Middletown Garden Club Flower Show

A Fine
Prospect, a Middletown Garden Club and Garden Club of America flower show
that celebrates the story of the Wadsworth Mansion at Long Hill Estate, will be
staged at the Mansion, 421 Wadsworth St., on Wednesday, October 30, from 1:00
to 5:00 pm. Admission is free.

The show will feature floral arrangements that salute the
architectural, landscaping and preservation achievements represented in the
magnificently restored city-owned estate built by Colonel and Mrs. Clarence
Wadsworth from 1908 to 1912. 

Master floral arrangers representing Connecticut
and Rhode Island garden clubs, will interpret the story of the Wadsworth’s
elegant lifestyle, their many travels, the transformation of former farmland to a woodland setting, and Colonel
Wadsworth’s interest in technology.

The show will include a horticultural display of flowers and
plants grown by exhibitors and a conservation exhibit showing the work of the
club and community leaders that resulted in the restoration of the Wadsworth
Mansion by the City of Middletown.

The Beaux Arts Mansion, designed by Francis Hoppin, was a social
mecca for forty years, once hosting 1,000 guests at a wedding. For forty more
years, the building and grounds were home to a religious order who welcomed the
faithful to religious retreats. After a decade of neglect, vandalism, and a
fire, the city acquired the property, restored 
the Mansion and it again welcomes guests to important occasions and
events.