Posted on: March 19, 2026; Updated on: March 19, 2026
By
Chris Horn, usctoday@mailbox.sc.edu
One of USC’s premier garden spaces has undergone a substantial transformation, thanks
to a major replanting and landscape improvement effort by the Columbia Garden Club.
In addition to many new plantings and hardscape additions, the Memorial Rose Garden,
located beside Lieber College in the southwest corner of the Horseshoe, now features
an octagonal copper-roofed gazebo to provide shade and shelter for garden visitors.
The finished product was unveiled March 17 at a private event for university leadership
and members of the Carolina Garden Club. The addition includes a new ground level
irrigation system, a cohesive design across the entire pavilion as well as the additions
of a pergola, lamp posts and a bench.
“Like a blossom seeking sunlight, the new pavilion with its decorative iron, copper
and brick looks to the legacy of surrounding historic buildings, walks, and roses
for design inspiration,” says USC architect Derek Gruner.
We’re trying to make this space as beautiful as the Horseshoe. So many students and
visitors walk by this spot — it deserves to be a focal point.
Amy Louthian
The gazebo was a gift from Yvonne Russell, a past president and longtime member of
the Columbia Garden Club and wife of Donald Russell Jr., son of USC’s 23rd president.
“This project has been a labor of love involving members of the Columbia Garden Club
as well as amazing support from staff at the university,” says Amy Louthian, the Columbia
Garden Club’s chairman of the Memorial Rose Garden renovation.
A Columbia Garden Club fundraiser, organized by USC’s First Lady Ero Amiridis, featured
a dinner with Coach Shane Beamer in the President’s House that provided funding for
many of the garden’s new plantings. In addition to roses, the garden now includes
a variety of native plants and other features such as a handcrafted iron obelisk with
a copper orb.
The Columbia Garden Club, which marks its 100th anniversary this year, began its alliance
with USC in 1960 with the planting of the original Memorial Garden of Old Roses behind
the South Caroliniana Library. When renovations to that library began 20 years later,
the rose garden was moved to Lieber College, and its name was simplified to the Memorial
Rose Garden.
In the years since then, Columbia Garden Club members have continually expanded their
plantings and other landscaping around Lieber College to include paved pathways, benches,
an arbor, and a cast iron fountain. The portion of the garden located on the west
side of Lieber College was named in honor of former USC First Lady Norma Palms.
“We’re trying to make this space as beautiful as the Horseshoe,” Louthian says. “So
many students and visitors walk by this spot — it deserves to be a focal point.”
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