perry, 1912-1985.

White House Naval Photographic Unit, The President, June 1966 (Washington, D.C. 1966), MP 875.

White House Naval Photographic Unit, Showcase of the Nation: The Beautification Program (Washington, D.C. 1969), MP 472.