By Parker Anderson
For many years, visitors to the Sharlot Hall Museum have admired the Territorial Women's Memorial Rose Garden as one of the most colorful areas on the museum grounds. It is especially brilliant during the summer when the roses are in full bloom.
The rose garden is a tribute to the pioneer women of Arizona and all they accomplished, much of which is too-often forgotten in the popular male-dominated histories of yore. Originally, the plan was for one rose bush in memory of each woman inducted into the rose garden memorial roster. With the passing of time, the number of women inducted surpassed the area available for planting. Now the garden, as a whole, is in tribute to these courageous women in our history whose indomitable spirit lives on.
In 1938, some sources indicate 1935, Evelyn Perkins suggested the idea of a Memorial Garden to Sharlot Hall, but Miss Sharlot did not get around to implementing the idea before her death in 1943.
In 1948, Dorothy McMullen, of the Prescott Garden Club, got the ball rolling and presented a plan for a Memorial Garden to Mrs M.C. Hazeltine, the President of the Sharlot Hall Historical Society. It was approved, with funding for the project secured from the Arizona Federation of Garden Clubs.
At the onset, roses were not the only flower to be planted in the Memorial Garden, although they took prominence. When the first plantings were made in March of 1948, they included eight Rosedale pyracantha bushes that were recommended to the Sharlot Hall Historical Society by local florist J.S. Bochat.
Pansies, petunias, delphiniums, Shasta daisies, chrysanthemum, grape hyacinths, carnations and gypsophila were also planted at various points around the garden and museum grounds. They all contributed to a truly spectacular array of color during spring blooming season.
Raymond G. Weaver, nephew of Arizona pioneer scout Pauline Weaver, donated $20.00 for a special planting on his uncle's grave that had been moved to the museum grounds by Miss Sharlot in 1929. The Prescott Garden Club planted a Deodar cedar tree, imported from Nepal, to the right of Pauline Weaver's tombstone. They also planted a Mabel Stearns dooryard rose bush on the grave itself. Neither the tree nor the rose bush remains today.
Dorothy McMullen, along with other garden club members and members of the Yavapai Cowbelles, started the original plantings. Some of the ladies included Millie Ogg, Mrs. W.S. Randall, Mrs. Kenneth and Cappy Bozarth.
Somewhere along the way the variety of flowers either died off or were removed. The decision was made to honor the pioneer women exclusively with roses. Florence Yount kept the records with each inducted woman to be honored by a specific rose in the garden.
In 1974, the decision was made to move the rose garden from the south side of the Governor's Mansion to the north side where it is today. At the new location, the garden is visible by passersby on Gurley Street.
At this time, anyone may nominate a pioneer woman for induction into the Sharlot Hall Museum Memorial Rose Garden. She must have been born prior to 1900 and have lived in Arizona prior to statehood in 1912. A brief biography and memorial donation are also requested. If you have someone you would like to see be so honored, please pick up a nomination form at the museum or you many print one from the museum website at www.sharlothallmuseum.org.
This coming weekend, Sharlot Hall Museum's Blue Rose Theater will present "Ladies of the Garden", an original play by Jody Drake, depicting and memorializing six of the women now enshrined in the rose garden. Show times are June 12th at 6:30 p.m., June 13th and 14th at 7:30 p.m., with a matinee June 14th at 2:00 p.m. Tickets may be purchased in advance at the museum in person or by calling 445-3122. They may also be purchased at the door prior to show time.
The Blue Rose Theater originally performed this play in 1996 and I have a personal memory of that landmark production. Although I am not a woman, I was walking with the cast of six women through the rose garden at dusk. Suddenly, one of the cast members noticed a small cluster of exactly six roses on one bush. It was off-season for roses and there wasn't another rose bloom in sight anywhere in the garden! Every one of us had chills run up our spine and, to this day, we like to think that somehow this was a sign of gratitude from somewhere beyond to the six women of the original "Ladies of the Garden" cast who had worked so hard to make the play possible.
Parker Anderson is an active member of Sharlot Hall Museum's Blue Rose Theater.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(po2561)
Reuse only by permission.
Dorothy McMullen, shown here in 1950, was a member of the Prescott Garden Club and the originator of the Sharlot Hall Museum Memorial Rose Garden in 1948.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(pb021f601i8)
Reuse only by permission.
Yavapai Cowbelles dedication of the Rose Garden Memorial Charter, 1962.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(pb020f35i10)
Reuse only by permission.
Yavapai Cowbelles planting of two roses to honor two of the founders of the Memorial Rose Garden, Evelyn Edith Duncan Perkins and Lucinda E. Hughes, September 10, 1965.