Beautiful. Gorgeous. Spectacular.

Those were just a few of the adjectives used Sunday by people who viewed the Lawrence sesquicentennial Elizabeth Speer Garden outside the historic Murphy-Bromelsick House at 10th and Delaware streets.

“This was done with great care and sentiment,” said Carol Francis, Lawrence, one of nearly 100 people who gathered in Hobbs Park, where the house and garden are located, for a special dedication ceremony.

“I wouldn’t mind having a few of those good, hardy Kansas plants,” said Judy Romero, who attended the event with her uncle and aunt, Val and Liz Romero.

African marigolds, roses called White Pet and Seven Sisters, and peony and snowball shrubs were among numerous types of plants and flowers planted in flower beds around the house.

The garden was dedicated in honor of Elizabeth Speer, wife of early abolitionist newspaper publisher John Speer. The Speer homestead was located just east of the Murphy-Bromelsick House, which also dates to the Civil War era.

The garden was dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth Speer because the “hardy Kansas plants” represent her own toughness and hope for the future, said Mary Lynn Stewart, one of the master gardeners who designed and built it.

“I think anyone who plants a garden has hope,” Stewart said, noting that women in the 1800s on the Kansas prairie did so while fighting the weather and sometimes a disapproving husband. “Our founding mothers, they had a tough row to hoe.”

Sunday’s event kicked off a series of activities that will continue through the rest of the year as the city celebrates its sesquicentennial.

A marigold flower is displayed after the dedication of the Elizabeth Speer Garden at Hobbs Park, 10th and Delaware streets. The Sunday afternoon event was part of the Sesquicentennial Summer 2004 program.

Mark Kaplan, who spearheaded an effort to preserve the Murphy-Bromelsick house a few years ago, said Hobbs Park was a good site to begin the activities. It was once the site of outdoor church gatherings as well as a location for Civil War military encampments.

“People have gathered on this hilltop over the years for a variety of things,” Kaplan said.

Val Romero said he was looking forward to the upcoming sesquicentennial events. His family has a long history in Lawrence.

“We’re Kansans,” he said. “My dad shook hands with Theodore Roosevelt when he came to Lawrence in 1910.”

Francis recalled seeing the city’s centennial celebration in 1954.

“I never thought I’d be here for this one,” she said.

Clenece Hills, Sesquicentennial Commission president, said she was pleased with the turnout for the garden dedication, which also marked the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Kansas University associate professor of history Jonathan Earle talked about the act, which established the territories of Kansas and Nebraska.