Anne Spencer House and Garden
(reprint from the Lynchburg Ledger)
“Earth, I thank you for the pleasure of your language,” wrote Anne Spencer
(1882-1975) of her garden. Anne is an internationally recognized Black poet of the Harlem Renaissance period in the 1920’s and on Sunday afternoon, October 26, 2008, the public was invited to an Open House. Many came and walked behind her home at 1313 Pierce Street where there is a garden and the garden cottage, “Edankraal,” built for her by her husband, Edward, as a retreat and place where she could write. The garden served as a source of inspiration for many of her poems and was visited and admired by her frequent guests.
“Take what you have and make what you want,” said Dr. Richard Bolling, of Virginia Seminary and College to Anne Spencer. Anne Spencer’s life as a poet, mother, wife, librarian at the segregated Dunbar High School, gardener, and woman exemplified the advice from her teacher. Her poetry, often “scribblings” found on any available surface including walls of her home and loose scraps of paper, were written for herself rather than a public audience.
Edward and Anne Spencer raised two daughters Alroy and Bethel and a son Chauncey, creating a haven within the boundaries, 45 times 125 feet.
Anne Spencer possessed a wit and intellectual toughness that brought her national attention. Her literary life began through the contact with poet and civil rights activist, James Weldon Johnson, who came to the Spencer home to found the first chapter in Virginia of the NAACP. Spencer was the first woman and first African-American to be included in the Norton Anthology of Modern American Poetry. Anne wrote about freedom and humanity. Visitors to the home included everyone from George Washington Carver to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Spencers welcomed poets Sterling Brown, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and James Weldon Johnson and civil rights leaders, including W.E.B. Dubois who presented the Spencers with a bronze bust of an African man, which Anne called “Prince Ebo.” It became part of a fountain for a pool.
“This small garden is half my world. I am nothing to it-when all is said, I plant the thorn and kiss the rose, but they will grow when I am dead,” wrote Anne Spencer. Although Anne never had formal training in landscape design, she read widely, collected plants from friends and neighbors, experimented in hybridization, and traveled with husband Ed far a field in order to purchase unusual plants. The garden was a festival of color for much of the year!