Code,800029
Subject,"Harry A. Davis, American Legion Peace Garden"
Date,4/4/2005
Interviewer,Michael Bordelon
Abstract,"Harry A. Davis, a delegate of the American Legion Peace Cultural Garden, discusses his role and memories of Cleveland's Cultural Gardens.  Other topics include restoration, previous events within the gardens, One World Day, and community involvement."
Special Notes,Transcript in Participant Release File Folder
minutes:,
0,"American Legion Peace Gardens / Garden of America, 7-8 years been involved"
1,"Maintence of garden, hands-on duties, how first got involved through exercising in the area"
2,"Help between gardens, grant of planting 20-30,000 day lillies"
3,"Community work, Liberty Row as separate program - WWI Memorial to Cuyahoga County and Cleveland city soldiers"
4,"Area and Oak tree called ""the Liberty Tree"""
5,"Flags in Memorial in need of repair, recovery, and current program"
6,"Aspects to above program, farmers called off to Iraq, 850 trees planted"
7,Work being done to restore Liberty Row and money raised for it
8,"Replacing bases, bronze plaques, american Legion donated $4,000"
9,"How people can get involved in Liberty Row, help with oak trees, money, manual work"
10,"People working on project for years, Al Oberst"
11,"Ben Stefanski in Shaker area, 2-3 years different definitions for what should be done"
12,"106 project to re-direct stream, different project ideas for area except for what already exists there, which are the Gardens and Liberty Row"
13,"Outreach by Cultural Gardens, public relations, Gardens meeting on second Tuesday of each month"
14,"Speakers available, tour available, meetings open, stresses volunteer work as a ""labor of love"""
15,"Seemed almost abandoned at one point, designed by same person as who desgined Central Park, sees bridges as works of art"
16,"Bridges, Doan Creek, great asset to city and people for Cleveland's quality of life"
17,"Gardens can't be duplicated today, Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped them"
18,Reason for decline was politicians in the past abandoning the Gardens
19,"Christmas Tree Lane in Pasedena, CA, Cultural Gardens in book there"
20,"""This is a magnificent garden"" for peace and tranquility, weddings at Italian Gardens are popular, 2nd is Hungarian Gardens"
21,"German garden is beautiful, Hebrew garden has work being done, Mayor Campbell's administration has kept up the work Mayor White's administration's work and support for the Gardens"
22,"All volunteer work on Gardens, community effort to make it work, vandalism and replacing American Legion Garden"
23,"Italian Garden investment, Hungarian, British garden is ""elegant"", all are working to bring back ""luster"""
24,"Greenhouse, Christmas season is must see because of flowers, like a re-birth, daffodills and day-lillies coming up"
25,"Wished it was backyard, can't understand (why other don't see how great) the masonry work, trees, foilage, ironwork is, very unique here"
26,"Finest memorial to peace, bortherhood, unity - designed by ""men who knew war and now understand peace,"" different shades of green, thousands of dollars in plants"
27,"Resting peacefully in serene area, helping with each other's gardens, spirit of unity is unique, African American garden underway"
28,"Indian garden underway, not static, things are going on now"
29,"School's participation, tours being given, for the reasons behind the garden, too"
30,"Lists several gardens as being able to have someone talk about gardens, from grade school and up, college students helped plant daffodills"
31,May 22nd was a general clean-up day because of the Cleveland Marathon
32,"Vandalism regarding statues and plaques, maybe on Armed Services Day, want people to enjoy it"
33,"Maybe is people see work the neighbors will help out and become friendly, this is beginning to happen, vandalism is just everywhere"
34,"Need for education about not vandalizing memorials, Liberty Row is for men who gave life for freedom and flags can disappear in 5 minutes"
35,"Intent to still honor people and cultures, will overcome problem, learn from various gardens, ""don't take one leaf"""
36,Soil in gardens from other nations would be good project
37,"Some soil in storage, need for ""strongbacks"" to help with artifacts"
38,"Need young minds for new ideas, soil project for 2006 would be ""beautiful thing,"" One World Day in September"
39,"Second Sunday in September, day to go out and enjoy program for gardens, American Legion was host, coming year is African American garden"
40,Ways One World Day is advertised
41,"Need help advertising, Chiense Garden has a ""Teacher's Day"", Cleveland Marathon also comes through"
42,"During Children's Olympics people came, Cultural Garden Federation saying different things people could do and events that could take place"
43,"From the hills of West Virginia, personal history details"
44,"Fortunate to live with Lake Erie as backyard, Cultural Gardens are his ""oasis"", can sit above and see people enjoying area, planting stuff"
45,"Beautiful way to spend retirement, takes, need nurturing, hundreds of people"
46,"Across road from Cultural Garden, offers help, will accept ideas for work, future, interest, money, have a good time doing it"
47,"Attendance not even throughout history, suburban flight and people moving with no replacement, new group is evolving, effects of economics"
48,"Attendance not there but enough people interested, great to have in Cleveland, ""Emerald Necklace"" in Cleveland"
49,"People enjoy it and this begets others to go, when visits other areas goes to gardens and lakefront, word of mouth and a little direction is needed"
50,"Compares to going to church by taking people there, no more cautionary than downtown, compares to suburbs"
51,"Superiotity of Cultural Gardens over other parks, compares to people going to Cavs games, ""no bears or bad people"" and hasn't been robbed in 50 years"
52,"No crime, only a little vandalism there, if people do come they will ""enjoy nature at its finest"""