ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan’s Nichols Arboretum is the recipient of an award for its preservation efforts in moving and rehabilitating the historic 1837 Nathan Burnham House that once stood at 940 Maiden Lane in Ann Arbor. The Arb, located in the midst of Ann Arbor on U-M’s Central Campus, was presented the Preservation Project of the Year Award May 13 by the City of Ann Arbor Historic District Commission.

The house, most recently used as a medical office, was saved from demolition when purchased by U-M in 1997, was moved to the Arb in 1998, and is now the James D. Reader, Jr. Urban Environmental Education Center, the first such educational facility in the Arboretum. Students and faculty from 50-60 U-M courses use the Arb, and the Center provides indoor space for education, research, and orientation for Arboretum visitors as well as a place where University students, area school children, and the public can meet and learn. The building houses a classroom, display area, office/library, and a caretaker’s apartment.

Not resting on this achievement, the Arb continues working to improve and preserve the Center’s surroundings. Among the immediate plans is removing the existing driveway next to the Center and installing a garden and walkway in its place.

This entrance to the Arboretum previously was considered no more than a back door. “With the moving of the historic Burnham House and the creation of the first phase of the Gateway Garden, we have literally transformed this forgotten space into a special place,” says Bob Grese, director of Nichols Arboretum.

“Yet,” says Grese, “just above the Reader Center is approximately 20 acres of Forest Hill Cemetery with water that collects along the roads and drains to this very spot. One answer to this problem would be to collect the water in a pipe to discharge into the Arb’s School Girls’ Glen. This would be a disaster for the already fragile Glen unless we can slow down the water. We want to do the environmentally responsible thing, but we also want to complete the garden. So, what are we going to do?”

The problem will be solved by creating an attractive dry streambed and a series of stepped pools through the middle of the Garden. This configuration will slow down the water, allow some of it to infiltrate into the ground, and provide an opportunity to grow a variety of plants associated with rushing water and alternating wet/dry conditions.

Glacial boulders, like those found elsewhere throughout the Arboretum will create small waterfalls where the water pours from one pool to the next, thereby reducing its velocity while making the stream an attractive feature. All of this will be set against a backdrop of a variety of trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers meant to attract butterflies and birds and provide a mixture of colors and textures throughout the year.

“This garden embodies many of the goals we have for the Arboretum at large,” Grese says. “This most public place in the Arb provides a unique opportunity for community and university education. Creating this particular garden further reinforces the Arb’s important role as a restorative place within the hectic and sometimes chaotic environment of U-M’s campus and Medical Center complex.”