Urban landscapes focus of West Hill garden tour
William Byron Smith’s
garden features a winding pathway.
Trees and flowers converge in
William Byron Smith’s garden, located in the West
Hill neighborhood.
Gardens like William Byron Smith’s,
located in an urban area, may surprise people, tour
organizers said. Photos:
Ken Crisafi
By Kathleen Folkerth
WEST HILL — Gardeners in West Hill hope to get the word out about their landscapes in a new garden tour scheduled for June 16 in the West Akron neighborhood.
With the theme “Dirty Little Secrets,” the West Hill Tour of City Gardens aims to expose seven home gardens,
three public gardens and one business garden that casual observers might not expect to find in the urban neighborhood.
“You wouldn’t think of beautiful gardens in an urban setting,” said Jane Startzman, president of the West Hill Neighborhood Organization, which is planning the event.
Joan Colbert, a West Akron artist whose garden is one of those included on the tour, also helped plan the event.
“A lot of people have really fantastic gardens behind their houses,” Colbert said. “I’ve been to some people’s homes, and you have no clue. You go out back and it’s a whole different world.”
The committee came up with a fun, tabloid theme and plan to carry it out on the day of the tour.
“Our program will read
like a tabloid and we’ll
have paparazzi in the bushes,” Startzman said.
“It should be a fun afternoon.”
The tour will serve as the organization’s big fund-raiser of the year, Startzman said. In the past few years, the group has held the Jazz @ Glendale event as a fund-raiser.
“That turned out to be a gift to the community because we didn’t make any money on it,” Startzman said. “We thought we could alternate years with a tour and the jazz event to make a little bit of money to offset our costs.”
While the group hopes the event will bring in some revenue so the jazz event can
be held again in 2008, the primary reason for the tour is to foster more community pride.
“And we’d like to raise awareness about our neighborhood,” Startzman said. “We’re hoping people from all of Akron will come.”
Startzman said several private gardens will be open on the tour. One stop will be the site of an ongoing garden party where refreshments will be sold and garden art will be on display and available for purchase.
The site for purchasing tickets and tour maps is Elsie’s Garden, at 200 Myrtle Place, off of South Maple Street. Startzman said the garden was named in memory of Elsie Snyder, a resident of West Hill who is considered a pioneer by residents.
“She did a lot of things for our neighborhood,” Startzman said. “She went around and bought up houses, renovated them and brought them back to life.”
Barb Snyder, Elsie Snyder’s daughter, now maintains the urban garden, Startzman said.
Another stop will be a garden maintained by the West Hill Neighborhood Organization on West Exchange Street.
The West Hill neighborhood is roughly bounded by St. Vincent Church to the east and Portage Path to the west, Startzman said. The tour is walkable, but participants can drive or take a free trolley, provided by the city of Akron.
The tour is family-friendly, Startzman said, adding there will be a scavenger hunt during the event where participants will try to find one item at each garden.
Startzman said the city of Akron
and Keep Akron Beautiful are sponsors of the event,
as are National City Bank, Cutler Real Estate and Startzman.
The West Hill group hopes to see
several hundred people checking out their neighborhood
for the tour.
“We would like to see at
least 300 or 400, but it would be great if we saw 500,”
Startzman said.
Tickets for the tour are $10
and are available the day of the event at Elsie’s
Garden. The tour will take place from noon to 4 p.m.
For more information, call Startzman at (330) 990-5263.
Urban gardens like this one, shown above and below, belonging
to Joan Colbert, will be featured on the West Hill Tour
of City Gardens June 16.
Photos: Ken Crisafi
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