The Seattle Lighthouse is a private, not-for-profit agency providing employment, support, and training opportunities for people who are blind, Deaf-Blind, and blind with other disabilities.

Ethel Dupar’s Legacy
In the early 1970s, local businesswoman and philanthropist Ethel Dupar visited a fragrant garden in Aberdeen, Scotland designed expressly for blind people. Inspired, she returned to Seattle to commission a fragrant garden that would engage the senses of touch and smell in people who are blind and Deaf-Blind. In July of 1973, the Seattle Lighthouse opened Ethel L. Dupar’s Fragrant Garden in space donated by the City of Seattle.

Several decades after its initial opening, the garden became overgrown with weeds and bamboo. Through the generosity of the Dupar Foundation and the initiative of Lighthouse employees, the Employee Positive Action Committee began a renewal project. A team of volunteer gardeners, led by Master Gardener Helen Weber, began the process of restoring the garden by clearing weeds and planting fragrant flora throughout the garden. In 2003, the Seattle Lighthouse celebrated both the 30-year anniversary and the grand reopening of Ethel L. Dupar’s Fragrant Garden.

The Garden Today
We are now in the fourth phase of our rejuvenation process. Today, volunteers continue to cultivate the garden with hardy fragrant blossoms, herbs, and spices. The sunken garden design creates a quiet pocket of air where scent can linger, while the raised beds bring the sweet-smelling blossoms and herbs directly to the visitor.

Ethel L. Dupar’s Fragrant Garden is completely accessible to people with disabilities, including those who need wheelchair accessibility. Here, blind and Deaf-Blind employees enjoy an aromatic collection of foliage labeled with braille to identify each of over fifty fragrant plants. The garden is also available to the community at large through guided tours engaging the senses of touch and smell.

Herbs, flowers, and other plants found in the garden include:

• Agastaches - six species
• Artemisias - four species
• Costmary
• Curry Plant
• Lavender
• Salvias - four species
• Scented Geraniums - four varieties
• Mints - five varieties
• Thymes - four varieties
• Tarragon
• Monarda
• Scented Goldenrod
• Azara microphylla
• Clethra alnifolia
• Gardenias
• Hyacinths
• Lilies
• Mockoranges
• Viburnums

Volunteer Opportunities
Our volunteers provide the ongoing maintenance needed to sustain the Dupar Fragrant Garden. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Communications and Development Assistant Keri Brent.

Funding
Garden maintenance and upkeep is funded through community support. The Dupar Foundation is the current major funder for Ethel L. Dupar’s Fragrant Garden with further support coming from private corporations, foundations, service organizations, and individuals.

All community support for Lighthouse programs is channeled through the Seattle Lighthouse for the Blind Foundation, whose sole purpose is to gather community support for fulfillment of the Seattle Lighthouse mission.

Contact Information
Keri Brent
Communications and Development Assistant
Phone:(206) 436-2134
TTY: (206) 324-1388
Email: kbrent@seattlelh.org

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