Saluting Green Spring’s Visionaries
by Debbie Waugh, Historic House Coordinator
This year we’re doing a lot of reminiscing, looking back at the first fifty years of Green Spring Gardens and the people whose vision and hard work shaped this place. Perhaps you’ve stopped to read the plaques installed at various spots in the gardens honoring some of these individuals; and perhaps you’d like to know a bit more about them.
Take a walking tour of these commemorative tributes.
Start at the Rock Garden, where its original designer Don Humphrey is honored. A leading figure in Green Spring’s development, Don joined the staff in 1986 and served as a visionary park manager from 1992 to 1997. He designed many of the demonstration gardens and presided over Green Spring’s $2 million transformation in the mid-nineties. Don, who now lives in Columbus, Ohio, is remembered fondly for a contagious enthusiasm that made him an inspirational writer and public speaker. In his farewell article in the Spring 1997 issue of Gardenline, Don reflected on the course he had set for Green Spring Gardens, noting that the park had “completed a long journey that began as a vision on the part of a few people.” “While…there is still much to be done,” he wrote, “today the park is on solid ground.”
Continue to the Concentric Garden to find the plaque dedicated to Thomas B. ‘Bo’ White (1926-2010), whose legacy to Green Spring is immense.
As a colonel in the Marine Corps he served his country in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Later, he committed thirty years to the service of the citizens of Fairfax County, receiving a commendation from the Virginia General Assembly in 2000. He was known for his dogged determination to make things happen. As a Park Authority board member from 1986 to 2002, he steered Green Spring through its evolution into a horticultural park and worked hard to secure the necessary funding. In 1995, he underscored the importance of Green Spring’s mission when he told the Washington Post: “I’m interested in gardening, but I’m the worst gardener there ever was.”
Farther around the circular pathway, the next stop is the Arbor Garden (formerly the Rose Garden), dedicated to John Hans Quast (d. 1986), who devoted most of his working life to Green Spring.
In 1942, he became caretaker for the last private owners, Michael and Belinda Straight. John had already worked for Michael’s family for twenty years, and he dedicated the next four decades to the upkeep of Green Spring’s house and landscape. He and his wife Carmela lived with their two sons in the Spring House. Much of his work - from tree-planting to digging out the ponds – endures to this day. In the 1970s and 80s, as the small family estate transitioned into a public garden, John worked with the Park Authority to help reconfigure the landscape for its new purpose.
Move on to the Beatrix Farrand-designed garden behind the house, where the mixed perennial border is dedicated to Mary MacNeill Fahringer (1922-1988).
At the 1990 dedication ceremony, Park Authority board member Lorraine Foulds said of Mary: “She cared about so many things and had a talent for persuading others to care too.” A longtime member of the Fairfax County History Commission, Mary recognized the historical significance of Green Spring to County residents. In the late 1960s, she began her campaign to persuade all concerned parties to preserve Green Spring, and she set in motion the community and government action to secure the Straights’ gift for the County. Fifty years later, Green Spring Gardens is a shining testament to Mary’s powers of persuasion!
Photo of Plaque Honoring Dorothy Norpel.
A plaque that’s not on public view celebrates another Green Spring visionary: Dorothy Norpel. Dorothy’s plaque hangs in the Dorothy Norpel History Room at the Historic House. For over thirty years, she lobbied to garner support and funds to restore the house and open it to the public. Amongst a host of “firsts” she introduced to the park, Dorothy was a founding member of the FROGS board, she established the art exhibits program, and she was instrumental in launching our ever-popular public afternoon tea programs at the house. Dorothy, who turns 98 this year, can now rest on her laurels as one of Green Spring’s greatest activists and advocates.
(All photos credit: Debbie Waugh)
