RUTGERS UNIVERSITY – The 100th Anniversary of Rutgers Gardens on Ryders Lane presented not only a chance to look back at the achievements of the past, but also to provide an opportunity to envision a vital future… Rutgers Gardens was established in 1916, right in the middle of World War I, when local farmer Robert Lipman bought the farmland and donated it to the university. According to the Director of Rutgers Gardens Bruce Crawford, “Since then, Rutgers Gardens has served the greater Rutgers community as a site for horticultural research, climate studies; and landscape design.”