Cultivating Community — Sophisticated St. Louis

Want something done in University City? Ask U City in Bloom’s Judy Prange.

by Kari Williams / Photography by Richard Nichols

Sitting at her dining room table on a warm, Sunday afternoon in July – with her dog, Poppie, lounging in her lap – Judy Prange recalls a phone call from the University City fire chief, asking if she knew where the murals from Delmar Harvard School were. The school, which had been shuttered in 2011, was demolished a decade later in order to construct a hotel on the property.

“The fire chief calls me, and I said, ‘Yes, actually, I do,’” Prange says. “I can tell you exactly where they are and how they got there. And it was another member of the community who was afraid that they were going to get knocked down in the tearing down of the building. Like people do, she just called me.”

Stories like that validate Prange’s interest in bringing the community together. She believes those occurrences happen because of her role as the executive director of U City in Bloom – the nearly 40-year-old nonprofit that beautifies the 5.9 square miles of University City with gardens.

“I end up talking to a lot of people,” says Prange, 85. “We have volunteers, and I guess it’s known that I am working with people at City Hall.”

Her personality and approach helps too, she says.

“I'm not a loud mouth or the type that mows people down to get something done,” Prange says. “I say, ‘We’re going to get something done, let’s do it together.’ So it's just kind of been fun.”

The roots of U City in Bloom
Three residents, Mary Ann Shaw, Jane Schaefer and Susan Hopper, founded U City in Bloom in 1985 in a true-to-form grassroots effort. Volunteers tended to about 50 to 60 gardens in the early years, and, according to Prange, used to operate with someone spotting a location in a neighborhood and asking if a garden could be added.

“In the beginning, when they were just trying to get gardens here, they were here, there and everywhere,” Prange says.

Though U City in Bloom, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year, planted its roots in private gardens, the more than 200 gardens that volunteers take care of in 2024 all reside in public spaces. And Prange keeps a volunteer email list that has amassed more than 200 addresses.

To join that list, interested volunteers – even those without gardening experience – can fill out a form on the U City in Bloom website, indicating availability and the ways they are interested in contributing.

‘Newbie’ with a mission
Almost from the moment she moved in to her duplex in Ward 2, Prange has been a staple of U City in Bloom.

“I am what is called a newbie,” Prange says. “I've only been here for 24 years.”

Her interest in U City in Bloom stems from her own green thumb.

“I just thought, ‘Oh, I like this community. I like gardening,’” Prange says. “And, It was right for me, right after a divorce … It's like everything kind of just fell into place and then I really enjoyed being with U City in Bloom.”

She also knew Mary Anne Shaw, one of the organization’s founders, and joined the board of directors in the early 2000s.

Everyone says they love U City Bloom, according to Prange, who questioned how many people have a job where they unanimously receive positive feedback.

“U City in Bloom is sort of at a point where we need to work with City Hall and with the parks department,” Prange said. “And, we need to work well with them. I seem to do that pretty well.”

Giving Ward 3 its Flowers
U City in Bloom is involved with several community events, including the city’s annual Memorial Day run and Plein Art event. But Prange says what really started their involvement with other events was deciding to host a garden tour.

Garden at Erith and Milan, north of Olive.

That then transitioned into showcasing the “neat neighborhoods with different characters,” Prange says. A notable tour for her was last year’s event in Ward 3 – a ward she says has older houses, an older demographic, more rental properties and absentee owners, and a larger Black population.

A tour had been requested for years, and finally the time was right.

“One of the parts of the neighborhood, part of the area in the third ward, is called the music neighborhood,” Prange says. “It's developed by Musick Construction Co. so we picked up on the music thing … And then, somebody on the committee said, ‘Well, then we should have music in the gardens.' So we did. We had some music group playing in each of the gardens, including at the reception.”

Bwayne Smithson, a Ward 3 councilman who plays percussion music and sings, eventually asked Prange if he could take the mic.

“I've heard from other people that he had a really beautiful voice, and so I said, ‘Sure, that'd be great,” Prange says. "So he introduced it. He said, ‘I want to dedicate this to Judy and U City in Bloom for doing something nobody has ever done for our community before, bringing people into the community and showing it off.’ Then he sang the Louis Armstrong song ‘What a Wonderful World.’”

The garden tours, according to Prange, are an “extension of having the community and individuals who keep up gardens on their own property” more involved.

“It’s almost like a community outreach from the organization to the resident,” Prange says.

The Plein Air events are held at the end of September and are followed by a reception at the community center where the artwork is displayed and for sale. The ninth Plein Air Festival will be held Sept. 29.

Bike in the Gardens is set for October 13.

Relationships continue to blossom

In the time Prange has been with U City in Bloom, the garden at the city’s community center has become one of her favorites.

“One does end up falling in love with some of the gardens,” she says. “… That's where the pool is [at the community center garden]. It faces Olive and so it allows for huge expanse of flowers and the building kind of goes on and on, and we put a bird garden in there.”

Another area, the 26-acre Ruth Park Woods, is the site of the budding relationship between U City in Bloom and Washington University, according to Prange. A photography professor once had students take photos in the woods and create lenticular prints – pieces that bring together 3-D and animation to simulate movement.

“There's the picture of the garden, only if you move a little bit, it changes,” Prange says. “One of the pictures is a pretty good picture of River Des Peres. And when you move, there's a gondola floating down the river.”

When Prange saw the prints she asked the professor what happens to them when the school year is over; the professor told Prange they’re usually left behind.

“So the staff has put them in the woods, so when you walk through the woods you see the woods but then you see the lenticular prints,” Prange says.

There are “quite a few” relationships for U City in Bloom like the one Prange has cultivated with Wash U. The group is now embarking on gardens in neighboring Clayton.

“Things kind of evolve,” Prange says. “Obviously, we have a very good relationship with U City. I seem to be able to get them to do things.”

Despite her knack for building relationships and growing U City in Bloom’s footprint, there’s not one thing she can pinpoint as the most enjoyable from her tenure with the organization.

“I think it’s everything,” Prange says. “The people part. And knowing that, if I come up with an idea like this, everybody loves it.”

For more information about U City in Bloom, or to volunteer, visit ucityinbloom.org.

U City in Bloom Gardens

• Centennial Commonss

• Heman Park Pool

• University City Public Library

• Centennial Gardens (City Hall)

• Street medians, including along Olive Boulevard

• University City elementary schools

• Decorative planters along the Delmar Loop