Exploring Richmond: Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

The community-oriented, nonprofit botanical garden stretches across 82 acres, with four lakes, 5,700 unique species of plants within 15 distinct outdoor gardens, 11 major buildings including a conservatory and greenhouse, and an 80-acre branch site, the Lewis Ginter Nature Reserve, according to its website. 

Grace Arents, a Richmond philanthropist, was the niece of 19th-century entrepreneur and philanthropist Lewis Ginter. She initially purchased 10 acres and the abandoned Lakeside Wheel Clubhouse in 1913, then expanded her land ownership to include 73 acres and a number of associated buildings before her death in 1926. In her will, she bestowed her land and an endowment of $100,000 to the City of Richmond to recreate a public park and botanical garden in honor of her beloved uncle. 

The garden was officially organized and chartered in 1984, though it took three years to tend to the gardens and buildings on-site that had suffered from age and neglect before it officially opened to the public. It now hosts more than 450,000 guests in an average year, with a team of approximately 70 staff members and 700 volunteers up-keeping its overwhelming beauty. 

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