Y R A

R “I kept no records of my failures, for I B I L T F THE GARDENS

O had many—the main thing was to assure R C N

A OF ALCATRAZ B some success by trying many things and / E G D I

R holding on to the plants which had learned B Y U

M that life is worth holding on to even at its The Garden Conservancy is a national D R

A nonprofit organization dedicated to preserv - E

W bitterest.” ing exceptional American gardens. For more D A E Fred Reichel, Warden’s Secretary, 1934–1941 information or to become a member, phone the San Francisco office, (415) 441-4300, Citadel Garden 1869 or national headquarters, (845) 265-2029, or visit www.gardenconservancy.org . GARDEN SURVIVORS THE GARDENS OF ALCATRAZ The Golden Gate National For more than a century, the residents of Alcatraz Alcatraz gardeners needed tough plants that Parks Conservancy is the nonprofit membership organization created to created gardens to lift their spirits and soften the could survive with little water or care. In the 1930s, preserve the Golden Gate National Parks, harshness of their environment. Families, staff, and the warden’s secretary, Fred Reichel, asked the enhance the experience of park visitors, prisoners gradually built a landscape of flowering California Horticultural Society and pioneering and build a community dedicated to con - western plant breeders for seedlings that might serving the parks for the future. To become terraces, rose gardens, greenhouses, and lawns. a member, phone (415)4R-PARKS or visit When the prison closed in 1963, this manicured do well on the island. Many of the species that www.parksconservancy.org . landscape became overgrown and wild. Only he imported came from the world’s other Mediterranean climates, and flourished through The National Park Service was created the rich variety of ornamental plants—over 230 in 1916 to preserve America's natural, cul - species—remained as evidence of the island’s 40 years of neglect after the prison closed. tural, and scenic treasures and to provide for garden history. their enjoyment for future generations. The Today, visitors to Alcatraz find a landscape alive Golden Gate National Parks protects more In 2003, the Garden Conservancy, the Golden Gate with fragrant old roses, fig trees, bulbs, and colorful than 75,000 acres in Marin, San Francisco, National Parks Conservancy, and the National Park succulents—historic examples of sustainable plant - and San Mateo counties. For information about the Golden Gate National Parks, Service began a joint effort to preserve and ing. Where historic plantings were lost, visitors phone (415) 561-4700 or visit restore the historic gardens. Volunteer crews now now find new plants with low maintenance and www.nps.gov/goga . work with staff year-round to plant and maintain water needs more appropriate to today’s conditions. D R A

the gardens. E B N A I R A M

Lathyrus latifolius Fuchsia magellanica Globe artichoke Pelargonium ’Brilliant‘ Echium candicans Rosa ’Gardenia‘ Rosa ’Russelliana‘ Europe South America Mediterranean Basin South Africa North Africa Europe Europe

For more information or to volunteer in the gardens, visit www.alcatrazgardens.org .

Restoration of the Alcatraz historic gardens is supported in part by a Save America’s Treasures grant administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Brochure printing funded by the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund.

Photos by Roy Eisenhardt, except where noted. Acanthus mollis Fuchsia ’Rose of Castile‘ Bearded Iris Aeonium Centranthus ruber Crassula Zantedeschia aethiopica Mediterranean Basin South America Europe North Africa Mediterranean Basin South Africa South Africa 1869 Citadel Garden 1881 Officers’ Row Houses 1912 Cellhouse 1920s Rose Garden 1930 West Lawn 1941 Officers’ Row Foundation Gardens 1945 West Side Prisoner Gardens 2003 Alcatraz Gardens Project

1859 ARMY FORT AND PRISON 1934 FEDERAL PRISON 1963 PRISON CLOSED 1972 NATIONAL PARK

“The visitor who comes here expects to find a A SA Main Road Landscape N FR barren rock, but as he strolls over it he is AN The switchback road to the summit was blasted out of CIS surprised to find roses in bloom, sweet peas, CO rock in the 1850s during construction of the island’s first B lilies, and a large variety of other flowers in all AY fortifications. By the late 1800s, the road led past small Water their beauty and fragrance...In this way barren gardens of the officers’ homes to a large Victorian-style Tower garden at the citadel. The army first lined the road with B wastes are converted into garden spots, and R surplus cannonballs, later using flowerbeds and rows of Y e ugliness is transformed into beauty.” a c r r pots to beautify the approach to the prison. d e a M The Rock, t a A NORTH Letter published in Alcatraz newsletter, 1918 i in o R n o

B Rose Garden N ad F West Lawn and Toolshed Terraces O . S G R P J , In front of the water tank, look over the M The flat area below the west face I S G . N

wall to the former site of the rose garden H C of the cellhouse was once the west O

Cellhouse Dock L H P M and greenhouse. E lawn. Rock walls terrace the slopes A S I L L O I J “The When the Bureau of Prisons F on either side. W arrived in 1933, Fred Reichel, West Road once ran down hillside provided W D the new warden’s secretary, was est through a large lawn look - Ro E so impressed by the army gar - a refuge from ad ing out to the city. This dens that he began to maintain area was irrigated by water them himself. He raised new disturbances of the reclaimed from the cell - plants in the old greenhouse Parade Ground house showers, a system and lobbied for, and trained, prison, the work a release, devised by the army. On the bay side, the lawn has been l i a inmate gardeners. He also cared for the garden’s 50 roses, r overgrown by a thicket of fig and other garden plants that and it became an obsession. T e now protect nesting waterbirds. The terraces on this side leaving cut flowers on the dock every Sunday for island v a families. g of the island were largely built by inmate gardeners in This one thing I would do well.” A the 1940s. Y

E C Officers’ Row L Elliott Michener, AZ #578 A R T G West Side Prisoner Gardens S On the road in front of the cell - D E R

F house, look over the planter to At the end of West Road, below the recreation yard, are the only gardens see the restored Officers’ Row that most prisoners could see. E N D Warden’s House P E Cellhouse Slope

gardens. O Inmates walked down this fenced and heavily guarded hill - O S P W S M

In 1881, the army built At the top of the main road are the I Below the lighthouse and Eagle Plaza, side every day on their way to work in the prison industries S Y E . L H three large homes here ruins of the warden’s house, which S look for purple iceplant on the slopes buildings. In the 1940s, inmate Elliott Michener used sal - E H P W included a small greenhouse built for E along West Road. for the commandant and S vaged materials to build garden terraces, a greenhouse, and O his officers. A visiting Warden Swope’s wife Edna. J Iceplant, called “Persian carpet” even a bird bath. With garbage scraps to amend the soil lieutenant reported in 1895, “Near the citadel and officers’ Inmate Elliott Michener said by island residents, once and seed packets from the staff, Michener and his succes - quarters, in little garden spots artificially made by bringing he gained “a lasting interest covered many of the island’s sors created gardens for the eyes of their fellow prisoners, earth from the mainland, were blooming in profusion in creativity” from eight years steep slopes. The army planted and for their own satisfaction. the brilliant lavender carpet to poppies, geraniums, heliotropes, fuchsias and calla lilies.” of building gardens on the N O S

When the Bureau of Prisons demolished two of the west side. At the end of his sentence he was promoted to the control erosion as well as to P M I S

houses in 1941, their foundations were converted to warden’s house, and after parole he wrote to the warden, improve views of “the Rock” . H H

flower gardens tended by families and inmates. Volunteers “For the first time I’m learning how much better one can do from San Francisco. P E S O began replanting the flower gardens in 2006. living honestly than by, say, counterfeiting! We have cars and J fat bank accounts...And we have a favor to ask: will you send us a bush of our old ‘Gardenia’ rose?”