Group works to make botanical center into reality

More than $1 million has been raised to date, said Bob Childress, president of Friends of the Garden. The fund-raising goal for Springfield-Greene County Botanical Center is more than $4 million.

Childress said the city and the county each have contributed about $400,000, with the remainder of the funds from private donors.

The Springfield-Greene County Botanical Center, when built, will be part of Close Memorial Park, 2400 S. Scenic, overlooking Drummond Lake.

Childress said the approximately 58-acre park was established in cooperation with the Springfield-Greene County Park Board in 1998 to honor Ann Drummond, and incorporated in 1999 with a number of gardens, the first being the hosta and rose gardens.

Friends of the Garden was founded in 1998.

Dan Kinney, director of parks for the Springfield-Greene County Park Board, said the site in Close Memorial Park was chosen because it is already a part of the Springfield-Greene County park system.

Childress said that a trust fund from the Close family provides income for the maintenance of the current facilities at Close Memorial Park.

“In the process of soliciting funds and developing the facility, we are looking for a naming grant,” he said of the botanical center. “Until we have a significant portion of those funds, I don’t think we will be breaking ground.”

As supporters continue to raise money, plans for the center are being handled in stages. Childress said the 19,000-square-foot center was designed by architects Jay Garrott and Bruce Moore of Drury University, and the design has been turned over to H Design Group LLC, which will develop a working plan for the project.

Bids are being taken for utility services, but the project is not ready for a general contractor, Childress said.

The lower level of the building will include offices for the Springfield-Greene County Park Board, University of Missouri Extension and Friends of the Garden.

Representatives of each of the organizations that will be located at the botanical center are excited about what it will bring to the city.

“The whole idea of the project is to provide Springfield with some type of botanical garden area where people can come and enjoy plants in a natural state and also learn about gardening methods,” said Gaylord Moore, horticulture specialist for the University of Missouri Extension in a news release. “This facility will offer opportunities to people from all walks of life and varied interests to learn more about the natural history of our surroundings.”

Childress said the new botanical center will put Springfield on par with larger cities such as Kansas City and St. Louis.

“There is no such facility anywhere near here,” Childress said. “This would provide a facility for garden activities and education in the Ozarks, which currently doesn’t exist.”

Kinney said the botanical center will round out the city-county park system. He noted that the park board initiated the project about five years ago with the Botanical Society and will continue to support the center by handling operations and maintenance.

“It is something we don’t have now in our park system. We have all the athletic events, we have all the parks, we have trails, we have a zoo,” Kinney said. “We don’t have a botanical building that people can come in and be a part of.”[[In-content Ad]]