Born in 1864 to Henry Cunningham Rew and Theresa Metabel Irwin Rew, Anna Rew Gross moved to Evanston in 1898, where she helped the community in a myriad of ways. She established the first domestic science courses in Evanston public schools, as well as donating a building and equipment. She also served on the board of the Illinois Children’s Home and Aid society, as well as the Chicago School of Domestic Arts and Sciences. She is most well-known for being a co-founder of the Evanston Garden Club.
Significance
In May of 1915, Mrs. Gross invited 11 other women to her house to discuss forming a garden club, with a focus on the conservation of native plants and birds. The conversation was fruitful, and in November of that same year, the Evanston Garden Club was formed, with Mrs. Gross as its president. Gross wrote, “Gardening is the most democratic of pleasures and brings health and happiness in its train…”[1] One of the first projects of the Garden Club was the creation of Shakespeare Garden on the campus of Northwestern. That year the Drama League of America had called for the building of memorial gardens across the country to honor the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. A Chicago landscape architect and League member, Jens Jenson, created a design for a Tudor-style garden. The Garden Club enthusiastically set about bringing Jenson’s plan to life. While the original plan included plants and roses mentioned in Shakespeare’s works, many of those plants could not withstand the harsh Midwest winters. Instead plants common to Elizabethan England were used. As noted in the official history of the Evanston Garden Club, “the charm of a garden cannot be established in a season—a true garden must be loved into existence and, for lasting success, tiny plants must be used which will gradually adapt themselves to the new conditions.”[2] So naturally, the club members nurtured the garden for fifteen years before they felt comfortable donating it to Northwestern on August 21, 1936. The garden still stands today, and is a popular spot for engagement, wedding, and graduation photos.
In 1917, Gross made a radical suggestion that Evanston allow women to take over the offices of city government. She lamented the wasted money used to pay men who already have jobs in Chicago who viewed city work a part-time position and had to make important municipal decisions after a long day of work. She argued that because the men in city government worked outside of Evanston—spending most of their waking hours in Chicago—they were less familiar with the city and its needs than the city’s wives and mothers. Women, she argued, spent their days in the community and were more familiar with and invested in the it’s issues. They ran their households; why couldn’t they run the city government? Gross maintained that city government was little more than municipal housekeeping—a task with which Evanston women were quite familiar. She compiled a list of women with relevant experience that could take over each cabinet position (including mayor and head of police). While the suggestion did not take hold, Gross did manage to cause quite a stir, as papers from nearby towns and cities began reporting that Evanston was “threatened with petticoat rule.”[3]
Gross was incredibly passionate about Evanston’s natural beauty and providing green spaces for the city’s children. With the help of her husband, she enabled the expansion of Evanston’s parks in the early twentieth century. During this time, Evanston’s population grew significantly but as new houses and apartment buildings were built, there was not enough park space to accommodate the growing city. Gross and her husband raised funds and donated money to help finance the buying of new park land and building of playgrounds for the city. The growing city also demanded the expansion of roads for the increased traffic. When the city threatened to destroy the WWI Memorial in Fountain Square to make way for traffic, she wrote to the newspaper suggesting an alternate solution to the traffic problem by way of a roundabout. She created her own sketch of how the traffic circle would minimize traffic dangers while maintaining the fountainn and memorial. Gross also fought against the expansion of Chicago’s Outer Drive (current day Lake Shore Drive) into Evanston. She argued that “Our beautiful beach and Lake Michigan are the birthright of every man, woman, and child of Evanston today and our children’s children tomorrow.” No one had the right “to give away the most precious thing our citizens own to Chicago politicians, in order to solve their automobile traffic problem.”[4]
Gross died in 1946, but her legacy lives on in her many contributions to the city. The continued work of the Garden Club which has ensured the preservation and expansion of Evanston’s green space and natural beauty, can be traced to Gross. The Shakespeare Garden, the parks she helped create, and a lakefront filled with greenery are gifts from Gross that make the city a unique and beautiful place to live.
[1] Anna Rew Gross, “Raymond Park to Be Festive for Annual Garden Market” The Evanston News-Index, (May 12, 1927)
[2] Mary Nahser and Mary Lu O’Malley, The Garden Club of Evanston: A History 1915-2015I, (Evanston, IL: 2018), 32.
[3] “Evanston is Threatened with Petticoat Rule” The Taylorville Daily Breeze Courier (March 21, 1917)
[4] Anna Rew Gross, “Opposes Outer Drive,” Evanston Review, (August 10, 1944).