Historic Landscapes

New England - Survey of Selected 20th Century Gardens

May 16, 2007
Georgene A. Bramlage

Gilded Statue Saint-Gaudens NHS Cornish NH - Courtesy of U.S. NPS

Twentieth century New England garden landscapes show diversity that demonstrates society's expanding financial and social bases. Here are four such historic designs.

Historical Overview

The Gilded Age, a transition time from the late 19th century to the beginnings of the 20th century, witnessed rapid growth in American industry and finance, and an increase of great wealth in a select few privileged families. There was, for this brief time, no universal income tax as we know it today.

Emigration from middle and Eastern Europe to the United States was widespread. This flood of new arrivals led to far-reaching consequences in metropolitan areas like Boston and New York. Bit by bit, trend and fashion, partly influenced by changes in cities, dictated summer homes or cottages out of urban heat and congestion.

Travel out of the U.S., although never out of vogue for the very wealthy, developed into routine practice because of more available wealth. The resulting proliferation and design of European and Asian garden components was as much a status symbol as a visual souvenir of these travels.

The role of professional landscape architects grew tremendously during this period. Many practitioners moved from designing rural cemeteries and park-lands to planning landscape gardens for wealthy property owners. The profession expanded as landscape architects worked together on projects and mentored beginning professionals. Landscape architects wrote specialized and important books about landscape gardening and design.

The Gardens

Some New England garden landscapes that illustrate different motivations and approaches to landscape design during this Gilded Age:

Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site (Cornish, NH ) preserves the home, studios and gardens of Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907). Saint-Gaudens, a prominent American sculptor, created sculptural works like these two found in Massachusetts:

The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, opposite the State House (Boston), dedicated to the famed Civil War Massachusetts 54th Regiment, and

The Puritan (Deacon Samuel Chapin), Springfield, Merrick Park.

Saint-Gaudens' formal terraced garden abounds with early 20th century plants and gilded casts of ancient sculptures. This setting is probably similar to the kind that Saint-Gaudens saw in his European travels. The cutting garden offers a wide variety of flowers grown for the elegant floral arrangements found in the galleries. National Park Service. Location • 139 Saint-Gaudens Road • Cornish, NH 03745 • (603) 675-2175.

Naumkeg, National Historic Landmark (Stockbridge, MA) shows the gracious late-19th century summer home of the Choate family. Joseph Hodges Choate (1832-1917) was a New York lawyer and Ambassador to the Court of St. James (England) and Caroline Sterling Choate (1837-1929) was an artist and co-founder of Barnard College. In its prime, the estate included a farm, greenhouses and vegetable gardens. Naumkeg's world famous 20th century gardens developed over several decades through the practitioner-client partnership of Fletcher Steele and Mabel Choate, heir of the elder Choates. What matured between 1929 and 1958, and remains to be viewed today, is eight acres of landscaped garden rooms that include:

The Afternoon Garden,

ChineseGarden,
Evergreen Topiary Garden,
Moon Gate, and

The Blue Steps.

Trustees of the Reservation Property. Naumkeg Location • Prospect Hill • Stockbridge, MA • 413)298-3239. Trustees Headquarters • 54 South Main Street (Rte. 1A) • Ipswich, MA 01938 • (978) 356-2811.

Chesterwood Estate and Museum, a National and Massachusetts Historic Landmark, (Stockbridge, MA) was the 1920s summer home, studio & garden of Daniel Chester French. French sculpted works such as:

Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial (1922), Washington, DC, and
The Minute Man at Concord, Massachusetts.

French's studio gardens are divided into a series of large rooms with perennial borders, a central fountain, and a woodland walk. An annual Contemporary Sculpture at Chesterwood Exhibit (June 22-October 8, 2007) utilizes a small portion of Chesterwood's 122 acre estate. The Trust for Historic Preservation. Location • 4 Williamsville Road • Stockbridge, MA 01262 • 413-298-3579.

The Mount (Lenox, MA) for nearly a decade was home to Pulitzer-prize winning author Edith Wharton and her husband Teddy Wharton . Wharton, a woman who traveled easily between the United States and Europe, was well-informed about European landscape design as well as a passionate gardener. Wharton wrote her book Italian Villas and Their Gardens while she designed the Mount's gardens. She designed the Mount's gardens as architectural compositions, divided into rooms, and planned them to fit seamlessly with The Mount and its natural landscape. Wharton's love of Italian gardens shows in:

how The Mount is sited,
the steps descending from terraces into the gardens, and
the rural aspects introduced into the gardens' formal structure.

The gardens are perpendicular to the house and include:

The Lime (Linden) Walk,

Walled Garden,

Flower Garden, and the

Alpine Rock Garden.

The Mount Centennial in 2002 witnessed reconstruction of these gardens, abandoned and overgrown for many decades. In June 2005, planting nearly 3,000 annuals and perennials put the finishing touches to the flower garden that Edith Wharton called her "mass of bloom.” Lenoxion • 2 Plunkett Street • Lenox, Massachusetts 01240-0974 • (413) 637-1899.

Text by Georgene A. Bramlage, May 2007. Reproduction without permission prohibited.