Elkhart’s Wellfield Botanic Gardens expects big boost with $17M expansion
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Over two decades, leaders in the Elkhart community have worked to transform what was once an unkempt Superfund site into a regional destination.
In 2002, the Elkhart Rotary Club set out to create a community garden atop the city’s Main Street wellfield — a 36-acre plot of land that, among 13 undergrounds wells, supplies 70% of the city’s drinking water.
The club envisioned thematic gardens, event spaces, a visitors center and more to revitalize land that at one time, decades ago, was targeted and treated for groundwater contamination. Since remedied, the land was handed off in 2005 to a not-for-profit board of directors.
Wellfield Botanic Gardens, as it’s now known, features more than 20 gardens, including a Children’s Garden, a Japanese-inspired Island Garden and a recently opened Peace Garden. The organization has fulfilled about 85% of the Rotary Club’s initial master plan and, now averaging about 75,000 visitors a year, is entering its most significant phase of growth yet.
Robert and Peggy Weed Executive Director Eric Garton explains Wellfield Botanic Garden
“We currently have no indoor facilities,” said Eric Garton, Wellfield’s Robert and Peggy Weed executive director. “We get a lot of requests for special events, including weddings, in the months of November, December, January, February, March and April. Those are really difficult things to do in our current setting.”
Foundations are being set this fall for a new, 12,000-square-foot visitors center. The gardens’ current, small visitors cottage will be moved across the grounds this winter, making way for 100 much needed parking spaces. And, in January, crews will begin work on a 500-person open air pavilion.
The projects together, funded through private investment, cost $14 million. An additional $3 million endowment is being sought to support operations, which are expected to add about $110,000 to the gardens’ overall annual budget.
Wellfield’s board manages all operation and construction atop Elkhart’s Main Street wellfield through a 100-year lease with the city. As a condition of their agreement, the Wellfield Botanic Gardens board must fully fund projects before beginning any work, meaning the gardens are fully financed and carry no debt.
A major portion of Wellfield’s funding comes from private sponsorships and events. Garton said memberships and garden admissions — at $10 per adult visit — make up less than a third of the gardens’ overall operating budget.
That funding model, Garton says, makes work at Wellfield, which is not a public park, sustainable should operation ever be returned to the city.
“We have zero tax support,” Garton said. “That’s probably one of the things that is probably our most frequently asked question and one of the biggest misconceptions about Wellfield.”
The grounds have become a popular northern Indiana wedding venue during warm weather months and its annual Winter Wonderland Holiday Lights — a 1.4 million light display for which crews begin preparing the day after Labor Day — brought in 25,000 visitors last year.
The visitor center project will bring Wellfield its first significant indoor space, expanding the venue’s capacity to play host to events long into the harsh Indiana winter. The parking lot expansion will increase onsite parking more than sixfold.
Even in ideal weather, Wellfield’s projects this year will help curb event costs. The gardens now rely on tent and stage rentals to put on popular events like its Groovin’ in the Gardens Summer Concert Series, which Garton said can run the gardens $12,000 or more in rental fees.
Garton talks about projects underway at Wellfield Botanic Gardens.
The visitor center and open air pavilion will support existing events in partnership with groups like the Elkhart Symphony Orchestra, as well as open the door to year-round events.
The new visitor center will feature a great hall and 200-person event space, a catering kitchen, a gift shop and cafe, restrooms and more.
With the addition of the visitors center and open air pavilion, Garton said he expects the gardens will add 38% to its bottom line in the coming years. The additions at the front of the gardens provide a welcoming entrance Garton says comes in tandem with talk of redirecting traffic from Elkhart’s busy Cassopolis corridor to Main Street, where Wellfield sits, as a new entry point to the city’s downtown.
“It’s something very exciting not only for Wellfield, but for all of our community partners that we work with here in Elkhart, whether they are for-profit corporations or not-for-profits,” Garton said. “We want to be that place that brings people together.”
Garton said Wellfield expects to complete all work on its visitors center, open air pavilion and parking expansion by December of next year.
Work is not expected to disrupt events this year, such as the 2023 Winter Wonderland Holiday Lights. More information about the projects are available on the gardens’ website, wellfieldproject.com.