I'm sure not many of you have ever heard of Lambert Gardens. A private garden built on 20+ acres that was located in SE Portland at the corner of 28th and Steele St, now it is apartments. Built By Andrew Lambert who owed a landscaping business. He took the business that was on the land, dissolved it and turned it into Lambert Gardens. My parents took me there when I was very very young, the things that I remember the most are the Flamingos, Peacocks, and African Crowned Cranes. Sounds pretty fabulous doesn't it. Cost to tour was only 25 cents or you could catch the Special Lambert Gardens bus from Union Station, Multnomah Hotel (gone), Benson Hotel, Orpheum Theatre (gone), or the Broadway Theatre (gone) for 75 cents round trip and included the Gardens. 'Please note that the buses only run during the tourist season.' The scans below are items that I have collected over the last few years, there are not a lot of items but linen postcards are the most common.
Tri-fold Brochure Front
Tri-fold Inside
Trifold Back
Tri-fold Map
Italian Court I
Italian Court II
Tulip Time
Strutting Peacock
Sunken Gardens I
Sunken Garden II
Azaleas and Rhododendrons
Wishing Well
Flyer Front
Flyer Inside
Flyer Back
You're losing Berry Botanic Gardens? NO. Say it isn't so. It's terrible that the Lambert Gardens were demolished, for what? A bunch of stupid buildings? From the photos it looks like it was a fabulous place. I lived in Portland from 1974 through 1992. Was it demolished before 1974? Thankfully now I think city governments are more mindful of keeping treasures like this one from the clutches of developers. And citizens are more vocal about protesting senseless demolitions too.
ReplyDeleteGrace,
DeleteWe already lost Berry Botanical Gardens, but on a positive note Portland State University built a state of the art seed vault and now houses the Rae Berry seed collection.
Lambert Gardens disappeared in 1968.
So sad...I'm truly baffled that a city like Portland doesn't have a Botanical Garden of some sort...it's sort of my (crazy) dream to start one...every time I see a good-sized chuck of empty land, I start to imagine filling it with plants :-)
ReplyDeleteScott,
DeleteI think the big botanical garden for Portland is the Rose Gardens in Washington Park. Wouldn't it be awesome to have flower gardens everywhere. Just think how good the air would smell and how beautiful it would be.
Wait a minute! There were Flamingos in Portland!?! OMG!
ReplyDeleteSo sad to think not only is it got but utterly forgotten. I wish I would have made it to the Berry Botanic Gardens before the end.
Flamingos...crazy! I went a number of times to Berry Botanical Gardens, loved it. The nice thing about going there was dropping down and wandering through Elk Rock.
DeleteThanks for sharing these memorabilia. Yes, I'm one of those old timers who remembers Lambert. And I agree that there are more enlightened leaders and people in Portland, but they still need to be prodded to get the right thing done!
ReplyDeleteWe still have the Peninsula Park Rose Gardens and I assume we still have the rose gardens below the reflecting pond at L&C College And, of course, there is the Leach Botanical Gardens. Even officiated at a wedding there once. However, what we *really need is what Seattle is close to losing (The Volunteer Park Conservatory), an enclosed conservatory! However, in today's national political environment, this is probably just a pipe dream.
I wish I had been older to appreciate Lambert Gardens, a conservatory would be awesome here and I agree that it is needed.
DeleteWow...a once-great private garden is now apartments? That's some ambition and design skill to do what Lambert did, and those former spaces looked amazing. Not being from up there, I would have never known.
ReplyDeleteAnd to think here w/ gardens, all the wrong people are in all the right places. No way in. You at least have such a horticultural culture - most of the US doesn't.
Lambert was very impressed with all the plant material that would grow here........he would go crazy if he was around today.
DeleteMy mother worked for Mr. Lambert and Ms Gresham for many years. One summer I sold sandwiches in the patio and often gave away camillas on Mothers Day from a basket. It was a wonderland. The cranes and flamingos lived in the greenhouse in the winter. The flamingos were fed beets to keep their pink color. Unbelievable that it was destroyed. Shame on Portland officials.
ReplyDeleteI currently live in the house on the property where the gardens once were. The same balcony which had white iron fencing is right outside my back door. The 8000 sq foot mansion that mr Lambert built is now a thriving hub of community, ministry and outreach for the neighborhood and reed college.
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