Tower Hill

No type of building—pyramid, skyscraper, palace—presents so many challenges as the design, construction and sustenance of a botanic garden. John Trexler’s Tower Hill: The First Twenty-five Years traces the metamorphosis of a venerable urban horticultural institution, the Worcester County Horticultural Society founded in 1842, into the ever-evolving Tower Hill Botanic Garden which opened in 1986. Located on a hill in Boylston, Massachusetts, with a majestic view of Mt. Wachusett, Tower Hill was a radical departure from its horticultural antecedent, situated as it had been for nearly 150 years in downtown Worcester, historically a formidable manufacturing center with distant roots in colonial agriculture.

As the new Executive Director of the Worcester County Horticultural Society, John Trexler arrived in 1984 to find a board looking at strategic options but unsure of the best path forward. Their youthful “benign dictator” championed for moving to the countryside and led an ambitious planning process with a fifty-year horizon. John collaborated with an inspired staff, a committed board and generous backers to create thirty acres of gardens and construct 50,000 square feet of new buildings while raising the $30 million needed to transform the site.

In an era when operational time horizons have become problematically short, John Trexler’s memoir is a persuasive reminder that focus, patience, artistry and a long view can produce enduring results. There are lessons here for all ambitious social entrepreneurs, not just horticulturists. John writes with grace, wryness and a compelling sense of purpose that will appeal to a broad spectrum