The Garden Club of Princeton joins its sister clubs in preparing the mansion for tours
By: Pat Summers
Lucky Drumthwacket: What happens there at winter holiday time is the dream of home decorators all over.
Each year the governor’s residence in Princeton attracts garden clubs from all over New Jersey, eager to make it even more beautiful. That’s a far cry from the "same old, same old" routine of family members digging out holiday decorations and putting them in all the familiar places, and then packing them away for another year.
By this time next week, 11 of the state’s garden clubs will have finished decorating eight parts of the stately, historic home the front porch and hall, dining room, parlor, study, music room, library, solarium with all-natural garden materials. Their designs will accord with an annual theme this year, "New Jersey’s Heritage." The challenge, as always, will be to make something "fresh and appealing that will last for three weeks," says Beverly Mills, executive director of the Drumthwacket Foundation.
During that period, Drumthwacket will open for holiday tours on three Wednesdays and one Sunday. Those who have finished their own holiday decorating might think of it as reward; for those experiencing "decorators’ block," a tour can serve as inspiration.
"We have spectacular decorations every year," Ms. Mills says, readily recalling highlights of last year’s "Literature of Christmas" theme: topiary Nutcrackers and a Mouse King made from sunflower and other seeds, and illustrated pages from "The Night Before Christmas" as tree ornaments in Drumthwacket’s library.
From two years ago, she remembers the library tree decorated with dried baby’s breath and "coins" saved from lunaria, the silver dollar plant. Photo albums with images showing how each year’s theme was handled are available to clubs in the throes of planning their own designs.
By late summer each year, participating garden clubs all members of Garden Clubs of New Jersey are linked with the areas they’ll decorate. Because there are more interested clubs than spaces, up to three may share a room. From the annual theme, each club devises a sub-theme for its own area.
For "New Jersey’s Heritage," the sub-themes include:
"Farmland" (Fair Haven) on the front porch;
"Jersey Shore" (Holly Club of Sea Girt) in the front hall;
"Historical Personalities Come to Dine" (Spring Lake and Bayberry Garden Club of Brielle) in the dining room;
"Inventions and Inventors" (Essex Fells) in the solarium;
"Audubon Christmas in New Jersey" (Tenafly) in the parlor;
History of Christmas in New Jersey (New Vernon) in the library;
"Agricultural Heritage" (Bridgewater, New Providence and Westfield) in the music room, and
"Pine Barrens" (Princeton) in the study.
A "planning day" in September allows club reps to visit their designated area of Drumthwacket to measure and count (how wide is that mantel? how many windows?), take photographs (noting colors already in the rooms, among other things), look at the albums from past years, and exchange ideas. "Decorating day," when the deed is actually done, comes at the end of this month. And soon after that, it’s "tour time."
In putting its artistic mark on the study this year, the Garden Club of Princeton, already involved in conservation activities, chose a "Pine Barrens" sub-theme. Tour visitors can expect to see pine cones, cranberries, maybe even some blueberries, and pods and other natural elements worked into the display. A mini-tree on the desk may accompany a door wreath and mantel garland, and Atlantic cedar tree boughs emulating the pine forest.
"The rooms at Drumthwacket are so lovely, you don’t want to over-garnish them," says Barbara Chatham, club president. Member Mary Hulme, who directs the altar guild at Princeton’s Trinity Church, heads up this year’s small decorating committee.
Now in her first of two years leading the 94-year old organization, Ms. Chatham mentions the need to avoid high-maintenance designs. (Ms. Mills had also referred to how clubs customarily promote longevity by soaking or spraying their designs, and forcing some bulbs to assure flowering throughout the tour period.)
Founded in 1911 and affiliated with Garden Club of America, the Garden Club of Princeton "is a learning club, which make it so nice," Ms. Chatham says. With a membership approaching 90, the organization has nine meetings a year, each with a program and either a horticultural or artistic (arranged flower) show.
Its other projects include the French Market, started around 1917 as an homage to similar markets then common in Paris, at the corner of Nassau and Mercer Streets. A few years ago, the organization funded design and construction of the accents there, and since then, it opened a satellite site at new plaza on Witherspoon Street.
A few years ago, the club initiated and coordinated the planting of thousands of daffodil bulbs at Princeton Battlefield Monument, memorializing those killed on 9/11. It has also been involved with installation of trail-head markers at John Witherspoon Woods; establishment of an allee of cherry trees near Borough Hall, and twice-yearly provision of flower arrangements to patients at Merwick Rehab Center, among other projects.
If past practice holds up, some 2,000 visitors will stroll through Drumthwacket this holiday season. Starting Wednesday, Nov. 30, between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., they can enjoy the garden clubs’ horticultural handiwork.
Although official judges will decide which room wins first prize from the Garden Club of New Jersey (a silver Revere bowl engraved with the club’s name), visitors are invited to cast their votes for the "people’s choice."
Drumthwacket, the official home of the governor of New Jersey, is at 354 Stockton St. (Route 206), Princeton. Advance reservations are required, and on-site parking is available. To reserve for a holiday tour on Wednesday, Nov. 30, Dec. 7 and 14 or Sunday, Dec. 11, visit www.drumthwacket.org or phone (609) 683-0591. The gift shop in nearby Olden House will be open. A $5 donation to the non-profit Drumthwacket Foundation is welcome.

