In 1987, work began on a memorial garden behind the 1850 Beith House honoring Polly Bowman, a mom of three rowdy boys and an active and beloved volunteer for the Pottawatomie Garden Club and Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley. Polly served as president of the Pottawatomie Garden Club in 1981 and, for a time, as its treasurer. Also, “She had a deep interest in conservation and historical restoration in the community, and was active in Restorations of Kane County [now known as Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley] and the Beith House project.”

Polly had envisioned a garden to replace the lawn behind the 1850 Beith House on the west bank of the Fox River in downtown St. Charles once its restoration was complete. After her unexpected death in 1986, Preservation Partners and the Pottawatomie Garden Club partnered to bring her vision into reality. Polly’s husband, Walker Bowman, researched, designed, and helped build a historic picket fence (pictured). Donations were sent in to pay for plants. Volunteers planted the new flowerbeds. At the entrance to the garden near Indiana Street, a simple sign, “Polly’s Garden,” was installed.

Volunteers from the Pottawatomie Garden Club and Preservation Partners cared for the garden for many years, but as sometimes happens, fewer and fewer volunteer hours were spent in the garden. By 2022, it had become significantly overgrown.

In 2023, a thin, bearded man knocked on the door of the Beith House. It was Warren Bowman, Polly’s son, and he asked if he could help restore the garden dedicated to his mom. Warren had returned to St. Charles a few years earlier after retiring so he could help take care of his father, Walker Bowman. Walker was a World War II veteran of the Pacific Theater who later obtained degrees from MIT and Princeton and worked for Standard Oil (later becoming Amoco) in Research and Development, obtaining 5 patents. In November of 2022, Walker Bowman passed away at the age of 98. Warren received a small inheritance after his father died and decided to use it for Polly’s Garden.

For two years, Warren, along with his daughter Georgina, Preservation Partners staff and volunteers and volunteers with the Pottawatomie Garden Club have worked to clear the overgrown garden, repair and paint the fence designed and built by Walker Bowman, had two dying trees removed, redesigned the landscaping, installed benches, and chose the plants to put in the garden (see the landscape plan below). Nearly all of the expenses were paid for by Warren.

In October 2025, a fundraising campaign began for the plants. About half of them were sponsored within two weeks and a team of volunteers planted them on a sunny, but chilly morning in late October. In the spring of 2026, the remaining plants will hopefully find sponsors so that the planting can be completed.

But that’s not all!

Georgina, Polly and Walker’s granddaughter, will build a wood trellis at the entrance to the garden and Warren will create an art piece for the center of the garden. If all goes well, the garden, to be renamed “Polly and Walker’s Memorial Garden,” will be fully open to the public by the summer of 2026.

Access for the public has been a key component of Warren’s vision for the restored garden. He hopes Polly and Walker’s Memorial Garden will be a beautiful and peaceful space for all to enjoy a break while on a walk, a chat with a friend, a coffee break, or photos for a wedding. The garden’s entrance is on Indiana Street between the historic Piano Factory Bridge and Whole Foods and just one block east of the First Street Corridor. A lot of foot traffic comes by, and Warren expects the garden’s charm will invite them in for years to come.

SPONSOR A PLANT!

Polly and Walker’s Memorial Garden is now ready for planting. Financial donations are needed to cover the cost of the plants, so we are offering YOU the opportunity to sponsor a plant (or plants!) for the garden. Wasco Nursery & Garden Center has generously offered the plants at wholesale pricing to help lower the cost of the plants.

Please click the button below to sponsor a plant (or plants!) for the garden or to give a general donation for the garden.

We look forward to opening the garden to the public in the summer of 2026!

Plants sponsored may be substituted depending upon availability. Additionally, PPFV will purchase the plants using these donated funds. Please do not go to Wasco to buy a plant.

Special thanks to:

Sources:

“Deaths: Polly Bowman,” St. Charles Chronicle, July 9, 1986.

“Letters from the President,” Restoration Advocate (newsletter) 5, no. 13 (August 1986): 5.

“Polly’s Garden—Progress!!!” Restoration Advocate (newsletter) 6, no. 3 (July 1987): 4.

“Fences Make Good Neighbors!” Restoration Advocate (newsletter) 7, no. 3 (September 1988): 5.

“Walker Bowman Obituary,” Kane County Chronicle, December 22, 2022.

Warren Bowman, interview by Al Watts, Beith House, St. Charles, IL, October 20, 2025.