Waddell Barnes Botanical Gardens

About Us:

In 2003, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, at the request of Macon State College President David Bell, named the College’s botanical gardens after Waddell Barnes, M.D., chair of the MSC Foundation’s Board of Trustees and the driving force behind the development of this unique horticultural resource.

When construction on the College began in 1967, the 167-acre campus became home to more than 1,600 trees, 2,500 shrubs and 12,000 ground cover plants. Landscape architect Clay Adamson, who retired as plant operations director from the Medical College of Georgia, made the original plant selection. Joseph White Jr., the director of Plant Operations when Macon Junior College opened, supervised the careful planting of the large order, most of which came from a nursery in Dalton, GA.