Posted 11:30 pm Monday, March 15, 2010
Beginnings Of Trail Tradition Go Back To 1929
STORY BY EMILY GUEVARA
STAFF WRITER
In a few weeks, the Azalea and Spring Flower Trail will open. Visitors will come from across the nation — and even the world — to gaze at the pinks, whites and reds of the azalea bushes and all the flowers in between.
STAFF WRITER
In a few weeks, the Azalea and Spring Flower Trail will open. Visitors will come from across the nation — and even the world — to gaze at the pinks, whites and reds of the azalea bushes and all the flowers in between.
And a good many Tyler residents will open their gardens to visitors, talk with them about the plants and share a piece of their hearts and their homes.
But in this, the 51st year of the Azalea Trail, it is hard to imagine a time when the flowers did not grace this city. However, that time was not that long ago.
The year was 1929. The stock market would crash that October. Within months, more than 3.2 million people would be without jobs. But a good number of people in Tyler and the rest of East Texas were riding high with the oil boom, so with extra money in their pockets the area’s wealthy were open to a little landscaping.
But in this, the 51st year of the Azalea Trail, it is hard to imagine a time when the flowers did not grace this city. However, that time was not that long ago.
The year was 1929. The stock market would crash that October. Within months, more than 3.2 million people would be without jobs. But a good number of people in Tyler and the rest of East Texas were riding high with the oil boom, so with extra money in their pockets the area’s wealthy were open to a little landscaping.
City nurseryman Maurice Shamburger is credited with introducing the azalea to Tyler.
Shamburger, who had just returned to Texas from college in Iowa, planted a test garden with more than 100 varieties of azalea bushes, according to a history of the Azalea Trail.
He obviously was met with success because, as the stories tell us, he imported the bushes by the boxcar loads from Georgia.
And Tyler residents bought them.
At the time, azaleas cost $400 a bush, rather expensive compared to the $20 or less price tag of today.
With success in his own garden, Shamburger talked to prominent Tyler resident Sarah Butler about the potential use of azaleas to beautify the community. Mrs. Butler was, at one-time, the general manager and publisher of the Tyler Morning Telegraph. She not only blessed Shamburger’s idea, but also planted azaleas on her own property.
Her home on Charnwood Street, along with several on Lindsey Lane, became showplaces for the azalea trail.
As people began to get word of the flowers and their beauty, visitors started making their way to Tyler.
So in 1960, the Chamber of Commerce established the first marked route. That route included 60 houses and spanned five miles, according to information on the Azalea Trail Web site, www.tylerazaleatrail.com.
An estimated 10,000 people showed up for the opening day that year, according to a Tyler newspaper article dated April 11, 1960.
License plates showed people came from as far away as California, New York and Ohio, with other visitors driving in from New Mexico, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas, according to the article.
The trails received high praise.
One Ohio visitor called the show, “the most wonderful thing I’ve ever seen,” according to the story.
The Ohioan was a flower enthusiast who had traveled the country attending similar tours, the article stated.
Mary Anne McCain was in her late teens when her parents purchased a house on Lindsey Lane. That street was home to Tom and Gladys Joyner who had one of the largest gardens and played a big role in the start of the trail.
Mrs. McCain, now 82, said she could not remember exactly what year they moved in, but suspected that it was in the 1960s, the early years of the trail. She said the house did not have many azalea bushes when they moved in, but said her mother and father, Francis and Louise Nenney, purchased many azalea bushes and planted them, she said.
“They would go down … and buy those plants and bring them back and plant (them),” she said during a phone interview Friday. “They loved those azaleas. They’d move them around and really babied them.”
Mrs. McCain said her father really enjoyed standing out in the yard talking with visitors and telling them about the bushes. Her mother was a bit more private, she said. It really takes special people, she said, to let visitors come into their yard and deal with the inconvenience of being blocked into your driveway.
Still, she said, it’s a wonderful thing that the city and its residents do.
It is this sort of spirit of giving that has kept the trail alive and thriving for the past 50 years.
After that first year, the event flourished.
In 1962, 15 homes were added for a total of 75 houses and 15,000 people visited. In 1964, 25,000 people walked the trails and the Azalea Belles were added. The first belles were secretaries from the Chamber of Commerce who gathered the materials and created the dresses for the occasion. The women dressed in antebellum costumes and stood along the trail greeting guests and providing more photographic opportunities. Today ninth- and 10th-grade girls from the community serve as belles.
In 1986, the trail expanded to two miles. And in 2004, the tour stretched for eight miles and attracted more the 100,000 visitors to Tyler, the Azalea Trail Web site shows.
Today, it stretches through 10 miles of residential gardens and historic homes. Many families have invested hundreds if not thousands of dollars and hours into their gardens not only for their own enjoyment, but for that of the general public.
This year’s event is expected to attract close to 100,000 visitors. And if history holds true, the tourists will bring several million dollars in to the community.
The official Azalea and Spring Flower Trail runs from March 19 through April 4. For more information about the event, call 1-800-235-5712 or visit tylerazaleatrail.com.
He obviously was met with success because, as the stories tell us, he imported the bushes by the boxcar loads from Georgia.
And Tyler residents bought them.
At the time, azaleas cost $400 a bush, rather expensive compared to the $20 or less price tag of today.
With success in his own garden, Shamburger talked to prominent Tyler resident Sarah Butler about the potential use of azaleas to beautify the community. Mrs. Butler was, at one-time, the general manager and publisher of the Tyler Morning Telegraph. She not only blessed Shamburger’s idea, but also planted azaleas on her own property.
Her home on Charnwood Street, along with several on Lindsey Lane, became showplaces for the azalea trail.
As people began to get word of the flowers and their beauty, visitors started making their way to Tyler.
So in 1960, the Chamber of Commerce established the first marked route. That route included 60 houses and spanned five miles, according to information on the Azalea Trail Web site, www.tylerazaleatrail.com.
An estimated 10,000 people showed up for the opening day that year, according to a Tyler newspaper article dated April 11, 1960.
License plates showed people came from as far away as California, New York and Ohio, with other visitors driving in from New Mexico, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas, according to the article.
The trails received high praise.
One Ohio visitor called the show, “the most wonderful thing I’ve ever seen,” according to the story.
The Ohioan was a flower enthusiast who had traveled the country attending similar tours, the article stated.
Mary Anne McCain was in her late teens when her parents purchased a house on Lindsey Lane. That street was home to Tom and Gladys Joyner who had one of the largest gardens and played a big role in the start of the trail.
Mrs. McCain, now 82, said she could not remember exactly what year they moved in, but suspected that it was in the 1960s, the early years of the trail. She said the house did not have many azalea bushes when they moved in, but said her mother and father, Francis and Louise Nenney, purchased many azalea bushes and planted them, she said.
“They would go down … and buy those plants and bring them back and plant (them),” she said during a phone interview Friday. “They loved those azaleas. They’d move them around and really babied them.”
Mrs. McCain said her father really enjoyed standing out in the yard talking with visitors and telling them about the bushes. Her mother was a bit more private, she said. It really takes special people, she said, to let visitors come into their yard and deal with the inconvenience of being blocked into your driveway.
Still, she said, it’s a wonderful thing that the city and its residents do.
It is this sort of spirit of giving that has kept the trail alive and thriving for the past 50 years.
After that first year, the event flourished.
In 1962, 15 homes were added for a total of 75 houses and 15,000 people visited. In 1964, 25,000 people walked the trails and the Azalea Belles were added. The first belles were secretaries from the Chamber of Commerce who gathered the materials and created the dresses for the occasion. The women dressed in antebellum costumes and stood along the trail greeting guests and providing more photographic opportunities. Today ninth- and 10th-grade girls from the community serve as belles.
In 1986, the trail expanded to two miles. And in 2004, the tour stretched for eight miles and attracted more the 100,000 visitors to Tyler, the Azalea Trail Web site shows.
Today, it stretches through 10 miles of residential gardens and historic homes. Many families have invested hundreds if not thousands of dollars and hours into their gardens not only for their own enjoyment, but for that of the general public.
This year’s event is expected to attract close to 100,000 visitors. And if history holds true, the tourists will bring several million dollars in to the community.
The official Azalea and Spring Flower Trail runs from March 19 through April 4. For more information about the event, call 1-800-235-5712 or visit tylerazaleatrail.com.
