Anne Spencer Garden 1 | Lynchburg, Virginia

Lynchburg resident Anne Bethel Bannister Spencer (1882-1975) gained widespread fame not only as a poet and avid gardener but also as a NAACP leader and civil rights activist. A person of seemingly boundless drive, she also worked as a librarian, teacher, homemaker, and was a mother of three. The Anne Spencer historic site website notes that her homeplace features the “only known restored garden of an African-American in the United States.” 

Underscoring that point, this post will appear in two parts, the first being a historiographical overview, readers being warmly encouraged to probe more deeply into Spencer-related articles in Magnolia. This approach allows for deeper reflection on a home and garden with a story richly complex in ways that intertwine horticulture, designed landscapes, and local history with the development of the hugely significant Harlem Renaissance, with which Anne Spencer was closely linked. A renewed look at the Anne Spencer garden also offers an excellent way for SGHS to commemorate Black History Month 2026.

Society members enjoyed a visit here during the May 2013 Lynchburg annual meeting. This was not, however, their first look at Anne Spencer and the garden she and husband Edward created at her homeplace for three-quarters of a century.  Those who attended the 1991 Restoring Southern Gardens and Landscapes conference, for example, heard Jane Baber White (later an SGHS board member) speak on a Spencer garden restoration project she had led. Then, a Spring 1994 Magnolia article pointed to Historic Preservation magazine coverage of the Spencer site. Magnolia writers noted that “the garden contains thirty-five surviving roses planted by the Spencers, including a 1902 American Pillar and a 1927 Spanish Beauty, as well as the original anemones, lilies, and Chionadoxa…,” information always appreciated by members with keen horticultural interests and perhaps those wishing to restore/recreate an early-twentieth-century garden.* 

A far more detailed look appeared in the Summer 2005 Magnolia in a piece by garden historian Rebecca T. Frischkorn and University of Virginia landscape architecture professor Reuben Rainey.** Here the authors eloquently introduced Anne Spencer’s life as a “rich blend of…creative expression and political activism, all driven by her passion, great intellectual curiosity, and what the poet herself described as her ‘colossal reserve of constructive indignation’ towards the segregated society of her time.” The article went on to discuss an Anne Spencer segment included in the authors’ Garden World Public Television series, while also referencing their book Half My World, The Anne Spencer House and Garden, A History and Guide. Frischkorn and Rainey stressed as well the invaluable boost their work had received not only from the Spencer family but also from the stellar array of primary source material that had remained in Spencer hands. Included were “garden magazines from the 1920s … with garden plans and elevations by such noted landscape architects as Loutrel Briggs.” These, the authors noted, Anne Spencer had “adapted for her own use.” 

Spencer project leader Jane Baber White put down her own thoughts in “Restoration of the Anne Spencer Garden: A Second Time Around” for the Winter 2010 Magnolia.*** Here the author spoke of problems that had developed in the garden since its initial 1980s rehabilitation. Solutions were at hand, however, and she offered thanks for a $10,000 grant received from the Garden Club of Virginia and expressed gratitude for recommendations provided by a team of experts assembled by the Garden Conservancy. Jane White continued to update Society members in her Summer 2018 Magnolia essay “Anne Spencer’s Garden Restoration Continues.”**** Here she offered readers a memorable look back over the almost four decades since the Hillside Garden Club and Anne Spencer’s family began work at the site. Difficulties had surely arisen, she noted, but many successes could be cited as well.  White closed this article, which would be her final Magnolia contribution, with these words: “In a phrase coined by Reuben Rainey, ‘The restoration captures the spirit of Anne Spencer’s garden of inspiration,’ which has always been our ultimate goal and is a compliment we treasure.” 

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* https://southerngardenhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/1994-Spring-Vol.-X-no.-3.pdf#page=9

**https://southerngardenhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Magnolia_Summer_2005.pdf#page=7

***https://southerngardenhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/Magnolia_Winter2010.pdf.pdf#page=11

**** https://southerngardenhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/Magnolia_Summer2018.pdf#page=6. 

For a poignant remembrance of Jane White, see: https://southerngardenhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/Magnolia.2024.XXXVI_.3.pdf#page=8