CONSERVATORY
Garfield Park Conservatory houses 10,000 square feet of plants from the world's tropics. Even if it's snowing outside, the conservatory is always in full bloom. Changing educational displays and three spectacular seasonal shows make the conservatory a great place to visit throughout the year.
HISTORY OF THE CONSERVATORY:
The original conservatory was designed and constructed in 1914 by the extremely well respected German landscape architect George Edward Kessler. The original conservatory complex consisted of a palm house, two show houses, two plant houses, a propagating house and a service building.
In 1954, the aging and deteriorated conservatory glass house was replaced with a welded aluminum frame conservatory (below) that still stands today. At the time that it was constructed, it was the first all-aluminum, all-welded greenhouse in the United States. The straight Art Deco-style lines replaced the curving line styles used in the original 1914 construction (above).
Renovations to the entire park in 1997, included the introduction of the permanent rainforest theme inside the conservatory that still exists today. The conservatory is currently used in many youth and adult education classes with rainforest and nature-related themed programs. It is the host of a wide variety of plant species including palms, orchids and ferns as well as plants that are major rainforest products like cacao (chocolate), chicle (chewing gum), papaya, vanilla, banana, coffee and several varieties of citrus. It is also the home to a few animal species as well. Although they are commonly well camoflauged it is always and enjoyable challenge to spot one of our green anoles, tree frogs or zebra finches.
