Thanks for the links Sarah. I'll check through them. The visitors center I alluded to included the original Ginko Tea Room, a snack bar, an adjacent building with a gift shop as well as a charming little round theater. All were clustered around the entrance area with stairs leading down to the lake. It was small, yet a perfect scale: keeping the emphasis on trees and the outdoors. I was away from the Arboretum for some years and then was quite surprised to see the complex had been replaced by the current structures. Understand the desire to serve more people yet many of the new changes didn't seem to conform to the elements that make the Arboretum such a splendid environment. Keep up your great work! Your grandfather left us all a fantastic legacy!
I, too, remember that version of the visitors center with multiple buildings and I agree, it was excellent - it was replaced with the current structure(s) in 2004. I found this particular page with much more info, so check that out as well: https://acorn.mortonarb.org/Detail/entities/7054
Great article! Really well done!
Any info and pictures of the previous visitors center? That was a wonderful set of buildings. Really miss them.
Thank you so much!
I was at the library today and asked about this, while I personally don't have anything, the library most definitely does!
A quick search through their digitized collections for "Visitor's Center" came up with some interesting results!
https://acorn.mortonarb.org
Thanks for the links Sarah. I'll check through them. The visitors center I alluded to included the original Ginko Tea Room, a snack bar, an adjacent building with a gift shop as well as a charming little round theater. All were clustered around the entrance area with stairs leading down to the lake. It was small, yet a perfect scale: keeping the emphasis on trees and the outdoors. I was away from the Arboretum for some years and then was quite surprised to see the complex had been replaced by the current structures. Understand the desire to serve more people yet many of the new changes didn't seem to conform to the elements that make the Arboretum such a splendid environment. Keep up your great work! Your grandfather left us all a fantastic legacy!
I, too, remember that version of the visitors center with multiple buildings and I agree, it was excellent - it was replaced with the current structure(s) in 2004. I found this particular page with much more info, so check that out as well: https://acorn.mortonarb.org/Detail/entities/7054
Excellent link Sarah! The pictures bring back a lot of memories of going into the snack bar for hot coffee
on cool sunny Autumn days at the Arboretum. Liked browsing through the books and magazines in the adjacent
building. Think I saw the 'multi-media' movie about a gazzilion times over the span of many visits. Wonderful pics!