Tree dispute ends garden funding

An elderly businesswoman who donated $1.2 million for restoration of the Moore-Turner Heritage Garden on the lower South Hill has withdrawn additional support for the project in a dispute with the city over tree removal along Spokane’s panoramic Cliff Drive.

Myrtle Woldson, who lives in the neighborhood adjacent to the garden, said in a statement from her attorney this week that her support had hinged on the city restoring the view by cutting down trees adjacent to the garden in Pioneer Park, at Seventh and Stevens.

Woldson had asked that 12 pine trees be removed from the southeast portion of the park just below Cliff Drive.

City parks officials had marked the trees to be cut, but after removing two of them, they began receiving complaints from residents, so they stopped the cutting. Park board members then said they wanted to hear from the public before taking down any more of the pines, said Nancy Goodspeed, spokeswoman for the parks department.

With Woldson’s withdrawal of financial support, the tree removal issue has been put on hold. Goodspeed described the timber as native pines.

City officials learned of the withdrawal in a Feb. 16 letter from Woldson’s attorney to Parks Director Mike Stone. The letter was received less than two weeks before Woldson was scheduled to provide an additional $500,000 for the long-term care of the garden.

Woldson’s attorney, Benjamin Coleman, said in the statement that Woldson has contributed to numerous civic causes and has an affinity for historic preservation.

Her father, Martin Woldson, was an early-day businessman who died as a millionaire in 1958 at age 94. He invested in real estate, worked as a contractor for Great Northern Railroad and, for a time, was president of Golden Age Breweries.

Miss Woldson, as she likes to be called, lives in the family home at 526 W. Sumner.

“Her financial contributions have funded substantially all of the work that has been done to date and will pay for some additional work to be performed concerning the gardens,” according to the statement, which went on to say that residents of the area had donated land for construction of Cliff Drive years ago with the understanding that the view be maintained.

Removal of the 12 trees would open up “at least partially, a beautiful vista of the city and the area to the north,” the statement said in describing the trees as volunteers “which had grown up over the years and obstructed the view.”

Goodspeed said parks officials remain appreciative of Woldson’s generosity. “It’s a wonderful project. The donor is a very generous and kind person,” Goodspeed said.

While the city has enough money to complete construction of the garden, it had hoped to use additional Woldson gifts to establish an endowment for ongoing maintenance and to avoid burdening the department’s budget with additional gardening costs.

Woldson had initially agreed to provide $3.25 million in annual donations through 2010.

The final phase of work began Wednesday, with completion expected in June and an opening to the public in August. The work includes reconstruction of a teahouse, rose arbor, upper pergola and water features. Plans also call for restoration of a large pond and installation of an interpretive sign and historically accurate plantings.

Last summer, workers reshaped the slope of the land, erected rock walls and laid irrigation.

The garden was once the expansive backyard to an 1889 Kirtland Cutter-designed mansion built for F. Rockwood Moore, the first president of the former Washington Water Power Co., now Avista.

When Moore died a few years later, the mansion was purchased by Judge George Turner and his wife, Bertha. They expanded the garden with stonework and an extensive plant collection.

Turner, who had served a single term in the U.S. Senate, greeted President Teddy Roosevelt at the home in 1903 on a presidential swing through Western states.

The mansion was torn down in 1940, a year after Bertha Turner died. The parks department subsequently acquired the property in what is now Pioneer Park. The garden became lost over the years in a tangle of undergrowth.

It was rediscovered in 1998 by staff at the Corbin Arts Center, also in Pioneer Park.

Art center Director Lynn Mandyke, who is managing the reconstruction, worked for years researching and developing plans for reconstruction through several consultants. Volunteers have helped clear the land of overgrowth. Smaller grants were obtained prior to Woldson’s initial donation in late 2005.

Woldson had asked to remain anonymous when she agreed to the gift, but her name was disclosed in the Feb. 16 letter withdrawing future support.