INSPIRE
EMPOWERING
GIRLS, THEN & NOW
barge design solutions JULIETTE GORDON LOWE GARDEN REIMAGINED
T
he Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace in downtown Savannah Georgia, in the heart of the National Landmark Historic District, has recently gone through some interesting renovations, particularly to its garden. The changes have resulted in a new space for use by residents and visitors of Savannah and reflect the work of many women— from the founder of the Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low, to the first certified landscape architect in Georgia, Clermont Huger Lee. The site is the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low and is currently a house museum. The house grounds include the garden, which is believed to have originally functioned as an informal garden and play area for Low in her childhood. Low’s time spent and reflecting in nature at the birthplace and then beyond are believed to have played an important part in the development of the underlying values that led her to start the Girl Scouts. For this reason, the Girl Scouts of the USA, which acquired the property from the Low family in the middle of the 1900s, understood that the garden was an important asset. They engaged Clermont Huger Lee, a Savannah-born landscape architect who was one of the first female landscape architects in the United States, to create a design for the garden. Lee’s garden—walled off from the public and frequently underutilized by the visitors—matured over time into a place that Savannah’s historic preservation community embraced
22
Pro Landscaper USA South July/August 2022
south.prolandscaperusa.com