The Villagers Grant

The Coral Gables Garden Club has had the privilege of receiving a generous grant from The Villagers, to restore the original entry door of our garden center, the historic guardhouse at the Biltmore Hotel. The Villagers, a not for profit organization in Miami Dade County, dedicates their work to historic preservation and has helped many significant historic properties to achieve recognition by the National Register of Historic Places. To date, more than 150 projects have been funded by The Villagers.

On September 29th, 2018, then President of the garden club, Betsy Tilghman, applied for a grant which was approved on November 26th, 2018, with a two-year deadline to complete the project. Austin Historical, a well-respected restoration, and preservation company, was contracted to restore the historic front door.

After extensive planning and permitting under the supervision of our current President, Judy Mangasarian, the project was completed on June 11th, 2020. Upon submitting all the relevant documents to the 3rd VP for Preservation Projects, April Matteini, the Villager committee approved the completion of the project and sent the grant of $4000.00 to the garden club in October of 2020.

We are so grateful for this grant and the relationship we have had over the years with The Villagers. Many of our members are Villager members so we share a common bond of community and dedication to preserve and conserve what is most important to our clubs' mission.

We are thrilled to acknowledge their website on our website as well as on FB and Instagram and want to share with all our members the wonderful work the Villagers do, year after year.