Woodbury Heritage Society

The Woodbury Heritage Society was pleased as punch to have faculty and staff from Globe University’s Woodbury campus come and volunteer in the garden on May 15th.  We had help replacing pickets on the fence,  a tremendous amount of work was done in the garden, and the house got a spic and span cleaning in preparation for our Open House season.  We can’t thank the volunteers enough!

Plan on joining us at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday evening, April 16th, at Salem Lutheran Church, 7825 Bailey Road, for our annual members meeting.  We look forward to Jean Garbe Brown’s presentation on The Garbes of Woodbury.”

Bring a dish to share and enjoy John Seemann’s slide show presentation of his travels throughout Peru. Event begins at noon at St. John’s Lutheran Church, corner of Valley Creek Road and St. John’s Drive. Call Bud Urtel (651) 797-3392 for more information.

Our 2009 calendar, featuring beautiful pictures of some of the historic barns of Woodbury, is on sale now!  Makes a great gift, but don’t forget to order one for yourself.  Click here for more information.

Mark your calendars for Sunday, October 5th, for another edition of the Woodbury Heritage Society’s Antiques Appraisal event.  It will be held in the amphitheatre at Central Park.  Woodbury Heritage Society members will have priority for the first hour, from 2-3, p.m.  For members, the first two items will be appraised for no charge, otherwise it is $4 per item, or three appraisals for $10.00.  Proceeds will go to the Woodbury Heritage Society and the City of Woodbury’s Parks and Recreation Department for Senior Programming.  Watch for more details coming soon!

August Update:  Oh, Deer!  The deer are eating plants as fast as I can put them in the ground.  They especially seem to like anything that butterflies are also supposed to like.  They are very thorough, too.  There are a few pumpkins coming along. 

The potatoes and pumpkins are blossoming, the corn is hanging in there despite the dry conditions.  Some little varmint came behind me and dug up all the sunflower seeds and ate them, leaving the hulls near the holes.  We will try again.  I saw a 13-Lined Ground Squirrel that is one of my main suspects.  There is a small strip of barley in the middle of the vegetable garden.  The scarcrow will be making his appearance soon! 

Something new is blossoming nearly every time I visit the garden.  Right now there are False Sunflowers, Bee Balm (both red and bright pink) Delphinium, Day Lily, Maltese Cross, Zinnias, and Speedwell, to name a few.  There are some Poppies near the Lily of the Valley getting ready to blossom that haven’t come up in several years.  Glad to have them back!  The Daisies are nearing the end of their bloom time and will all be cut back to try to prevent their spread–a few years ago they pretty much had the run of the place!

The Woodbury Heritage Society has teamed with the City of Woodbury’s Annual “Focus on Woodbury” Photo Contest to offer prizes for photos submitted that will be used for the 2010 Heritage Society Calendar.  Photos of landscapes, animals or people within the City of Woodbury will be considered.  For full contest information, click here.

After the road construction of 2007 caused the cancellation of the majority of Open Houses, we are happy to have our quiet corner of Woodbury back.  Our first two Open Houses have been very well attended–we hope to see you at an Open House soon.  Members of the Heritage Society will be on hand to share first-hand stories of the early days of Woodbury and introduce you to our little museum/house and garden. 

On April 3rd, members were treated to a fascinating presentation by Woodbury Resident, Tom Wood, highlighting his remarkable photographic journal of his daily walks on Mile Drive.  We were also happy to have Girl Scouts from Cadette Troop 52058 who volunteered to help serve the refreshments.  The minutes from the business part of the meeting, our annual meeting of the society and elections, will be detailed in the Fall issue of Heritage Happenings, due September 1st.

Welcome to our new web site.  It was created by a volunteer, Carly H., who is a student at Northwestern University.  Many thanks to Carly for all her time and effort! Watch for refinements and more information to be posted soon.