The Ramsay House Visitors Center garden was officially reopened on Wednesday morning, June 12. Garden Club of Alexandria members and co-chairs of the project Vici Boguess, Betsy Huffman and Virginia Banchoff are joined by the construction team that included Construction Manager Donnie Simpson, J&J Landscape Management Inc. President James H. Derrington Jr, and landscape architect Joan Honeyman for the ribbon cutting. Photo by Louise Krafft.
The Garden Club of Alexandria celebrated the completion of the Alexandria Tourist Center, Ramsay House garden renovation with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday, June 12.
The garden project began over 3 years ago as a gift to the Alexandria Tourist Center. The completed garden includes new patios with memorial bricks, an accessible pathway and patio, native and sustainable plants to provide year-round color and the only cell phone charging station in Alexandria’s parks.
More than 70 guests gathered to hear remarks from Vice-Mayor Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, Councilman Mo Seifeldein and Tom Kaiden from Visit Alexandria. They applauded the renovation as a model public/private partnership, with the city and garden club working together at every phase of the project, from approvals to installation and completion. The city’s Parknership program provided a grant that contributed to the fund-raising effort. The Garden Club of Alexandria received support from Historic Alexandria Foundation and the Virginia Sargeant Reynolds Foundation.
The ribbon cutting ceremony concluded with awards from the Garden Club of America to the renovation’s professional team. Jamie Derrington of J&J Landscape Management received the GCA’s Club commendation for Horticulture and Joan Honeyman of Jordan Honeyman, LA received a Club award for Historic Preservation. Donnie Simpson of Simpson Development Company, whose grandfather and father had both worked on Ramsay House renovations, received the GCA Club Commendation for Civic Improvement.