Gardens Plan Public Comment Sought On Renovation Of Historic Sites In Pioneer Park

Preservationists who are trying to restore two lost gardens on the lower South Hill are inviting the public to a community meeting this month.

The organizers will tell the history of the Corbin and Moore-Turner gardens and talk about a preliminary master plan for their renovation.

The meeting will be June 27 at 7 p.m. at Cataldo Catholic School, 455 W. 18th, in the library adjacent to the Stevens Street entrance.

Historic photographs of the old gardens and their owners will be shown. Public comment is being sought.

“If someone wants to know about the Corbin and Moore-Turner gardens, this is a wonderful meeting to attend,” said Lynn Mandyke, director of the Corbin Art Center at Pioneer Park at Seventh and Stevens.

D.C. Corbin and F. Rockwood Moore, important pioneer figures, built adjacent mansions above Seventh Avenue in the late 1800s.

Moore, who became the first president of Spokane’s First National Bank and was instrumental in organizing Washington Water Power Co., died at age 43.

Judge George Turner and his wife, Bertha, bought the home in 1896, and Turner subsequently served a term in the U.S. Senate, where he became an ally of President Theodore Roosevelt.

The Turners completed the elaborate landscaping started by Moore on the hillside behind the home, including a tea house, concrete ponds, arbors, walkways and greenhouse.

The Moore-Turner mansion was demolished in 1940, five years before the property was acquired by city parks. The Corbin property was acquired by the city later the same year, and the two estates were joined as Pioneer Park.

The Corbin House is today’s Corbin Art Center.

Mandyke said the current proposal calls for restoring the Corbin garden first. It included a fanciful castlelike overlook, kitchen garden, walkways and flower beds.

The city has applied for a Washington state heritage grant to help pay for some of the work.

The Spokane Parks Foundation has offered charter memberships in the Corbin and Moore-Turner Heritage Garden at $15 per person or $20 per family. Money will go for the restoration.

The memberships can be purchased by calling the Parks Department at 625-6200.

Middle school students at Cataldo studied the gardens as a class project and recommended their restoration. As a result, they won a $500 cash youth award, which they recently donated to the renovation.

At the same time, an Eastern Washington University archaeology professor and students have been helping unearth and identify the remains in the Moore-Turner portion of the gardens.

Mandyke said the amount of money it will take to renovate the Moore-Turner portion of the garden is large, but the project is gaining momentum.

“There’s a lot of potential for this,” she said.

The gardens could become a cultural and educational resource showing history in the region as well as old-fashioned methods of gardening, she said.

This sidebar appeared with the story: COMING UP

Meeting will be June 27 A meeting on renovation plans for the Corbin and Moore-Turner gardens will be June 27 at 7 p.m. at Cataldo Catholic School, 455 W. 18th, in the library adjacent to the Stevens Street entrance.