From the Duke News Service

October 21, 1999

The Duke Endowment will give another $1 million toward the construction costs of the Doris Duke Center, which will be built in the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Duke University President Nannerl O. Keohane announced Thursday.

"We are immensely grateful for this gift from The Duke Endowment, which completes necessary funding and allows us to begin construction on the new Doris Duke Center," Keohane said. "This facility will make the Duke Gardens even more accessible to both the university community and the public."

The Duke Endowment in 1996 donated $1 million to the center named after the late daughter of James B. Duke, the principal benefactor of Duke University and the founder of The Duke Endowment. The gardens are named for Sarah P. Duke, wife of Benjamin N. Duke, who was James' brother.

Elizabeth H. Locke, president of The Duke Endowment, said the Charlotte-based charitable trust "was pleased to make a 'naming' gift in memory of Miss Duke."

Construction on the $4.7 million Doris Duke Center is scheduled to begin in January. It will be a multipurpose facility, designed to serve both public education and university hospitality needs. The 12,500-square-foot building will be located in the existing parking lot near the gardens' main gate on Duke's West Campus.

The center will receive and orient the 350,000 visitors who come to the gardens annually, provide a facility to teach the hundreds of school children who tour the gardens and provide meeting rooms for garden clubs, volunteers and adult evening classes, as well as space for special displays and exhibits.

Richard A. White, director of the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, said, "The wonderful generosity of The Duke Endowment, now and when we first envisioned the building, will help to produce a facility sorely needed in the gardens. Literally hundreds of thousands of visitors will benefit from its construction."

Designed by Ellen Shipman in the 1930s, the Sarah P. Duke Gardens occupies 55 acres and is recognized both for landscape design and quality of horticulture. It is open to the public daily without charge.

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