Leila ArbLeila Arboretum

The Leila Arboretum dates back to 1922 when Leila Post Montgomery, widow of cereal magnate C.W. Post, donated 72 acres of land to the city of Battle Creek that had formerly been the site of the Battle Creek Country Club. She envisioned a center for culture amid the beauty of nature.

In 1924, landscape architect T. Clifton Shepherd created an impressive design, but harsh realities of the Depression overshadowed the masterpiece in progress. Arboretum plans languished for more than fifty years.

In the autumn of 1981, determined to reclaim the arboretum’s former beauty from overgrown brush, a group of citizens with a vision for what could be formed Leila Arboretum Society (LAS).

Don’t be misled by the word society in our name. LAS began as a hard-working cadre of people willing to get their hands and knees dirty–and remains so today. With membership and volunteers numbering in the hundreds, the arboretum has been reborn and the love for natural spaces and gardening places has translated into friendships, a downtown that has drawn national attention, neighborhood landscaping projects, city gateway plantings, classes that lead to master gardener certification and sheer enjoyment! Next door to the arboretum, the nonprofit built a one-acre Kaleidoscope Garden that has enticed representatives from cities throughout the country, as well as a few from Australia, to see how it was done!