The McKinney Garden Club was organized by Mrs. Carrie Emerson Lovejoy along with 28 women and two men in October, 1930. In 1933 the second president, Fannie Finch, proposed the Club’s mottos of “Every Yard a Flower Garden.” The purpose of the Club is to promote an interest in gardens, their designs and management and to encourage and help with citywide plantings.
To raise funds for sponsoring plantings, educational endeavors, park benches and college scholarships, the Club held its first Garden and Home Tour in 1998. Since then every other year, the summer tour has delighted about 1,000 people annually who tour the selected gardens/homes.