REPLANTED
By Chris Wadsworth
When we think of recycling, we probably think of a bundle of newspapers or some aluminum cans. What we don’t probably think of is not one but two huge glass buildings that were otherwise destined for the scrap heap.
When the Blue Mount Nursery in Ashburn closed late last year, it was the end of an era. After 35 years, the nursery property was being redeveloped into a residential community. Everything on the site had to go – including Blue Mount’s greenhouses.
That’s where the folks at Abernathy & Spencer Greenhouse & Garden Center in tiny Lincoln stepped in. The huge facility just south of Purcellville in western Loudoun County agreed to buy two of Blue Mount’s greenhouses.
“There was certainly something to be said for not having new greenhouses manufactured for our purposes. Instead, we repurposed ones that did not have a home,” said Jacob Baker, one of the co-owners at Abernathy & Spencer. “It was going to be scrapped if somebody didn’t put it back up and there aren’t a lot of people in the market for such a greenhouse. The timing just worked out really well. It was an awesome coincidence.”
Baker’s company worked with a contractor out of Culpeper to disassemble, transport and reassemble the greenhouses – one of them with a footprint of 100 feet by 120 feet, the other 65 feet by 50 feet.
He calls it both a delicate – and tedious – process.
“[They] took it down piece by piece, pane by pane, truss by truss,” Baker said. “Every piece came apart, was bundled, was shipped by tractor-trailer here to Lincoln, and then the same team reassembled those greenhouses here. Piece by piece, one pane of glass at a time.”
Now, the former Ashburn buildings have been given new life. The larger greenhouse has been used to create two new spaces in Lincoln. One holds the garden center’s tropical plants, houseplants and succulents. The other portion has been redubbed The Glass House and is a new classroom space.
The smaller greenhouse is now home to the center’s native sun-loving perennials.
The new buildings and spaces all come at the perfect time for the company. Abernathy & Spencer is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Originally named Hill Top Plant Gardens, it was founded in 1925.