Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden's Ties to Cycling History
The Garden has a very special connection with cycling. The historic Bloemendaal House on the property was one of the original bicycle or “Wheel Clubs” in the late 1800s. The Garden continues to celebrate this unique history with our tour “From Bicycle Club to Botanical Garden.”
In 2015 Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden hosted the UCI World Road Cycling Championships — Richmond 2015.
More About the Lakeside Wheel Club
From Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden: 25 Years and Growing written by Frank Robinson and Lynn Kirk:
“Ginter constructed the Lakeside Wheel Club in 1894 as a gathering place for sports cyclists and socially minded belles. Cyclists peddled to the recreational resort along the Missing Link Trail, which paralleled the Boulevard and Hermitage Road, while spectators rode the Lakeside Trolley. During the Gay Nineties, Richmonders congregated at the one-story Victorian club house to enjoy freshly made ice cream and charming lakeside views. Another fashionable entertainment destination emerged with Ginter’s development of Lakeside Park, now the site of Jefferson-Lakeside Country Club. Featuring a zoo and the city’s first public nine-hole golf course, the attraction grew in regional popularity.
More on Lakeside Park
The newspaper recorded the Park’s grand opening: Within the enclosure are two large sheets of water, the clubhouse of the Lakeside bicycle club, a casino, cafe, bowling alley, billiard rooms, deer house, park office, and apartments for officers. The lake…specially stocked with fish…[is] supplied with an abundance of rowboats and a speedy two-horse power naptha launch” (Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 15, 1896).”
You can learn more about the Garden’s history, the Lakeside Wheel Club and Lakeside park on the Garden’s blog.