Gardners' Club Hall

Before St. George had a courthouse, a Tabernacle, or a temple, it had this one-room hall. The Gardeners' Club — organized in 1865 to push fruit trees, shrubs, and flowers on a reluctant desert, with the horticulturist Joseph E. Johnson as first president — raised the little adobe in 1867, members molding their own bricks and hauling lumber from the Pine Valley sawmill. Johnson spread his growing gospel through his newspaper, The Pomologist. Counted the oldest public building still standing in the city, the hall survives today among the shops of Ancestor Square.

What the plaque says

Built just five years after St. George was settled, the Gardeners’ Club Hall is considered to be the oldest public building standing in the city. This small, unassuming adobe building predates the courthouse, the Tabernacle and the Temple by several years. Located across the street north and half block west of here, the one-room structure was built in 1867 as the meeting place for the Gardeners’ Club, an organization formed to promote the growing of fruit trees, shrubs and flowers. The Gardeners’ Club was organized in 1865, Joseph E. Johnson, the club’s first president, was a powerful force in the development of horticulture and floraculture in Dixie. In his newspaper, “The Pomologist” he passed on to the public his extensive knowledge of horticulture. He also demonstrated that knowledge on his own St. George property, which included must of the block on which the Gardeners’ Club Hall and the Brigham Young Home stand. There he created a veritable “Eden” in the desert, cultivating trees, vines, and flowers and operating his nursery business. Through the Gardener’s Club, Joseph Johnson, along with other horticulture experts such as Walter E. Dodge and Luther Hemenway, spearheaded a movement which went forward until the Dixie area abounded in lovely orchards, vineyards, and gardens. In addition to being a meeting-house and social gathering place, the Gardeners’ Club Hall was the site of early horticulture exhibits, displaying the many varieties of fruits, vegetables, and other plants that could be grown in Dixie.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm — 2.6 mi
  Real dinosaur footprints preserved in ancient sandstone
• Snow Canyon State Park — 7.0 mi
  Red and white sandstone cliffs with ancient lava flows
• Hurricane Canal Trail — 17 mi
  The hand-dug canal that built Hurricane, now a walking trail blasted into the Virgin River gorge
• Kolob Canyons — 32 mi
  The quiet, uncrowded back door to Zion National Park

More markers nearby

• St. George Social Hall "Opera House" — steps away
• Pioneer Courthouse — steps away
• Dixie Academy — steps away
• The Desert Shall Blossom — steps away