Kristopher Kelley of the Cooley House

Kris gave the talk yesterday at the NELA Genealogical and Historical  Society. The title of his talk was "The Year of the River: How Steamboats brought Gardens to the South" His talk exposed me to much more than the title would indicate.

Kris is a fountain of knowledge about  the gardens of the South and river travel in the day of the steamboat.

Captain Shreve improved the steamboat so that they were able to go up stream. (He was the first to pilot a steamboat from New Orleans to St Louis). Trade and commerce boomed and southern gardens bloomed with flowers from all over the world.

The Cooley House is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is one of last homes built in the Prairie School of Residential Architecture. This type of architecture was started by Wright. I hope to visit it.

Chris is a good speaker and really knows his subject. I enjoyed his talk.

The Cooley Gardens.

The Cooley House. On South Grand Street in Monroe.