Tour The Garden Ruins Behind Corbin House

Fri., Oct. 8, 1999

By Mike Prager mikeprager15@gmail.com (509) 459-5454

People who like gardening or history may want to show up Sunday for tours of the garden ruins behind the Corbin Art Center.

Parks officials and volunteers have proposed resurrecting the once glorious gardens of two pioneer families into Spokane’s first heritage garden.

The open house from noon to 5 p.m. will offer walks around the ruins, historic photographs showing what the landscape once looked like and plans for bringing the gardens back to life.

The Corbin House is located off Seventh Avenue just west of Stevens Street in the city’s Pioneer Park.

“I have a feeling there are some older folks out there who remember those gardens,” said Marion Severud, spokeswoman for the city Parks Department.

Sturdy shoes or boots are advisable for the tours. The terrain is rugged in places.

The city-owned park grounds include the mansion of early entrepreneur D.C. Corbin and the neglected landscape of former U.S. Sen. George Turner and his wife, Bertha.

The Turner mansion was torn down in 1940 after both Turners had died, and the gardens were abandoned. The city acquired the Turner property several years later.

Today, the Corbin mansion is now operated as a center for art and special events. The gardens are overgrown with trees and brush. The landscape features have broken over the years into a rubble of native stones.

The upper garden still has a large concrete basin that once held ducks and a manmade waterfall.

Members of the Spokane Preservation Advocates are holding a cleanup of the Turner gardens Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. Volunteers are invited to join the work.

Parks officials said they are seeking financial support from the community as well as grants for the restoration work. The work is outlined in a master plan developed last summer by parks staff.

Turner served a single term in the U.S. Senate and became a political ally of President Teddy Roosevelt, who visited his Kirtland Cutter-designed mansion during a West Coast tour in 1903.

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