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3. WAR TIME
4. PEACE TIME
5. ARBORETUM
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The History of Lake Bluff
By Margaret (Gray) Vickery and Bob Gray
Following is a reprint of the article announcing the gift of Lake Bluff to the Michigan Audubon Society as it appeared in the MANISTEE NEWS ADVOCATE, Friday, January 22, 1988.
PART 5
ORCHARD TO ARBORETUM
The fruit orchards and berry patches of Lake Bluff were a cornucopia of species and varieties. The quality of the fruits produced each season was widely known by those who sought the sweetest cherry or the biggest gooseberry. But age took its toll, and as the years following WWII rolled by, these trees and bushes that once provided such abundance, were replaced with a new, quite different vegetative cover—Ginkos, Spruce, Pine and Fur trees began to appear. English Holly, Birch, Beech, Oak, Maple and Ash began to sway to the Lake Michigan breezes.
Where the ground once showed the furrows of the tiller and laid bare amongst the rows of fruit trees, Pachysandra, Myrtle and Ajuga now protected the earth and offered up their beauty to the eyes of appreciative souls. Flowering Crabs, English Hawthorn, Lilacs, Hydrangeas and Dogwood are joined today with their smaller flowering relatives like Mums, Lilies and Wild Iris to offer up an almost constant bouquet of beauty and memorable pastoral scenes.
Elms once graced the front @1955
Sequoia @1987
GENERAL SHERMAN COMES TO LAKE BLUFF
Today Lake Bluff is a veritable arboretum. Although it is relatively small, it more than compensates for its size by its sheer number of tree shrub and perennial species. The Pine Collection is joined by the Beech Collection and these in turn by the Viburnum and Euyonemous varieties.
The entire landscape is today dominated by yet another collection of stately trees, however, are all of the same species, Sequoia or “Giant Redwood.” Yes, the very same as that world famous redwood tree in California, the “General Sherman.”
These particular trees came to Manistee as seedlings in a one pound coffee can in 1949. Three have survived the years, and one of these today towers 100 feet into the sky and is a diameter of 48-50 inches. Truly a giant among its neighbors and a fitting tribute to the insight of Eddie Gray who believed Lake Bluff offered a comparable place to flourish as did their native California home.
View of the front yard from the den window @1958
@1964
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Eddie gained his insight into horticulture and his interest in arboretums as a result of spending the summers of his youth on the estate of his uncle, Joy Morton—founder of the Morton Salt Company, founder of the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois and son of the founder of Arbor Day, J. Sterling Morton. With Eddie’s leadership, Ernie Durrant’s landscaping (Grand Rapids landscape architect) and the talents of local friend and fellow horticulturist Gerald (Jer) Steinberg, Lake Bluff was transformed from orchard to arboretum.
NEXT> 6. A PLACE TO LIVE, A PLACE TO GROW
Lake Bluff History
3. WAR TIME
4. PEACE TIME
5. ARBORETUM