The first rose festival opens in Tyler
The first rose festival in Tyler, a two-day event, opened on October 11, 1933, with Tyler claiming the title “rose capital of the Southwest.”
The women of the Tyler Garden Club, the Chamber of Commerce, civic groups and local rose growers organized it in just six weeks, with a parade, rose displays, speakers and a Rose Queen’s coronation.
The Handbook of Texas says volunteers raised $1,500 and several thousand people from 15 states attended; the Rose Garden’s National Register nomination gives a budget of $1,800.
It began as the East Texas Rose Festival and was renamed the Texas Rose Festival in 1936.
Note
Two figures for the money: $1,500 raised, in the Handbook of Texas; a budget of $1,800, in the National Register nomination.
Sources
- Handbook of Texas: Texas Rose Festivaltshaonline.org
- Tyler Today magazine: Nix Roses, end of an eratylertodaymagazine.com
- Wikipedia: Texas Rose Festivalen.wikipedia.org
- Longview News-Journal, 2020-06-28: Texas Rose Festival in Tyler Postponed to 2021 Because of COVID-19news-journal.com
- KTRE, 2021-10-14: Tyler Rose Festival Returns after Event Canceled in 2020 Due to COVID-19ktre.com
- National Register nomination, Tyler Municipal Rose Garden (Terri Myers and Kristen Brown, Preservation Central, form dated July 4, 2018; NRIS 100003539), THC Atlasatlas.thc.texas.gov
The two-day affair opened on October 11, 1933, with Tyler laying claim “under a brilliant autumn sunshine” to the title “rose capital of the Southwest.”
In just six weeks, and a budget of only $1,800, the Chamber of Commerce worked with garden clubs, civic groups and local growers
to organize and stage Tyler's first East Texas Rose Festival in the fall of 1933.
Checked October 15, 2026. How the cards are filed