History
Hidden Lake Gardens began with Harry Fee, an Adrian businessman, purchased 200 acres (0.81 km2) of land surrounding the "Hidden Lake" upon his retirement in 1926. He began with the intent to farm, but after realizing the land was not suitable for agriculture, he began to grow nursery stock instead. Fee decided that he did not want to compete with local nurseries during the Great Depression, so he began planting his trees and shrubs on the property. Fee sought to create picturesque landscape scenes, embellishing on the natural beauty of his property to create a “series of pictures.” In 1945, Harry Fee would donate Hidden Lake Gardens to Michigan State University, and his generous Financial endowment continues to develop the gardens with additional land acquisitions, building construction, and educational programs and visitor services.
Read more about this topic: Hidden Lake Gardens
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“... all big changes in human history have been arrived at slowly and through many compromises.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
“Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of the prophets. He saw with an open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)