History of the Tyler Municipal Rose Garden

History of the Tyler Municipal Rose Garden. . The property that is now home to the Tyler Rose Garden was first purchased by the City of Tyler in 1912 for the construction of a park and fairgrounds. After many years and at the urging of the former American Rose Society President Dr. Horace McFarland, an application to the Works Project Administration (WPA) was made in 1938 to fund the construction of a municipal rose garden. The $181,255 federal grant was thought to be the largest municipal park and rose garden project approved by the WPA in that era. The funds were used to construct a stone picnic pavilion, balcony, stairs, and other garden features. Keith Maxwell, the WPA landscape architect, drew the plan for the park and rose garden. The plan was ultimately revised by Henry Thompson, a local nurseryman, who laid out walkways and planted trees and shrubbery. Thompson would later be killed while serving as a fighter pilot during World War II. The garden would eventually be dedicated in his memory. Following the war, Robert Shelton Jr. became the Superintendent of the Parks and Recreation Department and made it his top priority to complete the garden. In 1952 the Tyler Rose Garden was officially opened. The roses in the first garden were donated by local nurseries with the intent of created a living catalogue of roses produced by the Tyler rose industry. Nearly 3,000 rose bushes were used in the first planting.