Harriett Wright Hines

 It was March 18, 1939, when a group of like-minded African American women sharing a love of gardening established a garden club in the Philadelphia area, Our Garden Club of Philadelphia and Vicinity (“OGCPV”). With a fire burning in the fireplace at the home of Bertha Rhodes in Edison, Pennsylvania, the decision was made. “Believing that women of like interests, accomplishments and ideas fellowship and womanhood should unite in approach of these ideals, we have organized ourselves as a garden club.”1 The Charter members included some of the most accomplished African American women of the day: Rubye Beckett, Frances Hamblin, Harriet Wright Lemon, Aleane Harris, Thomasina Lewis, Hazel Ashhurst-Platt, Ethel Patience, Esther Winters, and Bertha Perry Rhodes. These women organized what is believed to be the oldest continuous African American garden club in the United States.

As reported in the Club’s history, the initial gathering was at the home of Mr. and Mrs. E. Washington Rhodes in Edison, PA. Bertha Perry Rhodes, born in 1888, was the daughter of Christopher J. Perry, Sr., founder of the Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest continuously published African American newspaper in the country. Bertha was an officer of the newspaper working along with other members of her family.2 She married E. Washington Rhodes who later served as publisher of the Philadelphia Tribune and held numerous other distinguished positions. Bertha was a founder of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs. When she died at the age of 75 on October 3, 1963, she was known as one of Philadelphia’s most respected civic and social leaders.

Harriet Wright Lemon, also known as Harriet Wright Hines, was the founder of Our Garden Club of Philadelphia and Vicinity and served as the first president. While in Florida, Harriet was the guest of a member of a garden club and expressed a desire to start a similar club in the Philadelphia area. Harriet was the daughter of Richard R. Wright, Sr., the founder of Citizens and Southern Bank and Trust Company of Philadelphia. Harriet served on the board of the bank. Notably, she was the first Black student at the American Institute of Banking in Philadelphia from which she graduated in 1927. Harriet’s father was the Founder of the National Freedom Day Association. Harriet was present after her father’s death in 1948