Garden & Art Tour Makes More Stops

Historic Lane Place and Speed Cabin add much to the 16th Garden & Art Tour being sponsored by the Flower Lovers Garden Club on Sunday, June 25th. The 8 beautiful residential gardens, Historic Lane Place and the bonus stop at the Athens Art Gallery are featured from 11-5…RAIN OR SHINE.

Enjoy local artists, music, plant sale & refreshments and several added features as you tour the gardens.

Proceeds benefit community beautification.

Tickets are available for $12; with children under age 12 free

The Flower Lovers Garden Club is excited to present to our community the lovely and historic Lane home built in 1845. Henry S. Lane and his wife Joanna appreciated nature preservation, resulting in the existing flower beds and a beautiful arboretum which contains one of every tree native to Indiana. During that time, Joanna Lane tended her rose garden which was then located near the site of the Pattison Pavilion (gazebo).

Also on the grounds is the Speed Cabin built in the mid-1830’s by John Allen Speed, an abolitionist and

Irish immigrant. The small one room cabin originally sat on the corner of North St. and Grant Ave. as a stop on the Underground Railroad for freedom seekers.

The Montgomery County Historical Society maintains the property with the goal for the Lane Place to become a more appealing and welcoming atmosphere for our community.

Helping to achieve their three-stage plan for the property to revamp the flower gardens on the grounds has been Mark Davidson and Davidson’s Greenhouse/Nursery, who during the past 25 years has made generous donations of plants, bushes, trees and flowers for the project.

Flower Lovers Garden Club assisted in early spring clean ups and plantings; and in the fall of 2022, Owen Bennett Asst. Director and a senior at Wabash College reached out to his fellow brothers for assistance in clean up the spring of 2023.

In addition, Historical Society member and Master Gardener Paula S. Furr has a vision for the property to become the place it once was during its glory days with the planning and planting of an assortment of flowers, herbs and vegetables that were more common to that time in Indiana history.

The Lane Place and the Speed Cabin will be open for touring during the Garden&Art tour event between the hours of 12 and 4p.m.