History of The BTG
The BTG has held a few different names over the course of its history: Bird and Tree Club (1913-1944), Bird and Tree Garden Club (1944-1962), and The Bird, Tree and Garden Club (1962- present).
The original Chautauqua Bird and Tree Club began on July 26, 1913, in the living room of Henrietta Ord Jones. Twelve interested Chautauquans showed up to discuss the benefits of forming such a club. Those thirteen original members were Dr. and Mrs. H.H. Powers, Dr. and Mrs. A.W. Gilbert, Mrs. Louise Igoe Miller, Mrs. B.T. Vincent, Mrs. J. R. Hill, Mrs. Ruby Green Smith, Miss Kate J. Kimball, Mrs. Evelyn Snead Barnett, Dr. Daniel Hoyt, Misses Lois and Irene Cooper, and of course, Miss Henrietta Ord Jones.
This was not the first meeting of Chautauquans interested in natural conservation. Some version of the club, though unofficial, began in 1909, with meetings in an Institution-provided tent on the Overlook, also known as the South End, across from Henrietta Ord Jones’s house. Meetings took place in this tent for the season of 1909 and 1910, and then shifted to the Methodist House in 1911 and 1912. The first speaker they ever hosted spoke on spiders.
At the end of that first meeting, it was decided to bring their idea for a club to the Chautauqua public. The first public meeting was held on August 7, 1913, where Louise Igoe Miller was elected as the first president.
By August 11, only four days later, 200 people had become members. In the following year, the Club begins its efforts in full force. In 1914, the Bird and Tree Club began labeling trees on the grounds. The Club planted the maple trees in front of the Post Office and elsewhere. We have trees on Bestor Plaza today because of the Club’s efforts to create a safe home for birds, trees, and Chautauquans.In the spring of 1914, Henrietta Ord Jones, wrote this letter to then president of Chautauqua, George Vincent:
The Bird and Tree Club would have to wait ten more years for its “home”. On Old First Night, in 1923, Chautauqua philanthropist Addie Mae Smith Wilkes donated $25,000 for the construction of a new building on the grounds. In today’s money, that’s around half a million dollars. Smith-Wilkes Hall, named as a memorial to Addie Mae’s deceased uncle, her two brothers, and her husband, was completed before the 1924 season.
Though donating the money for the building to the Institution, Mrs. Smith Wilkes stipulated that it would house her darling Bird and Tree Club.
Information collected from 100 Years of Beauty by Mary Lee Talbot, from Recording Secretary’s Book of the Bird and Tree Club (1913-1919), and from issues of the Chautauquan Daily, spanning 1901-1915.
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