Lakeside Wheel Club

[1] Around 1911, after the "cycle" fell out of vogue, Ginter's niece, Grace Arents, converted the structure into a convalescent home for poor children suffering from tuberculosis and other city-borne illnesses.

In the Gay Nineties cycling was a fashionable sport, and members of the club, cheered on by Richmond belles, pedaled out on the cinder-paved Missing Link Trail, which ran parallel to the Boulevard and connected to Hermitage Road.

After the grueling ride from town, members could sit on the wheel club's long veranda and refresh themselves with homemade ice cream, while boaters drifted on the lake below.

The granite base of the bear pit and many fine specimens of trees planted in an arboretum setting remain at the present day Jefferson Lakeside Club.

To realize her dream, Miss Arents purchased the abandoned Lakeside Wheel Clubhouse and its approximately 10 acres (40,000 m2) from the Lewis Ginter Land and Improvement Company.

Miss Arents traveled extensively in Europe, and her trip diaries describe the joy she derived from her visits to continental botanical gardens.

Thus, she reunited some of the land that had belonged to the Powhatans, Patrick Henry, the Williamsons, John Robinson and others, and Bloemendaal Farm became widely known as a model for the best agricultural practices of the day.