PHOTO: Title page of EDEN article, Winter 2019
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT! RESERVATIONS WILL BE HONORED ONLY UNTIL 6:05 p.m. At that time, we will admit attendees from the waiting list who are logged on and waiting in the Zoom "waiting room." (Please join the waiting list to receive the link.)
CGLHS is proud to announce the first in our new series of lectures to be conducted live online during the current restrictions on public meetings.
David Laws will describe the life and times of Henry Hayes Perkins who, after 50 years of working his way around the world as a manual laborer, transformed a barren strip of coastal bluff in Pacific Grove, California into a dazzling springtime carpet of fluorescent pink blooms. Photographs in LIFE and National Geographic, as well as a giant display in Grand Central Station, enticed tourists from across the globe. One of the most loved and distinctive horticultural features of the Pacific Coast in the early 1960s, today the garden is but a sad reflection of its former glory. And its creator is all but forgotten. Topics of the talk will include Perkins’s life as an adventurer, his work on the construction of Hearst Castle, and efforts by the citizens of Pacific Grove to preserve his garden for future generations.
More about our speaker, David Laws:
David A. Laws is a board member of CGLHS. He photographs and writes about the technology pioneers of Silicon Valley and the history of gardens from his home on the Monterey Peninsula. His work has appeared in numerous broadcast, electronic, and print media outlets from the BBC and NPR, to mobile apps, guide books, newspapers, magazines, and academic journals. His talk is based on the article “Hayes Perkins: The ‘Magic Carpet’ Man” that was published in EDEN Vol. 22, No. 1, Winter 2019.
This online event is free to the public.
Please register to obtain instructions to join the event, which will be held on Zoom.
An online version of the EDEN article is posted on medium.com.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of CGLHS! We have been planning our next conference focusing on the Los Angeles River, but we regret that we must postpone it due to the COVID-19 public health crisis.
When we reschedule the conference (expected for 2021), activities will include talks at the Los Angeles River Center, walking tours, kayak excursions and exploration of pocket parks. The tours are scheduled to feature Atwater, Frogtown, and the Headwaters Corner at Calabasas.
We expect speakers and tour leaders to include:
Joe Edmiston, Executive Director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
Joe Linton of "Creek Freaks" and "Streetsblog LA;" author of the guidebook, Down by the Los Angeles River
Dennis Washburn, advocate for the Santa Monica Mountains and Las Virgenes Forest and founding mayor of Calabasas
PHOTO: Los Angeles, looking north from Elysian Park showing Los Angeles River and Mt. Washington, approximately 1900, photCL Pierce 00853, C.C. Pierce Collection of Photographs, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
