The Story of Butchart Gardens

Chapter 3 - The Quarry

W. H. Westby - The Man in the Quarry

The twentieth century brought with it affluence to many settled pioneers and industrialists. People who were doing well wanted to display their success via luxurious homes set among well-kept grounds. Landscape architecture was still in its Canadian infancy, but already much in demand by wealthy estate owners. The term "Landscape Architect" had first been used in 1860 to describe the work of Frederick Law Olmstead, the man who designed New York's Central Park and Mount Royal Park in Montreal. As the Canadian Society of Landscape Artists wasn't formed until 1934, Jennie Butchart didn't have too many experts in the field from which to choose. Though luck was heading her way.

Born in Yorkshire in 1875, William Henry Westby began a career in gardening at 12 years old, apprenticing under his father who was head gardener at Welbeck Abbey, the Duke of Portland's estate. From there he went on to Renishaw Hall, an estate of over 4,000 acres, frequently visited by King Edward VII, for whom Westby made a fresh boutonniere each morning. Trained in topiary and espaliery, he also learned to grow guavas and bananas. "There being no refrigeration then," he'd later say, "the big estates grew all sorts of their own tropical fruits."

Seeking a change in climate, (to aid the health of his son, Bill) Westby emigrated to Canada, moving to Winnipeg in 1912.A couple of years later, perhaps after realizing the harsh prairie climate wasn't what the doctored ordered, he came across to Victoria, where he'd been asked to start a nursery. His reputation reached the Butcharts and he was soon working to help fulfill Jennie's dream of transforming the old quarry. The plans for a towering rock garden, with pockets of perennials were largely his, and he helped turn her vision into colourful reality.

His son Bill helped out at the Gardens for a couple of years, before going to the local shipyards during the war. When he returned he apprenticed under his father and in 1922 the two of them left the Butcharts' employ to establish their own firm at Elk Lake, W. H. Westby & Son Landscape Gardeners and Garden Architects.

They did much work in the affluent Uplands area of Victoria, and one of their first big commissions came two years later when they took on the job of landscaping Crystal Garden. This innovative glass and steel structure, behind Victoria's Empress Hotel, was a major building project, incorporating the largest indoor swimming pool in North America, plus a restaurant, ballrooms and indoor gardens. It was also the city's largest conservatory. "Everywhere... " read a news report of the time, "it is the intention to concentrate upon flowers."

The Westby's experience at Butchart Gardens stood them in good stead and they filled Crystal Garden's two and a half acres of space with a magnificent dislays of ferns, begonias, azaleas and bougainvillea. Palms and Japanese Maple were carefully placed to soften the building's hard lines, and the complex was warmly received when it opened in 1925, making the $250,000 Crystal Garden "a veritable garden paradise." At each corner of the huge swimming pool stood a stately arbor vitae; the same tree that became the hallmark of Jennie's Sunken Garden.

Creating the Sunken Garden

A couple of years before Europe would erupt in "the war to end all wars," Jennie looked out over the first quarry at the end of her garden and saw a sight that filled her with despair. All the useful limestone had been removed by 1908, and the ravaged quarry was now an ugly, gaping hole, covering three and a half acres. Excavation work had moved east to another part of the property, leaving this rough quarry floor strewn with broken machinery, discarded tools and assorted, rusting debris.

A towering island of rock stood silently in the centre, being of too poor a grade to be useful to the cement plant, and behind it gaped a huge crater where the limestone seam had run much deeper. A small stream trickled its way across this site, forming deep pools and muddy puddles. Scattered across it all were hundreds of jagged rocks that had escaped the crusher, or been ignored by the quarrymen.