Manito Park and Botanical Gardens
Encyclopedia
Manito Park and Botanical Gardens is a 90 acre (0.3642174 km²) public park with arboretum
, botanical garden
s, and conservatory, located at 17th Ave and Grand Blvd in Spokane, Washington
, USA. It is open daily without charge.
. A park commission was formed in 1907 with annual funding, and in 1913 the famed Olmsted Brothers
firm completed their landscaping plans for Spokane parks, including Manito Park. The Park was at one time a zoo
until 1932 when the zoo closed down because of the lack of funding during the Great Depression
. Today some remnants of the zoo can still be seen, such as an iron
bar sticking out of a rock that was once part of the bear
cages.
s and geese. The Park Bench Cafe is a small cafe serving drinks and snacks during the Summer. Much of the park that is not a garden is left wild, with trails for bicycling and hiking.
During the winter, the grassy hills of Manito are popular destinations for sledding.
, sledding
, tennis
, duck feeding, and bird watching
are very popular among casual visitors. Some of the more alternative activities observed at the park include frolf
, and freestyle walking
.
Arboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
, botanical garden
Botanical garden
A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...
s, and conservatory, located at 17th Ave and Grand Blvd in Spokane, Washington
Spokane, Washington
Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...
, USA. It is open daily without charge.
History
The park was originally a public recreation area called Montrose Park http://inlandtour.debut.net/south-hill/manito.html. In 1903 its name was changed to Manito, said to mean Spirit of Nature in the Algonquian languageAlgonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
. A park commission was formed in 1907 with annual funding, and in 1913 the famed Olmsted Brothers
Olmsted Brothers
The Olmsted Brothers company was an influential landscape design firm in the United States, formed in 1898 by stepbrothers John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. .-History:...
firm completed their landscaping plans for Spokane parks, including Manito Park. The Park was at one time a zoo
Zoo
A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....
until 1932 when the zoo closed down because of the lack of funding during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. Today some remnants of the zoo can still be seen, such as an iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
bar sticking out of a rock that was once part of the bear
Bear
Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...
cages.
The Park
Aside from the gardens, Manito is home to more common park fare. The park has two play structures, one in "Upper Manito" and the other by the Duck Pond at "Lower Manito". The Duck Pond is located at the Northern End of the park, and is home to many ducks, swanSwan
Swans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae...
s and geese. The Park Bench Cafe is a small cafe serving drinks and snacks during the Summer. Much of the park that is not a garden is left wild, with trails for bicycling and hiking.
During the winter, the grassy hills of Manito are popular destinations for sledding.
The Gardens
- Duncan Garden - formal 3 acres (12,140.6 m²) European garden with a large granite fountain; designed and built in 1913. The arrangement of the flower beds, and also the plants make the Duncan Garden symmetrical.
- Joel E. Ferris Perennial Garden - perennial plants.
- Gaiser Conservatory - tropical plants and seasonal flowers.
- Nishinomiya Japanese Garden - in honor of Nishinomiya, JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Spokane's sister city. In 1967 noted landscape architect Nagao SakuraiNagao Sakurai- Notable designs :*Tea Garden, City of San Mateo.*Nishinomiya Japanese Garden, in the Manito Park and Botanical Gardens, Spokane, Washington, 1967*Zen Garden and area in front of Tea House, both within the Japanese Tea Garden of Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco...
began its design. After his stroke in 1973, designs were completed by Shosuke Nagai and Hirohiko Kawai and the garden was dedicated in 1974.
- Rose Hill - 1500 roseRoseA rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...
bushes representing over 150 varieties; an All-America SelectionsAll-America SelectionsThe mission of All-America Selections is “to promote new garden seed varieties with superior garden performance judged in impartial trials in North America.” To accomplish this, the All-America Selections organization oversees a collaborative testing program involving horticulture professionals...
rose test garden.
Activities
Activities such as baseballBaseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, sledding
Sledding
Sledding , sledging , sleding or tobogganing is a common activity in wintry areas, similar to sliding, but in a prone or seated position requiring a device or vehicle generically known in the US as a sled or in other countries as a sledge or toboggan...
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, duck feeding, and bird watching
Birdwatching
Birdwatching or birding is the observation of birds as a recreational activity. It can be done with the naked eye, through a visual enhancement device like binoculars and telescopes, or by listening for bird sounds. Birding often involves a significant auditory component, as many bird species are...
are very popular among casual visitors. Some of the more alternative activities observed at the park include frolf
Disc golf
Disc golf is a disc game in which individual players throw a flying disc into a basket or at a target. According to the Professional Disc Golf Association, "The object of the game is to traverse a course from beginning to end in the fewest number of throws of the disc." Of the more than 3000...
, and freestyle walking
Freestyle walking
Freestyle walking appeared as early as 1995 in a video on MTV Unfiltered. The sport was first and most notably introduced to the world in April 1996 via MTV's The Week in Rock where the freestyle walking segment was introduced and then commented on by Kurt Loder and later as a segment in the MTV...
.