Arboretum’S Garden Center Will Reopen

The Spokane Parks and Recreation Department plans to open its garden center at Finch Arboretum for community groups and private parties starting this spring.

Park budget cuts in 1980 forced the closure of the old garden center at the arboretum along the Sunset Boulevard. It was used for nearly 30 years for meetings by the city’s garden clubs and for arboretum events, including recreational classes.

Most recently, it was leased as space for a Montessori school.

Soon, it will become the primary parks conference and meeting center. Currently a classroom at Manito Park is the only public meeting space in the parks system.

“We think the public will be better served by having this open to them,” said Mike Stone, a division manager for parks.

The arboretum garden center has one large meeting room, two smaller meeting rooms, a kitchen, restrooms and conference area.

“All of the garden clubs have been really anxious to have that facility,” said Sunnie Lancaster, a member of the Arborettes garden club and a former botanist at the arboretum.

Garden clubs will be allowed to meet in the reopened facility free of charge because they make financial and in-kind donations to the parks system over the years, Stone said.

Others will have to pay rent, which will cost up to $500 for a five-hour event using the whole building. Smaller fees will be charged for using only one or two rooms.

Stone said he expects the facility to become popular for wedding receptions. The arboretum has numerous weddings on the grounds each year.

Having a building for receptions will make it more convenient for people who want an indoor area for changing clothes and a place to host guests after the ceremony, he said.

Smaller groups can rent the small meeting room for as little as $20 for two hours.

The Park Board has yet to approve the fees. The money will go to offset the cost of hiring workers to open, close and maintain the building.

The garden center originally was used as a small school in the early 1940s as part of the federal government’s construction of inexpensive wartime housing in Garden Springs. Some of the simple tract houses remain there.

Woodland School was used to handle the overflow of students from Whittier School.

After the war, some of the housing was demolished, and the city received a large donation from the estate of an early business and mining magnate, John Finch.

Finch had also contributed land for the arboretum.

About 1950, the Parks Department took over the school and developed extensive plantings in the 62.7-acre park, which has a small creek running through the middle of it.

In 1980, former City Manager Terry Novak ordered budget cuts of 15 percent throughout the city.

The Parks Department responded by closing the garden center and the former Spokane Story theater attraction in the Riverfront Park Pavilion. Parks also eliminated the position of arboretum director.

Now, maintenance at the arboretum is overseen by a civil service gardener, Sally Sullivan.

Reservations for the reopened garden center can be made by calling the Parks Department at 625-6657.