Gordon Family Cuts Ribbon on City’s Bridge of Flowers

Noblesville’s Dick Gordon smiled as he looked around at the beautiful new Bridge of Flowers on the Logan Street Pedestrian Bridge overlooking the White River in downtown Noblesville.

Gordon dreamed big, and now his vision has come to fruition.

“It’s something that I thought was going to be great, but it’s greater than I expected,” said Gordon, 87, who headed up the Bridge of Flowers project, the vision of the Gordon family. “The quality of the donor board, the quality of the flower containers, everything is first class. I’m impressed.”

He posed for photos with family members following a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday afternoon at the Bridge of Flowers, where the Gordon family and Gordon Marketing employees gathered along with Hamilton County Commissioners, Noblesville Mayor Chris Jensen, City employees and the community.

There are pergolas, built-in planter seating for 40 people, flowers and other plantings, on the bridge, all made possible by private donations thanks to Dick Gordon’s fundraising.

He’s raised more than $140,000 for the project, for which he’s asking donors to sponsor for a three-year commitment. “You can still get involved,” Gordon said.

The donors’ names are easy to read and are engraved on nice, large donor boards with plenty of space to expand the donor board as more donors are added. “There will be thousands of people who see these … People are going to stop and read it. It’s probably the best advertising venture you can get involved with,” he said.

Gordon said his daughter, Sylvia Gordon, was the brains behind this project. While in Massachusetts, she discovered a Bridge of Flowers, and she stopped and visited. “It’s an old bridge that they decorated with beautiful flowers, and it’s a huge tourist attraction. People go there to get their wedding pictures taken and prom pictures taken,” Dick Gordon said more than a year ago when he started talking about the project.

“When Hamilton County built the Logan Street Bridge, the walking bridge, which is approximately 15 to 20 feet wide … after watching it for about a year, she thought this would be a fantastic Bridge of Flowers.”

Gordon has been the worker bee out front to raise capital and to get all of the permits to be able to do the project.

The Gordon names are on the donor board in an array of donor levels. Sylvia Gordon, who owns a portion of the family business, donated $25,000 in the family’s name, and Gordon Insurance donated $25,000. Chuck Goodrich, president and CEO of Gaylor Electric in Noblesville, was the project’s first donor, Gordon said, also with $25,000. And Harbour Trees Golf Club donated $25,000. Donating $5,000-$10,000 were Robert and Marie Frash, Culver’s and The Farm, Matteo’s Ristorante Italiano and Riverview Health. Donating $1,000 to $4,999 were Gatewood Vegetable Farm & Greenhouses, Indiana Restoration & Cleaning Services, Church Church Hittle & Antrim Attorneys at Law,  Rebecca Gordon and Darren Ratcliffe and family, BlueSky Technology Partners, Edgar Wagner, Frank and Danita Gordon and family, West Agency, Smith’s Jewelers, McGavic Outdoor Power, Theresa Gordon Landers and family and the Jaensson family. There are another two dozen donors in two more donor levels from $300 to $999.

“It’s been an easy sell. Everybody has been in favor of this project,” he said.

Dick Gordon envisions the Bridge of Flowers as becoming a tourist attraction for downtown Noblesville. The bridge encourages more walkability downtown, between Federal Hill Commons and the Downtown Square. Visitors can park along the downtown streets, or in the new county parking garage or county surface lot on nights and weekends, or ride their bicycles or walk from Old Town or from Federal Hill to see the Bridge of Flowers up close for themselves.

Brenda Myers of Hamilton County Tourism has said that the Bridge of Flowers fits within the White River Vision Plan.

To bring the Gordons’ urban garden idea to fruition, Dick Gordon asked for the help of retired Peg Adams, who has an extensive background in landscape and a love of flowers. The Noblesville woman who has done landscape work for Gordon’s home and business, is chair of Friends of the Noblesville Bridge of Flowers, a nonprofit filed March 10, 2021.

“We got acquainted with her, and she’s really good,” he said. “She’s in charge of the flowers and in charge of what we do in the four seasons, and she has a committee of other ladies who work with her to keep the flowers trimmed up and looking neat.” Her volunteers are in charge of the annual and seasonal part of the project. A landscape architect company designed the containers and the perennial plantings, shrubs and trees, and a construction company did the physical labor.

“We will come in now and maintain all of this with volunteers, Master Gardeners and volunteers from the community,” Adams said. “Then, we’ll do the seasonal plantings.…”

“It’s important that we get donors year-around to keep this beautiful thing moving in the right direction,” Gordon said.

Adams, who spoke briefly at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, said the Bridge of Flowers, which is now all in fall colors, will change out for every season, and in the summer will add colorful annuals. She sees the Bridge of Flowers as a gathering place for family photos, where folks will want to return again and again to enjoy.

“There’s room for a party up here,” Gordon added. “I think it’s a beautiful project. I think it’s the only project of its kind in the Midwest.”

One of the most important details to overcome, initially, was how the plants would be watered. But Gordon said that’s been figured out. “There is irrigation through all of these pots. It’s built right into them,” he said.

County Commissioner Steve Dillinger expressed his appreciation to the Gordon family and the citizens of Hamilton County.

“Things like this just don’t happen. They require the county commissioners, the county council, mayor, city council and the citizens of Noblesville,” Dillinger said.

“This started about seven or eight years ago, when we were looking at the old Logan Street Bridge and decided we had to do something to redevelop the bridge. Through that conversation, which is the county’s responsibility, the bridge, we entered into a conversation with Noblesville about what we could do special with the bridge, with this bumpout. Noblesville bought into it. And it gives a lot of connectivity between Federal Hill and downtown. Then we came up with the idea, let’s put lighting in, to light up the night…”

Then came the Gordons and their idea for the project.

“This is absolutely beautiful and a wonderful project,” said County Commissioner Christine Altman.

Dick Gordon, who moved to Noblesville from a farm near Fort Wayne 38 years ago, has investments in downtown Noblesville and owns several buildings. He loves the city and wants to help it develop. He raised money for the hospital for seven years, so he knows how to raise money for this project.

Dick Gordon, in his day job, has more than 40 years of insurance experience. He founded Gordon Marketing with his wife Margaret in 1987. Day-to-day operations are in the hands of daughters Sylvia and Rebecca who are president and vice-president, respectively. Son Frank Gordon and daughter, Theresa Landers are also key executives with the firm. However, more recently, the company was sold, and the executives have stayed on to operate the company.

Gordon thanked everyone for coming out to the ribbon cutting. “It’s been fun to work with you. I’ve learned how to work with government. It’s a lot slower than working with Gordon Marketing,” he said grinning, getting some chuckles from the crowd.

Mayor Jensen admitted there were hoops to jump through to get this project done, and he thanked Dick Gordon for “bearing with us and being part of this vision.”

Jensen said, ““If you’ve ever done business with Dick Gordon, you know he is what we call a ‘lion chaser’ in Noblesville, somebody who dreams big and continues to follow through with that.”

Contact Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com