Pringle Creek Greenhouses Get a Face Lift
By Rachel Bucci, Statesman Journal, June 23, 2010
After a two-year restoration process, two 1930s-era greenhouses at Pringle Creek Community are back in operation, providing vegetable starts for Marion Polk Food Share community gardens and a neighborhood gathering spot for would-be gardeners and eager volunteers.
Pringle Creek Conservatory, as the two greenhouses are officially known, was built by Lord & Burnham Co., a New York company responsible for many Victorian-style public conservatories in the United States, including those at the New York Botanical Gardens, the United States Botanical Garden in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park Conservatory of Flowers.
The greenhouses, with a combined footprint of nearly 6,000 square feet, were used in early farming and flower production operations at Fairview Training Center. After decades of vacancy, the greenhouses were in serious disrepair and filled with broken glass, rusted steam pipe and tangled blackberry brambles.
It was a challenge to see the potential, says James Santana, a member of the development team at Pringle Creek Community, but the group was adamant about saving the structures and bringing them back to usefulness.
“While the greenhouses are sitting on a half acre of land, instead of tearing them down, we decided to invest in restoring them,” says Santana.
The group envisioned the restored greenhouses as a community-building resource – a place for shared food production and a place to bring people together. The second objective was realized early in the restoration process as volunteers cleaned out the buildings, stripped the redwood frames, installed new glass and repainted everything.
“We want to create community spaces where people can interact,” says Santana. “Most neighborhoods don’t have those experiences because the spaces don’t exist. A community garden is one example [of a space] where people with common interests can gather together.”
At Pringle Creek’s first community garden, up and running since 2005, community members and neighbors tend the plots, with extra produce donated to Marion Polk Food Share.
The now fully-functioning greenhouses have enabled Pringle Creek to have an even larger impact with the Food Share. This year they used to start flats and flats of vegetables that have since been distributed and planted at MPFS sites across the region.
Another partnership, between Pringle Creek and Shangri-La’s LEAP program (Life Enrichment and Activities Program), is giving developmentally disabled adult volunteers an opportunity to grow flower baskets. Three days a week the volunteers tend the baskets of fuchsia and purple hued petunias, while enjoying the therapeutic benefits of gardening.
“They’ve really enjoyed going down and having time to work with the plants,” says project coordinator and Shangri-La’s business developer Sandi Bjorkman. “Right from the get-go, they planted seeds, have been watching them grow and nurturing them. It’s been quite a process and they are really enjoying it.”
Santana says that some of the flower baskets will be displayed around the Pringle Creek community, while others may be sold to the public with proceeds benefiting Shangri-La.
The greenhouse restoration is mostly complete, but the overall vision is still evolving, says Santana. Pointing to one section of the larger greenhouse, he says that what is now strips of barren soil framed with concrete paths, will one day be turned into a true conservatory, with in-ground citrus – lemons, limes and oranges – planted along side hardy exotics.
On the patch of land between the two greenhouses, Santana and community coordinator Shannon Stewart will soon plant rows of corn. Our own Ohio cornfield, he quips. The south side of the smaller greenhouse is already teeming with herbs, flowers and strawberries that will be joined by tomatoes, squash and other vegetables.
Some of these edibles may be available soon in the form of lunch at the newly opened Painters Hall Café, located in its namesake LEED certified building featuring re-purposed materials culled from the existing Fairview buildings.
That’s the dream anyway, says Santana.
For now Painters Hall Café, open 9 to 2 Monday to Friday, offers brewed and French press coffee (a Craigslist procured espresso maker is getting a tune-up), tea, and Wild Pear box lunches if you call ahead. There is also wi-fi and an incomparable setting – a sunny deck, the soft rustling of trees along Pringle Creek, and a great view of the newly restored greenhouses.
By Rachel Bucci, Statesman Journal, June 23, 2010
After a two-year restoration process, two 1930s-era greenhouses at Pringle Creek Community are back in operation, providing vegetable starts for Marion Polk Food Share community gardens and a neighborhood gathering spot for would-be gardeners and eager volunteers.
Pringle Creek Conservatory, as the two greenhouses are officially known, was built by Lord & Burnham Co., a New York company responsible for many Victorian-style public conservatories in the United States, including those at the New York Botanical Gardens, the United States Botanical Garden in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park Conservatory of Flowers.
The greenhouses, with a combined footprint of nearly 6,000 square feet, were used in early farming and flower production operations at Fairview Training Center. After decades of vacancy, the greenhouses were in serious disrepair and filled with broken glass, rusted steam pipe and tangled blackberry brambles.
It was a challenge to see the potential, says James Santana, a member of the development team at Pringle Creek Community, but the group was adamant about saving the structures and bringing them back to usefulness.
“While the greenhouses are sitting on a half acre of land, instead of tearing them down, we decided to invest in restoring them,” says Santana.
The group envisioned the restored greenhouses as a community-building resource – a place for shared food production and a place to bring people together. The second objective was realized early in the restoration process as volunteers cleaned out the buildings, stripped the redwood frames, installed new glass and repainted everything.
“We want to create community spaces where people can interact,” says Santana. “Most neighborhoods don’t have those experiences because the spaces don’t exist. A community garden is one example [of a space] where people with common interests can gather together.”
At Pringle Creek’s first community garden, up and running since 2005, community members and neighbors tend the plots, with extra produce donated to Marion Polk Food Share.
The now fully-functioning greenhouses have enabled Pringle Creek to have an even larger impact with the Food Share. This year they used to start flats and flats of vegetables that have since been distributed and planted at MPFS sites across the region.
Another partnership, between Pringle Creek and Shangri-La’s LEAP program (Life Enrichment and Activities Program), is giving developmentally disabled adult volunteers an opportunity to grow flower baskets. Three days a week the volunteers tend the baskets of fuchsia and purple hued petunias, while enjoying the therapeutic benefits of gardening.
“They’ve really enjoyed going down and having time to work with the plants,” says project coordinator and Shangri-La’s business developer Sandi Bjorkman. “Right from the get-go, they planted seeds, have been watching them grow and nurturing them. It’s been quite a process and they are really enjoying it.”
Santana says that some of the flower baskets will be displayed around the Pringle Creek community, while others may be sold to the public with proceeds benefiting Shangri-La.
The greenhouse restoration is mostly complete, but the overall vision is still evolving, says Santana. Pointing to one section of the larger greenhouse, he says that what is now strips of barren soil framed with concrete paths, will one day be turned into a true conservatory, with in-ground citrus – lemons, limes and oranges – planted along side hardy exotics.
On the patch of land between the two greenhouses, Santana and community coordinator Shannon Stewart will soon plant rows of corn. Our own Ohio cornfield, he quips. The south side of the smaller greenhouse is already teeming with herbs, flowers and strawberries that will be joined by tomatoes, squash and other vegetables.
Some of these edibles may be available soon in the form of lunch at the newly opened Painters Hall Café, located in its namesake LEED certified building featuring re-purposed materials culled from the existing Fairview buildings.
That’s the dream anyway, says Santana.
For now Painters Hall Café, open 9 to 2 Monday to Friday, offers brewed and French press coffee (a Craigslist procured espresso maker is getting a tune-up), tea, and Wild Pear box lunches if you call ahead. There is also wi-fi and an incomparable setting – a sunny deck, the soft rustling of trees along Pringle Creek, and a great view of the newly restored greenhouses.