Lakeside Wheel Club

Bloemendaal at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens

The Bloemendaal House, originally the Lakeside Wheel Club, is a clubhouse in Richmond, Virginia originally built by Lewis Ginter in 1895.[1]

Around 1911, after the "cycle" fell out of vogue, Ginter's niece, Grace Arents, converted the structure into a convalescent home for poor children suffering from tuberculosis and other city-borne illnesses. She remodeled the building and had a second story added. After the founding of the Instructional Visiting Nurses Association, the convalescent home was no longer needed. In 1913, Grace Arents transformed it into a home for herself and her companion, Mary Garland Smith. Grace Arents named the place Bloemendaal, in homage to the Ginter family's Dutch ancestors (Bloemendaal means "valley of flowers" and she planted gardens on the property). Grace Arents died in 1926 and left the property to the City of Richmond, with the stipulation that after Smith died it was to be developed into a botanical garden honoring Lewis Ginter. Smith died in 1968 on her 97th birthday.[2]

The city of Richmond took possession of the property, but it languished. Later, the property and its gardens were rescued by botanists, horticulturists and passionate citizens, who formed the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Inc.[3] Now, the Bloemendaal House is part of the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.[4]

  1. ^ Burns, Brian. Lewis Ginter: Richmond's Gilded Age Icon. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2011.
  2. ^ Burns, Brian. Gilded Age Richmond: Gaiety, Greed and Lost Cause Mania. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2018.
  3. ^ "Lewis Ginter History -".
  4. ^ "Giving and Charitable Contributions to Lewis Ginter". Retrieved 10 January 2018.