In March of 1923 the Guilford Garden Club was organized by a group of six energetic ladies. During the first year, twenty-two additional members were invited to join. In 1929 the Club became one of sixteen Charter Member clubs forming the Federated Garden Clubs of Maryland. At that time, Baltimore was building a new art museum in Wyman Park, near the Johns Hopkins University. The Guilford Garden Club designed and established a garden, named the Guilford Garden Court, on the new museum’s grounds. The maintenance of this garden became a major project of the Club for many years

In 1948 the Club became the ninth garden club in Maryland to be made a member of the Garden Club of America. In that same year, the Club organized the Guilford House and Garden Pilgrimage.

1976 saw the establishment of a bicentennial project which included landscaping and planting the grounds of Old Otterbein Church on the corner of Sharp and Conway streets. This was continually maintained until the 1990’s, when the city of Baltimore reshaped the streets to accommodate the building of Oriole Park at Camden Yards and the expansion of the Convention Center.

The Guilford Garden Club continues to attract very talented and dedicated women who are concerned about conserving and maintaining natural resources, wetlands, and park, both locally and nationally. 

Today, the Club is active in the design of native plant teaching gardens at the Friends School of Baltimore that has become a kind of prototype for other communities to be inspired by.

Guilford Garden Club had a long-standing relationship with Lake Roland Park and partnered with The Lake Roland Nature Council to hold a Native Plant Sale. Proceeds from the sale went toward funding our GCA scholarship and towards improvement projects in the park.

Guilford Garden Club began a new relationship with the St. Francis Neighborhood Center (SFNC) located at 2405 Linden Ave. in 2021. Our volunteers worked with SFNC staff and SFNC volunteers to transplant plants within the center’s construction site to an off-site location and to design and install new gardens (including apples trees, blueberry shrubs, bulbs and native perennials) along the front of the the newly constructed community center. The relationship continues with maintenance and additional projects.