MANSFIELD — Before his passing in 1952, Charles Kelley King outlined his vision for Kingwood Center Gardens: The 47-acre estate was to feature a beautiful garden and eventually an auditorium.
It was important to King the gardens be “creditably established” first and that investment in the auditorium wouldn’t “jeopardize” the gardens.
About 67 years later, Kingwood Center Gardens’ board of trustees was ready to take that step with the help of more than $10 million from the community, raised through its first ever capital campaign, called Honoring the Past – Growing the Future.
Donors, staff, board members, general contractors, and others gathered Thursday, despite rainy weather, to break ground for what’s being called the “Garden Gateway Project.”
The event kicked off the construction of a 14,000-square foot facility, which is meant to create an enhanced and more welcoming experience for all guests.
New amenities will include an on-site café, seating areas, an exhibit gallery and a gift shop, featuring a greenhouse area and garden shop space. It will be positioned beside the Trimble Road entrance’s parking lot.
“It may not look like or be exactly what he had envisioned as an auditorium, but it will fulfill everything he wanted to accomplish with such a building,” said chairman of the board David Carto.
He went on to say how King mentioned the auditorium five times in his trust agreement, always describing it as an educational center. King hoped that the auditorium would one day be “contributing to the finer education of the people of Mansfield.”
“So this is not just an afterthought by King. He really wanted to have an auditorium,” Carto said.
For years, the Kingwood Center Gardens developed solely on money from King’s trust, but to continue on a path of expansion the board shifted Kingwood’s direction.
“If we had never done anything but continue to operate on Mr. King’s trust, the Kingwood Center, rather than realizing (King’s) phase two — to expand and operate and flourish — Kingwood would have actually started into a long and steady decline,” Carto said.
Additionally, as part of Kingwood’s expansion plans, the Kingwood Ballroom will be made to provide venue space for large-capacity events and meetings. A new and expanded Woodlands auto-garden parking lot, the Grand Perennial Garden and pavilion and surrounding terrace gardens are among the outdoor updates included with the project.
Construction of the Garden Gateway Center Project is expected to be completed in summer 2020. This is phase one for the Kingwood Center Gardens and the largest of a five-phase master plan.
“The garden gateway center will be more than just an auditorium. It will be a community center in which (King) would be very proud,” Carto said.
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