Oak Park Conservatory is a conservatory and botanical garden located at 615 Garfield Street in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. It is open daily with restricted hours; a donation is suggested. The conservatory started in 1914 as a community effort to house exotic plants collected during residents' travels. Today's Edwardian-style glass structure was built in 1929 but fell into neglect until 1970, when a group of concerned citizens preserved it. It was then expanded in 2000. The conservatory now provides 8,000 square feet (700 m2) of growing areas, making it the third largest conservatory in the Chicago area, and contains more than 3,000 plants, some of which date back to 1914. The Oak Park Conservatory was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on March 8, 2005.
Read more about Oak Park Conservatory: Major Collections
Famous quotes containing the words oak and/or park:
“Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done. It is the chief and most memorable success, for history is but a prose narrative of poetic deeds.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“Linnæus, setting out for Lapland, surveys his comb and spare shirt, leathern breeches and gauze cap to keep off gnats, with as much complacency as Bonaparte a park of artillery for the Russian campaign. The quiet bravery of the man is admirable.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)