If you go there today it is the riding arena for the Raemelton Therapeutic Equestrian Center, but in the 1930s it was the Riding Hall at Frank and Jesse Black’s Raemelton estate.
In 1933, shortly after the Riding Hall was built, it was the site of a Garden Club exposition hosted by Mansfield’s first garden club.
Photographed from virtually the identical spot in the Raemelton Riding Hall, this 2010 picture by Jeff Sprang captured activities of the Equestrian Center almost exactly 77 years after the Garden Club expo in 1933.
The Great Depression was often enough an ugly and degrading affair to live with in the 1930s, but the Mansfield Garden Club took it upon themselves to bolster the spirits of local ladies with reminders of dignity and refinement and a more graceful life to look forward to.
A couple of the photos in this story come from the book Then & Now: Mansfield by Timothy Brian McKee with photography by Jeff Sprang.
