Holden Forests & Gardens history

In 1936 Bole and Ihna Thayer Frary helped found the Dunham Tavern Corp. to collect funds to save the historic Tavern from destruction.

The institution’s “soft opening” came on October 17, 1937, with a tour by members and trustees of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

In 1951, disagreements between Holden staff and Cleveland Museum of Natural History boiled over, and the latter’s board of trustees proposed that Holden be “spun off” into an independent, not-for-profit institution.

In 1952, the courts permitted Holden’s separation from the museum and its incorporation as a not-for-profit organization.

By 1956 Holden Arboretum comprised nearly 1,000 acres.

Corning served as the first unpaid “executive administrator” and would serve in that capacity until 1958.

In 1966, Cleveland Botanical Garden moved from its original location in a remodeled brick boathouse on the edge of the lagoon in The Fine Arts Garden to its present ten-acre site on Wade Oval in University Circle.

Holden’s first paid director, Norweb would lead the organization until his retirement in 1983.

In 1985 Katherine Holden Thayer—the last surviving child of Albert Fairchild Holden—died.

In December 1988, 75 years after Albert Fairchild Holden's original bequest, the Holden Trust began to benefit the arboretum as he and so many others had envisioned.

On July 15, 2003, the Garden opened the doors to its newly expanded and renovated building, the result of a $37 million project featuring the 18,000 square foot Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glasshouse.

In 2014, the Boards of Trustees of The Holden Arboretum and Cleveland Botanical Garden voted to begin the process of merging into one, integrated, organization.