Friends of Hopelands and Rye Patch

Friends of Hopelands and Rye Patch, Inc., a nonprofit organization, collaborates with the City of Aiken to preserve, maintain, and develop Hopelands Gardens and Rye Patch and to raise money to help with the costs. Admission is free to Hopelands Gardens and Rye Patch. Enjoy these public gardens as Hope Goddard Iselin wished it to be: “a quiet, peaceful haven for the pleasure and refreshment of all who enter.” Visit the Rye Patch grounds and see the Historic Horses of Aiken and the Clifford S. Gerde Carriage Museum. The restored Winter Colony home Rye Patch and the Guest Cottage are civic centers that can be rented for events “of suitable dignity.”

To join the Friends, send a tax-deductible donation in any amount to the Friends of Hopelands and Rye Patch, Inc., P.O. Box 2213, Aiken, SC 29802-2213, or click DONATE.

Mission

Friends of Hopelands and Rye Patch, Inc., provide advice to the City of Aiken and raise funds for the preservation, improvement, and use of the properties so they can be enjoyed by Aiken’s residents and visitors consistent with the donors’ written wishes that Hopelands be a quiet, peaceful garden of excellence and that Rye Patch serves as a civic center of suitable dignity.

Trustees
Terms Expire in 2026

Karen Chandor
Kathy Cunningham
Anna Dangerfield
Bob Fogle
Susan Kleinbub
Pam Kolb
Margaret Marion
Sean Poppy
Lynne Rhodes
* Mary Smith
* Heather Waddell
* Holly Woltz

Trustees by Virtue of Office

Stuart Bedenbaugh, City Manager
City of Aiken
J. David Jameson, President/CEO
Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce
Peggy Thome, President
Aiken Council of Garden Clubs
Barry Bornstein, President
Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall
of Fame and Museum