The possibility of forming a garden club in Troy was initially discussed at a gathering of “garden-minded gals"in October 1952. Several of these women continued to meet and were joined by additional women through the spring and summer of 1953. On September 17, 1953 they adopted a constitution and officially became known as the Van Rensselaer Garden Club.

Meeting minutes began in November 18, 1954. It was reported that at this time the club joined the Federated Garden Clubs of New York, and then after research and discussion several years later, a vote was held to become unaffiliated. Archival records show much information and details on joining in 1962/3, but no decisions were seemingly made.

The best known project then, as it is today, is the Greens Show.

Initially it was held in cooperation with the Junior Museum and Birchkill. We have held one every year since 1956 with the exception of year 2000 when our "Holiday in Washington Park" was held at 200 Washington Park. In 2020, due to the Covid pandemic, only the façade at the Hart Cluett Museum was decorated.

Over the years the Van Rensselaer Garden Club has regularly reached out into the Troy community. Past projects included restoration of grounds of the old Marshall Sanitarium, a Litter Bag Campaign, maintaining gardens at the Troy Public Library and RCHS, and support of a 4-H group with Rensselaer County Extension Service.

More recently we have supported Rensselaer County ARC with prep-ping, planting, and cleaning up their gardens and the 112th Street

Memorial Garden. Additionally, flower shows, House and Garden Tours and a summer garden Open House have been held.

In the early years meetings were held in member's homes. Other meeting places have been Tamarac Plaza, Pruyn House, RCCA, Emma Willard School, Troy Masonic Community Center, RPI Neuman Chapel, and then, in 1991, our more permanent home became RCHS.

In 2020, with Covid restrictions in effect, we began meeting at the Shriner's Facility and expanded our outreach through ZOOM.

In 2022, we became incorporated and our new name is the Van Rensselaer Garden Club Inc. We are now a tax-exempt organization as well.

Information for this brief history was collected from the VRGC records stored at HCM.

The Greens Show Goes National

In 1996, Colonial Homes Magazine covered the Greens Show making a national audience aware of the quality and creativity to be seen each year. The logistics of working with professional photographers and writers meant that the show stayed up an extra day for filming the rooms. The results were stunning and the article is still mentioned by visitors who first learned of the Greens Show from the pages of the magazine.

The Night Before Christmas

Every ten years since1963, the theme of the Greens Show has focused on celebrating the first publication of the poem, A Visit From St. Nicholas, in the Troy Sentinel newspaper in 1823. The rooms in the HartCluett House are decorated to illustrate a different part of the much-loved poem popularly known as ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. HCM often augments the decorations by borrowing materials directly related to the poem, including having the original manuscript by Clement Clarke Moore on loan from the New-York Historical Society and also borrowing the series of paintings by Grandma Moses illustrating the poem in 1983.