Les Filles de Fleurs will instruct. We will make and take home our own arrangements on Thurday, April 23 at 7 pm.
Light Appetizers, Wine & Other Beverages Served
Cost $35 per person
Please send a check payable to NABB to:
Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay
160 Commonwealth Avenue,
Boston, MA 02116
Please contact Tracy Pesanelli (pesanelli@gurobi.com)
or 978-618-5538) for more information
Image from www.cotemaison.fr
The Garden Club of the Back Bay is not known as an “arranging” garden club, although we have always boasted many talented floral designers among our members. Our primary Club emphasis is tree care, and flower shows are something of a side line activity. Delving into our Archives, however, we find members have a long history of providing arrangements to local events.
The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay gave a supper party for Boston’s City Counselors at the home of Lawrence Perera on Marlborough Street in 1968, and the Garden Club filled the home with bouquets. During a subsequent Neighborhood Association house tour, Garden Club members decorated the home of host Kitty Winter for the tea associated with the tour. Mrs. Melvin Johnson created a “particularly interesting flower arrangement” for the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, formerly located on Boylston Street. Our presence at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston at Art in Bloom also dates to the event’s inception, and members participate in the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts competitions at the New England Spring Flower Show.
This year, guests at our Twilight Garden Party on Thursday, June 4 at The Chilton Club will enjoy more bouquets created for the event by The Garden Club of the Back Bay. We hope to see you then.
The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay will hold a neighborhood forum on Wednesday, January 21, from 6:30 – 8:30 at the French Cultural Center, 53 Marlborough Street, on “Car Free in the Back Bay” – Alternatives to Dependence on the Private Vehicle. Speakers include Beverly Scott, CEO and General Manager of the MBTA, Wendy Landsman, Executive Director of Walk Boston, Vineet Gupta, Director of Planning for the Boston Transportation Department, and Lisa Feldman of zipcar. Sign up by emailing info@nabbonline.com, or by calling 617-247-3961. This is a free event.
Please join The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay on Sunday, January 25 from 4:30 – 6:30 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza, 138 St. James Street, for a free event welcoming new members and greeting old friends. Enjoy light hors d’oeuvre, and a cash bar is available. Non-member guests will receive a 1 year complimentary membership. Please rsvp by January 15 with names of attendees to info@nabbonline.com, or call 617-247-3961. NABB gratefully acknowledges the Fairmont Copley Plaza for underwriting this event. Photo by www.ansa.it.
In 1968, The Garden Club of the Back Bay co-sponsored the Fourth Annual Front Yard Contest with the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay. The judges were Jay J. Stinson, Muriel Crossman, and Henry Wendler, all of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. More than thirty entries were received. Winners in four of the six classes were:
F.P. Hatch, caretaker for the Newman Preparatory School on Marlborough Street, pictured below, for the best front yard of a church, club or school receiving professional care.
Mrs. Edward Rose, 400 Beacon Street, for best use of evergreens, shrubs, trees or vines in a front yard.
Mrs. Gordon Hanlon, 334 Marlborough Street, for best use of flowers.
Chi Phi, 32 Hereford Street, for Best Fraternity.
Class I, Best Lawn, had only “one poor entry” and no prize was given. Class IV, Best Evergreen Ground Cover, Paved or Pebbled Area was also bypassed. The prizes were subscriptions to Horticulture Magazine.
Conceived as the centerpiece of a grand boulevard meant to rival those of Second Empire Paris, the Commonwealth Avenue Mall was an integral feature of the original Back Bay plan of 1858. Extending ten blocks, from Arlington Street to Kenmore Square, this linear park is today both the verdant heart of the neighborhood and a vital link in the Emerald Necklace, connecting the Public Garden and Common to the east with the Fens and Franklin Park to the west. One hundred feet wide and studded with distinguished memorial statuary beneath a canopy of ornamental trees, the Mall we know and cherish may, in fact, owe as much to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as to the nineteenth. Continuously evolving to reflect the changing city around it, the Mall has been prudently husbanded to absorb the addition of new monuments, the introduction of accessibility and the incorporation of lighting, to say nothing of the vigilant management of its plant materials. As a result of such tireless efforts, this much-loved place seems only to grow in beauty and meaning from year to year. Explore the many ways in which the Mall has become not a facsimile of itself but the ongoing fulfillment of a farsighted vision.
The May 29 tour, beginning at 5 pm, will be led by William Young, Assistant Director for Historic Districts, who has staffed the Back Bay Architectural Commission since 1991, and Margaret Pokorny, Chair of the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee of The Friends of the Public Garden, and past President of The Garden Club of the Back Bay, Inc.
Meeting place will be confirmed at time of reservation. Free and open to the public, but as no more than 30 participants may be accommodated, pre-registration is required. Co-sponsored by the Back Bay Architectural Commission, The Friends of the Public Garden, The Garden Club of the Back Bay, Inc., and The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay. Contact info@nabbonline.org to reserve a place before May 22.
The Green Committee of The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay invites you to make GREEN improvements in your life before Earth Day 2014. Join NABB’s GREEN Challenge and be entered in a drawing to win a Gift Card to Back Bay restaurants or other prizes!
Fill out a quick Carbon Footprint form online and you’ll be on your way to saving money and potentially winning a great prize. Save energy and the planet with easy, no-cost sustainability actions. Do your part to honor Earth Week, our neighborhood, and Mother Earth!
Check out the prizes you might win:
GRAND PRIZE: One-night stay for two at The Lenox, an historic Boston landmark and
an industry leader in environmental initiatives
$50 Gift Card to ever-popular Papa Razzi Trattoria
$50 Gift Card to Reflections on Newbury St. Boston’s “Best of the New” for great gifts, trendy home décor & tabletop store
20% off lunch on your next visit to L’Espalier (limit 6 guests)
Energy efficient Advanced Power strips to save wasted “vampire” power and $$ ($35 value)
NSTAR Combo Box of Desk Lamp, LED Night Light, Incandescent style LEDs ($50 value)
…and more coming
Deadline to submit form online or by mail: Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22, 2014.
Get started by clicking on http://www.nabbonline.com/committees/green_committee for more information.
The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay invites you to the 19th Annual Taste of the Back Bay on Thursday, April 3, from 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm at the Prudential Skywalk. $75 NABB member price, $85 non-members, $100 at the door. Please respond by April 2 at www.nabbonline.com or call 617-247-3961.
The Green Committee of The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay will sponsor a NABB Neighborhood Forum on Wednesday, March 19, beginning at 6:30 pm at the French Cultural Center, 53 Marlborough Street, entitled Rising Tides in the Back Bay: Increasing Resiliency and Preparedness Post “Sandy.” Presenting speakers are Nancy Girard, Commissioner, Environment Department of the City of Boston, Vivien Li, President, Boston Harbor Association, Peter Papesch, Boston Society of Architects, Sustainability Education Committee, and Bud Ris, President and CEO of the New England Aquarium. To register for this free event, contact the NABB office at 617-247-3961. Image from www.npr.org.
Please join The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay at NABB’s Annual Member Reception, sponsored by the Mandarin Oriental Boston, 776 Boylston Street, from 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 26, 2014. This is one of NABB’s favorite events each year. Enjoy complimentary hors d’oeuvre and a cash bar, and see your friends and neighbors in the beautiful ballroom of the Mandarin Oriental. Also, please feel free to invite potential new members, but be sure to sign up yourself and everyone else whom you are bringing to this wonderful event! To sign up, please visit http://www.nabbonline.com/event/nabb_annual_member_reception.
