ANNA SCRIPPS WHITCOMB

Established one of the largest private glasshouses for the growing of orchids in the States at her large Lake Shore Road estate in Grosse Pointe Farms. During World War II the Whitcombs housed a prize collection of orchids that Kew Gardens in London sent for safe keeping during the war. This orchid collection was later donated to the city and with other funding resulted in the substantial city conservatory on Belle Isle being renamed in 1955 the “ANNA SCRIPPS WHITCOMB CONSERVATORY”. The conservatory, which was initially opened in 1904, is the oldest continually operated conservatory in the States.