A special garden in Stratford, Ont. has melded a love for botany with the Immortal Bard himself. For 90 years, the Shakespearean Gardens have been a site of tranquility and horticulture in the middle of The Festival City. It features a mixture of plants and flowers as well as a bust of William Shakespeare that was donated in 1949. It was first planted near the Avon River in 1936. The location was once the site of Dufton Woollen Mill. When it burned down in 1922, the owners decided not to reconstruct the building. That cleared the way for R.T. Orr, the man behind Stratford’s Park System, to make a push to create the Shakespearean Gardens. The Great Depression delayed his plans, but ultimately, the project moved forward in the 1930s. Its current caretakers, a volunteer group of enthusiasts and history buffs, are known as The Friends of the Shakespearean Gardens. They held a celebration on Thursday to make the gardens’ 90th anniversary. “On this very day in 1936, 90 years ago, the Governor General of Canada was here and dedicated this site,” Reg White, Chair of The Friends of The Shakespearean Gardens. The gardens on Huron Street have been officially designated as a historical site.
