Clemens Garden Gift Shop

A garden gift shop that could have taken the City of St. Cloud four years to complete opened in July 2000 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by several benefactors from the Central Minnesota Builders Association, which provided the impetus for the accelerated opening.

CMBA member donations of labor, materials and money made it possible to complete the Clemens Gardens Gift Shop in a little more than a year, providing an important piece for future funding of St. Cloud's most popular tourist attraction. The 900-square-foot shop is expected to generate $50,000 a year from busloads of tourists who each summer visit the Clemens Gardens and adjoining Munsinger Gardens along the Mississippi River.

The gift shop opening was particularly timely because the year ended the Clemens family's 10-year commitment of contributions to a trust fund to support the gardens. Starting in 1990, retired Bankers Systems founder Bill Clemens and his late wife, Virginia, donated land, plant materials and other aesthetic features to establish the Clemens Gardens - as well as the trust fund contributions for support.

In addition to gift shop revenues, the gardens' approximately $200,000 annual budget for staffing and maintenance will be supported by tax money, gifts and trust fund interest.More than 45 CMBA members and other citizens contributed to the project, a cause they undertook that spring. Material donations included floor and roof trusses, lumber, concrete block and footings, doors, windows, insulation, sheetrock, wood hand split cedar shakes and cedar siding. Without this support, city officials estimated that construction costs would have required that they build the gift shop in stages, not completing it until 2003.

The gift shop sells a variety of plant, garden-related gift items and mementos. It also has restrooms and provides some visitor information. In summer months, the Clemens and Munsinger Gardens attract more than 3,000 visitors a day.

Donors to the gift shop are listed on a memorial plaque in the shop and on paving stones embedded in the outdoor courtyard.

Donors to the Clemens Gardens Gift Shop: