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A
Visit to the New Radium Gardens
By Martha LeSueur
Nicholson
Passing through the white openwork brick
wall at the side of the parking lot, stepping down the original worn
steps to the springs, arriving at the basement dressing rooms of the
casino......there the illusion ends, and we are fast forwarded to the
future. The new botanical gardens opened at Radium Springs on Monday,
July 12, 2010. We chose that entrance for old times’ sake...the way we
went in to go swimming. There is also a front entrance into the
courtyard where the front door of the grand old casino opened into
parties, proms, reunions, dinners, and many golden memories. Another
entrance from the side of the parking lot is handicap accessible all the
way through the courtyard, past the restrooms and drinking fountain all
the way down a curving ramp to the springs.
Magnolias, mimosas, pines, mossy oaks, and
blooming crepe myrtles grace the entrances and are scattered throughout
the gardens along with thousands of shrubs and flowers. As the trees and
plants mature and bloom it will truly become a southern garden splendor!
We sat on a bench on the island...now
accessible by bridge...and reminisced about a lifetime of adventures at
Radium. Across the way the kiddie beach is all grown over with grass,
and the water was still and covered with algae on this white hot summer
day. It’s not always that way we were told. Sometimes it’s clear and
blue again, but the big floods caused changes underground that have
changed the flow of the springs, so even the water isn’t the same
sparking, bubbling, clear deep blue of those days when we could just
dive in off that island and cool off.
From the spring we walked up the original
steps that led to the casino.
Radium Area
They have been preserved including the
green patina always present from the dampness. At the top now there is
neither dampness nor cool. The courtyard structure in the footprint of
the casino is stark white concrete and very hot on this breezeless
summer day.
I could not help but think of it as a
skeleton of the former grand building. Garden areas in the courtyard are
planted with a large variety of shrubs and flowers, and the roofless
structure allows sun and rain to nourish them. As the gardens grow and
other phases of development commence, hopefully the skeletal image will
diminish. One day we hope to see it come to life again with people
swimming, sunning, picnicking, perhaps even dancing the night
away........ is that strains of “Rock Around the Clock” I hear coming
from over where the old pavilion stood? The one thing they can’t take
away is our precious memories!!!
Many thanks to Jean Weiner for preserving
those youthful memories of Radium and other favorite places in Albany
for us forever with her beautiful watercolor paintings.
For a
slideshow of pictures of the new Radium Gardens follow this link:
Radium Gardens | Albany
Herald
For
more information on Radium Gardens follow these links:
Radium
Gardens to open Monday
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