History of Early American Landscape Design - User contributions [en]

Trustees’ Garden

2019-12-31T15:23:30Z

L-Baradel: /* History */

'''Trustees’ Garden''', founded in Savannah, Georgia, in 1734, is an important early example of a public [[botanic garden]] and [[nursery]] in the British American colonies. It was established to collect plants that would grow best in Savannah’s climate with the goals of encouraging agriculture and establishing profitable silk and wine industries.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Trustee Garden<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1734–1748<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' The Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America<br/>
'''Associated People:''' General James Oglethorpe (founder); Joseph Fitzwalter (1734–1735 and 1737–1738, head gardener); Paul Amatis (1735–1736, silk production expert and head gardener); Hugh Anderson (1736–1739, inspector of the public garden); Newdigate Stephens (1742–?, head gardener)<br/>
'''Location:''' Savannah, GA<br/>
'''Condition:''' demolished<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/UDcpzFKCMo4F64kW9 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
The Trustees’ Garden, established in 1734 on behalf of the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America by the British military officer James Oglethorpe (1696–1785), was a [[public garden]] located in Savannah. Founded two years after Oglethorpe secured the charter for the colony of Georgia and one year after he established Savannah, the ten-acre garden was part of Oglethorpe’s original plan for the town [[common]] located on the banks of the Savannah River on the east end of the town of Savannah (on what is now East Broad Street).<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation, ''Historic Savannah'' (Savannah, GA: Historic Savannah Foundation, 1968), 129, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> There are no known extant images of Trustees’ Garden from the period, but one map created in 1757 includes an inscription marking the location of the “Trustees garden gate” in the lower right corner [Fig. 1]. Trustees’ Garden is an important early example of an American [[public garden]] motivated by scientific principles and of the trans-Atlantic networks of people, plants, and ideas that would characterize efforts in botany and garden design during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Driven by British Enlightenment principals and commercial interests, Georgia Trustee Stephen Hales (1677–1761) and advisor Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), both members of the Royal Society in London, championed the garden as a site for scientific experimentation and modeled it after the examples of the botanic and physic gardens at Chelsea and Oxford in England. Experiments in the garden would, the Trustees hoped, determine what plants grew best in Savannah’s climate. Another goal for the Trustees’ Garden was to encourage colonists to cultivate the most successful crops. To that end, the garden served as a [[nursery]] providing free seeds and saplings for farmers and gardeners.<ref>Thomas D. Wilson, ''The Oglethorpe Plan: Enlightenment Design in Savannah and Beyond'' (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015), 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; James W. Holland, “The Beginning of Public Agricultural Experimentation in America: The Trustees’ Garden in Georgia,” ''Agricultural History'' 12, no. 3 (July 1938): 274, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Renate Wilson and David L. Cowan, “Trustee Garden,” ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' (October 6, 2016), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TQH9RFZZ view on Zotero]; and Alice B. Lockwood, “Savannah,” ''Gardens of Colony and State: Gardens and Gardeners of the American Colonies and of the Republic before 1840'', vol. 2 (New York: Charles Scribner’s for the Garden Club of America, 1931), 270, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JNB7BI9T view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Moore_1736_cite"></span>

Gardeners planted a range of vegetation at Trustees’ Garden, including pear, apple, peach, orange, fig, and olive trees, as well as pomegranates, spices, and herbs. Francis Moore reported in 1736 that the garden had been arranged in different zones. English fruit trees were planted “in the coldest part of the Garden,” while fruits from warmer parts of Europe, including olives, figs, and pomegranates, were established in another section. In the most sheltered and warmest quarter of the garden, experiments growing coffee, cocoa, and cotton took root ([[#Moore_1736|view text - 1]]).

The Trustees hired botanists to supply plants from Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America in the hopes that some of would prove adaptable to Savannah’s growing conditions. They first retained the Scottish botanist Dr. William Houstoun (d. 1733) in October 1732 for three years to make a voyage to Madeira, Jamaica, Cartagena, Porto Bello, Campeche, and Vera Cruz. Houstoun was charged with procuring exotic specimens—especially medicinal plants and herbs, on the advice of Sloane—in these locales to send to Savannah. Houstoun died soon after arriving in Jamaica, and Robert Millar was contracted by the Trustees in March 1734 to resume Houstoun’s project. Millar established a base in Jamaica and focused his efforts on collecting medicinal herbs such as Jesuits bark (used in the treatment of malaria and fevers), ipecacuhana (an emetic), and cochineal (used as a red dye) in Central and South America, but he soon ran afoul of Spanish authorities and his trip was cut short.<ref>Holland 1938, 277–78, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; and Wilson and Cowan 2016, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TQH9RFZZ view on Zotero].</ref> A gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden supplied the Trustees with various seeds, including white mulberry, potash, and cotton. Other “friends of the Georgia experiment” contributed plants, seeds, and vines from Europe and the East Indies.<ref>Holland 1938, 283–84, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; and Joseph Krafka Jr., “An Account of the Attempt of the Society of Apothecaries to Establish the Drug Trade in Colonial Georgia,” ''Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association'' 28, no. 9 (1939): 616, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/BRZ3CBFG view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Moore_1736_2_cite"></span>

One of the Trustees’ main goals for the garden was to cultivate grapevines and white mulberry trees to produce wine and silk, which they hoped would prove profitable commodities for export that would benefit the British economy. In November 1732 Houstoun acquired grapevines in Madeira to support the Trustees’ interest in establishing viticulture in the colony and sent the vines to Savannah by way of Charleston, South Carolina. The Trustees also hired Paul Amatis (d. 1736), an Italian expert in silk production, to oversee the growing of white mulberry trees at the garden in Savannah, and soon brought in additional silk-makers from Piedmont to teach the colonists the art and science of silk production ([[#Moore_1736_2|view text - 2]]).<ref>Holland 1938, 271–73, 278, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson 2015, 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; and Julie Anne Sweet, “A Misguided Mistake: The Trustees’ Public Garden in Savannah, Georgia,” ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'' 93, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref> The Trustees’ hopes for a silk industry in Georgia were so strong that one side of their official seal featured a silkworm on a mulberry tree leaf [Fig. 2]. In addition, the Trustees sent twenty-five copies of the illustrated instructional treatise ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and the Right Ordering of the Silk-Worm'', published in London in 1733, to guide the colonists in raising silkworms [Fig. 3].<ref>Florence (Nisbet) Marye and Philip Thornton Marye, ''Garden History of Georgia'', 1733–1933, eds. Hattie C. Rainwater and Loraine M. Cooney (Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Garden Club, 1933), 17, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GNC4U42D view on Zotero]; and T. B., ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and Right Ordering of the Silk-Worm'' (London: Printed for John Worrall, Olive Payne, Thomas Boreman, and Thomas Game, 1733), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/E6UAWUQJ view on Zotero].</ref> By 1740 nearly the entire Trustees’ Garden plot was turned over to the cultivation of mulberry trees.<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation 1968, 129–30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> Despite these efforts, the Trustees’ expectations for prosperous silk and wine industries in the colony ultimately failed to materialize.<span id="Tailfer_cite"></span>
[[File:2234.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 3, Title page from T. B., ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and Right Ordering of the Silk-worm'', 1733.]]
[[File:2235.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 3, Dedication page from T. B., ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and Right Ordering of the Silk-worm'', 1733.]]

Although Trustees’ Garden flourished soon after its founding under the direction of Oglethorpe and the first head gardener, Joseph Fitzwalter, its early success was ultimately short lived. Despite the Trustees’ ambitious plans for the garden, several miscalculations doomed the experiment early on. Specifically, the Trustees misjudged Savannah’s climate and the fertility of its soil, mistakenly believing that it was equivalent to that found around the Mediterranean because of its similar latitude. They thus focused on cultivating crops that were ultimately unsuited to the site.<ref>Sweet 2009, 26–28, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref> Hugh Anderson, a Scotsman who was given the role of “Inspector of the Public Garden and Mulberry [[Plantation]]s,” later described the Trustees’ Garden in unflattering terms as “a barren Piece of Land, where it is hardly possible for what is planted to live, but impossible to thrive” ([[#Tailfer|view text]]).

The garden’s managers also mishandled the labor needed to grow and maintain the site, and the endeavor was plagued with staff turnover and internal disputes. The garden suffered neglect after Fitzwalter left abruptly for South Carolina in 1735, possibly due to frequent disputes with Amatis regarding the garden’s management. Anderson attempted to revive the gardens to their once-flourishing state by rehiring Fitzwalter as head gardener in December 1737, and the conditions in the garden seemed to improve for a short time. However, a spate of bad weather and labor disputes with indentured servants who worked in the garden ultimately proved too severe to overcome. The Trustees in England received an eye-witness account in February 1738 reporting food shortages in Savannah and that half of the trees in the Trustees’ Garden had died from neglect. Oglethorpe removed Anderson from his role in October 1739, and Anderson later co-authored an attack on Oglethorpe in the ''True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia'' (1741).<ref>Holland 1938, 284–87 and 290, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson 2015, 111–12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; and Sweet 2009, 10–11, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref>

Ultimately the endeavor was short-lived, and Trustees’ Garden was largely abandoned by 1748, by which time, the land had become a residential area. Fort Savannah (later Fort Wayne) was erected in 1759 in the northeast corner of the original garden. After the fort was abandoned, the Savannah Gas Company purchased and developed the site of Trustees’ Garden as its manufacturing facility in 1848.<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation 1968, 130, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> In 2015 the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens, located just outside Savannah and managed under the auspices of the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, completed a smaller replica of the original ten-acre Trustees’ Garden on their own site, which is open to visitors and includes historically accurate plantings.<ref>https://coastalbg.uga.edu/the-gardens/formal-white-trustees-gardens/</ref> The original site of Trustees Garden was purchased in 2003 by developers from the Savannah Gas Company and is now a commercial center and events venue.<ref>https://www.trusteesgarden.com/</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
*Von Reck, Commissary, 1734, describing the Trustees’ Garden, Savannah, GA (quoted in Marye 1933: 15)<ref>Marye and Marye 1933, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GNC4U42D/q/Garden%20History%20of%20Georgia view on Zotero].</ref>

:“There is laid out near the Town, by Order of the Trustees, a Garden for making Experiments for the Improving Botany and Agriculture; it contains 10 Acres and lies upon the River; and it is cleared and brought into such Order that there is already a fine [[Nursery]] of Oranges, Olives, white Mulberries, Figs, Peaches, and many curious Herbs: besides which there are Cabbages, Peas, and other European Pulse and Plants which all thrive. Within the Garden there is an artificial Hill, said by the Indians to be raised over the Body of one of their ancient Emperors.”

*<div id="Moore_1736"></div><div id="Moore_1736_2"></div>Moore, Francis, February 1736, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1744: 29–32)<ref>Francis Moore, ''A Voyage to Georgia, Begun in the Year 1735'' (London: Jacob Robinson, 1744), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RU3CSV33 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“There is near the Town, to the East, a Garden belonging to the Trustees, consisting of 10 Acres; the Situation is delightful, one half of it is upon the Top of a Hill, the Foot of which the River ''Savannah'' washes, and from it you see the ''Woody Islands'' in the Sea. The Remainder of the Garden is the Side and some plain low Ground at the Foot of the Hill, where several fine Springs break out. In the Garden is variety of Soils; the Top is sandy and dry, the Sides of the Hill are Clay, and the Bottom is a black rich Garden-Mould well watered. On the North-part of the Garden is left standing a [[Grove]] of Part of the old [[Wood]], as it was before the arrival of the Colony there. The Trees in the [[Grove]] are mostly Bay, Sassafras, Evergreen Oak, Pellitory, Hickary [''sic''], ''American'' Ash, and the Laurel Tulip. This last is looked upon as one of the most beautiful Trees in the World. . .

:“The Garden is laid out with Cross-[[walk]]s planted with Orange-trees, but the last Winter a good deal of Snow having fallen, had killed those upon the Top of the Hill down to their Roots, but they being cut down, sprouted again, as I saw when I returned to ''Savannah''. In the [[Square]]s between the [[Walk]]s, were vast Quantities of Mulberry-trees, this being a [[Nursery]] for all the Province, and every Planter that desires it, has young Trees given him ''gratis'' from this [[Nursery]]. These white Mulberry-trees were planted in order to raise Silk, for which Purpose several ''Italians'' were brought, at the Trustees’ Expence, from ''Piedmont'' by Mr. ''Amatis''; they have fed Worms, and wound Silk to as great Perfection as any that ever came out ''Italy'': But the ''Italians'' falling out, one of them stole away the Machines for winding, broke the Coppers, and spoiled all the Eggs, which he could not steal, and fled to ''South-Carolina''. The others, who continued faithful, had saved but a few Eggs when Mr. ''Oglethorpe'' arrived, therefore he forbade any Silk should be wound, but that all the Worms should be suffered to eat through their Balls, in order to have more Eggs again next Year. The ''Italian'' Women are obliged to take ''English'' Girls Apprentices, whom they teach to wind and feed; and the Men have taught our ''English'' Gardeners to tend the Mulberry-trees, and our Joyners have learned how to make the Machines for winding. As the Mulberry-trees increase, there will be a great Quantity of Silk made here.

:“Besides the Mulberry-trees; there are in some of the Quarters in the coldest part of the Garden, all kinds of Fruit-trees usual in ''England'', such as Apples, Pears, ''&c''. In another Quarter are Olives, Figs, Vines, Pomegranates and such Fruits as are natural to the warmest Parts of ''Europe''. At the bottom of the Hill, well sheltered from the North-wind, and in the warmest part of the Garden, there was a Collection of ''West-India'' Plants and Trees, some Coffee, some Cocoa-nuts, Cotton, Palma-christi, and several ''West-Indian'' physical Plants, some sent up by Mr. ''Eveleigh'' a publick-spirited Merchant at ''Charles-Town'', and some by Dr. ''Houstoun'', from the ''Spanish West-Indies'', where he was sent at the Expence of a Collection raised by that curious Physician Sir ''Hans Sloan'', for to collect and send them to ''Georgia'', where the Climate was capable of making a Garden which might contain all kinds of Plants; to which Design his Grace the Duke of ''Richmond'', the Early of ''Derby'', the Lord ''Peters'', and the Apothecary’s Company contributed very generously; as did Sir ''Hans'' himself. The Quarrels amongst the ''Italians'' proved fatal to most of these Plants, and they were laboring to repair that Loss when I was there, Mr. ''Miller'' being employ’d in the room of Dr. ''Houstoun'', who died in ''Jamaica''. We heard he had wrote an Account of his having obtain’d the Plant from whence the true ''Balsamum Capivi'' is drawn; and that he was in hopes of getting that from whence the ''Jesuits Bark'' is taken, he designing for that Purpose to send to the ''Spanish West Indies''.

:“There is a Plant of Bamboo Cane brought from the ''East Indies'', and sent over by Mr. ''Towers'', which thrives well. There is also some Tea-seeds, which came from the same Place; but the latter, though great Care was taken, did not grow.” [[#Moore_1736_cite|back up to History (1)]] | [[#Moore_1736_2_cite|back up to History (2)]]

*Stephens, William, 1740, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1906: 664–65)<ref>William Stephens, ''A Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia, beginning October 20, 1737. By William Stephens, Esq; to which is Added, A State of that Province, as Attested upon Oath in the Court of Savannah, November 10, 1740'' (Atlanta: The Franklin Printing and Pub. Co., 1906), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PFSSQ9DT view on Zotero].</ref>

:“…there is in this Town…a [[Public garden|publick Garden]] of ten Acres cleared, fenced, and planted with Orange-Trees, Mulberry-Trees, Vines, some Olives which thrive very well, Peaches, Apples, &c.

:“It must be confessed, that Oranges have not so universally thriven with us, as was expected, by Reason of some severe Blasts by Frosts in the Spring; yet divers with proper Care have preserved them; and as we see them grow and thrive well, with many of our Neighbours of Carolina to the Northward, we are convinced that they will with us also, as soon as we are become more perfect in the Knowledge of propagating them in a right Manner; in order to which frequent Experiments are making; and we have already discovered not only what Kind of Soil agrees best with them, but also that they flourish most when they grow under Forest Trees, whereby we imagine they are protected from Blasts; and ‘tis observed, that they take No Harm from the Droppings of any, except the Pine, which suffers nothing to grow near it, unless of its own Kind.

:“Notwithstanding the Quantity of Silk, hitherto made, has not been great, yet it increases, and will more and more considerably, as the Mulberry-Trees grow, whereof there are great Numbers yearly planted.

:“Vines likewise of late are greatly increased, many People appearing to have an Emulation of outdoing their Neighbours, and this Year has produced a considerable Quantity of very fine Grapes, whereof one Planter in particular made a Trial, to see what Kind of Wine they could make, which he put into a large Stone-Bottle, and made a Present of it to the General; who upon tasting, found it to be something of the Nature of a small French White Wine, with an agreeable Flavour; and several Persons here, who have lived formerly in Countries where there are Plenty of Vineyards, do affirm, that all young Vines produce small Wines at first, and the Strength and Goodness of it increases as the Vines grow older.”

*<div id="Tailfer"></div>Tailfer, Patrick, Hugh Anderson, and David Douglas, 1741, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1835: 26–27, 70)<ref>Patrick Tailfer, Hugh Anderson, David Douglas, et al., ''A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia, in America, from the First Settlement Thereof until this Present Period'' (Charles Town, SC: P. Timothy, 1741; Washington: P. Force, 1835), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/E7KD9866 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“To carry on the Manufactures of ''Silk and Wine'', a Garden was planted with Mulberries and Vines, which was to be a [[Nursery]] to supply the Rest of the Province: But this was as far from answering the proposed End, as every Thing else was; for it is situated upon one of the most barren Spots of Land in the Colony, being only a large Hill of dry Sand: Great Sums of Money were thrown away upon it from Year to Year, to no Purpose: This was Remonstrated to the Trustees; and they seem’d to be sensible of the Error, and gave Orders to chuse another Spot of Ground; but the ''Ruling Powers'' in ''Georgia'' took no Notice thereof. And now, after so great Time and Charge, there are not so many Mulberry-Trees in all the Province of ''Georgia'', as many one of the ''Carolina'' Planters have upon their [[Plantation]]s; nor so much Silk made in one Year, as many of those Planters do make. Nor could they ever in that Garden, raise one Vine to the perfection of bearing Fruit. . .

:“On the East Side of the Town is situated the [[Public garden|''Publick Garden'']] (being ''ten'' Acres inclos’d, on a barren Piece of Land, where it is hardly possible for what is planted to live, but impossible to thrive; and from this Garden were all the Planters to have been furnished with ''Mulberry-Trees, &c''.” [[#Tailfer_cite|back up to History]]

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:2234.jpg|Title page from T. B., ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and Right Ordering of the Silk-worm'', 1733.

Image:2235.jpg|Dedication Page from T. B., ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and Right Ordering of the Silk-worm'', 1733.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Trustees’ Garden

2019-12-31T15:22:39Z

L-Baradel: /* History */

'''Trustees’ Garden''', founded in Savannah, Georgia, in 1734, is an important early example of a public [[botanic garden]] and [[nursery]] in the British American colonies. It was established to collect plants that would grow best in Savannah’s climate with the goals of encouraging agriculture and establishing profitable silk and wine industries.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Trustee Garden<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1734–1748<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' The Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America<br/>
'''Associated People:''' General James Oglethorpe (founder); Joseph Fitzwalter (1734–1735 and 1737–1738, head gardener); Paul Amatis (1735–1736, silk production expert and head gardener); Hugh Anderson (1736–1739, inspector of the public garden); Newdigate Stephens (1742–?, head gardener)<br/>
'''Location:''' Savannah, GA<br/>
'''Condition:''' demolished<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/UDcpzFKCMo4F64kW9 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
The Trustees’ Garden, established in 1734 on behalf of the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America by the British military officer James Oglethorpe (1696–1785), was a [[public garden]] located in Savannah. Founded two years after Oglethorpe secured the charter for the colony of Georgia and one year after he established Savannah, the ten-acre garden was part of Oglethorpe’s original plan for the town [[common]] located on the banks of the Savannah River on the east end of the town of Savannah (on what is now East Broad Street).<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation, ''Historic Savannah'' (Savannah, GA: Historic Savannah Foundation, 1968), 129, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> There are no known extant images of Trustees’ Garden from the period, but one map created in 1757 includes an inscription marking the location of the “Trustees garden gate” in the lower right corner [Fig. 1]. Trustees’ Garden is an important early example of an American [[public garden]] motivated by scientific principles and of the trans-Atlantic networks of people, plants, and ideas that would characterize efforts in botany and garden design during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Driven by British Enlightenment principals and commercial interests, Georgia Trustee Stephen Hales (1677–1761) and advisor Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), both members of the Royal Society in London, championed the garden as a site for scientific experimentation and modeled it after the examples of the botanic and physic gardens at Chelsea and Oxford in England. Experiments in the garden would, the Trustees hoped, determine what plants grew best in Savannah’s climate. Another goal for the Trustees’ Garden was to encourage colonists to cultivate the most successful crops. To that end, the garden served as a [[nursery]] providing free seeds and saplings for farmers and gardeners.<ref>Thomas D. Wilson, ''The Oglethorpe Plan: Enlightenment Design in Savannah and Beyond'' (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015), 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; James W. Holland, “The Beginning of Public Agricultural Experimentation in America: The Trustees’ Garden in Georgia,” ''Agricultural History'' 12, no. 3 (July 1938): 274, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Renate Wilson and David L. Cowan, “Trustee Garden,” ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' (October 6, 2016), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TQH9RFZZ view on Zotero]; and Alice B. Lockwood, “Savannah,” ''Gardens of Colony and State: Gardens and Gardeners of the American Colonies and of the Republic before 1840'', vol. 2 (New York: Charles Scribner’s for the Garden Club of America, 1931), 270, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JNB7BI9T view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Moore_1736_cite"></span>

Gardeners planted a range of vegetation at Trustees’ Garden, including pear, apple, peach, orange, fig, and olive trees, as well as pomegranates, spices, and herbs. Francis Moore reported in 1736 that the garden had been arranged in different zones. English fruit trees were planted “in the coldest part of the Garden,” while fruits from warmer parts of Europe, including olives, figs, and pomegranates, were established in another section. In the most sheltered and warmest quarter of the garden, experiments growing coffee, cocoa, and cotton took root ([[#Moore_1736|view text - 1]]).

The Trustees hired botanists to supply plants from Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America in the hopes that some of would prove adaptable to Savannah’s growing conditions. They first retained the Scottish botanist Dr. William Houstoun (d. 1733) in October 1732 for three years to make a voyage to Madeira, Jamaica, Cartagena, Porto Bello, Campeche, and Vera Cruz. Houstoun was charged with procuring exotic specimens—especially medicinal plants and herbs, on the advice of Sloane—in these locales to send to Savannah. Houstoun died soon after arriving in Jamaica, and Robert Millar was contracted by the Trustees in March 1734 to resume Houstoun’s project. Millar established a base in Jamaica and focused his efforts on collecting medicinal herbs such as Jesuits bark (used in the treatment of malaria and fevers), ipecacuhana (an emetic), and cochineal (used as a red dye) in Central and South America, but he soon ran afoul of Spanish authorities and his trip was cut short.<ref>Holland 1938, 277–78, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; and Wilson and Cowan 2016, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TQH9RFZZ view on Zotero].</ref> A gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden supplied the Trustees with various seeds, including white mulberry, potash, and cotton. Other “friends of the Georgia experiment” contributed plants, seeds, and vines from Europe and the East Indies.<ref>Holland 1938, 283–84, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; and Joseph Krafka Jr., “An Account of the Attempt of the Society of Apothecaries to Establish the Drug Trade in Colonial Georgia,” ''Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association'' 28, no. 9 (1939): 616, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/BRZ3CBFG view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Moore_1736_2_cite"></span>

One of the Trustees’ main goals for the garden was to cultivate grapevines and white mulberry trees to produce wine and silk, which they hoped would prove profitable commodities for export that would benefit the British economy. In November 1732 Houstoun acquired grapevines in Madeira to support the Trustees’ interest in establishing viticulture in the colony and sent the vines to Savannah by way of Charleston, South Carolina. The Trustees also hired Paul Amatis (d. 1736), an Italian expert in silk production, to oversee the growing of white mulberry trees at the garden in Savannah, and soon brought in additional silk-makers from Piedmont to teach the colonists the art and science of silk production ([[#Moore_1736_2|view text - 2]]).<ref>Holland 1938, 271–73, 278, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson 2015, 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; and Julie Anne Sweet, “A Misguided Mistake: The Trustees’ Public Garden in Savannah, Georgia,” ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'' 93, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref> The Trustees’ hopes for a silk industry in Georgia were so strong that one side of their official seal featured a silkworm on a mulberry tree leaf [Fig. 2]. In addition, the Trustees sent twenty-five copies of the illustrated instructional treatise ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and the Right Ordering of the Silk-Worm'', published in London in 1733, to guide the colonists in raising silkworms [Fig. 3].<ref>Florence (Nisbet) Marye and Philip Thornton Marye, ''Garden History of Georgia'', 1733–1933, eds. Hattie C. Rainwater and Loraine M. Cooney (Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Garden Club, 1933), 17, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GNC4U42D view on Zotero]. T. B., ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and Right Ordering of the Silk-Worm'' (London: Printed for John Worrall, Olive Payne, Thomas Boreman, and Thomas Game, 1733), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/E6UAWUQJ view on Zotero].</ref> By 1740 nearly the entire Trustees’ Garden plot was turned over to the cultivation of mulberry trees.<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation 1968, 129–30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> Despite these efforts, the Trustees’ expectations for prosperous silk and wine industries in the colony ultimately failed to materialize.<span id="Tailfer_cite"></span>

Although Trustees’ Garden flourished soon after its founding under the direction of Oglethorpe and the first head gardener, Joseph Fitzwalter, its early success was ultimately short lived. Despite the Trustees’ ambitious plans for the garden, several miscalculations doomed the experiment early on. Specifically, the Trustees misjudged Savannah’s climate and the fertility of its soil, mistakenly believing that it was equivalent to that found around the Mediterranean because of its similar latitude. They thus focused on cultivating crops that were ultimately unsuited to the site.<ref>Sweet 2009, 26–28, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref> Hugh Anderson, a Scotsman who was given the role of “Inspector of the Public Garden and Mulberry [[Plantation]]s,” later described the Trustees’ Garden in unflattering terms as “a barren Piece of Land, where it is hardly possible for what is planted to live, but impossible to thrive” ([[#Tailfer|view text]]).

The garden’s managers also mishandled the labor needed to grow and maintain the site, and the endeavor was plagued with staff turnover and internal disputes. The garden suffered neglect after Fitzwalter left abruptly for South Carolina in 1735, possibly due to frequent disputes with Amatis regarding the garden’s management. Anderson attempted to revive the gardens to their once-flourishing state by rehiring Fitzwalter as head gardener in December 1737, and the conditions in the garden seemed to improve for a short time. However, a spate of bad weather and labor disputes with indentured servants who worked in the garden ultimately proved too severe to overcome. The Trustees in England received an eye-witness account in February 1738 reporting food shortages in Savannah and that half of the trees in the Trustees’ Garden had died from neglect. Oglethorpe removed Anderson from his role in October 1739, and Anderson later co-authored an attack on Oglethorpe in the ''True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia'' (1741).<ref>Holland 1938, 284–87 and 290, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson 2015, 111–12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; and Sweet 2009, 10–11, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref>

Ultimately the endeavor was short-lived, and Trustees’ Garden was largely abandoned by 1748, by which time, the land had become a residential area. Fort Savannah (later Fort Wayne) was erected in 1759 in the northeast corner of the original garden. After the fort was abandoned, the Savannah Gas Company purchased and developed the site of Trustees’ Garden as its manufacturing facility in 1848.<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation 1968, 130, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> In 2015 the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens, located just outside Savannah and managed under the auspices of the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, completed a smaller replica of the original ten-acre Trustees’ Garden on their own site, which is open to visitors and includes historically accurate plantings.<ref>https://coastalbg.uga.edu/the-gardens/formal-white-trustees-gardens/</ref> The original site of Trustees Garden was purchased in 2003 by developers from the Savannah Gas Company and is now a commercial center and events venue.<ref>https://www.trusteesgarden.com/</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
*Von Reck, Commissary, 1734, describing the Trustees’ Garden, Savannah, GA (quoted in Marye 1933: 15)<ref>Marye and Marye 1933, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GNC4U42D/q/Garden%20History%20of%20Georgia view on Zotero].</ref>

:“There is laid out near the Town, by Order of the Trustees, a Garden for making Experiments for the Improving Botany and Agriculture; it contains 10 Acres and lies upon the River; and it is cleared and brought into such Order that there is already a fine [[Nursery]] of Oranges, Olives, white Mulberries, Figs, Peaches, and many curious Herbs: besides which there are Cabbages, Peas, and other European Pulse and Plants which all thrive. Within the Garden there is an artificial Hill, said by the Indians to be raised over the Body of one of their ancient Emperors.”

*<div id="Moore_1736"></div><div id="Moore_1736_2"></div>Moore, Francis, February 1736, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1744: 29–32)<ref>Francis Moore, ''A Voyage to Georgia, Begun in the Year 1735'' (London: Jacob Robinson, 1744), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RU3CSV33 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“There is near the Town, to the East, a Garden belonging to the Trustees, consisting of 10 Acres; the Situation is delightful, one half of it is upon the Top of a Hill, the Foot of which the River ''Savannah'' washes, and from it you see the ''Woody Islands'' in the Sea. The Remainder of the Garden is the Side and some plain low Ground at the Foot of the Hill, where several fine Springs break out. In the Garden is variety of Soils; the Top is sandy and dry, the Sides of the Hill are Clay, and the Bottom is a black rich Garden-Mould well watered. On the North-part of the Garden is left standing a [[Grove]] of Part of the old [[Wood]], as it was before the arrival of the Colony there. The Trees in the [[Grove]] are mostly Bay, Sassafras, Evergreen Oak, Pellitory, Hickary [''sic''], ''American'' Ash, and the Laurel Tulip. This last is looked upon as one of the most beautiful Trees in the World. . .

:“The Garden is laid out with Cross-[[walk]]s planted with Orange-trees, but the last Winter a good deal of Snow having fallen, had killed those upon the Top of the Hill down to their Roots, but they being cut down, sprouted again, as I saw when I returned to ''Savannah''. In the [[Square]]s between the [[Walk]]s, were vast Quantities of Mulberry-trees, this being a [[Nursery]] for all the Province, and every Planter that desires it, has young Trees given him ''gratis'' from this [[Nursery]]. These white Mulberry-trees were planted in order to raise Silk, for which Purpose several ''Italians'' were brought, at the Trustees’ Expence, from ''Piedmont'' by Mr. ''Amatis''; they have fed Worms, and wound Silk to as great Perfection as any that ever came out ''Italy'': But the ''Italians'' falling out, one of them stole away the Machines for winding, broke the Coppers, and spoiled all the Eggs, which he could not steal, and fled to ''South-Carolina''. The others, who continued faithful, had saved but a few Eggs when Mr. ''Oglethorpe'' arrived, therefore he forbade any Silk should be wound, but that all the Worms should be suffered to eat through their Balls, in order to have more Eggs again next Year. The ''Italian'' Women are obliged to take ''English'' Girls Apprentices, whom they teach to wind and feed; and the Men have taught our ''English'' Gardeners to tend the Mulberry-trees, and our Joyners have learned how to make the Machines for winding. As the Mulberry-trees increase, there will be a great Quantity of Silk made here.

:“Besides the Mulberry-trees; there are in some of the Quarters in the coldest part of the Garden, all kinds of Fruit-trees usual in ''England'', such as Apples, Pears, ''&c''. In another Quarter are Olives, Figs, Vines, Pomegranates and such Fruits as are natural to the warmest Parts of ''Europe''. At the bottom of the Hill, well sheltered from the North-wind, and in the warmest part of the Garden, there was a Collection of ''West-India'' Plants and Trees, some Coffee, some Cocoa-nuts, Cotton, Palma-christi, and several ''West-Indian'' physical Plants, some sent up by Mr. ''Eveleigh'' a publick-spirited Merchant at ''Charles-Town'', and some by Dr. ''Houstoun'', from the ''Spanish West-Indies'', where he was sent at the Expence of a Collection raised by that curious Physician Sir ''Hans Sloan'', for to collect and send them to ''Georgia'', where the Climate was capable of making a Garden which might contain all kinds of Plants; to which Design his Grace the Duke of ''Richmond'', the Early of ''Derby'', the Lord ''Peters'', and the Apothecary’s Company contributed very generously; as did Sir ''Hans'' himself. The Quarrels amongst the ''Italians'' proved fatal to most of these Plants, and they were laboring to repair that Loss when I was there, Mr. ''Miller'' being employ’d in the room of Dr. ''Houstoun'', who died in ''Jamaica''. We heard he had wrote an Account of his having obtain’d the Plant from whence the true ''Balsamum Capivi'' is drawn; and that he was in hopes of getting that from whence the ''Jesuits Bark'' is taken, he designing for that Purpose to send to the ''Spanish West Indies''.

:“There is a Plant of Bamboo Cane brought from the ''East Indies'', and sent over by Mr. ''Towers'', which thrives well. There is also some Tea-seeds, which came from the same Place; but the latter, though great Care was taken, did not grow.” [[#Moore_1736_cite|back up to History (1)]] | [[#Moore_1736_2_cite|back up to History (2)]]

*Stephens, William, 1740, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1906: 664–65)<ref>William Stephens, ''A Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia, beginning October 20, 1737. By William Stephens, Esq; to which is Added, A State of that Province, as Attested upon Oath in the Court of Savannah, November 10, 1740'' (Atlanta: The Franklin Printing and Pub. Co., 1906), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PFSSQ9DT view on Zotero].</ref>

:“…there is in this Town…a [[Public garden|publick Garden]] of ten Acres cleared, fenced, and planted with Orange-Trees, Mulberry-Trees, Vines, some Olives which thrive very well, Peaches, Apples, &c.

:“It must be confessed, that Oranges have not so universally thriven with us, as was expected, by Reason of some severe Blasts by Frosts in the Spring; yet divers with proper Care have preserved them; and as we see them grow and thrive well, with many of our Neighbours of Carolina to the Northward, we are convinced that they will with us also, as soon as we are become more perfect in the Knowledge of propagating them in a right Manner; in order to which frequent Experiments are making; and we have already discovered not only what Kind of Soil agrees best with them, but also that they flourish most when they grow under Forest Trees, whereby we imagine they are protected from Blasts; and ‘tis observed, that they take No Harm from the Droppings of any, except the Pine, which suffers nothing to grow near it, unless of its own Kind.

:“Notwithstanding the Quantity of Silk, hitherto made, has not been great, yet it increases, and will more and more considerably, as the Mulberry-Trees grow, whereof there are great Numbers yearly planted.

:“Vines likewise of late are greatly increased, many People appearing to have an Emulation of outdoing their Neighbours, and this Year has produced a considerable Quantity of very fine Grapes, whereof one Planter in particular made a Trial, to see what Kind of Wine they could make, which he put into a large Stone-Bottle, and made a Present of it to the General; who upon tasting, found it to be something of the Nature of a small French White Wine, with an agreeable Flavour; and several Persons here, who have lived formerly in Countries where there are Plenty of Vineyards, do affirm, that all young Vines produce small Wines at first, and the Strength and Goodness of it increases as the Vines grow older.”

*<div id="Tailfer"></div>Tailfer, Patrick, Hugh Anderson, and David Douglas, 1741, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1835: 26–27, 70)<ref>Patrick Tailfer, Hugh Anderson, David Douglas, et al., ''A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia, in America, from the First Settlement Thereof until this Present Period'' (Charles Town, SC: P. Timothy, 1741; Washington: P. Force, 1835), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/E7KD9866 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“To carry on the Manufactures of ''Silk and Wine'', a Garden was planted with Mulberries and Vines, which was to be a [[Nursery]] to supply the Rest of the Province: But this was as far from answering the proposed End, as every Thing else was; for it is situated upon one of the most barren Spots of Land in the Colony, being only a large Hill of dry Sand: Great Sums of Money were thrown away upon it from Year to Year, to no Purpose: This was Remonstrated to the Trustees; and they seem’d to be sensible of the Error, and gave Orders to chuse another Spot of Ground; but the ''Ruling Powers'' in ''Georgia'' took no Notice thereof. And now, after so great Time and Charge, there are not so many Mulberry-Trees in all the Province of ''Georgia'', as many one of the ''Carolina'' Planters have upon their [[Plantation]]s; nor so much Silk made in one Year, as many of those Planters do make. Nor could they ever in that Garden, raise one Vine to the perfection of bearing Fruit. . .

:“On the East Side of the Town is situated the [[Public garden|''Publick Garden'']] (being ''ten'' Acres inclos’d, on a barren Piece of Land, where it is hardly possible for what is planted to live, but impossible to thrive; and from this Garden were all the Planters to have been furnished with ''Mulberry-Trees, &c''.” [[#Tailfer_cite|back up to History]]

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

</gallery>

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Trustees’ Garden

2019-12-31T15:21:34Z

L-Baradel: /* Texts */

'''Trustees’ Garden''', founded in Savannah, Georgia, in 1734, is an important early example of a public [[botanic garden]] and [[nursery]] in the British American colonies. It was established to collect plants that would grow best in Savannah’s climate with the goals of encouraging agriculture and establishing profitable silk and wine industries.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Trustee Garden<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1734–1748<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' The Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America<br/>
'''Associated People:''' General James Oglethorpe (founder); Joseph Fitzwalter (1734–1735 and 1737–1738, head gardener); Paul Amatis (1735–1736, silk production expert and head gardener); Hugh Anderson (1736–1739, inspector of the public garden); Newdigate Stephens (1742–?, head gardener)<br/>
'''Location:''' Savannah, GA<br/>
'''Condition:''' demolished<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/UDcpzFKCMo4F64kW9 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
The Trustees’ Garden, established in 1734 on behalf of the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America by the British military officer James Oglethorpe (1696–1785), was a [[public garden]] located in Savannah. Founded two years after Oglethorpe secured the charter for the colony of Georgia and one year after he established Savannah, the ten-acre garden was part of Oglethorpe’s original plan for the town [[common]] located on the banks of the Savannah River on the east end of the town of Savannah (on what is now East Broad Street).<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation, ''Historic Savannah'' (Savannah, GA: Historic Savannah Foundation, 1968), 129, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> There are no known extant images of Trustees’ Garden from the period, but one map created in 1757 includes an inscription marking the location of the “Trustees garden gate” in the lower right corner [Fig. 1]. Trustees’ Garden is an important early example of an American [[public garden]] motivated by scientific principles and of the trans-Atlantic networks of people, plants, and ideas that would characterize efforts in botany and garden design during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Driven by British Enlightenment principals and commercial interests, Georgia Trustee Stephen Hales (1677–1761) and advisor Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), both members of the Royal Society in London, championed the garden as a site for scientific experimentation and modeled it after the examples of the botanic and physic gardens at Chelsea and Oxford in England. Experiments in the garden would, the Trustees hoped, determine what plants grew best in Savannah’s climate. Another goal for the Trustees’ Garden was to encourage colonists to cultivate the most successful crops. To that end, the garden served as a [[nursery]] providing free seeds and saplings for farmers and gardeners.<ref>Thomas D. Wilson, ''The Oglethorpe Plan: Enlightenment Design in Savannah and Beyond'' (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015), 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; James W. Holland, “The Beginning of Public Agricultural Experimentation in America: The Trustees’ Garden in Georgia,” ''Agricultural History'' 12, no. 3 (July 1938): 274, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Renate Wilson and David L. Cowan, “Trustee Garden,” ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' (October 6, 2016), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TQH9RFZZ view on Zotero]; and Alice B. Lockwood, “Savannah,” ''Gardens of Colony and State: Gardens and Gardeners of the American Colonies and of the Republic before 1840'', vol. 2 (New York: Charles Scribner’s for the Garden Club of America, 1931), 270, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JNB7BI9T view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Moore_1736_cite"></span>

Gardeners planted a range of vegetation at Trustees’ Garden, including pear, apple, peach, orange, fig, and olive trees, as well as pomegranates, spices, and herbs. Francis Moore reported in 1736 that the garden had been arranged in different zones. English fruit trees were planted “in the coldest part of the Garden,” while fruits from warmer parts of Europe, including olives, figs, and pomegranates, were established in another section. In the most sheltered and warmest quarter of the garden, experiments growing coffee, cocoa, and cotton took root ([[#Moore_1736|view text - 1]]).

The Trustees hired botanists to supply plants from Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America in the hopes that some of would prove adaptable to Savannah’s growing conditions. They first retained the Scottish botanist Dr. William Houstoun (d. 1733) in October 1732 for three years to make a voyage to Madeira, Jamaica, Cartagena, Porto Bello, Campeche, and Vera Cruz. Houstoun was charged with procuring exotic specimens—especially medicinal plants and herbs, on the advice of Sloane—in these locales to send to Savannah. Houstoun died soon after arriving in Jamaica, and Robert Millar was contracted by the Trustees in March 1734 to resume Houstoun’s project. Millar established a base in Jamaica and focused his efforts on collecting medicinal herbs such as Jesuits bark (used in the treatment of malaria and fevers), ipecacuhana (an emetic), and cochineal (used as a red dye) in Central and South America, but he soon ran afoul of Spanish authorities and his trip was cut short.<ref>Holland 1938, 277–78, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson and Cowan 2016, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TQH9RFZZ view on Zotero].</ref> A gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden supplied the Trustees with various seeds, including white mulberry, potash, and cotton. Other “friends of the Georgia experiment” contributed plants, seeds, and vines from Europe and the East Indies.<ref>Holland 1938, 283–84, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; and Joseph Krafka Jr., “An Account of the Attempt of the Society of Apothecaries to Establish the Drug Trade in Colonial Georgia,” ''Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association'' 28, no. 9 (1939): 616, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/BRZ3CBFG view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Moore_1736_2_cite"></span>

One of the Trustees’ main goals for the garden was to cultivate grapevines and white mulberry trees to produce wine and silk, which they hoped would prove profitable commodities for export that would benefit the British economy. In November 1732 Houstoun acquired grapevines in Madeira to support the Trustees’ interest in establishing viticulture in the colony and sent the vines to Savannah by way of Charleston, South Carolina. The Trustees also hired Paul Amatis (d. 1736), an Italian expert in silk production, to oversee the growing of white mulberry trees at the garden in Savannah, and soon brought in additional silk-makers from Piedmont to teach the colonists the art and science of silk production ([[#Moore_1736_2|view text - 2]]).<ref>Holland 1938, 271–73, 278, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson 2015, 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; and Julie Anne Sweet, “A Misguided Mistake: The Trustees’ Public Garden in Savannah, Georgia,” ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'' 93, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref> The Trustees’ hopes for a silk industry in Georgia were so strong that one side of their official seal featured a silkworm on a mulberry tree leaf [Fig. 2]. In addition, the Trustees sent twenty-five copies of the illustrated instructional treatise ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and the Right Ordering of the Silk-Worm'', published in London in 1733, to guide the colonists in raising silkworms [Fig. 3].<ref>Florence (Nisbet) Marye and Philip Thornton Marye, ''Garden History of Georgia'', 1733–1933, eds. Hattie C. Rainwater and Loraine M. Cooney (Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Garden Club, 1933), 17, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GNC4U42D view on Zotero]. T. B., ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and Right Ordering of the Silk-Worm'' (London: Printed for John Worrall, Olive Payne, Thomas Boreman, and Thomas Game, 1733), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/E6UAWUQJ view on Zotero].</ref> By 1740 nearly the entire Trustees’ Garden plot was turned over to the cultivation of mulberry trees.<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation 1968, 129–30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> Despite these efforts, the Trustees’ expectations for prosperous silk and wine industries in the colony ultimately failed to materialize.<span id="Tailfer_cite"></span>

Although Trustees’ Garden flourished soon after its founding under the direction of Oglethorpe and the first head gardener, Joseph Fitzwalter, its early success was ultimately short lived. Despite the Trustees’ ambitious plans for the garden, several miscalculations doomed the experiment early on. Specifically, the Trustees misjudged Savannah’s climate and the fertility of its soil, mistakenly believing that it was equivalent to that found around the Mediterranean because of its similar latitude. They thus focused on cultivating crops that were ultimately unsuited to the site.<ref>Sweet 2009, 26–28, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref> Hugh Anderson, a Scotsman who was given the role of “Inspector of the Public Garden and Mulberry [[Plantation]]s,” later described the Trustees’ Garden in unflattering terms as “a barren Piece of Land, where it is hardly possible for what is planted to live, but impossible to thrive” ([[#Tailfer|view text]]).

The garden’s managers also mishandled the labor needed to grow and maintain the site, and the endeavor was plagued with staff turnover and internal disputes. The garden suffered neglect after Fitzwalter left abruptly for South Carolina in 1735, possibly due to frequent disputes with Amatis regarding the garden’s management. Anderson attempted to revive the gardens to their once-flourishing state by rehiring Fitzwalter as head gardener in December 1737, and the conditions in the garden seemed to improve for a short time. However, a spate of bad weather and labor disputes with indentured servants who worked in the garden ultimately proved too severe to overcome. The Trustees in England received an eye-witness account in February 1738 reporting food shortages in Savannah and that half of the trees in the Trustees’ Garden had died from neglect. Oglethorpe removed Anderson from his role in October 1739, and Anderson later co-authored an attack on Oglethorpe in the ''True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia'' (1741).<ref>Holland 1938, 284–87 and 290, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson 2015, 111–12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; and Sweet 2009, 10–11, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref>

Ultimately the endeavor was short-lived, and Trustees’ Garden was largely abandoned by 1748, by which time, the land had become a residential area. Fort Savannah (later Fort Wayne) was erected in 1759 in the northeast corner of the original garden. After the fort was abandoned, the Savannah Gas Company purchased and developed the site of Trustees’ Garden as its manufacturing facility in 1848.<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation 1968, 130, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> In 2015 the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens, located just outside Savannah and managed under the auspices of the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, completed a smaller replica of the original ten-acre Trustees’ Garden on their own site, which is open to visitors and includes historically accurate plantings.<ref>https://coastalbg.uga.edu/the-gardens/formal-white-trustees-gardens/</ref> The original site of Trustees Garden was purchased in 2003 by developers from the Savannah Gas Company and is now a commercial center and events venue.<ref>https://www.trusteesgarden.com/</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
*Von Reck, Commissary, 1734, describing the Trustees’ Garden, Savannah, GA (quoted in Marye 1933: 15)<ref>Marye and Marye 1933, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GNC4U42D/q/Garden%20History%20of%20Georgia view on Zotero].</ref>

:“There is laid out near the Town, by Order of the Trustees, a Garden for making Experiments for the Improving Botany and Agriculture; it contains 10 Acres and lies upon the River; and it is cleared and brought into such Order that there is already a fine [[Nursery]] of Oranges, Olives, white Mulberries, Figs, Peaches, and many curious Herbs: besides which there are Cabbages, Peas, and other European Pulse and Plants which all thrive. Within the Garden there is an artificial Hill, said by the Indians to be raised over the Body of one of their ancient Emperors.”

*<div id="Moore_1736"></div><div id="Moore_1736_2"></div>Moore, Francis, February 1736, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1744: 29–32)<ref>Francis Moore, ''A Voyage to Georgia, Begun in the Year 1735'' (London: Jacob Robinson, 1744), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RU3CSV33 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“There is near the Town, to the East, a Garden belonging to the Trustees, consisting of 10 Acres; the Situation is delightful, one half of it is upon the Top of a Hill, the Foot of which the River ''Savannah'' washes, and from it you see the ''Woody Islands'' in the Sea. The Remainder of the Garden is the Side and some plain low Ground at the Foot of the Hill, where several fine Springs break out. In the Garden is variety of Soils; the Top is sandy and dry, the Sides of the Hill are Clay, and the Bottom is a black rich Garden-Mould well watered. On the North-part of the Garden is left standing a [[Grove]] of Part of the old [[Wood]], as it was before the arrival of the Colony there. The Trees in the [[Grove]] are mostly Bay, Sassafras, Evergreen Oak, Pellitory, Hickary [''sic''], ''American'' Ash, and the Laurel Tulip. This last is looked upon as one of the most beautiful Trees in the World. . .

:“The Garden is laid out with Cross-[[walk]]s planted with Orange-trees, but the last Winter a good deal of Snow having fallen, had killed those upon the Top of the Hill down to their Roots, but they being cut down, sprouted again, as I saw when I returned to ''Savannah''. In the [[Square]]s between the [[Walk]]s, were vast Quantities of Mulberry-trees, this being a [[Nursery]] for all the Province, and every Planter that desires it, has young Trees given him ''gratis'' from this [[Nursery]]. These white Mulberry-trees were planted in order to raise Silk, for which Purpose several ''Italians'' were brought, at the Trustees’ Expence, from ''Piedmont'' by Mr. ''Amatis''; they have fed Worms, and wound Silk to as great Perfection as any that ever came out ''Italy'': But the ''Italians'' falling out, one of them stole away the Machines for winding, broke the Coppers, and spoiled all the Eggs, which he could not steal, and fled to ''South-Carolina''. The others, who continued faithful, had saved but a few Eggs when Mr. ''Oglethorpe'' arrived, therefore he forbade any Silk should be wound, but that all the Worms should be suffered to eat through their Balls, in order to have more Eggs again next Year. The ''Italian'' Women are obliged to take ''English'' Girls Apprentices, whom they teach to wind and feed; and the Men have taught our ''English'' Gardeners to tend the Mulberry-trees, and our Joyners have learned how to make the Machines for winding. As the Mulberry-trees increase, there will be a great Quantity of Silk made here.

:“Besides the Mulberry-trees; there are in some of the Quarters in the coldest part of the Garden, all kinds of Fruit-trees usual in ''England'', such as Apples, Pears, ''&c''. In another Quarter are Olives, Figs, Vines, Pomegranates and such Fruits as are natural to the warmest Parts of ''Europe''. At the bottom of the Hill, well sheltered from the North-wind, and in the warmest part of the Garden, there was a Collection of ''West-India'' Plants and Trees, some Coffee, some Cocoa-nuts, Cotton, Palma-christi, and several ''West-Indian'' physical Plants, some sent up by Mr. ''Eveleigh'' a publick-spirited Merchant at ''Charles-Town'', and some by Dr. ''Houstoun'', from the ''Spanish West-Indies'', where he was sent at the Expence of a Collection raised by that curious Physician Sir ''Hans Sloan'', for to collect and send them to ''Georgia'', where the Climate was capable of making a Garden which might contain all kinds of Plants; to which Design his Grace the Duke of ''Richmond'', the Early of ''Derby'', the Lord ''Peters'', and the Apothecary’s Company contributed very generously; as did Sir ''Hans'' himself. The Quarrels amongst the ''Italians'' proved fatal to most of these Plants, and they were laboring to repair that Loss when I was there, Mr. ''Miller'' being employ’d in the room of Dr. ''Houstoun'', who died in ''Jamaica''. We heard he had wrote an Account of his having obtain’d the Plant from whence the true ''Balsamum Capivi'' is drawn; and that he was in hopes of getting that from whence the ''Jesuits Bark'' is taken, he designing for that Purpose to send to the ''Spanish West Indies''.

:“There is a Plant of Bamboo Cane brought from the ''East Indies'', and sent over by Mr. ''Towers'', which thrives well. There is also some Tea-seeds, which came from the same Place; but the latter, though great Care was taken, did not grow.” [[#Moore_1736_cite|back up to History (1)]] | [[#Moore_1736_2_cite|back up to History (2)]]

*Stephens, William, 1740, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1906: 664–65)<ref>William Stephens, ''A Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia, beginning October 20, 1737. By William Stephens, Esq; to which is Added, A State of that Province, as Attested upon Oath in the Court of Savannah, November 10, 1740'' (Atlanta: The Franklin Printing and Pub. Co., 1906), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PFSSQ9DT view on Zotero].</ref>

:“…there is in this Town…a [[Public garden|publick Garden]] of ten Acres cleared, fenced, and planted with Orange-Trees, Mulberry-Trees, Vines, some Olives which thrive very well, Peaches, Apples, &c.

:“It must be confessed, that Oranges have not so universally thriven with us, as was expected, by Reason of some severe Blasts by Frosts in the Spring; yet divers with proper Care have preserved them; and as we see them grow and thrive well, with many of our Neighbours of Carolina to the Northward, we are convinced that they will with us also, as soon as we are become more perfect in the Knowledge of propagating them in a right Manner; in order to which frequent Experiments are making; and we have already discovered not only what Kind of Soil agrees best with them, but also that they flourish most when they grow under Forest Trees, whereby we imagine they are protected from Blasts; and ‘tis observed, that they take No Harm from the Droppings of any, except the Pine, which suffers nothing to grow near it, unless of its own Kind.

:“Notwithstanding the Quantity of Silk, hitherto made, has not been great, yet it increases, and will more and more considerably, as the Mulberry-Trees grow, whereof there are great Numbers yearly planted.

:“Vines likewise of late are greatly increased, many People appearing to have an Emulation of outdoing their Neighbours, and this Year has produced a considerable Quantity of very fine Grapes, whereof one Planter in particular made a Trial, to see what Kind of Wine they could make, which he put into a large Stone-Bottle, and made a Present of it to the General; who upon tasting, found it to be something of the Nature of a small French White Wine, with an agreeable Flavour; and several Persons here, who have lived formerly in Countries where there are Plenty of Vineyards, do affirm, that all young Vines produce small Wines at first, and the Strength and Goodness of it increases as the Vines grow older.”

*<div id="Tailfer"></div>Tailfer, Patrick, Hugh Anderson, and David Douglas, 1741, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1835: 26–27, 70)<ref>Patrick Tailfer, Hugh Anderson, David Douglas, et al., ''A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia, in America, from the First Settlement Thereof until this Present Period'' (Charles Town, SC: P. Timothy, 1741; Washington: P. Force, 1835), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/E7KD9866 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“To carry on the Manufactures of ''Silk and Wine'', a Garden was planted with Mulberries and Vines, which was to be a [[Nursery]] to supply the Rest of the Province: But this was as far from answering the proposed End, as every Thing else was; for it is situated upon one of the most barren Spots of Land in the Colony, being only a large Hill of dry Sand: Great Sums of Money were thrown away upon it from Year to Year, to no Purpose: This was Remonstrated to the Trustees; and they seem’d to be sensible of the Error, and gave Orders to chuse another Spot of Ground; but the ''Ruling Powers'' in ''Georgia'' took no Notice thereof. And now, after so great Time and Charge, there are not so many Mulberry-Trees in all the Province of ''Georgia'', as many one of the ''Carolina'' Planters have upon their [[Plantation]]s; nor so much Silk made in one Year, as many of those Planters do make. Nor could they ever in that Garden, raise one Vine to the perfection of bearing Fruit. . .

:“On the East Side of the Town is situated the [[Public garden|''Publick Garden'']] (being ''ten'' Acres inclos’d, on a barren Piece of Land, where it is hardly possible for what is planted to live, but impossible to thrive; and from this Garden were all the Planters to have been furnished with ''Mulberry-Trees, &c''.” [[#Tailfer_cite|back up to History]]

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

</gallery>

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Trustees’ Garden

2019-12-31T15:20:28Z

L-Baradel: /* Texts */

'''Trustees’ Garden''', founded in Savannah, Georgia, in 1734, is an important early example of a public [[botanic garden]] and [[nursery]] in the British American colonies. It was established to collect plants that would grow best in Savannah’s climate with the goals of encouraging agriculture and establishing profitable silk and wine industries.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Trustee Garden<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1734–1748<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' The Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America<br/>
'''Associated People:''' General James Oglethorpe (founder); Joseph Fitzwalter (1734–1735 and 1737–1738, head gardener); Paul Amatis (1735–1736, silk production expert and head gardener); Hugh Anderson (1736–1739, inspector of the public garden); Newdigate Stephens (1742–?, head gardener)<br/>
'''Location:''' Savannah, GA<br/>
'''Condition:''' demolished<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/UDcpzFKCMo4F64kW9 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
The Trustees’ Garden, established in 1734 on behalf of the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America by the British military officer James Oglethorpe (1696–1785), was a [[public garden]] located in Savannah. Founded two years after Oglethorpe secured the charter for the colony of Georgia and one year after he established Savannah, the ten-acre garden was part of Oglethorpe’s original plan for the town [[common]] located on the banks of the Savannah River on the east end of the town of Savannah (on what is now East Broad Street).<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation, ''Historic Savannah'' (Savannah, GA: Historic Savannah Foundation, 1968), 129, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> There are no known extant images of Trustees’ Garden from the period, but one map created in 1757 includes an inscription marking the location of the “Trustees garden gate” in the lower right corner [Fig. 1]. Trustees’ Garden is an important early example of an American [[public garden]] motivated by scientific principles and of the trans-Atlantic networks of people, plants, and ideas that would characterize efforts in botany and garden design during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Driven by British Enlightenment principals and commercial interests, Georgia Trustee Stephen Hales (1677–1761) and advisor Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), both members of the Royal Society in London, championed the garden as a site for scientific experimentation and modeled it after the examples of the botanic and physic gardens at Chelsea and Oxford in England. Experiments in the garden would, the Trustees hoped, determine what plants grew best in Savannah’s climate. Another goal for the Trustees’ Garden was to encourage colonists to cultivate the most successful crops. To that end, the garden served as a [[nursery]] providing free seeds and saplings for farmers and gardeners.<ref>Thomas D. Wilson, ''The Oglethorpe Plan: Enlightenment Design in Savannah and Beyond'' (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015), 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; James W. Holland, “The Beginning of Public Agricultural Experimentation in America: The Trustees’ Garden in Georgia,” ''Agricultural History'' 12, no. 3 (July 1938): 274, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Renate Wilson and David L. Cowan, “Trustee Garden,” ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' (October 6, 2016), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TQH9RFZZ view on Zotero]; and Alice B. Lockwood, “Savannah,” ''Gardens of Colony and State: Gardens and Gardeners of the American Colonies and of the Republic before 1840'', vol. 2 (New York: Charles Scribner’s for the Garden Club of America, 1931), 270, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JNB7BI9T view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Moore_1736_cite"></span>

Gardeners planted a range of vegetation at Trustees’ Garden, including pear, apple, peach, orange, fig, and olive trees, as well as pomegranates, spices, and herbs. Francis Moore reported in 1736 that the garden had been arranged in different zones. English fruit trees were planted “in the coldest part of the Garden,” while fruits from warmer parts of Europe, including olives, figs, and pomegranates, were established in another section. In the most sheltered and warmest quarter of the garden, experiments growing coffee, cocoa, and cotton took root ([[#Moore_1736|view text - 1]]).

The Trustees hired botanists to supply plants from Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America in the hopes that some of would prove adaptable to Savannah’s growing conditions. They first retained the Scottish botanist Dr. William Houstoun (d. 1733) in October 1732 for three years to make a voyage to Madeira, Jamaica, Cartagena, Porto Bello, Campeche, and Vera Cruz. Houstoun was charged with procuring exotic specimens—especially medicinal plants and herbs, on the advice of Sloane—in these locales to send to Savannah. Houstoun died soon after arriving in Jamaica, and Robert Millar was contracted by the Trustees in March 1734 to resume Houstoun’s project. Millar established a base in Jamaica and focused his efforts on collecting medicinal herbs such as Jesuits bark (used in the treatment of malaria and fevers), ipecacuhana (an emetic), and cochineal (used as a red dye) in Central and South America, but he soon ran afoul of Spanish authorities and his trip was cut short.<ref>Holland 1938, 277–78, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson and Cowan 2016, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TQH9RFZZ view on Zotero].</ref> A gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden supplied the Trustees with various seeds, including white mulberry, potash, and cotton. Other “friends of the Georgia experiment” contributed plants, seeds, and vines from Europe and the East Indies.<ref>Holland 1938, 283–84, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; and Joseph Krafka Jr., “An Account of the Attempt of the Society of Apothecaries to Establish the Drug Trade in Colonial Georgia,” ''Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association'' 28, no. 9 (1939): 616, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/BRZ3CBFG view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Moore_1736_2_cite"></span>

One of the Trustees’ main goals for the garden was to cultivate grapevines and white mulberry trees to produce wine and silk, which they hoped would prove profitable commodities for export that would benefit the British economy. In November 1732 Houstoun acquired grapevines in Madeira to support the Trustees’ interest in establishing viticulture in the colony and sent the vines to Savannah by way of Charleston, South Carolina. The Trustees also hired Paul Amatis (d. 1736), an Italian expert in silk production, to oversee the growing of white mulberry trees at the garden in Savannah, and soon brought in additional silk-makers from Piedmont to teach the colonists the art and science of silk production ([[#Moore_1736_2|view text - 2]]).<ref>Holland 1938, 271–73, 278, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson 2015, 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; and Julie Anne Sweet, “A Misguided Mistake: The Trustees’ Public Garden in Savannah, Georgia,” ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'' 93, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref> The Trustees’ hopes for a silk industry in Georgia were so strong that one side of their official seal featured a silkworm on a mulberry tree leaf [Fig. 2]. In addition, the Trustees sent twenty-five copies of the illustrated instructional treatise ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and the Right Ordering of the Silk-Worm'', published in London in 1733, to guide the colonists in raising silkworms [Fig. 3].<ref>Florence (Nisbet) Marye and Philip Thornton Marye, ''Garden History of Georgia'', 1733–1933, eds. Hattie C. Rainwater and Loraine M. Cooney (Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Garden Club, 1933), 17, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GNC4U42D view on Zotero]. T. B., ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and Right Ordering of the Silk-Worm'' (London: Printed for John Worrall, Olive Payne, Thomas Boreman, and Thomas Game, 1733), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/E6UAWUQJ view on Zotero].</ref> By 1740 nearly the entire Trustees’ Garden plot was turned over to the cultivation of mulberry trees.<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation 1968, 129–30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> Despite these efforts, the Trustees’ expectations for prosperous silk and wine industries in the colony ultimately failed to materialize.<span id="Tailfer_cite"></span>

Although Trustees’ Garden flourished soon after its founding under the direction of Oglethorpe and the first head gardener, Joseph Fitzwalter, its early success was ultimately short lived. Despite the Trustees’ ambitious plans for the garden, several miscalculations doomed the experiment early on. Specifically, the Trustees misjudged Savannah’s climate and the fertility of its soil, mistakenly believing that it was equivalent to that found around the Mediterranean because of its similar latitude. They thus focused on cultivating crops that were ultimately unsuited to the site.<ref>Sweet 2009, 26–28, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref> Hugh Anderson, a Scotsman who was given the role of “Inspector of the Public Garden and Mulberry [[Plantation]]s,” later described the Trustees’ Garden in unflattering terms as “a barren Piece of Land, where it is hardly possible for what is planted to live, but impossible to thrive” ([[#Tailfer|view text]]).

The garden’s managers also mishandled the labor needed to grow and maintain the site, and the endeavor was plagued with staff turnover and internal disputes. The garden suffered neglect after Fitzwalter left abruptly for South Carolina in 1735, possibly due to frequent disputes with Amatis regarding the garden’s management. Anderson attempted to revive the gardens to their once-flourishing state by rehiring Fitzwalter as head gardener in December 1737, and the conditions in the garden seemed to improve for a short time. However, a spate of bad weather and labor disputes with indentured servants who worked in the garden ultimately proved too severe to overcome. The Trustees in England received an eye-witness account in February 1738 reporting food shortages in Savannah and that half of the trees in the Trustees’ Garden had died from neglect. Oglethorpe removed Anderson from his role in October 1739, and Anderson later co-authored an attack on Oglethorpe in the ''True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia'' (1741).<ref>Holland 1938, 284–87 and 290, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson 2015, 111–12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; and Sweet 2009, 10–11, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref>

Ultimately the endeavor was short-lived, and Trustees’ Garden was largely abandoned by 1748, by which time, the land had become a residential area. Fort Savannah (later Fort Wayne) was erected in 1759 in the northeast corner of the original garden. After the fort was abandoned, the Savannah Gas Company purchased and developed the site of Trustees’ Garden as its manufacturing facility in 1848.<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation 1968, 130, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> In 2015 the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens, located just outside Savannah and managed under the auspices of the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, completed a smaller replica of the original ten-acre Trustees’ Garden on their own site, which is open to visitors and includes historically accurate plantings.<ref>https://coastalbg.uga.edu/the-gardens/formal-white-trustees-gardens/</ref> The original site of Trustees Garden was purchased in 2003 by developers from the Savannah Gas Company and is now a commercial center and events venue.<ref>https://www.trusteesgarden.com/</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
*Von Reck, Commissary, 1734, describing the Trustees’ Garden, Savannah, GA (quoted in Marye 1933: 15)<ref>Marye and Marye 1933, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GNC4U42D/q/Garden%20History%20of%20Georgia view on Zotero].</ref>

:“There is laid out near the Town, by Order of the Trustees, a Garden for making Experiments for the Improving Botany and Agriculture; it contains 10 Acres and lies upon the River; and it is cleared and brought into such Order that there is already a fine [[Nursery]] of Oranges, Olives, white Mulberries, Figs, Peaches, and many curious Herbs: besides which there are Cabbages, Peas, and other European Pulse and Plants which all thrive. Within the Garden there is an artificial Hill, said by the Indians to be raised over the Body of one of their ancient Emperors.”

*<div id="Moore_1736"></div><div id="Moore_1736_2"></div>Moore, Francis, February 1736, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1744: 29–32)<ref>Francis Moore, ''A Voyage to Georgia, Begun in the Year 1735'' (London: Jacob Robinson, 1744), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RU3CSV33 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“There is near the Town, to the East, a Garden belonging to the Trustees, consisting of 10 Acres; the Situation is delightful, one half of it is upon the Top of a Hill, the Foot of which the River ''Savannah'' washes, and from it you see the ''Woody Islands'' in the Sea. The Remainder of the Garden is the Side and some plain low Ground at the Foot of the Hill, where several fine Springs break out. In the Garden is variety of Soils; the Top is sandy and dry, the Sides of the Hill are Clay, and the Bottom is a black rich Garden-Mould well watered. On the North-part of the Garden is left standing a [[Grove]] of Part of the old [[Wood]], as it was before the arrival of the Colony there. The Trees in the [[Grove]] are mostly Bay, Sassafras, Evergreen Oak, Pellitory, Hickary [''sic''], ''American'' Ash, and the Laurel Tulip. This last is looked upon as one of the most beautiful Trees in the World. . .

:“The Garden is laid out with Cross-[[walk]]s planted with Orange-trees, but the last Winter a good deal of Snow having fallen, had killed those upon the Top of the Hill down to their Roots, but they being cut down, sprouted again, as I saw when I returned to ''Savannah''. In the [[Square]]s between the [[Walk]]s, were vast Quantities of Mulberry-trees, this being a [[Nursery]] for all the Province, and every Planter that desires it, has young Trees given him ''gratis'' from this [[Nursery]]. These white Mulberry-trees were planted in order to raise Silk, for which Purpose several ''Italians'' were brought, at the Trustees’ Expence, from ''Piedmont'' by Mr. ''Amatis''; they have fed Worms, and wound Silk to as great Perfection as any that ever came out ''Italy'': But the ''Italians'' falling out, one of them stole away the Machines for winding, broke the Coppers, and spoiled all the Eggs, which he could not steal, and fled to ''South-Carolina''. The others, who continued faithful, had saved but a few Eggs when Mr. ''Oglethorpe'' arrived, therefore he forbade any Silk should be wound, but that all the Worms should be suffered to eat through their Balls, in order to have more Eggs again next Year. The ''Italian'' Women are obliged to take ''English'' Girls Apprentices, whom they teach to wind and feed; and the Men have taught our ''English'' Gardeners to tend the Mulberry-trees, and our Joyners have learned how to make the Machines for winding. As the Mulberry-trees increase, there will be a great Quantity of Silk made here.

:“Besides the Mulberry-trees; there are in some of the Quarters in the coldest part of the Garden, all kinds of Fruit-trees usual in ''England'', such as Apples, Pears, ''&c''. In another Quarter are Olives, Figs, Vines, Pomegranates and such Fruits as are natural to the warmest Parts of ''Europe''. At the bottom of the Hill, well sheltered from the North-wind, and in the warmest part of the Garden, there was a Collection of ''West-India'' Plants and Trees, some Coffee, some Cocoa-nuts, Cotton, Palma-christi, and several ''West-Indian'' physical Plants, some sent up by Mr. ''Eveleigh'' a publick-spirited Merchant at ''Charles-Town'', and some by Dr. ''Houstoun'', from the ''Spanish West-Indies'', where he was sent at the Expence of a Collection raised by that curious Physician Sir ''Hans Sloan'', for to collect and send them to ''Georgia'', where the Climate was capable of making a Garden which might contain all kinds of Plants; to which Design his Grace the Duke of ''Richmond'', the Early of ''Derby'', the Lord ''Peters'', and the Apothecary’s Company contributed very generously; as did Sir ''Hans'' himself. The Quarrels amongst the ''Italians'' proved fatal to most of these Plants, and they were laboring to repair that Loss when I was there, Mr. ''Miller'' being employ’d in the room of Dr. ''Houstoun'', who died in ''Jamaica''. We heard he had wrote an Account of his having obtain’d the Plant from whence the true ''Balsamum Capivi'' is drawn; and that he was in hopes of getting that from whence the ''Jesuits Bark'' is taken, he designing for that Purpose to send to the ''Spanish West Indies''.

:“There is a Plant of Bamboo Cane brought from the ''East Indies'', and sent over by Mr. ''Towers'', which thrives well. There is also some Tea-seeds, which came from the same Place; but the latter, though great Care was taken, did not grow.” [[#Moore_1736_cite|back up to History (1)]] | [[#Moore_1736_2_cite|back up to History (2)]]

*William Stephens, 1740, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1906: 664–65)<ref>William Stephens, ''A Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia, beginning October 20, 1737. By William Stephens, Esq; to which is Added, A State of that Province, as Attested upon Oath in the Court of Savannah, November 10, 1740'' (Atlanta: The Franklin Printing and Pub. Co., 1906), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PFSSQ9DT view on Zotero].</ref>

:“…there is in this Town…a [[Public garden|publick Garden]] of ten Acres cleared, fenced, and planted with Orange-Trees, Mulberry-Trees, Vines, some Olives which thrive very well, Peaches, Apples, &c.

:“It must be confessed, that Oranges have not so universally thriven with us, as was expected, by Reason of some severe Blasts by Frosts in the Spring; yet divers with proper Care have preserved them; and as we see them grow and thrive well, with many of our Neighbours of Carolina to the Northward, we are convinced that they will with us also, as soon as we are become more perfect in the Knowledge of propagating them in a right Manner; in order to which frequent Experiments are making; and we have already discovered not only what Kind of Soil agrees best with them, but also that they flourish most when they grow under Forest Trees, whereby we imagine they are protected from Blasts; and ‘tis observed, that they take No Harm from the Droppings of any, except the Pine, which suffers nothing to grow near it, unless of its own Kind.

:“Notwithstanding the Quantity of Silk, hitherto made, has not been great, yet it increases, and will more and more considerably, as the Mulberry-Trees grow, whereof there are great Numbers yearly planted.

:“Vines likewise of late are greatly increased, many People appearing to have an Emulation of outdoing their Neighbours, and this Year has produced a considerable Quantity of very fine Grapes, whereof one Planter in particular made a Trial, to see what Kind of Wine they could make, which he put into a large Stone-Bottle, and made a Present of it to the General; who upon tasting, found it to be something of the Nature of a small French White Wine, with an agreeable Flavour; and several Persons here, who have lived formerly in Countries where there are Plenty of Vineyards, do affirm, that all young Vines produce small Wines at first, and the Strength and Goodness of it increases as the Vines grow older.”

*<div id="Tailfer"></div>Patrick Tailfer, Hugh Anderson, and David Douglas, 1741, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1835: 26–27, 70)<ref>Patrick Tailfer, Hugh Anderson, David Douglas, et al., ''A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia, in America, from the First Settlement Thereof until this Present Period'' (Charles Town, SC: P. Timothy, 1741; Washington: P. Force, 1835), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/E7KD9866 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“To carry on the Manufactures of ''Silk and Wine'', a Garden was planted with Mulberries and Vines, which was to be a [[Nursery]] to supply the Rest of the Province: But this was as far from answering the proposed End, as every Thing else was; for it is situated upon one of the most barren Spots of Land in the Colony, being only a large Hill of dry Sand: Great Sums of Money were thrown away upon it from Year to Year, to no Purpose: This was Remonstrated to the Trustees; and they seem’d to be sensible of the Error, and gave Orders to chuse another Spot of Ground; but the ''Ruling Powers'' in ''Georgia'' took no Notice thereof. And now, after so great Time and Charge, there are not so many Mulberry-Trees in all the Province of ''Georgia'', as many one of the ''Carolina'' Planters have upon their [[Plantation]]s; nor so much Silk made in one Year, as many of those Planters do make. Nor could they ever in that Garden, raise one Vine to the perfection of bearing Fruit. . .

:“On the East Side of the Town is situated the [[Public garden|''Publick Garden'']] (being ''ten'' Acres inclos’d, on a barren Piece of Land, where it is hardly possible for what is planted to live, but impossible to thrive; and from this Garden were all the Planters to have been furnished with ''Mulberry-Trees, &c''.” [[#Tailfer_cite|back up to History]]

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

</gallery>

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Trustees’ Garden

2019-12-31T15:19:46Z

L-Baradel: /* History */

'''Trustees’ Garden''', founded in Savannah, Georgia, in 1734, is an important early example of a public [[botanic garden]] and [[nursery]] in the British American colonies. It was established to collect plants that would grow best in Savannah’s climate with the goals of encouraging agriculture and establishing profitable silk and wine industries.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Trustee Garden<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1734–1748<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' The Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America<br/>
'''Associated People:''' General James Oglethorpe (founder); Joseph Fitzwalter (1734–1735 and 1737–1738, head gardener); Paul Amatis (1735–1736, silk production expert and head gardener); Hugh Anderson (1736–1739, inspector of the public garden); Newdigate Stephens (1742–?, head gardener)<br/>
'''Location:''' Savannah, GA<br/>
'''Condition:''' demolished<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/UDcpzFKCMo4F64kW9 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
The Trustees’ Garden, established in 1734 on behalf of the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America by the British military officer James Oglethorpe (1696–1785), was a [[public garden]] located in Savannah. Founded two years after Oglethorpe secured the charter for the colony of Georgia and one year after he established Savannah, the ten-acre garden was part of Oglethorpe’s original plan for the town [[common]] located on the banks of the Savannah River on the east end of the town of Savannah (on what is now East Broad Street).<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation, ''Historic Savannah'' (Savannah, GA: Historic Savannah Foundation, 1968), 129, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> There are no known extant images of Trustees’ Garden from the period, but one map created in 1757 includes an inscription marking the location of the “Trustees garden gate” in the lower right corner [Fig. 1]. Trustees’ Garden is an important early example of an American [[public garden]] motivated by scientific principles and of the trans-Atlantic networks of people, plants, and ideas that would characterize efforts in botany and garden design during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Driven by British Enlightenment principals and commercial interests, Georgia Trustee Stephen Hales (1677–1761) and advisor Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), both members of the Royal Society in London, championed the garden as a site for scientific experimentation and modeled it after the examples of the botanic and physic gardens at Chelsea and Oxford in England. Experiments in the garden would, the Trustees hoped, determine what plants grew best in Savannah’s climate. Another goal for the Trustees’ Garden was to encourage colonists to cultivate the most successful crops. To that end, the garden served as a [[nursery]] providing free seeds and saplings for farmers and gardeners.<ref>Thomas D. Wilson, ''The Oglethorpe Plan: Enlightenment Design in Savannah and Beyond'' (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015), 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; James W. Holland, “The Beginning of Public Agricultural Experimentation in America: The Trustees’ Garden in Georgia,” ''Agricultural History'' 12, no. 3 (July 1938): 274, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Renate Wilson and David L. Cowan, “Trustee Garden,” ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' (October 6, 2016), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TQH9RFZZ view on Zotero]; and Alice B. Lockwood, “Savannah,” ''Gardens of Colony and State: Gardens and Gardeners of the American Colonies and of the Republic before 1840'', vol. 2 (New York: Charles Scribner’s for the Garden Club of America, 1931), 270, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JNB7BI9T view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Moore_1736_cite"></span>

Gardeners planted a range of vegetation at Trustees’ Garden, including pear, apple, peach, orange, fig, and olive trees, as well as pomegranates, spices, and herbs. Francis Moore reported in 1736 that the garden had been arranged in different zones. English fruit trees were planted “in the coldest part of the Garden,” while fruits from warmer parts of Europe, including olives, figs, and pomegranates, were established in another section. In the most sheltered and warmest quarter of the garden, experiments growing coffee, cocoa, and cotton took root ([[#Moore_1736|view text - 1]]).

The Trustees hired botanists to supply plants from Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America in the hopes that some of would prove adaptable to Savannah’s growing conditions. They first retained the Scottish botanist Dr. William Houstoun (d. 1733) in October 1732 for three years to make a voyage to Madeira, Jamaica, Cartagena, Porto Bello, Campeche, and Vera Cruz. Houstoun was charged with procuring exotic specimens—especially medicinal plants and herbs, on the advice of Sloane—in these locales to send to Savannah. Houstoun died soon after arriving in Jamaica, and Robert Millar was contracted by the Trustees in March 1734 to resume Houstoun’s project. Millar established a base in Jamaica and focused his efforts on collecting medicinal herbs such as Jesuits bark (used in the treatment of malaria and fevers), ipecacuhana (an emetic), and cochineal (used as a red dye) in Central and South America, but he soon ran afoul of Spanish authorities and his trip was cut short.<ref>Holland 1938, 277–78, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson and Cowan 2016, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TQH9RFZZ view on Zotero].</ref> A gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden supplied the Trustees with various seeds, including white mulberry, potash, and cotton. Other “friends of the Georgia experiment” contributed plants, seeds, and vines from Europe and the East Indies.<ref>Holland 1938, 283–84, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; and Joseph Krafka Jr., “An Account of the Attempt of the Society of Apothecaries to Establish the Drug Trade in Colonial Georgia,” ''Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association'' 28, no. 9 (1939): 616, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/BRZ3CBFG view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Moore_1736_2_cite"></span>

One of the Trustees’ main goals for the garden was to cultivate grapevines and white mulberry trees to produce wine and silk, which they hoped would prove profitable commodities for export that would benefit the British economy. In November 1732 Houstoun acquired grapevines in Madeira to support the Trustees’ interest in establishing viticulture in the colony and sent the vines to Savannah by way of Charleston, South Carolina. The Trustees also hired Paul Amatis (d. 1736), an Italian expert in silk production, to oversee the growing of white mulberry trees at the garden in Savannah, and soon brought in additional silk-makers from Piedmont to teach the colonists the art and science of silk production ([[#Moore_1736_2|view text - 2]]).<ref>Holland 1938, 271–73, 278, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson 2015, 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; and Julie Anne Sweet, “A Misguided Mistake: The Trustees’ Public Garden in Savannah, Georgia,” ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'' 93, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref> The Trustees’ hopes for a silk industry in Georgia were so strong that one side of their official seal featured a silkworm on a mulberry tree leaf [Fig. 2]. In addition, the Trustees sent twenty-five copies of the illustrated instructional treatise ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and the Right Ordering of the Silk-Worm'', published in London in 1733, to guide the colonists in raising silkworms [Fig. 3].<ref>Florence (Nisbet) Marye and Philip Thornton Marye, ''Garden History of Georgia'', 1733–1933, eds. Hattie C. Rainwater and Loraine M. Cooney (Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Garden Club, 1933), 17, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GNC4U42D view on Zotero]. T. B., ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and Right Ordering of the Silk-Worm'' (London: Printed for John Worrall, Olive Payne, Thomas Boreman, and Thomas Game, 1733), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/E6UAWUQJ view on Zotero].</ref> By 1740 nearly the entire Trustees’ Garden plot was turned over to the cultivation of mulberry trees.<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation 1968, 129–30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> Despite these efforts, the Trustees’ expectations for prosperous silk and wine industries in the colony ultimately failed to materialize.<span id="Tailfer_cite"></span>

Although Trustees’ Garden flourished soon after its founding under the direction of Oglethorpe and the first head gardener, Joseph Fitzwalter, its early success was ultimately short lived. Despite the Trustees’ ambitious plans for the garden, several miscalculations doomed the experiment early on. Specifically, the Trustees misjudged Savannah’s climate and the fertility of its soil, mistakenly believing that it was equivalent to that found around the Mediterranean because of its similar latitude. They thus focused on cultivating crops that were ultimately unsuited to the site.<ref>Sweet 2009, 26–28, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref> Hugh Anderson, a Scotsman who was given the role of “Inspector of the Public Garden and Mulberry [[Plantation]]s,” later described the Trustees’ Garden in unflattering terms as “a barren Piece of Land, where it is hardly possible for what is planted to live, but impossible to thrive” ([[#Tailfer|view text]]).

The garden’s managers also mishandled the labor needed to grow and maintain the site, and the endeavor was plagued with staff turnover and internal disputes. The garden suffered neglect after Fitzwalter left abruptly for South Carolina in 1735, possibly due to frequent disputes with Amatis regarding the garden’s management. Anderson attempted to revive the gardens to their once-flourishing state by rehiring Fitzwalter as head gardener in December 1737, and the conditions in the garden seemed to improve for a short time. However, a spate of bad weather and labor disputes with indentured servants who worked in the garden ultimately proved too severe to overcome. The Trustees in England received an eye-witness account in February 1738 reporting food shortages in Savannah and that half of the trees in the Trustees’ Garden had died from neglect. Oglethorpe removed Anderson from his role in October 1739, and Anderson later co-authored an attack on Oglethorpe in the ''True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia'' (1741).<ref>Holland 1938, 284–87 and 290, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson 2015, 111–12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; and Sweet 2009, 10–11, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref>

Ultimately the endeavor was short-lived, and Trustees’ Garden was largely abandoned by 1748, by which time, the land had become a residential area. Fort Savannah (later Fort Wayne) was erected in 1759 in the northeast corner of the original garden. After the fort was abandoned, the Savannah Gas Company purchased and developed the site of Trustees’ Garden as its manufacturing facility in 1848.<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation 1968, 130, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> In 2015 the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens, located just outside Savannah and managed under the auspices of the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, completed a smaller replica of the original ten-acre Trustees’ Garden on their own site, which is open to visitors and includes historically accurate plantings.<ref>https://coastalbg.uga.edu/the-gardens/formal-white-trustees-gardens/</ref> The original site of Trustees Garden was purchased in 2003 by developers from the Savannah Gas Company and is now a commercial center and events venue.<ref>https://www.trusteesgarden.com/</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
*Von Reck, Commissary, 1734, describing the Trustees’ Garden, Savannah, GA (quoted in Marye 1933: 15)<ref>Marye and Marye 1933, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GNC4U42D/q/Garden%20History%20of%20Georgia view on Zotero].</ref>

:“There is laid out near the Town, by Order of the Trustees, a Garden for making Experiments for the Improving Botany and Agriculture; it contains 10 Acres and lies upon the River; and it is cleared and brought into such Order that there is already a fine [[Nursery]] of Oranges, Olives, white Mulberries, Figs, Peaches, and many curious Herbs: besides which there are Cabbages, Peas, and other European Pulse and Plants which all thrive. Within the Garden there is an artificial Hill, said by the Indians to be raised over the Body of one of their ancient Emperors.”

*<div id="Moore_1736"></div><div id="Moore_1736_2"></div>Moore, Francis, February 1736, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1744: 29–32)<ref>Francis Moore, ''A Voyage to Georgia, Begun in the Year 1735'' (London: Jacob Robinson, 1744), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RU3CSV33 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“There is near the Town, to the East, a Garden belonging to the Trustees, consisting of 10 Acres; the Situation is delightful, one half of it is upon the Top of a Hill, the Foot of which the River ''Savannah'' washes, and from it you see the ''Woody Islands'' in the Sea. The Remainder of the Garden is the Side and some plain low Ground at the Foot of the Hill, where several fine Springs break out. In the Garden is variety of Soils; the Top is sandy and dry, the Sides of the Hill are Clay, and the Bottom is a black rich Garden-Mould well watered. On the North-part of the Garden is left standing a [[Grove]] of Part of the old [[Wood]], as it was before the arrival of the Colony there. The Trees in the [[Grove]] are mostly Bay, Sassafras, Evergreen Oak, Pellitory, Hickary [''sic''], ''American'' Ash, and the Laurel Tulip. This last is looked upon as one of the most beautiful Trees in the World. . .

:“The Garden is laid out with Cross-[[walk]]s planted with Orange-trees, but the last Winter a good deal of Snow having fallen, had killed those upon the Top of the Hill down to their Roots, but they being cut down, sprouted again, as I saw when I returned to ''Savannah''. In the [[Square]]s between the [[Walk]]s, were vast Quantities of Mulberry-trees, this being a [[Nursery]] for all the Province, and every Planter that desires it, has young Trees given him ''gratis'' from this [[Nursery]]. These white Mulberry-trees were planted in order to raise Silk, for which Purpose several ''Italians'' were brought, at the Trustees’ Expence, from ''Piedmont'' by Mr. ''Amatis''; they have fed Worms, and wound Silk to as great Perfection as any that ever came out ''Italy'': But the ''Italians'' falling out, one of them stole away the Machines for winding, broke the Coppers, and spoiled all the Eggs, which he could not steal, and fled to ''South-Carolina''. The others, who continued faithful, had saved but a few Eggs when Mr. ''Oglethorpe'' arrived, therefore he forbade any Silk should be wound, but that all the Worms should be suffered to eat through their Balls, in order to have more Eggs again next Year. The ''Italian'' Women are obliged to take ''English'' Girls Apprentices, whom they teach to wind and feed; and the Men have taught our ''English'' Gardeners to tend the Mulberry-trees, and our Joyners have learned how to make the Machines for winding. As the Mulberry-trees increase, there will be a great Quantity of Silk made here.

:“Besides the Mulberry-trees; there are in some of the Quarters in the coldest part of the Garden, all kinds of Fruit-trees usual in ''England'', such as Apples, Pears, ''&c''. In another Quarter are Olives, Figs, Vines, Pomegranates and such Fruits as are natural to the warmest Parts of ''Europe''. At the bottom of the Hill, well sheltered from the North-wind, and in the warmest part of the Garden, there was a Collection of ''West-India'' Plants and Trees, some Coffee, some Cocoa-nuts, Cotton, Palma-christi, and several ''West-Indian'' physical Plants, some sent up by Mr. ''Eveleigh'' a publick-spirited Merchant at ''Charles-Town'', and some by Dr. ''Houstoun'', from the ''Spanish West-Indies'', where he was sent at the Expence of a Collection raised by that curious Physician Sir ''Hans Sloan'', for to collect and send them to ''Georgia'', where the Climate was capable of making a Garden which might contain all kinds of Plants; to which Design his Grace the Duke of ''Richmond'', the Early of ''Derby'', the Lord ''Peters'', and the Apothecary’s Company contributed very generously; as did Sir ''Hans'' himself. The Quarrels amongst the ''Italians'' proved fatal to most of these Plants, and they were laboring to repair that Loss when I was there, Mr. ''Miller'' being employ’d in the room of Dr. ''Houstoun'', who died in ''Jamaica''. We heard he had wrote an Account of his having obtain’d the Plant from whence the true ''Balsamum Capivi'' is drawn; and that he was in hopes of getting that from whence the ''Jesuits Bark'' is taken, he designing for that Purpose to send to the ''Spanish West Indies''.

:“There is a Plant of Bamboo Cane brought from the ''East Indies'', and sent over by Mr. ''Towers'', which thrives well. There is also some Tea-seeds, which came from the same Place; but the latter, though great Care was taken, did not grow.” [[#Moore_1736_cite|back up to History (1)]] | [[#Moore_1736_2_cite|back up to History (2)]]

*William Stephens, 1740, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1906: 664–65)<ref>William Stephens, ''A Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia, beginning October 20, 1737. By William Stephens, Esq; to which is Added, A State of that Province, as Attested upon Oath in the Court of Savannah, November 10, 1740'' (Atlanta: The Franklin Printing and Pub. Co., 1906), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PFSSQ9DT view on Zotero].</ref>

:“…there is in this Town…a [[Public garden|publick Garden]] of ten Acres cleared, fenced, and planted with Orange-Trees, Mulberry-Trees, Vines, some Olives which thrive very well, Peaches, Apples, &c.

:“It must be confessed, that Oranges have not so universally thriven with us, as was expected, by Reason of some severe Blasts by Frosts in the Spring; yet divers with proper Care have preserved them; and as we see them grow and thrive well, with many of our Neighbours of Carolina to the Northward, we are convinced that they will with us also, as soon as we are become more perfect in the Knowledge of propagating them in a right Manner; in order to which frequent Experiments are making; and we have already discovered not only what Kind of Soil agrees best with them, but also that they flourish most when they grow under Forest Trees, whereby we imagine they are protected from Blasts; and ‘tis observed, that they take No Harm from the Droppings of any, except the Pine, which suffers nothing to grow near it, unless of its own Kind.

:“Notwithstanding the Quantity of Silk, hitherto made, has not been great, yet it increases, and will more and more considerably, as the Mulberry-Trees grow, whereof there are great Numbers yearly planted.

:“Vines likewise of late are greatly increased, many People appearing to have an Emulation of outdoing their Neighbours, and this Year has produced a considerable Quantity of very fine Grapes, whereof one Planter in particular made a Trial, to see what Kind of Wine they could make, which he put into a large Stone-Bottle, and made a Present of it to the General; who upon tasting, found it to be something of the Nature of a small French White Wine, with an agreeable Flavour; and several Persons here, who have lived formerly in Countries where there are Plenty of Vineyards, do affirm, that all young Vines produce small Wines at first, and the Strength and Goodness of it increases as the Vines grow older.”

*<div id="Tailfer"></div>Patrick Tailfer, Hugh Anderson, and David Douglas, 1741, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1835: 26–27, 70)<ref>Patrick Tailfer, Hugh Anderson, David Douglas, et al., ''A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia, in America, from the First Settlement Thereof until this Present Period'' (Charles Town, SC: P. Timothy, 1741; Washington: P. Force, 1835), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/E7KD9866 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“To carry on the Manufactures of ''Silk and Wine'', a Garden was planted with Mulberries and Vines, which was to be a [[Nursery]] to supply the Rest of the Province: But this was as far from answering the proposed End, as every Thing else was; for it is situated upon one of the most barren Spots of Land in the Colony, being only a large Hill of dry Sand: Great Sums of Money were thrown away upon it from Year to Year, to no Purpose: This was Remonstrated to the Trustees; and they seem’d to be sensible of the Error, and gave Orders to chuse another Spot of Ground; but the ''Ruling Powers'' in ''Georgia'' took no Notice thereof. And now, after so great Time and Charge, there are not so many Mulberry-Trees in all the Province of ''Georgia'', as many one of the ''Carolina'' Planters have upon their [[Plantation]]s; nor so much Silk made in one Year, as many of those Planters do make. Nor could they ever in that Garden, raise one Vine to the perfection of bearing Fruit. . .

:“On the East Side of the Town is situated the [[Public garden|''Publick Garden'']] (being ''ten'' Acres inclos’d, on a barren Piece of Land, where it is hardly possible for what is planted to live, but impossible to thrive; and from this Garden were all the Planters to have been furnished with ''Mulberry-Trees, &c''.” [[#Tailfer_cite|back up to History]]

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

</gallery>

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Trustees’ Garden

2019-12-31T15:13:14Z

L-Baradel: /* History */

'''Trustees’ Garden''', founded in Savannah, Georgia, in 1734, is an important early example of a public [[botanic garden]] and [[nursery]] in the British American colonies. It was established to collect plants that would grow best in Savannah’s climate with the goals of encouraging agriculture and establishing profitable silk and wine industries.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Trustee Garden<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1734–1748<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' The Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America<br/>
'''Associated People:''' General James Oglethorpe (founder); Joseph Fitzwalter (1734–1735 and 1737–1738, head gardener); Paul Amatis (1735–1736, silk production expert and head gardener); Hugh Anderson (1736–1739, inspector of the public garden); Newdigate Stephens (1742–?, head gardener)<br/>
'''Location:''' Savannah, GA<br/>
'''Condition:''' demolished<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/UDcpzFKCMo4F64kW9 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
The Trustees’ Garden, established in 1734 on behalf of the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America by the British military officer James Oglethorpe (1696–1785), was a [[public garden]] located in Savannah. Founded two years after Oglethorpe secured the charter for the colony of Georgia and one year after he established Savannah, the ten-acre garden was part of Oglethorpe’s original plan for the town [[common]] located on the banks of the Savannah River on the east end of the town of Savannah (on what is now East Broad Street).<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation, ''Historic Savannah'' (Savannah, GA: Historic Savannah Foundation, 1968), 129, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> There are no known extant images of Trustees’ Garden from the period, but one map created in 1757 includes an inscription marking the location of the “Trustees garden gate” in the lower right corner [Fig. 1]. Trustees’ Garden is an important early example of an American [[public garden]] motivated by scientific principles and of the trans-Atlantic networks of people, plants, and ideas that would characterize efforts in botany and garden design during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Driven by British Enlightenment principals and commercial interests, Georgia Trustee Stephen Hales (1677–1761) and advisor Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), both members of the Royal Society in London, championed the garden as a site for scientific experimentation and modeled it after the examples of the botanic and physic gardens at Chelsea and Oxford in England. Experiments in the garden would, the Trustees hoped, determine what plants grew best in Savannah’s climate. Another goal for the Trustees’ Garden was to encourage colonists to cultivate the most successful crops. To that end, the garden served as a [[nursery]] providing free seeds and saplings for farmers and gardeners.<ref>Thomas D. Wilson, ''The Oglethorpe Plan: Enlightenment Design in Savannah and Beyond'' (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015), 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; James W. Holland, “The Beginning of Public Agricultural Experimentation in America: The Trustees’ Garden in Georgia,” ''Agricultural History'' 12, no. 3 (July 1938): 274, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Renate Wilson and David L. Cowan, “Trustee Garden,” ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' (October 6, 2016), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TQH9RFZZ view on Zotero]; and Alice B. Lockwood, “Savannah,” ''Gardens of Colony and State: Gardens and Gardeners of the American Colonies and of the Republic before 1840'', vol. 2 (New York: Charles Scribner’s for the Garden Club of America, 1931), 270, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JNB7BI9T view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Moore_1736_cite"></span>

Gardeners planted a range of vegetation at Trustees’ Garden, including pear, apple, peach, orange, fig, and olive trees, as well as pomegranates, spices, and herbs. Francis Moore reported in 1736 that the garden had been arranged in different zones. English fruit trees were planted “in the coldest part of the Garden,” while fruits from warmer parts of Europe, including olives, figs, and pomegranates, were established in another section. In the most sheltered and warmest quarter of the garden, experiments growing coffee, cocoa, and cotton took root ([[#Moore_1736|view text - 1]]).

The Trustees hired botanists to supply plants from Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America in the hopes that some of would prove adaptable to Savannah’s growing conditions. They first retained the Scottish botanist Dr. William Houstoun (d. 1733) in October 1732 for three years to make a voyage to Madeira, Jamaica, Cartagena, Porto Bello, Campeche, and Vera Cruz. Houstoun was charged with procuring exotic specimens—especially medicinal plants and herbs, on the advice of Sloane—in these locales to send to Savannah. Houstoun died soon after arriving in Jamaica, and Robert Millar was contracted by the Trustees in March 1734 to resume Houstoun’s project. Millar established a base in Jamaica and focused his efforts on collecting medicinal herbs such as Jesuits bark (used in the treatment of malaria and fevers), ipecacuhana (an emetic), and cochineal (used as a red dye) in Central and South America, but he soon ran afoul of Spanish authorities and his trip was cut short.<ref>Holland 1938, 277–78, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson and Cowan 2016, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TQH9RFZZ view on Zotero].</ref> A gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden supplied the Trustees with various seeds, including white mulberry, potash, and cotton. Other “friends of the Georgia experiment” contributed plants, seeds, and vines from Europe and the East Indies.<ref>Holland 1938, 283–84, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; and Joseph Krafka Jr., “An Account of the Attempt of the Society of Apothecaries to Establish the Drug Trade in Colonial Georgia,” ''Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association'' 28, no. 9 (1939): 616, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/BRZ3CBFG view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Moore_1736_2_cite"></span>

One of the Trustees’ main goals for the garden was to cultivate grapevines and white mulberry trees to produce wine and silk, which they hoped would prove profitable commodities for export that would benefit the British economy. In November 1732 Houstoun acquired grapevines in Madeira to support the Trustees’ interest in establishing viticulture in the colony and sent the vines to Savannah by way of Charleston, South Carolina. The Trustees also hired Paul Amatis (d. 1736), an Italian expert in silk production, to oversee the growing of white mulberry trees at the garden in Savannah, and soon brought in additional silk-makers from Piedmont to teach the colonists the art and science of silk production ([[#Moore_1736_2|view text - 2]]).<ref>Holland 1938, 271–73, 278, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson 2015, 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; and Julie Anne Sweet, “A Misguided Mistake: The Trustees’ Public Garden in Savannah, Georgia,” ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'' 93, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref> The Trustees’ hopes for a silk industry in Georgia were so strong that one side of their official seal featured a silkworm on a mulberry tree leaf [Fig. 2]. In addition, the Trustees sent twenty-five copies of the illustrated instructional treatise ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and the Right Ordering of the Silk-Worm'', published in London in 1733, to guide the colonists in raising silkworms [Fig. 3].<ref>Florence (Nisbet) Marye and Philip Thornton Marye, ''Garden History of Georgia'', 1733–1933, eds. Hattie C. Rainwater and Loraine M. Cooney (Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Garden Club, 1933), 17, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GNC4U42D view on Zotero]. T. B., ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and Right Ordering of the Silk-Worm'' (London: Printed for John Worrall, Olive Payne, Thomas Boreman, and Thomas Game, 1733), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/E6UAWUQJ view on Zotero].</ref> By 1740 nearly the entire Trustees’ Garden plot was turned over to the cultivation of mulberry trees.<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation 1968, 129–30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> Despite these efforts, the Trustees’ expectations for prosperous silk and wine industries in the colony ultimately failed to materialize.<span id="Tailfer_cite"></span>

Although Trustees’ Garden flourished soon after its founding under the direction of Oglethorpe and the first head gardener, Joseph Fitzwalter, its early success was ultimately short lived. Despite the Trustees’ ambitious plans for the garden, several miscalculations doomed the experiment early on. Specifically, the Trustees misjudged Savannah’s climate and the fertility of its soil, mistakenly believing that it was equivalent to that found around the Mediterranean because of its similar latitude. They thus focused on cultivating crops that were ultimately unsuited to the site.<ref>Sweet 2009, 26–28, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref> Hugh Anderson, a Scotsman who was given the role of “Inspector of the Public Garden and Mulberry Plantations,” later described the Trustees’ Garden in unflattering terms as “a barren Piece of Land, where it is hardly possible for what is planted to live, but impossible to thrive” ([[#Tailfer|view text]]).

The garden’s managers also mishandled the labor needed to grow and maintain the site, and the endeavor was plagued with staff turnover and internal disputes. The garden suffered neglect after Fitzwalter left abruptly for South Carolina in 1735, possibly due to frequent disputes with Amatis regarding the garden’s management. Anderson attempted to revive the gardens to their once-flourishing state by rehiring Fitzwalter as head gardener in December 1737, and the conditions in the garden seemed to improve for a short time. However, a spate of bad weather and labor disputes with indentured servants who worked in the garden ultimately proved too severe to overcome. The Trustees in England received an eye-witness account in February 1738 reporting food shortages in Savannah and that half of the trees in the Trustees’ Garden had died from neglect. Oglethorpe removed Anderson from his role in October 1739, and Anderson later co-authored an attack on Oglethorpe in the ''True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia'' (1741).<ref>Holland 1938, 284–87 and 290, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson 2015, 111–12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; and Sweet 2009, 10–11, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref>

Ultimately the endeavor was short-lived, and Trustees’ Garden was largely abandoned by 1748, by which time, the land had become a residential area. Fort Savannah (later Fort Wayne) was erected in 1759 in the northeast corner of the original garden. After the fort was abandoned, the Savannah Gas Company purchased and developed the site of Trustees’ Garden as its manufacturing facility in 1848.<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation 1968, 130, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> In 2015 the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens, located just outside Savannah and managed under the auspices of the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, completed a smaller replica of the original ten-acre Trustees’ Garden on their own site, which is open to visitors and includes historically accurate plantings.<ref>https://coastalbg.uga.edu/the-gardens/formal-white-trustees-gardens/</ref> The original site of Trustees Garden was purchased in 2003 by developers from the Savannah Gas Company and is now a commercial center and events venue.<ref>https://www.trusteesgarden.com/</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
*Von Reck, Commissary, 1734, describing the Trustees’ Garden, Savannah, GA (quoted in Marye 1933: 15)<ref>Marye and Marye 1933, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GNC4U42D/q/Garden%20History%20of%20Georgia view on Zotero].</ref>

:“There is laid out near the Town, by Order of the Trustees, a Garden for making Experiments for the Improving Botany and Agriculture; it contains 10 Acres and lies upon the River; and it is cleared and brought into such Order that there is already a fine [[Nursery]] of Oranges, Olives, white Mulberries, Figs, Peaches, and many curious Herbs: besides which there are Cabbages, Peas, and other European Pulse and Plants which all thrive. Within the Garden there is an artificial Hill, said by the Indians to be raised over the Body of one of their ancient Emperors.”

*<div id="Moore_1736"></div><div id="Moore_1736_2"></div>Moore, Francis, February 1736, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1744: 29–32)<ref>Francis Moore, ''A Voyage to Georgia, Begun in the Year 1735'' (London: Jacob Robinson, 1744), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RU3CSV33 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“There is near the Town, to the East, a Garden belonging to the Trustees, consisting of 10 Acres; the Situation is delightful, one half of it is upon the Top of a Hill, the Foot of which the River ''Savannah'' washes, and from it you see the ''Woody Islands'' in the Sea. The Remainder of the Garden is the Side and some plain low Ground at the Foot of the Hill, where several fine Springs break out. In the Garden is variety of Soils; the Top is sandy and dry, the Sides of the Hill are Clay, and the Bottom is a black rich Garden-Mould well watered. On the North-part of the Garden is left standing a [[Grove]] of Part of the old [[Wood]], as it was before the arrival of the Colony there. The Trees in the [[Grove]] are mostly Bay, Sassafras, Evergreen Oak, Pellitory, Hickary [''sic''], ''American'' Ash, and the Laurel Tulip. This last is looked upon as one of the most beautiful Trees in the World. . .

:“The Garden is laid out with Cross-[[walk]]s planted with Orange-trees, but the last Winter a good deal of Snow having fallen, had killed those upon the Top of the Hill down to their Roots, but they being cut down, sprouted again, as I saw when I returned to ''Savannah''. In the [[Square]]s between the [[Walk]]s, were vast Quantities of Mulberry-trees, this being a [[Nursery]] for all the Province, and every Planter that desires it, has young Trees given him ''gratis'' from this [[Nursery]]. These white Mulberry-trees were planted in order to raise Silk, for which Purpose several ''Italians'' were brought, at the Trustees’ Expence, from ''Piedmont'' by Mr. ''Amatis''; they have fed Worms, and wound Silk to as great Perfection as any that ever came out ''Italy'': But the ''Italians'' falling out, one of them stole away the Machines for winding, broke the Coppers, and spoiled all the Eggs, which he could not steal, and fled to ''South-Carolina''. The others, who continued faithful, had saved but a few Eggs when Mr. ''Oglethorpe'' arrived, therefore he forbade any Silk should be wound, but that all the Worms should be suffered to eat through their Balls, in order to have more Eggs again next Year. The ''Italian'' Women are obliged to take ''English'' Girls Apprentices, whom they teach to wind and feed; and the Men have taught our ''English'' Gardeners to tend the Mulberry-trees, and our Joyners have learned how to make the Machines for winding. As the Mulberry-trees increase, there will be a great Quantity of Silk made here.

:“Besides the Mulberry-trees; there are in some of the Quarters in the coldest part of the Garden, all kinds of Fruit-trees usual in ''England'', such as Apples, Pears, ''&c''. In another Quarter are Olives, Figs, Vines, Pomegranates and such Fruits as are natural to the warmest Parts of ''Europe''. At the bottom of the Hill, well sheltered from the North-wind, and in the warmest part of the Garden, there was a Collection of ''West-India'' Plants and Trees, some Coffee, some Cocoa-nuts, Cotton, Palma-christi, and several ''West-Indian'' physical Plants, some sent up by Mr. ''Eveleigh'' a publick-spirited Merchant at ''Charles-Town'', and some by Dr. ''Houstoun'', from the ''Spanish West-Indies'', where he was sent at the Expence of a Collection raised by that curious Physician Sir ''Hans Sloan'', for to collect and send them to ''Georgia'', where the Climate was capable of making a Garden which might contain all kinds of Plants; to which Design his Grace the Duke of ''Richmond'', the Early of ''Derby'', the Lord ''Peters'', and the Apothecary’s Company contributed very generously; as did Sir ''Hans'' himself. The Quarrels amongst the ''Italians'' proved fatal to most of these Plants, and they were laboring to repair that Loss when I was there, Mr. ''Miller'' being employ’d in the room of Dr. ''Houstoun'', who died in ''Jamaica''. We heard he had wrote an Account of his having obtain’d the Plant from whence the true ''Balsamum Capivi'' is drawn; and that he was in hopes of getting that from whence the ''Jesuits Bark'' is taken, he designing for that Purpose to send to the ''Spanish West Indies''.

:“There is a Plant of Bamboo Cane brought from the ''East Indies'', and sent over by Mr. ''Towers'', which thrives well. There is also some Tea-seeds, which came from the same Place; but the latter, though great Care was taken, did not grow.” [[#Moore_1736_cite|back up to History (1)]] | [[#Moore_1736_2_cite|back up to History (2)]]

*William Stephens, 1740, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1906: 664–65)<ref>William Stephens, ''A Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia, beginning October 20, 1737. By William Stephens, Esq; to which is Added, A State of that Province, as Attested upon Oath in the Court of Savannah, November 10, 1740'' (Atlanta: The Franklin Printing and Pub. Co., 1906), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PFSSQ9DT view on Zotero].</ref>

:“…there is in this Town…a [[Public garden|publick Garden]] of ten Acres cleared, fenced, and planted with Orange-Trees, Mulberry-Trees, Vines, some Olives which thrive very well, Peaches, Apples, &c.

:“It must be confessed, that Oranges have not so universally thriven with us, as was expected, by Reason of some severe Blasts by Frosts in the Spring; yet divers with proper Care have preserved them; and as we see them grow and thrive well, with many of our Neighbours of Carolina to the Northward, we are convinced that they will with us also, as soon as we are become more perfect in the Knowledge of propagating them in a right Manner; in order to which frequent Experiments are making; and we have already discovered not only what Kind of Soil agrees best with them, but also that they flourish most when they grow under Forest Trees, whereby we imagine they are protected from Blasts; and ‘tis observed, that they take No Harm from the Droppings of any, except the Pine, which suffers nothing to grow near it, unless of its own Kind.

:“Notwithstanding the Quantity of Silk, hitherto made, has not been great, yet it increases, and will more and more considerably, as the Mulberry-Trees grow, whereof there are great Numbers yearly planted.

:“Vines likewise of late are greatly increased, many People appearing to have an Emulation of outdoing their Neighbours, and this Year has produced a considerable Quantity of very fine Grapes, whereof one Planter in particular made a Trial, to see what Kind of Wine they could make, which he put into a large Stone-Bottle, and made a Present of it to the General; who upon tasting, found it to be something of the Nature of a small French White Wine, with an agreeable Flavour; and several Persons here, who have lived formerly in Countries where there are Plenty of Vineyards, do affirm, that all young Vines produce small Wines at first, and the Strength and Goodness of it increases as the Vines grow older.”

*<div id="Tailfer"></div>Patrick Tailfer, Hugh Anderson, and David Douglas, 1741, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1835: 26–27, 70)<ref>Patrick Tailfer, Hugh Anderson, David Douglas, et al., ''A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia, in America, from the First Settlement Thereof until this Present Period'' (Charles Town, SC: P. Timothy, 1741; Washington: P. Force, 1835), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/E7KD9866 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“To carry on the Manufactures of ''Silk and Wine'', a Garden was planted with Mulberries and Vines, which was to be a [[Nursery]] to supply the Rest of the Province: But this was as far from answering the proposed End, as every Thing else was; for it is situated upon one of the most barren Spots of Land in the Colony, being only a large Hill of dry Sand: Great Sums of Money were thrown away upon it from Year to Year, to no Purpose: This was Remonstrated to the Trustees; and they seem’d to be sensible of the Error, and gave Orders to chuse another Spot of Ground; but the ''Ruling Powers'' in ''Georgia'' took no Notice thereof. And now, after so great Time and Charge, there are not so many Mulberry-Trees in all the Province of ''Georgia'', as many one of the ''Carolina'' Planters have upon their [[Plantation]]s; nor so much Silk made in one Year, as many of those Planters do make. Nor could they ever in that Garden, raise one Vine to the perfection of bearing Fruit. . .

:“On the East Side of the Town is situated the [[Public garden|''Publick Garden'']] (being ''ten'' Acres inclos’d, on a barren Piece of Land, where it is hardly possible for what is planted to live, but impossible to thrive; and from this Garden were all the Planters to have been furnished with ''Mulberry-Trees, &c''.” [[#Tailfer_cite|back up to History]]

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

</gallery>

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Trustees’ Garden

2019-12-31T15:12:24Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

'''Trustees’ Garden''', founded in Savannah, Georgia, in 1734, is an important early example of a public [[botanic garden]] and [[nursery]] in the British American colonies. It was established to collect plants that would grow best in Savannah’s climate with the goals of encouraging agriculture and establishing profitable silk and wine industries.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Trustee Garden<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1734–1748<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' The Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America<br/>
'''Associated People:''' General James Oglethorpe (founder); Joseph Fitzwalter (1734–1735 and 1737–1738, head gardener); Paul Amatis (1735–1736, silk production expert and head gardener); Hugh Anderson (1736–1739, inspector of the public garden); Newdigate Stephens (1742–?, head gardener)<br/>
'''Location:''' Savannah, GA<br/>
'''Condition:''' demolished<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/UDcpzFKCMo4F64kW9 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
The Trustees’ Garden, established in 1734 on behalf of the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America by the British military officer James Oglethorpe (1696–1785), was a [[public garden]] located in Savannah. Founded two years after Oglethorpe secured the charter for the colony of Georgia and one year after he established Savannah, the ten-acre garden was part of Oglethorpe’s original plan for the town [[common]] located on the banks of the Savannah River on the east end of the town of Savannah (on what is now East Broad Street).<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation, ''Historic Savannah'' (Savannah, GA: Historic Savannah Foundation, 1968), 129, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> There are no known extant images of Trustees’ Garden from the period, but one map created in 1757 includes an inscription marking the location of the “Trustees garden gate” in the lower right corner [Fig. 1 – map detail]. Trustees’ Garden is an important early example of an American [[public garden]] motivated by scientific principles and of the trans-Atlantic networks of people, plants, and ideas that would characterize efforts in botany and garden design during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Driven by British Enlightenment principals and commercial interests, Georgia Trustee Stephen Hales (1677–1761) and advisor Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), both members of the Royal Society in London, championed the garden as a site for scientific experimentation and modeled it after the examples of the botanic and physic gardens at Chelsea and Oxford in England. Experiments in the garden would, the Trustees hoped, determine what plants grew best in Savannah’s climate. Another goal for the Trustees’ Garden was to encourage colonists to cultivate the most successful crops. To that end, the garden served as a [[nursery]] providing free seeds and saplings for farmers and gardeners.<ref>Thomas D. Wilson, ''The Oglethorpe Plan: Enlightenment Design in Savannah and Beyond'' (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015), 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; James W. Holland, “The Beginning of Public Agricultural Experimentation in America: The Trustees’ Garden in Georgia,” ''Agricultural History'' 12, no. 3 (July 1938): 274, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Renate Wilson and David L. Cowan, “Trustee Garden,” ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' (October 6, 2016), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TQH9RFZZ view on Zotero]; and Alice B. Lockwood, “Savannah,” ''Gardens of Colony and State: Gardens and Gardeners of the American Colonies and of the Republic before 1840'', vol. 2 (New York: Charles Scribner’s for the Garden Club of America, 1931), 270, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JNB7BI9T view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Moore_1736_cite"></span>

Gardeners planted a range of vegetation at Trustees’ Garden, including pear, apple, peach, orange, fig, and olive trees, as well as pomegranates, spices, and herbs. Francis Moore reported in 1736 that the garden had been arranged in different zones. English fruit trees were planted “in the coldest part of the Garden,” while fruits from warmer parts of Europe, including olives, figs, and pomegranates, were established in another section. In the most sheltered and warmest quarter of the garden, experiments growing coffee, cocoa, and cotton took root ([[#Moore_1736|view text - 1]]).

The Trustees hired botanists to supply plants from Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America in the hopes that some of would prove adaptable to Savannah’s growing conditions. They first retained the Scottish botanist Dr. William Houstoun (d. 1733) in October 1732 for three years to make a voyage to Madeira, Jamaica, Cartagena, Porto Bello, Campeche, and Vera Cruz. Houstoun was charged with procuring exotic specimens—especially medicinal plants and herbs, on the advice of Sloane—in these locales to send to Savannah. Houstoun died soon after arriving in Jamaica, and Robert Millar was contracted by the Trustees in March 1734 to resume Houstoun’s project. Millar established a base in Jamaica and focused his efforts on collecting medicinal herbs such as Jesuits bark (used in the treatment of malaria and fevers), ipecacuhana (an emetic), and cochineal (used as a red dye) in Central and South America, but he soon ran afoul of Spanish authorities and his trip was cut short.<ref>Holland 1938, 277–78, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson and Cowan 2016, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TQH9RFZZ view on Zotero].</ref> A gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden supplied the Trustees with various seeds, including white mulberry, potash, and cotton. Other “friends of the Georgia experiment” contributed plants, seeds, and vines from Europe and the East Indies.<ref>Holland 1938, 283–84, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; and Joseph Krafka Jr., “An Account of the Attempt of the Society of Apothecaries to Establish the Drug Trade in Colonial Georgia,” ''Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association'' 28, no. 9 (1939): 616, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/BRZ3CBFG view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Moore_1736_2_cite"></span>

One of the Trustees’ main goals for the garden was to cultivate grapevines and white mulberry trees to produce wine and silk, which they hoped would prove profitable commodities for export that would benefit the British economy. In November 1732 Houstoun acquired grapevines in Madeira to support the Trustees’ interest in establishing viticulture in the colony and sent the vines to Savannah by way of Charleston, South Carolina. The Trustees also hired Paul Amatis (d. 1736), an Italian expert in silk production, to oversee the growing of white mulberry trees at the garden in Savannah, and soon brought in additional silk-makers from Piedmont to teach the colonists the art and science of silk production ([[#Moore_1736_2|view text - 2]]).<ref>Holland 1938, 271–73, 278, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson 2015, 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; and Julie Anne Sweet, “A Misguided Mistake: The Trustees’ Public Garden in Savannah, Georgia,” ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'' 93, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref> The Trustees’ hopes for a silk industry in Georgia were so strong that one side of their official seal featured a silkworm on a mulberry tree leaf [Fig. 2]. In addition, the Trustees sent twenty-five copies of the illustrated instructional treatise ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and the Right Ordering of the Silk-Worm'', published in London in 1733, to guide the colonists in raising silkworms [Fig. 3].<ref>Florence (Nisbet) Marye and Philip Thornton Marye, ''Garden History of Georgia'', 1733–1933, eds. Hattie C. Rainwater and Loraine M. Cooney (Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Garden Club, 1933), 17, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GNC4U42D view on Zotero]. T. B., ''A Compendious Account of the Whole Art of Breeding, Nursing, and Right Ordering of the Silk-Worm'' (London: Printed for John Worrall, Olive Payne, Thomas Boreman, and Thomas Game, 1733), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/E6UAWUQJ view on Zotero].</ref> By 1740 nearly the entire Trustees’ Garden plot was turned over to the cultivation of mulberry trees.<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation 1968, 129–30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> Despite these efforts, the Trustees’ expectations for prosperous silk and wine industries in the colony ultimately failed to materialize.<span id="Tailfer_cite"></span>

Although Trustees’ Garden flourished soon after its founding under the direction of Oglethorpe and the first head gardener, Joseph Fitzwalter, its early success was ultimately short lived. Despite the Trustees’ ambitious plans for the garden, several miscalculations doomed the experiment early on. Specifically, the Trustees misjudged Savannah’s climate and the fertility of its soil, mistakenly believing that it was equivalent to that found around the Mediterranean because of its similar latitude. They thus focused on cultivating crops that were ultimately unsuited to the site.<ref>Sweet 2009, 26–28, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref> Hugh Anderson, a Scotsman who was given the role of “Inspector of the Public Garden and Mulberry Plantations,” later described the Trustees’ Garden in unflattering terms as “a barren Piece of Land, where it is hardly possible for what is planted to live, but impossible to thrive” ([[#Tailfer|view text]]).

The garden’s managers also mishandled the labor needed to grow and maintain the site, and the endeavor was plagued with staff turnover and internal disputes. The garden suffered neglect after Fitzwalter left abruptly for South Carolina in 1735, possibly due to frequent disputes with Amatis regarding the garden’s management. Anderson attempted to revive the gardens to their once-flourishing state by rehiring Fitzwalter as head gardener in December 1737, and the conditions in the garden seemed to improve for a short time. However, a spate of bad weather and labor disputes with indentured servants who worked in the garden ultimately proved too severe to overcome. The Trustees in England received an eye-witness account in February 1738 reporting food shortages in Savannah and that half of the trees in the Trustees’ Garden had died from neglect. Oglethorpe removed Anderson from his role in October 1739, and Anderson later co-authored an attack on Oglethorpe in the ''True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia'' (1741).<ref>Holland 1938, 284–87 and 290, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6VTU9Z4I view on Zotero]; Wilson 2015, 111–12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RX2M8BBV view on Zotero]; and Sweet 2009, 10–11, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MDTB4KA4 view on Zotero].</ref>

Ultimately the endeavor was short-lived, and Trustees’ Garden was largely abandoned by 1748, by which time, the land had become a residential area. Fort Savannah (later Fort Wayne) was erected in 1759 in the northeast corner of the original garden. After the fort was abandoned, the Savannah Gas Company purchased and developed the site of Trustees’ Garden as its manufacturing facility in 1848.<ref>Historic Savannah Foundation 1968, 130, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AQRCIPJF view on Zotero].</ref> In 2015 the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens, located just outside Savannah and managed under the auspices of the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, completed a smaller replica of the original ten-acre Trustees’ Garden on their own site, which is open to visitors and includes historically accurate plantings.<ref>https://coastalbg.uga.edu/the-gardens/formal-white-trustees-gardens/</ref> The original site of Trustees Garden was purchased in 2003 by developers from the Savannah Gas Company and is now a commercial center and events venue.<ref>https://www.trusteesgarden.com/</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
*Von Reck, Commissary, 1734, describing the Trustees’ Garden, Savannah, GA (quoted in Marye 1933: 15)<ref>Marye and Marye 1933, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GNC4U42D/q/Garden%20History%20of%20Georgia view on Zotero].</ref>

:“There is laid out near the Town, by Order of the Trustees, a Garden for making Experiments for the Improving Botany and Agriculture; it contains 10 Acres and lies upon the River; and it is cleared and brought into such Order that there is already a fine [[Nursery]] of Oranges, Olives, white Mulberries, Figs, Peaches, and many curious Herbs: besides which there are Cabbages, Peas, and other European Pulse and Plants which all thrive. Within the Garden there is an artificial Hill, said by the Indians to be raised over the Body of one of their ancient Emperors.”

*<div id="Moore_1736"></div><div id="Moore_1736_2"></div>Moore, Francis, February 1736, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1744: 29–32)<ref>Francis Moore, ''A Voyage to Georgia, Begun in the Year 1735'' (London: Jacob Robinson, 1744), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RU3CSV33 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“There is near the Town, to the East, a Garden belonging to the Trustees, consisting of 10 Acres; the Situation is delightful, one half of it is upon the Top of a Hill, the Foot of which the River ''Savannah'' washes, and from it you see the ''Woody Islands'' in the Sea. The Remainder of the Garden is the Side and some plain low Ground at the Foot of the Hill, where several fine Springs break out. In the Garden is variety of Soils; the Top is sandy and dry, the Sides of the Hill are Clay, and the Bottom is a black rich Garden-Mould well watered. On the North-part of the Garden is left standing a [[Grove]] of Part of the old [[Wood]], as it was before the arrival of the Colony there. The Trees in the [[Grove]] are mostly Bay, Sassafras, Evergreen Oak, Pellitory, Hickary [''sic''], ''American'' Ash, and the Laurel Tulip. This last is looked upon as one of the most beautiful Trees in the World. . .

:“The Garden is laid out with Cross-[[walk]]s planted with Orange-trees, but the last Winter a good deal of Snow having fallen, had killed those upon the Top of the Hill down to their Roots, but they being cut down, sprouted again, as I saw when I returned to ''Savannah''. In the [[Square]]s between the [[Walk]]s, were vast Quantities of Mulberry-trees, this being a [[Nursery]] for all the Province, and every Planter that desires it, has young Trees given him ''gratis'' from this [[Nursery]]. These white Mulberry-trees were planted in order to raise Silk, for which Purpose several ''Italians'' were brought, at the Trustees’ Expence, from ''Piedmont'' by Mr. ''Amatis''; they have fed Worms, and wound Silk to as great Perfection as any that ever came out ''Italy'': But the ''Italians'' falling out, one of them stole away the Machines for winding, broke the Coppers, and spoiled all the Eggs, which he could not steal, and fled to ''South-Carolina''. The others, who continued faithful, had saved but a few Eggs when Mr. ''Oglethorpe'' arrived, therefore he forbade any Silk should be wound, but that all the Worms should be suffered to eat through their Balls, in order to have more Eggs again next Year. The ''Italian'' Women are obliged to take ''English'' Girls Apprentices, whom they teach to wind and feed; and the Men have taught our ''English'' Gardeners to tend the Mulberry-trees, and our Joyners have learned how to make the Machines for winding. As the Mulberry-trees increase, there will be a great Quantity of Silk made here.

:“Besides the Mulberry-trees; there are in some of the Quarters in the coldest part of the Garden, all kinds of Fruit-trees usual in ''England'', such as Apples, Pears, ''&c''. In another Quarter are Olives, Figs, Vines, Pomegranates and such Fruits as are natural to the warmest Parts of ''Europe''. At the bottom of the Hill, well sheltered from the North-wind, and in the warmest part of the Garden, there was a Collection of ''West-India'' Plants and Trees, some Coffee, some Cocoa-nuts, Cotton, Palma-christi, and several ''West-Indian'' physical Plants, some sent up by Mr. ''Eveleigh'' a publick-spirited Merchant at ''Charles-Town'', and some by Dr. ''Houstoun'', from the ''Spanish West-Indies'', where he was sent at the Expence of a Collection raised by that curious Physician Sir ''Hans Sloan'', for to collect and send them to ''Georgia'', where the Climate was capable of making a Garden which might contain all kinds of Plants; to which Design his Grace the Duke of ''Richmond'', the Early of ''Derby'', the Lord ''Peters'', and the Apothecary’s Company contributed very generously; as did Sir ''Hans'' himself. The Quarrels amongst the ''Italians'' proved fatal to most of these Plants, and they were laboring to repair that Loss when I was there, Mr. ''Miller'' being employ’d in the room of Dr. ''Houstoun'', who died in ''Jamaica''. We heard he had wrote an Account of his having obtain’d the Plant from whence the true ''Balsamum Capivi'' is drawn; and that he was in hopes of getting that from whence the ''Jesuits Bark'' is taken, he designing for that Purpose to send to the ''Spanish West Indies''.

:“There is a Plant of Bamboo Cane brought from the ''East Indies'', and sent over by Mr. ''Towers'', which thrives well. There is also some Tea-seeds, which came from the same Place; but the latter, though great Care was taken, did not grow.” [[#Moore_1736_cite|back up to History (1)]] | [[#Moore_1736_2_cite|back up to History (2)]]

*William Stephens, 1740, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1906: 664–65)<ref>William Stephens, ''A Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia, beginning October 20, 1737. By William Stephens, Esq; to which is Added, A State of that Province, as Attested upon Oath in the Court of Savannah, November 10, 1740'' (Atlanta: The Franklin Printing and Pub. Co., 1906), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PFSSQ9DT view on Zotero].</ref>

:“…there is in this Town…a [[Public garden|publick Garden]] of ten Acres cleared, fenced, and planted with Orange-Trees, Mulberry-Trees, Vines, some Olives which thrive very well, Peaches, Apples, &c.

:“It must be confessed, that Oranges have not so universally thriven with us, as was expected, by Reason of some severe Blasts by Frosts in the Spring; yet divers with proper Care have preserved them; and as we see them grow and thrive well, with many of our Neighbours of Carolina to the Northward, we are convinced that they will with us also, as soon as we are become more perfect in the Knowledge of propagating them in a right Manner; in order to which frequent Experiments are making; and we have already discovered not only what Kind of Soil agrees best with them, but also that they flourish most when they grow under Forest Trees, whereby we imagine they are protected from Blasts; and ‘tis observed, that they take No Harm from the Droppings of any, except the Pine, which suffers nothing to grow near it, unless of its own Kind.

:“Notwithstanding the Quantity of Silk, hitherto made, has not been great, yet it increases, and will more and more considerably, as the Mulberry-Trees grow, whereof there are great Numbers yearly planted.

:“Vines likewise of late are greatly increased, many People appearing to have an Emulation of outdoing their Neighbours, and this Year has produced a considerable Quantity of very fine Grapes, whereof one Planter in particular made a Trial, to see what Kind of Wine they could make, which he put into a large Stone-Bottle, and made a Present of it to the General; who upon tasting, found it to be something of the Nature of a small French White Wine, with an agreeable Flavour; and several Persons here, who have lived formerly in Countries where there are Plenty of Vineyards, do affirm, that all young Vines produce small Wines at first, and the Strength and Goodness of it increases as the Vines grow older.”

*<div id="Tailfer"></div>Patrick Tailfer, Hugh Anderson, and David Douglas, 1741, describing the Trustees’ Garden (1835: 26–27, 70)<ref>Patrick Tailfer, Hugh Anderson, David Douglas, et al., ''A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia, in America, from the First Settlement Thereof until this Present Period'' (Charles Town, SC: P. Timothy, 1741; Washington: P. Force, 1835), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/E7KD9866 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“To carry on the Manufactures of ''Silk and Wine'', a Garden was planted with Mulberries and Vines, which was to be a [[Nursery]] to supply the Rest of the Province: But this was as far from answering the proposed End, as every Thing else was; for it is situated upon one of the most barren Spots of Land in the Colony, being only a large Hill of dry Sand: Great Sums of Money were thrown away upon it from Year to Year, to no Purpose: This was Remonstrated to the Trustees; and they seem’d to be sensible of the Error, and gave Orders to chuse another Spot of Ground; but the ''Ruling Powers'' in ''Georgia'' took no Notice thereof. And now, after so great Time and Charge, there are not so many Mulberry-Trees in all the Province of ''Georgia'', as many one of the ''Carolina'' Planters have upon their [[Plantation]]s; nor so much Silk made in one Year, as many of those Planters do make. Nor could they ever in that Garden, raise one Vine to the perfection of bearing Fruit. . .

:“On the East Side of the Town is situated the [[Public garden|''Publick Garden'']] (being ''ten'' Acres inclos’d, on a barren Piece of Land, where it is hardly possible for what is planted to live, but impossible to thrive; and from this Garden were all the Planters to have been furnished with ''Mulberry-Trees, &c''.” [[#Tailfer_cite|back up to History]]

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

</gallery>

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Wye House

2019-12-30T19:17:54Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

'''Wye House''', a [[plantation]] on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, was well-known during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for its [[picturesque]] gardens and [[greenhouse]], which is believed to be the only extant eighteenth-century example of its kind in the United States. Archaeological excavations conducted on the property between 2005 and 2014 have yielded important insights into gardening practices at Wye House as well as into the daily lives of the [[plantation|plantation’s]] large enslaved population.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names''': Wye House Plantation; Wye House Farm; Home House Farm<br/>
'''Site Dates''': 1650s to present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s)''': Edward Lloyd I (1650s–1695); Edward Lloyd II (1695–1718); Edward Lloyd III (1718–1770); Edward Lloyd IV (1770–1796); Edward Lloyd V (1796–1834); Edward Lloyd VI (1834–1861); Edward Lloyd VII (1861–1907); Charles Howard Lloyd and Mary Donnell Lloyd (c. 1907–1943); Elizabeth Key Lloyd Schiller (1943–1993); Mary Donnell Singer Tilghman (1993–2012); Richard C. Tilghman, Jr. (2012 to present)<br/>
'''Associated People''': Peter Moir (indentured gardener); Robert Cushney (free gardener); Frederick Douglass (enslaved person); Mr. McDermott (chief gardener); Big Jacob (enslaved gardener); Little Jacob (enslaved gardener); Kitt (enslaved gardener); and Stephen (enslaved gardener)<br/>
'''Location''': Talbot County, Maryland<br/>
'''Condition''': extant<br/>
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Wye+House/@38.8534359,-76.1704116,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89b815d93f0f3ff5:0xca27a55c02f2579a!8m2!3d38.8534359!4d-76.1682229?shorturl=1 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[File:2230.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, Dennis Griffith, ''Map of the State of Maryland laid down from an actual survey of all the principal waters, public roads, and divisions of the counties therein; describing the situation of the cities, towns, villages, houses of worship and other public buildings, furnaces, forges, mills, and other remarkable places; and of the Federal Territory; as also a sketch of the State of Delaware shewing the probable connexion of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays,'' ca. 1794 [detail]. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Washington, DC.]]
Wye House was established in the middle of the seventeenth century when Edward Lloyd I (d. 1695), a Welsh Puritan, purchased 3,500 acres of farmland on the Wye River in Talbot County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore [Fig. 1].<ref>J. Donnell Tilghman writes that the tracts at Wye were granted to Edward I in 1658. J. Donnell Tilghman, “Wye House,” in ''Gardens of Colony and State: Gardens and Gardeners of the American Colonies and the Republic before 1840'', vol. 2, edited by Alice B. Lockwood (New York: Charles Scribner’s for the Garden Club of America, 2000), 139, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AWHQTEF7 view on Zotero].</ref> The Lloyds relied on a large enslaved workforce to build their fortune raising livestock and growing tobacco, corn, and wheat.<ref>Jean B. Russo discusses the agricultural labor used to run Edward Lloyd IV’s plantations, including Wye House. See Russo, “A Model Planter: Edward Lloyd IV of Maryland, 1770–1796,” ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 49, no. 1 (January 1992): 62–88, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/33G4DBP3 view on Zotero].</ref> The [[plantation]] has remained in the continuous possession of the Lloyd family since its founding, and subsequent generations built the late eighteenth-century mansion, gardens, and [[greenhouse]] for which the property is known.

Although many of the Lloyds’ buildings at Wye House are still extant, most of the structures associated with the [[plantation|plantation’s]] large enslaved population no longer survive.<ref>Edward IV’s mansion, many of the Lloyds’ gardens, the Lloyd family cemetery, a smokehouse, stables, and a seventeenth-century house known as the Captain’s Cottage survive. The slave quarters on the Long Green and near the agricultural fields, the blacksmith’s and carpenter’s shops, and various storehouses are no longer standing. Elizabeth Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape of Wye House: Nature, Spirituality, and Social Order'' (Lantham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017), xvi, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero].</ref> Scholar Alan Rice argues that the destruction of most of the physical traces of the lives and homes of the enslaved at Wye House amounts to a “‘symbolic annihilation’ of black presence” on the estate. This destruction contributes to the erasure of slavery from the traditional historical narrative of the site.<ref>Alan Rice, “The History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Heritage from Below in Action: Guerrilla Memorialisation in the Era of Bicentennial Commemoration,” in ''Heritage from Below'', edited by Iain J.M. Robertson (London: Routledge, 2012), 220, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/4HIRQQZQ view on Zotero]. This “steady disappearance of quarters and work buildings in the early twentieth century” was also the result of “Emancipation and downsizing of labor.” Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', 10, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Douglass_1855_cite"></span>First-hand accounts by Frederick Douglass (1818–1895)—undoubtedly the best-known enslaved person to have lived at Wye House—partially illuminate the abuses enslaved people faced on the [[plantation]] and describe the appearance of the Lloyds’ home and gardens ([[#Douglass_1855|view text]]). These accounts provide an important “counterbalance [to] the overwhelming influence of the Lloyd family in the historical record.”<ref>Elizabeth Pruitt, “Transatlantic Roots: Cultural Uses of Plants at the Wye House Plantation,” in ''Atlantic Crossings in the Wake of Frederick Douglass: Archaeology, Literature, and Spatial Culture'', edited by Mark P. Leone and Lee M. Jenkins (Leiden: Brill Rodopi, 2017), 4, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/INXARUTF view on Zotero].</ref> Furthermore, archaeological excavations conducted between 2005 and 2014 by Archeology in Annapolis and the University of Maryland, College Park, have yielded additional insights about the daily lives and spiritual practices of the hundreds of enslaved individuals who lived and labored on the estate.<ref>Mary Tilghman, an eleventh-generation descendant of Edward Lloyd I, invited the researchers to excavate at Wye House, but the team also solicited input from the descendants of enslaved residents, many of whom still live in the vicinity. After consulting with the descendants of the Lloyds and people enslaved by the Lloyds, the archaeologists concentrated their efforts on understanding the history of gardening at Wye House and the daily lives and spiritual and religious practices of the plantation’s enslaved population. The Archeology in Annapolis project, founded in 1981, is a collaboration between the University of Maryland, College Park, and the Historic Annapolis Foundation to conduct publicly engaged archaeological research. In 2001, Archeology in Annapolis began to expand its excavation sites to include places on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, first to Wye Hall (not related to Wye House) and then Wye House and Easton. Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', 69–71, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero].</ref> “Through plants and gardening,” both the Lloyds and the enslaved population at Wye House “maintained cultural connections” to their ancestral homelands (Great Britain and Africa respectively).<ref>Pruitt, “Transatlantic Roots,” 5, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/INXARUTF view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2210.jpg|thumb|Fig. 2, ''The Edward Lloyd Family'', Charles Wilson Peale, 1771, Oil on canvas, 1964.0124 A, B, Museum purchase, Courtesy of Winterthur Museum.]]
Little is known about the design of the first mansion and gardens constructed at Wye House. When Edward I moved to England in 1668, he left the estate in the care of his son Philemon Lloyd (1646–85), who most likely built the first Wye House mansion and other structures. The first house was organized along an east-west axis and was located in closer proximity than the current house to the Long [[Green]], the industrial center of production at Wye House and the center of [[plantation]] life for its enslaved residents. It is possible that the elegant Palladian villa depicted in the background at the left-hand side of [[Charles Willson Peale|Charles Willson Peale’s]] 1771 portrait of Edward Lloyd IV (1744–1796), his wife, Elizabeth Tayloe Lloyd (1750–1825), and their daughter Ann (1769–1841) represents the first Wye House mansion [Fig. 2].<ref>Peale painted the Lloyds at Wye House during the spring and summer of 1771. Christopher Weeks, ''Where Land and Water Intertwine: An Architectural History of Talbot County, Maryland'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984), 58n18, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FAA7H5A5 view on Zotero].</ref> A small brick house called the Captain’s Cottage (still extant) may have been an original dependency of the first Wye House and was likely built around 1660–64 and remodeled about 1810. It housed the [[plantation]] overseer who, from this location, could see and surveil the slave quarters on the Long [[Green]].<ref>“Wye House,” National Historic Landmark Nomination Form (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior. National Park Service, 2009), 5, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/M2AK49TQ view on Zotero]; Rice 2012, 221–22, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/4HIRQQZQ view on Zotero]; and Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', 51, 69–70, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero]. The cottage is where, according to Douglass’s 1845 autobiography, the overseer Aaron Anthony brutally and repeatedly whipped Douglass’s Aunt Hester.</ref>

Soon after Edward IV inherited Wye House from his father, Edward Lloyd III (1711–1770), he began modernizing its architecture and landscape to keep up with English trends.<ref>Pruitt argues, “Everything from agricultural tools, gardening manuals, seeds, plant cuttings, and stylistic trends came from England to Wye House.” In 1793, for example, Lloyd purchased a dozen each of garden rakes, garden scythes, and garden hoes from Oxley, Hancock & Co. of London. Pruitt, “Transatlantic Roots,” 5–6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/INXARUTF view on Zotero]. See also Michael Bourne, et al., ''Architecture and Change in the Chesapeake: A Field Tour on the Eastern and Western Shores'' (Crownsville, MD: Vernacular Architecture Forum and the Maryland Historical Trust Press, 1998), 115–19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5AGKPTNI view on Zotero].</ref> He commissioned the building of a new manor house—the extant late-Georgian, seven-part mansion—that was likely constructed between 1781–84.<ref>Robert Key, and architect and carpenter from Annapolis, Maryland, worked on the construction of the plantation house from 1781–98 and may have designed it as well. “Wye House” 2009, 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/M2AK49TQ view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Anonymous_cite"></span> Relocated farther from the Long [[Green]] than the first house, the construction of the new house also reoriented the landscape ninety degrees from the earlier east-west axis to the current north-south one. A one-story Palladian [[portico]] with four [[column]]s, added about 1799, covers the mansion’s south-facing front entrance. The landscape visible from the [[portico]] was symmetrical and ordered, with two long tree-lined [[avenue]]s leading from the public road to the house ([[#Anonymous|view text]]). The [[avenue]]s formed a circle around a large [[lawn]] to the south of the mansion with a [[ha-ha]]—one of the earliest known examples in America—that enabled livestock to graze without obstructing the [[vista]] from the house.<ref>Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', xv–xvi, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero]; Pruitt, “Transatlantic Roots,” 9, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/INXARUTF view on Zotero]; Russo 1992, 63, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/33G4DBP3 view on Zotero].Weeks argues that the ha-ha at Wye House is probably contemporary with the one at Mount Vernon an is “yet another example of how aware the Lloyds were of the latest trends in design, whether architectural or horticultural.” Weeks 1984, 67, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FAA7H5A5 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Parkinson_1805_cite"></span>Visitors to Wye House at the end of the eighteenth century, including the artist [[Charles Willson Peale]] and the British agricultural writer Richard Parkinson (1748–1815), noted the presence of a small [[deer park]] at Wye House, a relatively rare landscape feature in the United States ([[#Parkinson_1805|view text]]). A one-story [[veranda]] added in 1799 to the rear, north-facing side of the mansion covers the central block of the home and provides a [[view]] of an expansive [[green]] and Wye House’s [[greenhouse]].

Several acres of formal gardens were planted on either side of the [[green]] located between the mansion and [[greenhouse]], creating a secluded environment around the Lloyds’ home. The archeologists Mark P. Leone, James M. Harmon, and Jessica L. Neuwirth argue that such [[Geometric style|geometric]] gardens, a style favored by the Chesapeake Tidewater elite, was “consonant with the slaveholder ideology” by promoting and controlling “the hierarchy of movement throughout the gardens, the control over access to the gardens, the use of gardens as places to display oneself to visitors and workers alike, and the emphasis on the great house and garden of leisure in the midst of a larger working [[plantation]].”<ref>Mark P. Leone, James M. Harmon, and Jessica L. Neuwirth, “Perspective and Surveillance in Eighteenth-Century Maryland Gardens, including William Paca’s Garden on Wye Island,” ''Historical Archaeology'' 39, no. 4 (2005): 139, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZGGNCM5H view on Zotero]. See also Pruitt, “Transatlantic Roots,” 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/INXARUTF view on Zotero].</ref> The growing preference for the [[picturesque]] in late seventeenth-century British landscape architecture certainly shaped Edward IV’s landscape design as well; he used tall hedges and covered [[walk]]s to create [[view]]s that disappear and reemerge as visitors stroll the grounds.<ref>Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Douglass_1845_cite"></span>

[[File:0629.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 3, E. H. Pickering and Jack E. Boucher, Wye House Orangery, c. 1933.]]
According to Frederick Douglass, visitors from Baltimore, Annapolis, and Easton frequently came to visit the gardens at Wye House and especially the Lloyds’ collection of fruits in the [[greenhouse]] ([[#Douglass_1845|view text]]). The [[greenhouse]], also known as the [[orangery]], dates to about 1775 and is believed to be the only extant eighteenth-century structure of its kind in the United States [Fig. 3]. Measuring just over 85 feet long, it is composed of a central two-story section with a billiard room that is flanked by two single-story hip-roofed wings [Fig. 2]. Its brick walls are covered with rusticated stucco to imitate stonework. Tall Palladian windows enabled visitors to glimpse the various kinds of flora—decorative, edible, and medicinal—grown inside. The Lloyds sourced many of their plants from England, either through direct connections there or through intermediaries such as Upton Scott (1722–1814), an Irish-born Annapolis-based physician who purchased specimens for the Lloyds and connected them with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Records indicate that there was at least one other [[greenhouse]] and a [[hothouse]] on the property. A [[hothouse]], constructed around 1784 and located to the southeast of the extant [[greenhouse]], was used until improvements in heating the [[greenhouse]] at the turn of the nineteenth century rendered the [[hothouse]] redundant (it was demolished in the 1830s). The [[greenhouse|greenhouse’s]] new systems—including hot-air-duct heating and a water pump for irrigation—facilitated the cultivation of exotic plants such as orange and lemon trees.<ref>“Wye House” 2009, 4–5, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/M2AK49TQ view on Zotero]; and Pruitt, “Transatlantic Roots,” 5–6, 12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/INXARUTF view on Zotero]. The federal tax records from 1798, which describe each building at Wye House Plantation, “indicate that there were multiple greenhouse and hothouse buildings operating concurrently on the plantation.” Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', 31, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero]. Analysis of fossil pollen collected from the main rooms of the extant greenhouse reveal that lilies, crocuses, geraniums, pinks, irises, as well as some medicinal plants and other tropical plants were cultivated there. Ibid., 30.</ref> Douglass reports that the fruit cultivated in the Lloyds’ garden tempted many enslaved people at Wye House to attempt to sneak produce for themselves, despite the Lloyds’ efforts to exclude them from the garden and the risk of physical punishment if they were caught transgressing the barriers ([[#Douglass_1845|view text]]).

According to the archaeologist Elizabeth Pruitt, “The Lloyds cultivated the persona of the scientific gardener and kept social and economic connections to England in order to maintain their place among the Chesapeake elite…. However, the knowledge and abilities to run the [[plantation|plantation’s]] gardens and care for its plants belonged not only to them, but also to the enslaved gardeners.”<ref>Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', xviii, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero].</ref> A July 1796 inventory of the Lloyds’s library at Wye House reveal an extensive collection of books about agriculture, horticulture, and animal husbandry, including many well-known British publications such as Philip Miller’s ''Gardeners Dictionary'' (London, 7th ed., 1759), John Mills’s ''New and Complete System of Practical Husbandry'' (London, 5 vols., 1762–65), William Ellis’s ''Practical Farmer'' (London, 5th ed., 1759), Thomas Mawe and John Abercrombie’s ''Universal Gardener and Botanist'' (London, 1778), James Meader’s ''Modern Gardner'' (London, 1771), and numerous books by the English agriculturalist Arthur Young (1741–1820). They also owned more specialized volumes such as William Speechy’s ''Treatise on the Culture of the Vine'' (York, 1790) and John Abercrombie’s ''Hot-House Gardener'' (London, 1789), as well as architectural treatises including Isaac Ware’s translation of Andrea Palladio’s ''Four Books of Architecture'' (London, 1738), James Gibbs’s ''Book of Architecture'' (London, 2nd ed., 1739), Abraham Swan’s ''Collection of Designs in Architecture'' (London, 2 vols., 1757), and Thomas Collins Overton’s ''Original Designs of Temples, and Other Ornamental Buildings for Parks and Gardens'' (London, 1766).<ref>Edwin Wolf II, “The Library of Edward Lloyd IV of Wye House,” ''Winterthur Portfolio'' 5 (1969): 90–1; see p. 92–121 for the inventory, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/CH8KXAJJ view on Zotero].</ref> Frederick Douglass reports that the Lloyds brought a Mr. McDermott from Scotland to be the chief scientific gardener on the [[plantation]], and that he worked alongside four assistants (who were likely enslaved). A 1796 census (taken before Douglass’s account) names four enslaved gardeners: Big Jacob, Little Jacob, Kitt, and Stephen.<ref>According to Russo, surviving labor contracts suggest that Edward Lloyd IV hired free laborers to work as gardeners at Wye House during the 1770s and purchased indentured servants to work as gardeners during the same period. Russo notes at least two skilled indentured gardeners who were employed by Lloyd: Peter Moir was purchased to work as a gardener for a period of three years in March 1774 at a price of £30. Lloyd purchased another indentured servant to work as a gardener from James Hutchings in February 1775. Lloyd hired the free gardener Robert Cushney in 1772. Russo 1992, 75–79, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/33G4DBP3 view on Zotero]. After the 1770s, as Edward IV greatly expanded his enslaved labor force and the number of farms he operated, he relied increasingly on the labor of enslaved workers. The majority performed agricultural labor in Lloyd’s fields. In 1770 there were thirty-three enslaved people at Wye House Plantation, but by 1834 the population had grown to 151 enslaved people. Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', 15, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero]. The Lloyds’ records of the more than five hundred enslaved men, women, and children who lived at Wye House between 1770 and 1834 survive and have been entered into an online searchable database maintained by Archaeology in Annapolis, http://aia.umd.edu/wyehouse/.</ref>

Archaeological and archaeobotanical evidence points to the fact that African American and European cultivation and use practices coexisted at Wye House. Archaeological excavations at the [[greenhouse]] have revealed the presence of a slave quarter in a northwest room. This space likely housed the individuals who ran the [[greenhouse]] between 1790 and 1840.<ref>Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', 49, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero].</ref> Archeologists have also identified four bundles of West and West-Central African objects that they connect to Hoodoo spiritual practices, two of which were found in the [[greenhouse]]: one, located at the threshold of the slave quarter, contained two coins and two prehistoric projectile points, while the other, a pestle, was found concealed within the bricks of the [[greenhouse|greenhouse’s]] furnace system, likely placed there during its construction.<ref>Mark P. Leone and Lee M. Jenkins, “Introduction: Frederick Douglass and the Transatlantic Classroom,” in ''Atlantic Crossings in the Wake of Frederick Douglass: Archaeology, Literature, and Spatial Culture'', edited by Mark P. Leone and Lee M. Jenkins (Leiden: Brill Rodopi, 2017), xxxv–xxxvi, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGQEV4UM view on Zotero].</ref> Fossilized pollen collected from the [[greenhouse]] slave quarter reveals some of the ways that enslaved people at Wye House utilized plants—both grown and foraged—to meet their nutritional and medicinal needs. The data indicate that the room’s inhabitants consumed bananas and plantains, nightshades, cranberries, blueberries, mustards, and cabbage, as well as medicinal plants that were likely grown by enslaved gardeners, including buckbean, ginger root, arrowhead, arsmart, and phlox. Leone and his team argue that “the pollen at the Wye [[greenhouse]] shows a full understanding [on the part of the enslaved] of European gardening and agriculture and a full use of the food-producing environment too,” contributing to the “beginning for our understanding of African American gardening.”<ref>Mark P. Leone, et al., “In the Shade of Frederick Douglass: The Archaeology of Wye House,” ''Reclaiming Archaeology: Beyond the Tropes of Modernity'', edited by Alfredo González-Ruibal (Milton Park, NY: Routledge, 2013), 223, 226, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MN6G9469 view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==

*[[Charles Willson Peale|Peale, Charles Willson]], c. 1790, describing Wye House (Miller et al., eds., 2000: 5:147)<ref>Lillian B. Miller et al., eds., ''The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family'', vol. 5, ''The Autobiography of Charles Willson Peale'' (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/IZAKPCBG? view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The Coll. is possessed of immence property, he had 400 Ars. of land in a [[park]] to keep [[Deer park|Deer]], round which was a [[fence]] of 20 rails high, Maise were planted within for sustenance of his deer. He also had on his farm an immence number of wild Turkies—the writer has seen 20 of them in a flock. His seat being on Wye river, he had a seine of immence length and breadth, requiring at least 20 men to hawl it, of course the quantity of Fish which at times has been taken is wonderful. at one time and in wares [weirs] he fed sheepshead so that at all times of the summer season he could have them fresh for his table.”

*<div id="Parkinson_1805"></div>Parkinson, Richard, 1798–1800, describing Wye House (1805: 1:226–28)<ref>Richard Parkinson, ''A Tour in America, 1798, 1799, and 1800: Exhibiting Sketches of Society and Manners, and a Particular Account of the American System of Agriculture, with Its Recent Improvements'', 2 vols. (London: J. Harding, 1805), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/J8PV5PS4 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“I then was introduced to Ed. Loyd [''sic''], Esq. at Why-House, a man of very extensive possessions—I have heard say, thirteen [[plantation]]s, of one thousand acres each. His house and gardens are what may be termed elegant: and the land appeared the best I ever saw in any one spot in America. He had a [[Deer park|deer-park]], which is a very rare thing there: I saw but two in the county; this, and another belonging to Colonel Mercer. These [[park]]s are small—not above fifty acres each. I could scarcely tell what the deer lived on. There were only some of those small rushes growing in this [[park]] which bear the name of grass, and leaves of trees.

:“Mr. Singleton and Mr. Loyd had each a field of clover, and all the clover I saw in my ride. If clover were as productive as some authors tell us, there would be more of it grown: but, like mine, it will not pay for mowing. Mr. Loyd had a small field of timothy,—I suppose intended for his saddle and carriage horses,--and the only one I saw in all my ride, of any intended for hay. Mr. Loyd had the finest field of Indian corn I ever beheld—so neat, not a weed that I saw in one hundred acres all in one field; and the corn then going into silk, and in general as high as a man on horseback. He had the best crop of buckwheat I ever saw, intended to be ploughed in the vegetable manure. He had about five acres of pumpkins in good condition. All his crops were better than any other I saw in any part of America, and every thing in the greatest order. He has some very good sheep, fine cattle, and very good horses. Mr. Loyd’s father had some years before imported a bull and two cows from Mr. Bakewell: and from the offspring he had some of the fattest cattle that could be imagined, for the food they had to live upon. He estimated some of his wheat at fifteen bushels per acre; and it was said the produce from eighteen hundred acres of land was eighteen thousand bushels of wheat; which was one of the greatest crops in America.” [[#Parkinson_1805_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Douglass_1845"></div>Douglass, Frederick, 1845, describing Wye House (1845: 15–16)<ref>Frederick Douglass, ''Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave'' (Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JFVW6XCU view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Colonel Lloyd kept a large and finely cultivated garden, which afforded almost constant employment for four men, besides the chief gardener, (Mr. M’Durmond.) This garden was probably the greatest attraction of the place. During the summer months, people came from far and near—from Baltimore, Easton, and Annapolis—to see it. It abounded in fruits of almost every description, from the hardy apple of the north to the delicate orange of the south. This garden was not the least source of trouble on the [[plantation]]. Its excellent fruit was quite a temptation to the hungry swarms of boys, as well as the older slaves, belonging to the colonel, few of whom had the virtue or vice to resist it. Scarcely a day passed, during the summer, but that some slave had to take the lash for stealing fruit. The colonel had to resort to all kinds of stratagems to keep his slaves out of the garden. The last and most successful one was that of tarring the [[fence]] all around; after which, if a slave was caught with any tar upon his person, it was deemed sufficient proof that he had either been into the garden, or had tried to get in. In either case, he was severely whipped by the chief gardener.” [[#Douglass_1845_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Anonymous"></div>Anonymous, 1852, describing Wye House (1852: 59)<ref>Anonymous, “The Maryland Trial of Reapers,” ''The American Farmer, a Monthly Magazine of Agriculture and Horticulture'' 8, no. 2 (August 1852): 59, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5MN43NRR view on Zotero].</ref>

:“[Col. Lloyd’s] residence is one of the most splendid in this country, being the homestead of the Lloyd family since their first settlement in Maryland. The lane leading from the public road to the house is about half a mile long, and arched with stately rows of linden and magnificent elm trees—the gardens are extensive, and in a most splendid state of cultivation, and the lawns and trees and shrubbery around his beautiful mansion, are tastefully arranged, and present a most lovely appearance. The broad and fertile fields are dotted over with majestic forest trees, which present to the eye a most picturesque and beautiful view of the surrounding country.” [[#Anonymous_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Douglass_1855"></div>Douglass, Frederick, 1855, describing Wye House (1855; repr., 1987: 44–48, 70–71)<ref>Frederick Douglass, ''My Bondage and My Freedom'', ed. William L. Andrews (1855; repr., Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1987), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/Q764CVCK? view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Just such a secluded, dark, and out-of-the-way place, is the ‘home [[plantation]]’ of Col. Edward Lloyd, on the Eastern Shore, Maryland. It is far away from all the great thoroughfares, and is proximate to no town or village. . . Its whole public is made up of, and divided into, three classes—SLAVEHOLDERS, SLAVES and OVERSEERS. . .

:“. . . . Civilization is shut out, but nature cannot be. Though separated from the rest of the world; though public opinion, as I have said, seldom gets a chance to penetrate its dark domain; though the whole place is stamped with its own peculiar, iron-like individuality; and though crimes, high-handed and atrocious, may there be committed, with almost as much impunity as upon the deck of a pirate ship,—it is, nevertheless, altogether, to outward deeming, a most strikingly interesting place, full of life, activity, and spirit. . .

:“There was a windmill (always a commanding object to a child’s eye) on Long Point—a tract of land dividing Miles river from the Wye—a mile or more from my old master’s house. There was a creek to swim in, at the bottom of an open flat space, of twenty acres or more, called 'the Long [[Green]]'—a very beautiful play-ground for the children. . .

:“Then here were a great many houses; human habitations, full of the mysteries of life at every stage of it. There was the little red house, up the road, occupied by Mr. Sevier, the overseer. A little nearer to my old master’s, stood a very long, rough, low building, literally alive with slaves, of all ages, conditions and sizes. This was called ‘the Long Quarter.’ Perched upon a hill, across the Long Green, was a tall, dilapidated, old brick building—the architectural dimensions of which proclaimed its erection for a different purpose—now occupied by slaves, in a similar manner to the Long Quarter. Besides these, there were numerous other slave houses and huts, scattered around in the neighborhood, every nook and corner of which was completely occupied. . .

:“Besides these dwellings, there were barns, stables, store-houses, and tobacco-houses; blacksmiths’ shops, wheelwrights’ shops, coopers’ shops—all objects of interest; but, above all, there stood the grandest building my eyes had then ever beheld, called, by every one on the [[plantation]], the ‘Great House.’ This was occupied by Col. Lloyd and his family. They occupied it; I enjoyed it. The great house was surrounded by numerous and variously shaped out-buildings. There were kitchens, wash-houses, dairies, [[summerhouse|summer-house]], [[greenhouse|green-houses]], hen-houses, turkey-houses, pigeon-houses, and [[arbor]]s, of many sizes and devices, all neatly painted, and altogether interspersed with grand old trees, ornamental and primitive, which afforded delightful shade in summer, and imparted to the scene a high degree of stately beauty. The great house itself was a large, white, wooden building, with wings on three sides of it. In front, a large [[portico]], extending the entire length of the building, and supported by a long range of [[column]]s, gave to the whole establishment an air of solemn grandeur. It was a treat to my young and gradually opening mind, to behold this elaborate exhibition of wealth, power, and vanity. The carriage entrance to the house was a large [[gate]], more than a quarter of a mile distant from it; the intermediate space was a beautiful [[lawn]], very neatly trimmed, and watched with the greatest care. It was dotted thickly over with delightful trees, [[shrubbery]], and flowers. The road, or lane, from the [[gate]] to the great house, was richly paved with white pebbles from the beach, and, in its course, formed a complete circle around the beautiful [[lawn]]. Carriages going in and retiring from the great house, made the circuit of the lawn, and their passengers were permitted to behold a scene of almost Eden-like beauty. Outside this select inclosure, were [[park]]s, where—as about the residences of the English nobility—rabbits, deer, and other wild game, might be seen, peering and playing about, with none to molest them or make them afraid. The tops of the stately poplars were often covered with the red-winged black-birds, making all nature vocal with the joyous life and beauty of their wild, warbling notes. . .

:“A short distance from the great house, were the stately mansions of the dead, a place of somber aspect. Vast tombs, embowered beneath the weeping willow and the fir tree, told of the antiquities of the Lloyd family, as well as of their wealth. Superstition was rife among the slaves about this family [[cemetery|burying ground]]. Strange sights had been seen there by some of the older slaves. Shrouded ghosts, riding on great black horses, had been seen to enter; balls of fire had been seen to fly there at midnight, and horrid sounds had been repeatedly heard. Slaves know enough of the rudiments of theology to believe that those go to hell who die slaveholders; and they often fancy such persons wishing themselves back again, to wield the lash. Tales of sights and sounds, strange and terrible, connected with the huge black tombs, were a very great security to the grounds about them, for few of the slaves felt like approaching them even in the day time. It was a dark, gloomy and forbidding place, and it was difficult to feel that the spirits of the sleeping dust there deposited, reigned with the blest in the realms of eternal peace. . .

:. . . Nor are the fruits of the earth forgotten or neglected. The fertile garden, many acres in size, constituting a separate establishment, distinct from the common farm—with its scientific gardener, imported from Scotland, (a Mr. McDermott,) with four men under his direction, was not behind, either in the abundance or in the delicacy of its contributions to the same full board. The tender asparagus, the succulent celery, and the delicate cauliflower; egg plants, beets, lettuce, parsnips, peas, and French beans, early and late; radishes, cantelopes [''sic''], melons of all kinds; the fruit and flowers of all climes and of all descriptions, from the hardy apple of the north to the lemon and orange of the south, culminate at this point.” [[#Douglass_1855_cite|back up to History]]

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:2210.jpg|''The Edward Lloyd Family'', Charles Wilson Peale, 1771, Oil on canvas, 1964.0124 A, B, Museum purchase, Courtesy of Winterthur Museum.

Image:2211.jpg| Dennis Griffith, ''Map of the State of Maryland laid down from an actual survey of all the principal waters, public roads, and divisions of the counties therein; describing the situation of the cities, towns, villages, houses of worship and other public buildings, furnaces, forges, mills, and other remarkable places; and of the Federal Territory; as also a sketch of the State of Delaware shewing the probable connexion of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays,'' ca. 1794 [detail]. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Washington, DC.

Image:0629.jpg|E. H. Pickering and Jack E. Boucher, ''Wye House Orangery'', c. 1933. Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==

[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2002004385.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[http://aia.umd.edu/wyehouse/ Archeology in Annapolis Project – People of Wye House]

[http://www.wyehousearchaeology.org/ Wye House Archaeology – “Frederick Douglass and Wye House”]

[http://www.chipstone.org/html/publications/2002AF/Kirtley/2002Kirtleyindex.html Chipstone Foundation – Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley, “Survival of the Fittest: The Lloyd Family’s Furniture Legacy”]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Washington Square (Philadelphia, PA)

2019-12-30T19:15:51Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

Washington Square, originally called Southeast Square, was one of five open spaces incorporated into William Penn’s original plan for the city of Philadelphia in 1683. It was primarily a grazing pasture and potter’s field—as well as an important site of both celebration and mourning for Philadelphia’s African American community—until 1794. In that year the city began to return the site to its original role as a public square, with the inclusion of [[walk|walks]] and an extensive variety of trees. Philadelphia’s Select and Common Councils appointed a committee to oversee improvements to the city’s squares in 1815, and proposed renaming them in honor of celebrated Americans, with Southeast Square rechristened Washington Square in honor of the country’s first president.

==Overview==
'''Alternate Names:''' Southeast Square; Potter’s Field {{break}}
'''Site Dates:''' 1682–present {{break}}
'''Site Owner(s):''' City of Philadelphia; National Park Service{{break}}
'''Associated People:''' Thomas Holme (d. 1695); George Bridport (1783–1819); George Vaux (1779–1836) {{break}}
'''Location:''' Philadelphia, PA<br/>
'''Condition:''' extant<br/>
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Washington+Square+Park/@39.9472354,-75.1513297,16z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x5e718fbcd1ea571e View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[File:0144.jpg|thumbnail|left|Fig. 1, Thomas Holme, “A Portraiture of the City of Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania,” 1683.]]

The 1683 plan for the city of Philadelphia, devised by William Penn and his surveyor, Thomas Holme, featured five public squares—one in the city’s center, and one in each of its four quadrants—which were intended to preserve the health and well-being of “this greene country town” and its inhabitants [Fig. 1]. The Southeast Square, however, soon began to serve other purposes; as early as 1706 it was leased as grazing pasture and was also designated a [[burying ground]] for strangers and the poor, later serving as an interment site for Revolutionary War soldiers and victims of Philadelphia’s 1793 yellow fever epidemic. It also became an important locus for free and enslaved African Americans, who used the square as both a [[cemetery]] and a place of celebration.<ref>Bill Double, ''Philadelphia’s Washington Square'' (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2009), 8–9, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8JWSTAP2 view on Zotero].</ref>

In 1738 the city’s municipal councils drafted an ordinance intended to suppress various “Tumultuous meetings” of Philadelphia’s African American community, which may have led to the relocation of their gatherings to Southeast Square.<ref>John F. Watson, ''Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, in the olden time; being a collection of memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the city and its inhabitants . . . '', vol. 1 (Philadelphia: John Pennington and Uriah Hunt, 1844), 62, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KRUCIMIP/q/Watson view on Zotero]. </ref> In his ''Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania'', historian John Watson observed that “[i]t was the custom for the slave blacks, at the time of fairs and other great holidays, to go there to the number of one thousand . . . and hold their dances, dancing after the manner of their several nations in Africa, and speaking and singing in their native dialects.”<ref>Watson 1844, 1:406, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KRUCIMIP/q/Watson view on Zotero].</ref> Due to the important role Southeast Square played for Black Philadelphians, many were understandably angered by attempts disturb the site, particularly by those intending to disinter bodies for anatomical study. The African American community developed a nightly patrol to prevent such exhumations, much to the frustration of Dr. William Shippen Jr., professor of medicine at the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania): “[T]he negroes have determined to watch all who are buried in the Potters field,” Shippen wrote. “[O]n Saturday night with the assistance of six invalids with muskets [the exhumers] beat off the negroes and obtained a corps. I lodged it in the Theater. The resolute impertinent blacks broke open ye house stole ye subject and reburied it.”<ref>William Shippen Jr. to Thomas Lee Shippen, December 18, 1787, quoted in ''Cultural Landscape Report for Washington Square'' (Philadelphia: U.S. Department of the Interior and National Park Service, September 2010), 2.19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H4XK5UWA view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:0902.jpg|thumbnail|left|Fig. 2, George Bridport, Design for Washington Monument, Washington Square, Philadelphia, 1816.]]

[[File:0901.jpg|thumbnail|Fig. 3, George Bridport, “Alternative designs for Washington Monument, Washington Square, Philadelphia,” 1816.]]

By 1794, Philadelphia’s municipal councils determined to improve Southeast Square by removing the [[burying ground]], enclosing the site with a border [[fence]], and planting Lombardy poplars.<ref>''Cultural Landscape Report'' 2010, 1.19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H4XK5UWA view on Zotero]. See also the entry for “Trees” in ''The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia'', which highlights the importance of the Lombardy poplar as one of George Washington’s favorite trees, <http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/trees-2/>.</ref> Though no longer used for burials, the site continued to be used for livestock, with a cattle market operating on the west side of the square between 1797 and 1815.<ref>''Cultural Landscape Report'' 2010, 1.20, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H4XK5UWA view on Zotero].</ref> In 1815 and 1816, the Select and Common Councils appointed a committee to oversee improvements to Philadelphia’s squares and proposed renaming its four smaller squares in honor of celebrated Americans. This led to George Bridport’s 1816 plan for the site, which was renamed Washington Square in honor of the United States’ first president [Fig. 2].<ref>Elizabeth Milroy, “Repairing the Myth and the Reality of Philadelphia’s Public Squares, 1800–1850,” ''Change Over Time'' 1:1 (Spring 2011): 63, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/4VUAK4JG view on Zotero]. Southeast Square was known as Washington Square as early as 1818, but it was not officially renamed until 1825.</ref> Bridport, a London-born, Philadelphia-based artist and architect, developed a plan for the site featuring two circular [[promenade|promenades]] and a central plaza to accommodate a memorial to George Washington, for which the Society of the Cincinnati had begun to solicit funds as early as 1810.<ref>''Cultural Landscape Report'' 2010, 1.35, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H4XK5UWA view on Zotero]. Numerous advertisements in the ''Democratic Press'', ''Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser'', and ''Relfs Philadelphia Gazette'' began to appear in 1810, announcing a lottery to raise funds for the Washington monument.</ref> Bridport developed two separate designs for the proposed monument: the first a domed [[temple]] flanked by [[obelisk|obelisks]], and the second a figurative statue framed by an [[arch]] [Fig. 3]. The executed design for Washington Square differed somewhat from Bridport’s original plan, as shown in an 1843 map, though it retained a circular [[promenade]] [Fig. 4]. The monument to George Washington never came to fruition, despite the efforts of the Society of the Cincinnati and proposals by Bridport and others, including the sculptor Henrico Caucici and the architect William Strickland.<ref>Caucici proposed his model of an equestrian statue as the design for the Washington monument; see ''Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser'' (November 20, 1816), p. 3.</ref>

[[File:0903.jpg|thumbnail|left|Fig. 4, M. Schmitz (artist), Thomas S. Sinclair (lithographer), John B. Colahan (surveyor), “Map of Washington Square, Philadelphia,” 1843.]]

The layout of Bridport’s plan for Washington Square was overseen in 1816 and 1817 by George Vaux, a member of Philadelphia’s Common Council and the fourth President of the Horticultural Society of Pennsylvania, and the gardener Andrew Gillespie. Vaux’s papers identify sources for paving bricks, fencing, and trees, a number of which were purchased from [[Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery|Bartram’s Garden]], including a wide array of maples, oaks, and poplars, among others.<ref>''Cultural Landscape Report'' 2010, 1.40–42, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H4XK5UWA view on Zotero]. George Vaux’s papers are held by the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, located on the eastern edge of Washington Square.</ref> The variety of trees in Washington Square carried great educational value, according to a report published on behalf of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society in 1831: “Hence instruction, with respect to our own productions, is placed before the public, and at the same time it is ascertained what trees are best acclimated to our own climate.”<ref>''Report of the Committee appointed by the Horticultural Society of Pennsylvania for Visiting the Nurseries and Gardens in the Vicinity of Philadelphia'' (Philadelphia: W. Geddes, 1831), 15, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/SSQIGDZR view on Zotero].</ref> Indeed, the number and variety of species planted at Washington Square led [[Andrew Jackson Downing]] to describe the site as a “really admirable city ''[[arboretum]]''.”<ref>Andrew Jackson Downing, ''Rural Essays'' (New York: George P. Putnam and Company, 1853), 305, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/USXH6MA2/q/rural%20essays view on Zotero].</ref> A rare map dating to the second half of the 1830s highlights the different trees featured in the square [Fig. 5].

[[File:1141 top.jpg|thumbnail|Fig.5, Anonymous, Map of Washington Square [detail], c. 1835–40.]]

Although the 1816 redesign of Washington Square was intended to return it to its original purpose as a green space for an urban populace, including “those classes whose occupations are mechanical and sedentary,” it was initially accessible to the public only during the summer and autumn months.<ref>Letter to Senate, n.d., (c. 1816–24), quoted in ''Cultural Landscape Report'' 2010, 1.31, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H4XK5UWA view on Zotero].</ref> By about 1825, however, it had become a year-round place of recreation and play, a site where children could “gambol and race over the smooth, clean, and shaded promenades” and fashionable couples could enjoy their evening peregrinations.<ref> ''National Gazette'' [Philadelphia] (June 1, 1830), p. 1.</ref> Although Washington Square underwent additional redesigns in 1881, 1913, and 1952, it continues to serve as a restorative natural site for Philadelphians.<ref>''Cultural Landscape Report'' 2010, 2.25–28, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H4XK5UWA view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Elizabeth Athens''

<hr>

==Texts==
*Shippen, William, Jr., December 18, 1787, in a letter to Thomas Lee Shippen<ref>Quoted in ''Cultural Landscape Report'' 2010, 2.19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H4XK5UWA view on Zotero]</ref>

:" . . . the negroes have determined to watch all who are buried in the Potters field . . . on Saturday night with the assistance of six invalids with muskets [the exhumers] beat off the negroes and obtained a corps. I lodged it in the Theater. The resolute impertinent blacks broke open ye house stole ye subject and reburied it.”

* Lane, Samuel, 1820, describing George Bridport’s proposal for Washington Square, Philadelphia, PA (quoted in O’Gorman et al. 1986: 68)<ref>James F. O’Gorman et al., ''Drawing Toward Building: Philadelphia Architectural Graphics, 1732–1986'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press for the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1986), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/B3XMK8MH view on Zotero].</ref>

:“[I am writing] to ascertain the artist who designed the public Garden on Chestnut Street [''sic''] at the place (if I am not mistaken) formerly called Potters field; and if he is in your town inquire if he would come on here [Washington, DC] to furnish a design for Improving the Capitol [[Square]].”

* Trollope, Frances Milton, 1830, describing Washington Square, Philadelphia, PA (1832: 2:48–49)<ref>Frances Trollope, ''Domestic Manners of the Americans'', 3rd ed., 2 vols. (London: Wittaker, Treacher, 1832), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/T5RXDF7G view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Near this enclosure [at the State House] is another of much the same description, called Washington Square. Here there was an excellent crop of clover; but as the trees are numerous, and highly beautiful, and several commodious [[seat]]s are placed beneath their shade, it is, spite of the long grass, a very agreeable retreat from heat and dust. It was rarely, however, that I saw any of these [[seat]]s occupied; the Americans have either no leisure, or no inclination for those moments of ''delassement'' that all other people, I believe, indulge in. . . . it is nevertheless the nearest approach to a London [[square]] that is to be found in Philadelphia.”

* Trego, Charles, 1843, describing Philadelphia, PA (1843: 318–19)<ref>Charles B. Trego, ''A Geography of Pennsylvania'' (Philadelphia: Edward C. Biddle, 1843), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/HC6JKU7N view on Zotero].</ref>

:“''Public [[Square]]s''.—It is to the wise and liberal foresight of the great founder of Pennsylvania that we owe most of the public [[square]]s which now ornament our city. In the original plan, as laid out by Thomas Holmes, Penn’s surveyor general in 1682, there was to be a public [[square]] in the centre containing ten acres, and one in each quarter of the city containing eight acres. . . .

:“Washington [[square]], on Sixth street between Walnut and Locust, was for many years used as a public [[burial ground]] for the poor and for strangers, under the name of the Potters’ field. . . . Its improvement as a public [[square]] commenced in 1815, when a variety of trees were planted, gravel [[walk]]s laid out, and other steps taken which have led to its present attractive appearance. It is intended to erect, in the centre of this [[square]], a monument to the memory of Washington; the cornerstone having been laid with due ceremony at the celebration of his birth day, on the 22nd of February, 1833.”

* [[J. C. Loudon|Loudon, J. C. (John Claudius)]], 1850, describing public gardens (1850: 332–33)<ref>J. C. Loudon, ''An Encyclopaedia of Gardening; Comprising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, and Landscape-Gardening'', new ed., corr. and improved (London: Longman et al., 1850), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/W8EQFZUG view on Zotero].</ref>

:“856. ''Public Gardens''. . . .

:“''[[Promenade]] at Philadelphia''. There is a very pretty enclosure before the walnut tree entrance to the state-house, with good well-kept gravel [[walk]]s, and many beautiful flowering trees. It is laid down in grass, not in turf; which indeed, Mrs. Trollope observes, ‘is a luxury she never saw in America.’ Near this enclosure is another of a similar description, called Washington Square, which has numerous trees, with commodious seats placed beneath their shade.”

* Watson, John Fanning, 1857, describing Washington Square, Philadelphia, PA (1:405)<ref>John Fanning Watson, ''Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in the Olden Time; Being a Collection of Memoirs, Anecdotes, and Incidents of the City and Its Inhabitants, and of the Earliest Settlements of the Inland Part of Pennsylvania, from the Days of the Founders'', 2 vols. (Philadelphia: E. Thomas, 1857), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5PTKBUW2 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“This beautiful [[square]], now so much the resort of citizens and strangers, as a [[promenade]], was, only twenty-five years ago, a ‘Potter’s Field,’ . . . It was long enclosed in a post and rail [[fence]], and always produced much grass.”

<hr>

==Images==
<span id="roundabout_img"></span>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:0902.jpg|George Bridport, “Design for Washington Monument, Washington Square, Philadelphia,” 1816.

Image:0901.jpg|George Bridport, “Alternative designs for Washington Monument, Washington Square, Philadelphia,” 1816.

Image:1141_top.jpg|Anonymous, “Map of Washington Square” [detail], c. 1835–40.

Image:1141_bottom.jpg|Anonymous, “Map of Washington Square” [detail], c. 1835–40.

Image:0903.jpg|M. Schmitz (artist), Thomas S. Sinclair (lithographer), John B. Colahan (surveyor), “Map of Washington Square, Philadelphia,” 1843.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Map==
{{#display_map:
39.9472354, -75.1513297
| service=google
| enablefullscreen=yes
}}

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh93000671.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[http://tclf.org/landscapes/washington-square-pa?destination=search-results The Cultural Landscape Foundation]

[https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/historyculture/places-washingtonsquare.htm National Park Service]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category: Places]]

Washington Monument (Washington, DC)

2019-12-30T19:14:37Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

The '''Washington Monument''' is a towering [[obelisk]] on the [[National Mall]] in Washington, DC, that was erected as a memorial to [[George Washington]] (1732–1799), commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and first president of the United States.

==Overview==

'''Site Dates:''' 1848 to present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' National Park Service<br/>
'''Associated People:''' [[Robert Mills]] (1781–1855, architect); Thomas Lincoln Casey (1831–1896, engineer)<br/>
'''Location:'''Washington, DC<br/>
'''Condition:''' extant<br/>
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Washington+Monument/@38.889484,-77.035279,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xe97346828ed0bfb8 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[File:0830.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, Robert Mills, “Details of the Washington Monument for Mr. Daugherty, Superintendent of the Work, Washington, DC, October 24, 1848."]]
Although plans for the monument began during [[George Washington|Washington]]’s lifetime, construction was delayed until several decades after his death as a result of protracted debate over the intentions, location, and design most fitting for this key emblem of the new nation.<ref>Kirk Savage, ''Monument Wars: Washington, DC, the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), 36–60, 118–23, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WNN7I268 view on Zotero]; Rubil Morales-Vázquez, “Imagining Washington: Monuments and Nation Building in the Early Capital,” ''Washington History'' 12, no. 1 (Spring–Summer 2000): 14–17, 22–24; 28–29, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/HSJMDC87 view on Zotero]; Rhodri Windsor Liscombe, ''Altogether American : Robert Mills, Architect and Engineer, 1781–1855'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 265–68, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NGNZ65WN view on Zotero]; Kirk Savage, “The Self-Made Monument: George Washington and the Fight to Erect a National Memorial,” ''Winterthur Portfolio'' 22, no. 4 (Winter 1987): 225–42, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ECK7FKZ3 view on Zotero]; Robert Belmont Freeman Jr., “Design Proposals for the Washington National Monument,” ''Records of the Columbia Historical Society'' 49 (1973/74): 151–86, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/6NFB7I9D view on Zotero].</ref>

The initial plan for the monument, authorized by the Continental Congress in 1783, was for a bronze equestrian [[statue]] with “the general to be represented in Roman dress, holding a truncheon in his right hand.”<ref>Savage 1987, 227, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ECK7FKZ3 view on Zotero].</ref> The [[statue]] and its support (a marble pedestal ornamented with bas-relief panels representing scenes from the Revolutionary War) were to occupy a central position at the convergence of two central axes in [[Pierre-Charles L’Enfant]]’s 1791 plan of Washington, DC, and would be “executed by the best Artist in Europe, under the superintendence of the Minister of the United States at the Court of Versailles.”<ref>Morales-Vázquez 2000, 14 [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/HSJMDC87 view on Zotero]; Savage 1987, 227–28, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ECK7FKZ3 view on Zotero].</ref>

After [[George Washington|Washington]]’s death in 1799, Congress debated alternative schemes for the monument, including a grand mausoleum enshrining the President’s remains.<ref>Savage 2005, 38–43, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ECK7FKZ3 view on Zotero]; John M. Bryan, ''Robert Mills: America’s First Architect'' (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001), 220–21, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/P55UM5XC view on Zotero]; Morales-Vázquez 2000, 23–24, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/HSJMDC87 view on Zotero].</ref> Finally, in 1833, a group of private citizens formed the Washington National Monument Society for the purpose of erecting a memorial “whose dimensions and magnificence shall be commensurate with the greatness and gratitude of the nation which gave him birth [and] whose splendor will be without parallel in the world.”<ref>Pamela Scott, “Robert Mills and American Monuments,” in ''Robert Mills, Architect'', ed. John M. Bryan (Washington, DC: American Institute of Architects Press, 1989), 157, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/E2TP47UJ view on Zotero].</ref> In 1845 the Society accepted a design submitted by the American architect [[Robert Mills]], whose previous memorial projects included a [[Washington Monument (Baltimore)|monument to Washington]] in the city of Baltimore. Returning to an architectural form he had suggested for the [[Bunker Hill Monument]] in 1825, [[Robert Mills|Mills]] proposed a 600-foot Egyptian-style marble [[obelisk]] encircled by a colonnaded Greek [[temple]] replete with statuary, ornamental relief sculptures, and murals representing historical events.<ref>Bryan 2001, 290–91, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/P55UM5XC view on Zotero]; Liscombe 1994, 260–63, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NGNZ65WN view on Zotero]; Scott 1989, 158–64, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/E2TP47UJ view on Zotero]; Pamela Scott, “‘This Vast Empire’: The Iconography of the Mall, 1791–1848,” in ''The Mall in Washington'', ed. Richard Longstreth (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1991), 50–52, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/N4WS8QU7 view on Zotero].</ref>

Construction began in 1848 but came to a halt from 1854 to 1877 owing to lack of funds, the Civil War, and other difficulties. By then, [[Robert Mills|Mills]]’s design had been radically simplified for aesthetic as well as financial reasons [Fig. 1]. When construction resumed under the supervision of Col. Thomas Lincoln Casey (1831–1896) of the Army Corps of Engineers, all decorative elements and inscriptions were eliminated and the height of the monument was scaled back to just over 555 feet, 5 inches.<ref>Savage 2005, 107, 112–17, 123–36, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WNN7I268 view on Zotero].</ref> Nevertheless, upon completion in 1884, the Washington Monument was the tallest built structure in the world and it remains the tallest building in Washington, DC<ref>“History & Culture,” Washington Monument web page, [http://www.nps.gov/wamo/historyculture/index.htm National Park Service].</ref>

—''Robyn Asleson''

<hr>

==Texts==
[[File:1835.jpg|thumb|Fig. 2, Robert Mills, ''Sketch of the Washington Nat’l. Monumt'', 1845.]]
*[[Robert Mills|Mills, Robert]], c. 1838, description of his design of the Washington Monument (quoted in Harvey 1903: 26–28)<ref>Frederick L. Harvey, ''History of the Washington Monument and Washington National Monument Society'' (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1903), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/975T9R2S view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“DESCRIPTION OF THE DESIGN OF THE WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT, TO BE ERECTED AT THE SEAT OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN HONOR OF ‘THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY,’ AND THE WORTHY COMPATRIOTS OF THE REVOLUTION.

:“This design embraces the idea of a grand circular colonnaded building, 250 feet in diameter and 100 feet high, from which springs a [[obelisk]] shaft 70 feet at the base and 500 feet high, making a total elevation of 600 feet.

:“This vast rotunda, forming the grand base of the Monument, is surrounded by 30 [[column]]s of massive proportions, being 12 feet in diameter and 45 feet high, elevated upon a lofty base or stylobate of 20 feet elevation and 300 feet square, surmounted by an entablature 20 feet high, and crowned by a massive balustrade 15 feet in height.

:“The [[terrace]] outside of the colonnade is 25 feet wide, and the pronaos or [[walk]] within the colonnade, including the [[column]] space, 25 feet. The [[walk]]s enclosing the cella, or gallery within, are fretted with 30 massive antæ (pilasters) 10 feet wide, 45 feet high, and 7-1/2 feet projection, answering to the [[column]]s in front, surmounted by their appropriate architrave. The deep recesses formed by the projection of the antæ provide suitable niches for the reception of [[statue]]s.

:“A tetrastyle [[portico]] (4 [[column]]s in front) in triple rows of the same proportions and order with the [[column]]s of the colonnade, distinguishes the entrance to the Monument, and serves as a pedestal for the triumphal car and [[statue]] of the illustrious Chief; the steps of this [[portico]] are flanked by massive blockings, surmounted by appropriate figures and trophies.

:“Over each [[column]], in the great frieze of the entablatures around the entire building, are sculptured escutcheons (coats of arms of each State in the Union), surrounded by bronze civic wreaths, banded together by festoons of oak leaves, &c., all of which spring (each way) from the centre of the [[portico]], where the coat of arms of the United States are emblazoned.

:“The [[statue]]s surrounding the rotunda outside, under the colonnade, are all elevated upon pedestals, and will be those of the glorious signers of the Declaration of Independence.

:“Ascending the [[portico]] outside to the [[terrace]] level a lofty vomitoria (door way) 30 feet high leads into the cella (rotundo gallery) 50 feet wide, 500 feet in circumference and 60 feet high, with a colossal [[pillar]] in the centre 70 feet in diameter, around which the gallery sweeps. This [[pillar]] forms the foundation of the [[obelisk]] [[column]] above.

:“Both sides of the gallery are divided into spaces by pilasters, elevated on a continued zocle or base 5 feet high, forming an order with its entablature 40 feet high, crowned by a vaulted ceiling 20 feet high, divided by radiating archevaults, corresponding with the relative positions of the opposing pilasters, and enclosing deep sunken coffers enriched with paintings.

:“The spaces between the pilasters are sunk into niches for the reception of the [[statue]]s of the fathers of the Revolution, contemporary with the immortal Washington; over which are large tablets to receive the National Paintings commemorative of the battle and other scenes of that memorable period. Opposite to the entrance of this gallery, at the extremity of the great circular wall, is the grand niche for the reception of the [[statue]] of the ‘Father of his Country’—elevated on its appropriate pedestal, and designated as principal in the group by its colossal proportions.

:“This spacious Gallery and Rotunda, which properly may be denominated the ‘National Pantheon,’ is lighted in four grand divisions from above, and by its circular form presents each subject decorating it walls in an interesting point of view and with proper effect, as the curiosity is kept up every moment, from the whole room not being presented to the eye at one glance, as in the case of a straight gallery.

:“Entering the centre pier through an arched way, you pass into a spacious circular area, and ascend with an easy grade, by a railway, to the grand [[terrace]], 75 feet above the base of the Monument. This [[terrace]] is 700 feet in circumference, 180 feet wide, enclosed by a colonnaded balustrade, 15 feet high with its base and capping. The circuit of this grand [[terrace]] is studded with small [[temple]]-formed structures, constituting the cupolas of the lanterns, lighting the Pantheon gallery below; by means of these little [[temple]]s, from a gallery within, a bird’s eye [[view]] is had of the [[statue]]s, &c., below.

:“Through the base of the great circle of the balustrade are four apertures at the four cardinal points, leading outside of the balustrade, upon the top of the main cornice, where a gallery 6 feet wide and 750 feet in circumference encircles the whole, enclosed by an ornamental guard, forming the crowning member on the top of the tholus of the main cornice of the grand colonnade. Within the thickness of this wall, staircases descend to a lower gallery over the plafond of the proanos of the colonnade lighted from above. This gallery, which extends all round the colonnade, is 20 feet wide—divided into rooms for the records of the monument, works of art, or studios for artists engaged in the service of the Monument. Two other ways communicate with this gallery from below.

:“In the centre of the grand [[terrace]] above described, rises the lofty [[obelisk]] shaft of the Monument, 50 feet square at the base, and 500 feet high, diminishing as it rises to its apex, where it is 40 feet square; at the foot of this shaft and on each face project four massive zocles 25 feet high, supporting so many colossal symbolic tripods of victory 20 feet high, surmounted by fascial columns with their symbols of authority. These zocle faces are embellished with inscriptions, which are continued around the entire base of the shaft, and occupy the surface of that part of the shaft between the tripods. On each face of the shaft above this is sculptured the four leading events in [[George Washington|General Washington’s]] eventful career, in basso relievo, and above this the shaft is perfectly plain to within 50 feet of its summit, where a simple star is placed, emblematic of the glory which the name of WASHINGTON has attained.

:“To ascend to the summit of the [[column]], the same facilities as below are provided within the shaft, by an easy graded gallery, which may be traversed by a railway, terminating in a circular observatory 20 feet in diameter, around which at the top is a look-out gallery, which opens a [[prospect]] all around the horizon.” [Fig. 2]

<hr>

==Images==
<span id="roundabout_img"></span>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:1835.jpg|Robert Mills, ''Sketch of the Washington Nat’l. Monumt.'', 1845.

Image:0110.jpg|Joseph Goldsborough Bruff (artist), Edward Weber & Co. (lithographer), ''Elements of National Thrift and Empire'', c. 1847.

Image:0830.jpg|Robert Mills, Details of the Washington Monument for Mr. Daugherty, Superintendent of the Work, Washington, DC, October 24, 1848.

Image:0428.jpg|Edward Weber, ''View of Washington City and Georgetown'' [detail], 1849.

Image:0025.jpg|Robert P. Smith, ''View of Washington'', c. 1850.

Image:0111.jpg|Seth Eastman, ''Washington’s Monument, Under Construction'', November 16, 1851.

Image:0042.jpg|Benjamin Franklin Smith Jr., ''Washington, DC, with projected improvements'', c. 1852.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2001006472.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[http://tclf.org/landscapes/washington-monument?destination=search-results The Cultural Landscape Foundation]

[http://www.nps.gov/wamo/learn/historyculture/index.htm Washington Monument History and Culture (National Park Service)]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category: Places]]

Washington Monument (Baltimore, MD)

2019-12-30T19:13:50Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

The '''Washington Monument (Baltimore)''' is the centerpiece of an urban [[park]] with four radiating [[square]]s in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is the earliest major commemorative structure planned in honor of [[George Washington]] (1732–1799), commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and first president of the United States. When completed, the 165-foot pedestal, [[column]], and base constituted the tallest columnar structure in the world.<ref>Pamela Scott, “Robert Mills and American Monuments,” in ''Robert Mills, Architect,'' ed. John M. Bryan (Washington, DC: American Institute of Architects Press, 1989), 150, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/E2TP47UJ view on Zotero].</ref> The monument’s fame attracted tourists, wealthy residents, and cultural institutions to Mount Vernon Place and initiated a wave of commemorative projects that led President John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) to dub Baltimore “The Monumental City” during a visit in 1827.<ref>Hezekiah Niles, “The President of the United States,” ''Niles’ Weekly Register'' 9, no. 8 (October 20, 1827): 114, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/E3SHQKG3 view on Zotero].</ref>

==Overview==
'''Site Dates:'''1813 to present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Managed by the non-profit Mount Vernon Place Conservancy in partnership with the City of Baltimore<br/>
'''Site Designer(s):''' [[Robert Mills]] (1781–1855)<br/>
'''Location:''' Baltimore, MD<br/>
'''Condition:''' extant<br/>
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Washington+Monument+%26+Museum/@39.2991161,-76.6158953,16z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x3e8f35de099a189d View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[File:0829.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, Robert Mills, ''Elevation of the Principal Fronts'', Washington Monument, Baltimore, 1814.]]
In 1810 a group of Baltimore citizens began raising funds by lottery for a monument in [[George Washington|Washington's]] honor. At the request of the managers of the Baltimore Washington Monument Society, the French architect Maximilian Godefroy (1765–c. 1838) submitted a variety of design possibilities, including an equestrian [[statue]] framed by a triumphal [[arch]]; a [[fountain]] within a rotunda; and a public [[square]] containing a [[statue]] of [[George Washington|Washington]] surrounded by trophies.<ref>J. Jefferson Miller, “The Designs for the Washington Monument in Baltimore,” ''Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians'' 23 (1964): 19–21, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5VX37FEW view on Zotero].</ref> None of these plans was adopted, and in 1813 the managers opened an international design competition that attracted entries from non-American artists, including the French neoclassical architect and landscape architect Joseph-Jacques Ramée (1764–1842) [Fig. 2]. The committee preferred not to give the commission to a foreigner, however, expressing the wish that “American artists will evince by their production that there will be no occasion to resort to any other country for a monument to the memory of their illustrious Fellow citizen.”<ref>Rhodri Windsor Liscombe, ''Altogether American : Robert Mills, Architect and Engineer, 1781–1855'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 63, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NGNZ65WN view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:0974.jpg|thumb|Fig. 2, Joseph-Jacques Ramée, ''Monument to the memory of general George Washington, to be erected at Baltimore'', design for the Washington Monument, 1813.]]
In 1814 the committee awarded the commission to the American architect [[Robert Mills]], who had drawn up a number of structurally and iconographically complex designs before settling on a massive pedestal resembling a Roman triumphal [[arch]] as the base for a 120-foot Doric [[column]] surmounted by a sculpture of [[George Washington|Washington]] in a quadriga guided by a personification of Victory [Fig. 1]. <span id="Mills_solidity_cite"></span>[[Robert Mills|Mills]] observed that the Doric proportions “possess solidity, and simplicity of character, emblematic of that of the illustrious personage to whose memory it is dedicated, and harmonising with the spirit of our Government” ([[#Mills_solidity|view text]]). Despite his emphasis on simplicity, [[Robert Mills|Mills]] devised an elaborate decorative scheme for the [[column]] and its base to reinforce the monument’s memorial and didactic functions. Six ironwork balconies were to divide the [[column]] at graduated intervals so that visitors climbing the internal stairway could pass outside to examine the bands of inscriptions and relief sculptures memorializing [[George Washington|Washington's]] accomplishments and other events in America’s revolutionary history. A viewing platform at the top of the [[column]] would provide [[vista]]s of the surrounding scenery.<ref>John M. Bryan, ''Robert Mills: America’s First Architect'' (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001), 105–17, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/P55UM5XC view on Zotero]; Miller 1964, 22–27, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5VX37FEW view on Zotero]; William D. Hoyt Jr., “Robert Mills and the Washington Monument in Baltimore” [Part One], ''Maryland Historical Magazine'' 34 (1939): 155–57, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/DC2JN4I5 view on Zotero].</ref> The monument was to be located on a summit to the north of the city on land that had been part of [[Belvedere]], the estate of former Maryland governor and state senator, Col. John Eager Howard (1752–1827).<ref>Lance Humphries, “Baltimore and the City Beautiful: Carrère & Hastings Reshape an American City,” in ''Modernism and Landscape Architecture, 1890–1940,'' ed. Therese O’Malley and Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn, Studies in the History of Art, Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, Symposium Papers, LV (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2015), 250, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/X29RH4U4 view on Zotero].</ref>

Aesthetic concerns and lack of funding led to the radical simplification of [[Robert Mills|Mills's]] design.<ref>Scott 1989, 146–54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/E2TP47UJ view on Zotero].</ref> The monument ultimately took the form of an unadorned Doric [[column]] on a simple rectilinear base surmounted by a [[statue]] of [[George Washington|Washington]] resigning his military commission to the President of the Maryland Congress. The Italian sculptor Enrico Causici (1790–1833) won the competition to create the 14-foot marble [[statue]], which was set in place in 1829.<ref> Bryan 2001, 208, 210–12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/P55UM5XC view on Zotero].</ref> Many of the ornamental motifs that [[Robert Mills|Mills]] had meticulously researched for the [[column]] and base were never added, despite his insistence that from a pedestrian’s perspective, they were “essentially requisite to give interest to the near view of the design, as without them there would be too great a degree of plain surface.”<ref>Catherine C. Lavoie, ''Washington Monument, Mount Vernon Place'' (Baltimore: Historic American Buildings Survey, 2005), 13–14, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZPR3HPVW view on Zotero].</ref> From 1830 to 1838, [[Robert Mills|Mills]] designed and oversaw the production of a cast-iron [[fence]] enclosure. It incorporated a number of symbolic elements originally intended for the monument, including distinctly Federal motifs such as stars, ribbon-bound fasces, and battle-axes.<ref>Robert L. Alexander, ''The Architecture of Maximilian Godefroy'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974), 180–82, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K83SXMJP view on Zotero].</ref>

From the beginning, [[Robert Mills|Mills]] was concerned with the relationship of the monument to its surroundings, and his attention to the viewer’s experience of the site as a whole resulted in the development of a larger [[park]] setting than originally planned. In his proposal, [[Robert Mills|Mills]] had expressed the opinion that “Monuments isolated, or in the open air, should be towering, and commanding in their elevation, especially when they are encircled by a City, otherwise its popular intention is frustrated.”<ref>Hoyt 1939, 154, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/DC2JN4I5 view on Zotero].</ref> The initial proposal included a description of the monument’s immediate surroundings, calling for a gravel [[walk]], eleven feet wide, enclosed by a white picket [[fence]] in an octagonal configuration, with an ornamental shade tree at each angle.<ref>Hoyt 1939, 146, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/DC2JN4I5 view on Zotero].</ref> In 1820 [[Robert Mills|Mills]] reiterated his concern that “some place for a [[promenade]] for the public should be provided,”<ref>Lavoie 2005, 27, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZPR3HPVW view on Zotero].</ref> and during the 1830s, as the land around the monument was being divided into house lots, he urged widening the streets leading to the monument as well as the circular green space surrounding the base. <span id="Mills_lots_cite"></span>“It would be a pity to have the space about the Mon[umen]t cramped,” he wrote in 1836. “Ample room here will be found not only ornamental but useful for many purposes, for the parade of troops, for great public meetings, etc.” ([[#Mills_lots|view text]]).

A description published in 1848 documents many of the improvements requested by Mills and alludes to the undeveloped state of the four public [[square]]s that flanked the monument. The writer predicted: “When these spaces can be adorned with appropriate rows of trees, as well as embellished with marble [[fountain]]s or [[basin]]s, and other ornaments . . . it will become one of the most delightful [[promenade]]s on this continent.”<ref>Lavoie 2005, 15, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZPR3HPVW view on Zotero].</ref> Shade trees, [[shrubbery]], sidewalks, and additional ornamental iron [[fence|fencing]] in keeping with that designed by [[Robert Mills|Mills]] were finally installed following passage of a city ordinance in 1850.<ref> Humphries 2015, 251, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/X29RH4U4 view on Zotero]; Lavoie 2005, 29, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZPR3HPVW view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Robyn Asleson''

<hr>

==Texts==
*[[Robert Mills|Mills, Robert]], November 1813, initial proposal for the Washington Monument, Baltimore, MD (quoted in Hoyt 1939: 145–46)<ref name="Hoyt_1939"> Hoyt 1939, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/DC2JN4I5 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“To the memory of [[George Washington|General Washington]], to be erected in the city of Baltimore, of octagonal form from the base to the top. . . .

:“From the base upwards to the first offset of the [[column]] eight feet, to be wrought at each angle the half of an octagonal [[pillar]], cut diagonally nine inches diameter & both at the base and eight feet distant at the offset to be formed from angle to angle a cornice in the Tuscan order. . . .

:“The space or [[yard]] contiguous to the base of the [[column]] to be of diagonal 42 2/3 feet diameter, corresponding with the angles of the monument. . . .

:“On the Est, West, North and South of the monument to be placed two [[gate]] posts with a [[gate]]. Over the [[gateway|gate way]] to be suspended an elegant [[arch]], consisting of white marble, the two ends resting on the to posts of each [[gate]], bearing over the centre of each [[gate]] on the front of the [[arch]] the arms of the United States. All around the [[yard]], which incloses the monument, to be formed a gravel [[walk]], eleven feet in width, surrounded by an open [[fence]] of wooden posts and &railing, painted white with vacant spaces for entrance, opposite the [[gate]]s.”

[[File:1985.jpg|thumb|Fig. 3, W. H. Bartlett, “Washington’s Monument, Baltimore,” in Nathaniel Parker Willis, ''American Scenery'' (1840), vol. 2, pl. 47.]]
*<div id="Mills_solidity"></div>[[Robert Mills|Mills, Robert]], 1814, formal statement of his plan for the Washington Monument, Baltimore, MD (quoted in Hoyt 1939: 154–55)<ref name="Hoyt_1939"></ref> [[#Mills_solidity_cite|back up to History]]

:“In laying the designs herewith submitted, before you, I would beg leave to make a few remarks upon ''Monuments'' in general, before I proceed to describe the one I have the honor now to present.

:“The ''character'' that ought to designate all ''Monuments'' should be, solidity, simplicity, and that degree of cheerfulness which should tempt the contemplation of the mind. . . . Monuments ''isolated'', or in the open air, should be ''towering'', and commanding in their elevation, especially when they are encircled by a City, otherwise its ''popular'' intention is frustrated. . . . Permit me now to draw your attention to the ''description'' of the design in question:—The ''Mass'', presents the appearance of a ''Greek'' [[Column]], elevated on a grand ''pedestal''; the [[column]] assumes the ''doric'' proportions, which possess solidity, and simplicity of character, emblematic of that of the illustrious ''personage'' to whose memory it is dedicated, and harmonising with the spirit of our Government. . . .

:“Arrived at the ''platform'' which crowns this pedestal, and which is inclosed by a balustrade, we see the commencement of the ''great [[Column]]''. The diameter of this is more than 20 feet and its elevation above 120 ft. divided in its heigh by Six iron railed ''galleries'', which encircle it like bands, presenting ''[[promenade]]s'' to accommodate the reading of those ''historical'' inscriptions recorded on the shaft of the ''[[column]]''.”

*<div id="Mills_lots"></div>[[Robert Mills|Mills, Robert]], 1836, arguing to increase the area around the Washington Monument, Baltimore, MD (quoted in Lavoie 2005: 28)<ref name="Lavoie_2005"> Lavoie 2005, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZPR3HPVW view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Mills_lots_cite|back up to History]]

:“It would be a pity to have the space about the Mont [monument] cramped, after making the sacrifices that have been made—ample room here will be found not only ornamental but useful for many purposes, for the parade of troops, for great public meetings, etc.”

*Willis, Nathaniel Parker, 1840, ''American Scenery'' (1840: 2:92)<ref>Nathaniel Parker Willis, ''American Scenery, or Land, Lake and River Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature'', 2 vols. (Barre, MA: Imprint Society, 1971), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/T5CMW67U view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“This fine monument stands at the end of a long street, forming an ascending perspective; and it base crowns the summit of a considerable hill, it is fully relieved against the sky, and shows very nobly. The [[square]] which immediately surrounds it is newly divided into building-lots. . . .

:“The monument is a Doric [[column]] upon a square base, surmounted by a pedestal, upon which is placed a colossal [[statue]] of [[George Washington|Washington]]. The base is fifty feet square, and is elevated twenty feet; the [[column]], to the feet of the [[statue]], is one hundred and sixty feet, and the [[statue]] is thirteen feet in height. The [[statue]] is the work of Causici, an Italian, and represents [[George Washington|Washington]] at the instant when he resigned his commission after the Revolution.” [Fig. 3]

<hr>

==Images==
<span id="roundabout_img"></span>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:0974.jpg|Joseph-Jacques Ramée, ''Monument to the memory of general George Washington, to be erected at Baltimore'', design for the Washington Monument, 1813.

Image:0829.jpg|Robert Mills, ''Elevation of the Principal Fronts'', Washington Monument, Baltimore, 1814.

Image:2000.jpg|Robert Cary Long Jr., Washington Monument and Howard’s Park, c. 1829.

Image:1801.jpg|Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''Washington’s Monument, Baltimore'', 1833.

Image:1985.jpg|W. H. Bartlett, “Washington’s Monument, Baltimore,” in Nathaniel Parker Willis, ''American Scenery'' (1840), vol. 2, pl. 47.

Image:0491.jpg|Edward Sachse, ''Baltimore'', 1850.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Map==
{{#display_map:
Washington Monument, Baltimore, United States
| service=google
| enablefullscreen=yes
}}

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2001006472.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[http://mvpconservancy.org/history/ Washington Place Conservancy]

[http://mvpconservancy.org/history/ Mount Vernon Place Conservancy]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category: Places]]

Sunnyside

2019-12-30T19:13:09Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

'''Sunnyside''', the home of the American author Washington Irving (1738–1859), is located near Tarrytown, New York, on the east bank of the Hudson River. The small estate is known for the eclectic architecture of Irving’s cottage and for its romantic, [[picturesque]] landscape. Tourists frequently visited the home during Irving’s lifetime, and it became well known to the public through published textual and visual descriptions. Today, Sunnyside is operated as a historic site by Historic Hudson Valley.

==Overview==
'''Alternate Names:''' Greenburgh, The Roost, Wolfert’s Rest, Wolfert’s Roost, Van Tassel Cottage<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' The original Van Tassel cottage dates from the mid-to-late 1600s; Irving purchased the estate in 1835<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Washington Irving (1783–1859)<br/>
'''Associated People:''' George Harvey (c. 1800–1878; architect)<br/>
'''Location:''' Tarrytown, NY<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[http://goo.gl/maps/HrclJ View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[Image:1933.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, George Harvey, ''The Old Cottage Taken Previous to Improvement'', c. 1835.]]
[[File:2141.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 2, George Harvey, “Scudding Clouds After a Shower/The Residence of Washington Irving, Esq.,” 1836–1840.]]

In June 1835 the American author Washington Irving purchased a 17th-century, Dutch-style farmhouse located just south of Tarrytown, New York, on the east bank of the Hudson River.<ref>Irving purchased the house and ten acres of land from Benson Ferris in 1835. Shortly after, he acquired an additional eight acres from his nephew Oscar Irving, who owned an adjacent property, and an additional three acres from another neighbor. Although additional parcels were bought and sold, these twenty-one acres comprise the core of Irving’s land holdings at Sunnyside. Robert M. Toole, “An American cottage ornée: Washington Irving’s Sunnyside, 1835–1859,” ''Journal of Garden History'' 12, no. 1 (January–March 1992): 55, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero]. At its largest, Sunnyside was twenty-seven acres. Kathleen Eagen Johnson and Timothy Steinhoff, ''Art of the Landscape: Sunnyside, Montgomery Place and Romanticism'' (Tarrytown, NY: Historic Hudson Valley, 1997), 22, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WI4Q62BT view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Ebenezer1_cite"></span><span id="Ebenezer2_cite"></span>Shortly after acquiring the cottage, Irving set out to landscape the grounds ([[#Ebenezer1|view text]]) and expand the house ([[#Ebenezer2|view text]]), collaborating on renovation plans with George Harvey (c. 1800–1878), an English-born landscape painter and amateur architect who had recently constructed his own Gothic house and [[picturesque]] garden in nearby Hastings-on-Hudson.<ref>Harvey immigrated to the United States from England in 1820. Debra Lynne Clyde, “Crayonesque Aesthetics in Prose and Architecture—A Chapter in the Formation of American Culture” (PhD diss., Drew University, 1986), 159–60, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero]; May Brawley Hill, ''Furnishing the Old-Fashioned Garden: Three Centuries of American Summerhouses, Dovecotes, Pergolas, Privies, Fences & Birdhouses'' (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998), 54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/238B4RT2 view on Zotero]. Irving also apparently asked the New York architect Calvin Pollard (1797–1850) to draw up plans for the remodelling as well. Pollard’s plan, entitled “Proposed Alterations to the Property of Washington Irving, Esquire” and dated July 1835, survives in the collection of Historic Hudson Valley and shows a strong influence of the Greek revival style. Clyde 1986, 161–63, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero].</ref> Harvey wrote that Irving enlisted his help on the project because “[Harvey’s] own residence, being in the Elizabethan style, had so pleased the author of the sketch-book as to leave him to desire something similar, but modified with Dutch roofs.”<ref>Irving was the author of ''The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.'', often referred to as ''The Sketch Book'', a collection of short stories originally published in 1819–20. George Harvey, ''Harvey’s Royal Gallery of Illustration . . . A Descriptive Pamphlet of the Original Drawings of American Scenery. . . .'' (London: W. J. Golbourn, 1850), 17; quoted in Clyde 1986, 161, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero]. As Clyde has observed, from existing written correspondence between Irving and Harvey from 1835 and 1847, it appears that Irving would typically express his wishes (and occasionally draw a rough sketch), which Harvey would then translate into more detailed architectural drawings that Irving would either approve or revise (164–65).</ref> Irving and Harvey incorporated the existing two-story, boxy stone farmhouse, which Harvey painted soon after Irving acquired it, into the new design [Fig. 1]. The principal architectural changes from the 1835–36 remodelling—an extension added to the back of the cottage, an open porch facing the Hudson on the west side of the house, a new façade featuring Gothic details and lancet windows, and a cluster of chimneys at the center of the red-shingled roof—combined elements of Dutch colonial history and Gothic revival architecture into a unique blend [Fig. 2].<ref>Adam W. Sweeting, “‘A Very Pleasant Patriarchal Life’: Professional Authors and Amateur Architects in the Hudson Valley, 1835–1870,” ''Journal of American Studies'' 29, no. 1 (April 1995): 40, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/MJGAQD3B view on Zotero]. Toole similarly argues, “Architectural critics have tried to classify Irving’s cottage design, but in fact it is unique.” Robert M. Toole, ''Landscape Gardens on the Hudson, a History: The Romantic Age, the Great Estates & the Birth of American Landscape Architecture'' (Hensonville, NY: Black Dome Press, 2010), 85, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero].</ref> The irregular shape and eclectic style of Irving’s remodeled cottage constituted, according to many scholars, an early shift away from the Greek revival style that had dominated architectural design in the early 19th century toward a more romantic style.<ref>Hill 1998, 54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/238B4RT2 view on Zotero]; Clyde 1986, 14–15, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero].</ref>

In addition to the cottage remodelling, Irving also devoted significant resources to shaping the landscape at Sunnyside. According to Debra Lynne Clyde, because much of Irving’s land had been farmed throughout the previous century, large swathes of it required replanting in order to transform the grounds into a [[picturesque]] landscape, a project that occupied Irving between 1836 and 1841.<ref>Clyde 1986, 176, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero].</ref> Even before Irving had acquired the title for the house, he apparently desired to “clear away all the old outhouses, [[fence]]s and rubbish and have a clear green [[lawn]]” ([[#Ebenezer1|view text]]). <span id="Irving_Sept 18_cite"></span>Irving later wrote, “[I] was pretty much my own architect; project [planner] and landscape gardener, and had but rough hands to work under me” ([[#Irving_Sept 18|view text]]).<ref>Irving, with the assistance of Harvey, created the design for Sunnyside, but he employed various gardeners and hired hands to care for the property and help carry out his many renovations and landscape improvement projects. Toole 2010, 85, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero]. It is known that by the 1850s Irving employed a gardener named Robert. Harold Dean Cater, “Washington Irving and Sunnyside,” ''New York History'' 38, no. 2 (April 1957): 147, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z2X7H9V2 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Irving_Apr_28_cite"><span id="Irving_May 18_cite">By the spring of 1836, Irving reported to relatives that he was busy “[s]etting out trees” ([[#Irving_Apr_28|view text]]) and boasted that he was becoming “a capital florist and horticulturalist and agriculturalist” ([[#Irving_May_18|view text]]). Although Irving had never planned a landscape prior to Sunnyside, he likely acquired a working knowledge of landscape design during the course of his travels through Europe, including several “[[picturesque]] tours” to estates in Britain between 1815 and 1817. According to Robert M. Toole, Irving “did not recreate the rectilinear basis of old [[Dutch style|Dutch]] gardening, but instead manipulated the natural scene as a [[park]]-like composition, following the principles of [[English style|English]] [[landscape gardening]] and the ‘[[Picturesque]] improvers.’”<ref>According to Toole, Irving visited Wye Valley and the Welsh and Scottish Highlands, as well as the landscape gardens at Hagley and The Leasowes near Birmingham. Toole 1992, 54, 66, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero]. Clyde notes Irving’s distaste for formal geometric gardens: “Once in Bordeaux he had observed an extensive formal garden ‘laid out in the told taste of clipd walks alley arbors &c’ and noted his distaste. ‘It has a pretty effect on the eye for the first time, but then there is a degree of sameness in the walks &c that soon grows tiresome.’ He preferred the English vision . . . ,” Clyde 1986, 147, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero].</ref> Irving would have gained experience with horticulture and landscape design more locally as well. In 1832, three years before purchasing Sunnyside, Irving toured Dr. [[David Hosack|David Hosack's]] [[Elgin Botanic Garden]] in Manhattan. He also visited [[Montgomery Place]] twice and would have undoubtedly noticed the horticultural efforts of the estate’s first owner, Janet Livingston Montgomery (1743–1827), who had erected a [[greenhouse]] and established a [[nursery]] for both native and exotic species.<ref>Johnson and Steinhoff 1997, 21, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WI4Q62BT view on Zotero].</ref>

Sunnyside boasted a large variety of plant species. Vines of honeysuckle, English ivy—reportedly from a cutting taken at Abbotsford, the home of the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), that was originally sourced from Melrose Abbey in the Scottish Borders—and wisteria (a newly introduced Chinese exotic) adorned the cottage façades.<ref>Johnson and Steinhoff 1997, 19, 25, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WI4Q62BT view on Zotero]; Clyde 1986, 154, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero].</ref> <span id="Irving_July_13_cite">Irving planted [[grove]]s of chestnut, black walnut, and butternut trees, and noted that “every year the [[grove]]s grow more dense and stately” ([[#Irving_July_13|view text]]). There were also Lombardy poplars, oaks, maples, black locust, horse chestnut, and tulip trees in the wooded areas of Sunnyside, and American elm and sycamore along the shoreline.<ref>Toole 1992, 69, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero]; Toole 2010, 87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero].</ref> Irving planted a [[kitchen garden]] and flower [[bed]]s during this period, and he acquired various plants and fruit trees from London, which his nephew Edgar, who worked in the New York Custom House, sent from New York up the Hudson River via boat up to Tarrytown, as well as plants from [[Andrew Jackson Downing|A. J. Downing's]] [[nursery]] across the river in Newburgh.<ref>Clyde 1986, 176–77, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero]; Toole 2010, 89, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2139.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 3, Ward Carpenter & Sons, ''Sunny-Side: Property of C. A. and Sarah Irving'', November 1871.]]
Irving made significant changes to the landscape along the riverbank that, as Toole has observed, “imparted a decidedly polished treatment to what was originally a more natural river edge.”<ref>Toole 2010, 86, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero].</ref> He cleared out the [[thicket]] of brush and rocks that covered the riverbank, surfaced it with grass, and erected a bulwark to prevent flooding and erosion. The bulwark also served as an important element of the landscape design; Irving wrote to a niece in July 1841 that it was “a great improvement to the place” and that he had installed “footpaths leading down to it, and [[seat]]s under the trees” ([[#Irving_July_13|view text]]). <span id="Downing_1841_cite"></span>Writing about Sunnyside in 1841, [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing]] (1815–1852) praised the charming qualities of the “gently swelling slope” that connected the cottage to the riverbank and the newly installed “foot-paths ingeniously contrived so as sometimes to afford secluded [[walk]]s, and at others to allow fine [[vista]]s” of the river ([[#Downing_1841|view text]]). These paths were part of a larger, complex system of [[walk]]s that “directed movement and so defined the sequence from which the landscape composition was experienced.”<ref>Toole 1992, 68, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero].</ref> Paths ran along the shoreline, through the wooded glen, to the [[kitchen garden|kitchen]] and [[flower garden]]s, and by the wooded belts that ran through the pastures. Irving’s paths connected with his neighbors’ paths to the north, east, and south of Sunnyside, so that visitors could meander onto adjacent properties without interruption, as can be seen in this 1871 survey map (Fig. 3].<ref>Although produced after Irving’s death, this map is the best known representation of the landscape plan as it likely appeared during Irving’s lifetime. According to the National Park Service report, there were “no substantial changes made to the property” between 1859 (the year of Irving’s death) and 1896. ''Sunnyside (Home of Washington Irving)'' (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1978), item 7, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CVNXUMGC view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Willis_cite"></span>In contrast to his neighbors’ gravel [[walk]]s, however, Irving’s paths were surfaced with compacted dirt, reflecting his more naturalistic sensibilities and desire to keep costs low ([[#Willis|view text]]).<ref>Toole 2010, 87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Richards_cite"></span>T. Addison Richards (1820–1900) observed that this system of connected paths made Sunnyside feel much larger than its small acreage: “a pleasant deception greatly aided by that agreeable community of feeling between Mr. Irving and his neighbors, which has so banished all dividing [[wall]]s and [[fence]]s, that while you think you are roaming over the grounds of one, you suddenly bring up among the flower [[bed]]s of another” ([[#Richards|view text]]).

In 1842 Irving left Sunnyside to serve as the United States Minister to the Court of Madrid. <span id="Irving_Feb_17_cite"></span>While in Europe, he left the care of Sunnyside to his brother Ebenezer Irving (1776–1868) and urged him to consult the collection of books related to “gardening, farming, poultry, &c.” that he kept in his library ([[#Irving_Feb_17|view text]]).<ref>James Claudius Loudon’s ''Encyclopedia of Agriculture'' (1835), ''Encyclopedia of Gardening'' (1840), and ''Encyclopedia of Plants'' (1841) are among the books that Irving is known to have owned. Clyde 1986, 180, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero].</ref> <span id="Irving_Oct_19_cite"></span>Upon his return home in 1846, Irving wrote, “I have found my little nest almost buried among trees and over run with clambering vines. My first move has been [to] cut down and clear away so as to make openings for [[prospect]]s and a free circulation of air, my next to commence building an addition, so that I have my hands full of occupation” ([[#Irving_Oct_19|view text]]). Facing a shortage of rooms to accommodate his nieces who often lived with him at Sunnyside as well as his staff, Irving built a three-story tower in what scholar Adam Sweeting has described as an eclectic “Chinese-Gothic” style. The structure, designed by Harvey and nicknamed the Pagoda, comprised a basement, three servants’ rooms, and a guest room and was connected to the main cottage by a one-story passage that contained a pantry and laundry facilities.<ref>Sweeting 1995, 40, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/MJGAQD3B view on Zotero]; Cater 1957, 145–46, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z2X7H9V2 view on Zotero]. Schuyler describes the Pagoda as “in vaguely Spanish style.” David Schuyler, ''Sanctified Landscape: Writers, Artists, and the Hudson River Valley, 1820–1909'' (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012), 53, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/F6CAVE9F view on Zotero].</ref> According to the scholar David Schuyler, during this second round of major renovations, Irving planted annuals, grapes, and figs he acquired from his friend Gouverneur Kemble (1786–1875), constructed a [[hothouse]], and placed wren boxes near his cottage.<ref>Schuyler 2012, 53–54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/F6CAVE9F view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2138_detail.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 4, Evie Todd, ''Sunnyside. March 1866'' [detail] from ''Leisure Hours'' sketchbook, 1866.]]
Irving made significant improvements to the more utilitarian features of the landscape during the mid-1840s as well. He enclosed the barn and stable area and made a large farmyard and poultry [[yard]].<ref>Irving connected the kitchen yard to the porch by constructing a small room that could be accessed from the parlor, which he used as a small plant conservatory. Clyde 1986, 181, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero]; Cater 1957, 146, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z2X7H9V2 view on Zotero].</ref> Irving also enclosed the 1 ½-acre rectangular [[kitchen garden]] and [[flower garden]] (with a coal house, a Gothic-style gardener’s cottage, and a storehouse) located in the northeast corner of the property on a hillside near the [[orchard]].<ref>Toole 1992, 69, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero]; Cater 1957, 146, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z2X7H9V2 view on Zotero].</ref> To the west of the gardens, Irving erected a [[greenhouse]].<ref>''Sunnyside (Home of Washington Irving),'' item 7, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CVNXUMGC view on Zotero]; Cater 1957, 154, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z2X7H9V2 view on Zotero].</ref> Visitors entered the garden using Irving’s system of paths that connected with “a geometric arrangement of [[walk]]s” within the enclosed garden.<ref>Toole 1992, 69, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero].</ref> Pastures were designed with aesthetics in mind, and Irving constructed “[[park]]-like glades, studded with specimen trees and thick woodland belts between them” that shaded the [[walk]]s, as Toole has observed, rather than more efficient, clear pastures devoid of decorative landscape features.<ref>Toole 2010, 87–88, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero].</ref> This combination of practical and aesthetic considerations also characterizes Irving’s approach to other aspects of the landscape at Sunnyside, such as water sources, which Irving controlled and shaped in ways that were both useful and pleasing to the eye. In 1840 Irving constructed a [[picturesque]] Gothic [[icehouse]], located on the shore of a cove [Fig. 4]. In 1847 he dammed the brook that ran through his property to form an ice [[pond]], and just above that, a larger [[pond]], which he shaped to resemble the Mediterranean. The “Little Mediterranean,” which was connected to the cottage through a system of lead pipes in order to provide the kitchen and laundry with water, also served as a reflecting pool. Both the [[icehouse]] and the [[pond]]s were necessary for the operations of the farm and cottage at Sunnyside, but they also served as ornamental features.<ref>Toole 2010, 89, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero]; Cater 1957, 154–55, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z2X7H9V2 view on Zotero]; ''Sunnyside (Home of Washington Irving)'', item 7, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CVNXUMGC view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2140.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 5, Unknown artist, ''Sunnyside from the Hudson'', c. 1860.]]
The construction of a causeway for the Hudson River Railroad in 1847 negatively affected the landscape at Sunnyside by separating the brook that ran through Irving’s property from the Hudson River [Fig. 5]. It also necessitated the damming and eventual draining of the small cove, which exists today only as a marshy depression.<ref>''Sunnyside (Home of Washington Irving)'', item 7, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CVNXUMGC view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Downing_1844_cite"></span>As Toole has observed, the railroad “seriously diminished Sunnyside as the ‘beau ideal’ [[A. J. Downing]] had described” in the 1844 edition of his treatise ([[#Downing_1844|view text]]).<ref>Toole 1992, 62, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero].</ref> Irving was greatly disturbed by the presence of the railroad, which he described as a “constant calamity,” but, like other property owners along the Hudson, he accepted compensation and resigned himself to its existence.<ref>Johnson and Steinhoff 1997, 12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WI4Q62BT view on Zotero]; Toole 1992, 62, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2132_detail.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 6, William Wade, ''Wade & Croome’s panorama of the Hudson River from New York to Albany'' [detail], 1846.]]
Transportation developments helped to make Sunnyside more accessible—and also more familiar—to the general public. Daily steamship service between Manhattan and Albany, started in 1808, opened up the Hudson River Valley as a tourist destination. Members of “the traveling class” used guidebooks and binoculars to view the estates along the Hudson River [Fig. 6]. Artists turned their attention to Sunnyside in the middle and late 19th century, and the estate reached a wider audience through the publication of prints. Prints also accompanied articles about Sunnyside that were published in general-interest illustrated periodicals or in travel literature, such as the well-known descriptions written by “propagators of the Romantic style,” according to Clyde, including Richards and Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–1867) ([[#Willis|view text]]).<ref>Clyde 1986, 134, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero]. For an analysis of the role that images played in spreading the association of Sunnyside with Romantic ideals during the 19th century, see pages 142–47.</ref>

Following Washington Irving’s death in 1859, Sunnyside remained in the Irving family and its appearance was largely preserved. The first substantial changes came in 1897, when Washington Irving’s great-nephew Alexander Duer Irving (1842–1911) added an addition to the north side of the cottage and replaced Irving’s original farm buildings and gardener’s cottage with new structures. Alexander Irving also made several significant modifications to the landscape at this time, eliminating public access to Sunnyside Lane, separating the old farm [[pond]] from the brook, and rerouting several driveways and [[fence]]s. In 1945 John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874–1960), purchased Sunnyside to save it from demolition and soon thereafter opened the estate to the public. By 1960 the cottage and kitchen [[yard]] had been restored to appear as they did in Washington Irving’s time. A car park was added on the site of the old [[kitchen garden|kitchen]] and [[flower garden]]s to accommodate visitors, and the entrance to Sunnyside was rerouted from Sunnyside Lane. Visitors now approach the cottage from the east, a route that was never used during Washington Irving’s lifetime. Sunnyside’s present appearance represents a combination of Washington Irving’s original design, Alexander Irving’s late 19th-century landscape alterations, and 20th-century changes made to accommodate the visiting public.<ref>After Washington Irving’s death, Sunnyside passed to Ebenezer Irving and, upon Ebenezer’s death, to the family of Ebenezer’s oldest son. Irving’s nieces continued to live at Sunnyside until 1875. Toole 1992, 64–65, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero]; ''Sunnyside (Home of Washington Irving)'', item 7, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CVNXUMGC view on Zotero].</ref> The estate is now run as a historic site by Historic Hudson Valley.<ref>Sleepy Hollow Restorations, which was the preservation entity endowed by Rockefeller in 1951, changed its name to Historic Hudson Valley in 1986. For a brief history of the organization, see http://www.hudsonvalley.org/about/our-story/evolution.</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
* <div id="Ebenezer1"></div>Irving, Ebenezer, June 1, 1835, in a letter to his nephew William Irving (quoted in Cater 1957: 134)<ref name="Cater 1957">Cater 1957, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z2X7H9V2 view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Ebenezer1_cite|back up to History]]

:“We are to get possession of it in a day or two and shall then determine what improvements to make. We shall clear away all the old outhouses, [[fence]]s and rubbish and have a clear green [[lawn]].”

* <div id="Ebenezer2"></div>Irving, Ebenezer, June 30, 1835, in a letter to his nephew William Irving (quoted in Cater 1957: 134)<ref name="Cater 1957"/> [[#Ebenezer2_cite|back up to History]]

:“But your uncle and all are more pleased than ever with the place. He purposes enlarging the house, preserving its present old Dutch style, and making it an inviting and comfortable nook for the family. It can, at a small expense, be made a charming little place. The road down from the turnpike to the house winds beautifully along the little brook, and is capable of being made really beautiful.”

* Irving, Washington, August 24, 1835, in a letter to his brother Peter Irving (''Letters'' 2:839–40)<ref name="Letters II">Washington Irving, ''Letters, Volume II, 1823–1838'', ed. Ralph M. Aderman, Herbert L. Kleinfield, and Jenifer S. Banks (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1979), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NE35ZWT5 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The workmen are busy upon my cottage, which I think will be a snug little Dutch nookery when finished. It will be of stone, so as to be cool in summer and warm in winter. The expense will be moderate, as I have it built in the simplest manner, depending upon its quaintness rather than its costliness.”

* <div id="Irving_Apr_28"></div>Irving, Washington, April 28, 1836, in a letter to his sister Catharine Paris (''Letters'' 2:869)<ref name="Letters II"/> [[#Irving_Apr_28_cite|back up to History]]

:“I wish the Cottage was ready, and then there would be no difficulty, but it will be some time in June before it is habitable—if then. We have good workmen and they are getting on well—but there is always a world of finishing that one never calculates on

:“I have been busy out of doors from morning until night ever since I have been up here Setting out trees &c &c.”

* <div id="Irving_May_18"></div>Irving, Washington, May 18, 1838, in a letter to his nephew Pierre M. Irving (''Letters'' 2:928)<ref name="Letters II"/> [[#Irving_May_18_cite|back up to History]]

:“We are all cosily quartered at the Roost, and very comfortable. The season is coming out in all its beauty, and we are in the midst of birds and blossoms and flowers. I look forward with pleasure to the prospect of seeing you and Helen at the cottage in the course of the summer, and showing you what a capital florist and horticulturalist and agriculturalist I am becoming. I beat all the gentleman farmers in my neighborhood, for I can manage to raise my vegetables and fruits at very little more than twice the market price.”

* Irving, Washington, October 24, 1838, in a letter to his sister Sarah Van Wart (''Letters'' 2:939)<ref name="Letters II"/>

:“The girls live very much in the open air. The retired situation of the cottage, with its secluded [[walk]]s, quiet glens and sheltering [[grove]]s, enable them to rove about without fear of restraint. They have lately been busily employed in nutting; my place abounds with fine chestnut, black-walnut and butter nut trees; and this year they are completely laden with fruit.”

[[File:2133.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 7, Benson John Lossing, “Residence of Washington Irving, Esq.,” in ''Family Magazine or Monthly Abstract of General Knowledge'' 6 (1839), 135.]]
* Lossing, Benson J., 1839, describing Sunnyside (1839: 135)<ref>Benson J. Lossing, “Residence of Washington Irving,” ''Family Magazine'' 4 (1839), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/3TS4N8BE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The grounds about it have been cleared, the thick [[copse]] that concealed the ‘Taappan Zee’ from view has been levelled, and Mr. Irving has rendered it one of the most delightful summer residences in the country.” [Fig. 7]

* Irving, Washington, November, 25, 1840, in a letter to his sister Sarah Van Wart, about their niece Sarah Paris (''Letters'' 3:61)<ref name="Letters III">Washington Irving, ''Letters, Volume III, 1839–1845'', ed. Ralph M. Aderman, Herbert L. Kleinfield, and Jenifer S. Banks (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/UUVDM5SK view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Ever since my return to the United States Sarah has been peculiarly my companion; taking the strongest and most affectionate interest in all my concerns, and delighting me by her frank, natural, intelligent, and social qualities. She is especially identified with the cottage and all its concerns, having been in all my councils, when building and furnishing it, and having been the life of the establishment ever since I set it up. How I shall do without her I cannot imagine, or how I shall reconcile myself to her entire absence from a place where every path, tree shrub and flower, is more or less connected with her idea.”

[[Image:1880.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 8, A. J. Downing, “Residence of Washington Irving, Esq. near Tarrytown, NY,” in ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'' (1849), 409, fig. 59.]]

* <div id="Downing_1841"></div>[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], 1841, describing Sunnyside (1841: 334–36)<ref>Andrew Jackson Downing, ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America'', 1st ed. (New York and London: Wiley and Putnam, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/PGUEKHNG view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Downing_1841_cite|back up to History]]

:“There is scarcely a building or place more replete with interest in America, than the cottage of Washington Irving, near Tarrytown. The ‘legend of sleepy Hollow,’ so delightfully told in the Sketch-Book, has made every one acquainted with this neighbourhood, and especially with the site of the present building, there celebrated as the ‘Van Tassel House,’ one of the most secluded and delightful nooks on the banks of the Hudson. With characteristic taste, Mr. Irving has chosen this spot, the haunt of his early days, since rendered classic ground by his elegant pen, and made it his permanent residence. The house of ‘Baltus Van Tassel,’ has been altered and rebuilt in a quaint style, partaking somewhat of the English cottage mode, but retaining strongly marked symptoms of its Dutch origin. The quaint old weathercocks and finials, the crow-stepped gables, and the hall paved with Dutch tiles, are among the ancient and venerable ornaments of the houses of the original settlers of Manhattan, now almost extinct among us. There is also a quiet-keeping in the cottage and the grounds around it, that assists in making up the charm of the whole: the gently swelling [[slope]] reaching down to the water’s edge, bordered by prettily wooded ravines through which a brook meanders pleasantly; and threaded by foot-paths ingeniously contrived so as sometimes to afford secluded [[walk]]s, and at others to allow fine [[vista]]s of the broad expanse of river scenery.” [Fig. 8]

* <div id="Irving_July_13"></div>Irving, Washington, July 13, 1841, in a letter to his niece Sarah Storrow (''Letters'' 3:112)<ref name="Letters III"/> [[#Irving_July_13_cite|back up to History]]

:“I never have seen it look more beautiful—and I think the little domains about the cottage have been more beautiful than ever—The trees and shrubs and clambering vines that have been transplanted within the last year or two, have now taken good root and begin to grow luxuriantly. If vegetation goes on at this rate we shall before long be buried among roses and honeysuckles and ivy and sweet briar. All the [[grove]]s too about the place are magnificent this year. Most of the forest trees you know, are young, and scare any past their prime; so that every year the [[grove]]s grow more dense and stately. The new [[walk]]s are very popular especially that to the fallen Chest-nut tree, which is one of the most shady cool and delightful resorts of a warm sunny day that you can imagine. I was never more conscious of the sweetness of the country than this season.

:“I have nearly completed my bulwark along the foot of the bank. It will not merely be protection against the encroachments of the river, but also a great improvement to the place—I shall have the [[slope]] bank finished off and in some places sloped down to the [[wall]], with footpaths leading down to it, and [[seat]]s under the trees. The shore of the river is cleared of all the rocks and stones that encumbered it and the whole aspect of the place along the river is changed.”

* Irving, Washington, July 18, 1841, in a letter to his niece Sarah Storrow (''Letters'' 3:133)<ref name="Letters III"/>

:“The sweet briars which you and David planted, and which you inquire about, are flourishing finely—You need not fear that they will not be taken fear of. We value too highly every thing that reminds us of you. All our clambering vines have been very luxuriant this season, and are gradually clothing the cottage with verdure. Some of the trumpet creeper too begins to flower; and by another year we shall have the east [[wall]] quite gorgeous.”

* <div id="Irving_Feb_17"></div>Irving, Washington, February 17, 1842, in a letter to his brother Ebenezer Irving (''Letters'' 3:183–84)<ref name="Letters III"/> [[#Irving_Feb_17_cite|back up to History]]

:“I now abandon the care of the place entirely to you. You will find, in my little library, books about gardening, farming, poultry, &c., by which to direct yourself. The management of the place will give you healthful and cheerful occupation, and will be as much occupation as you want. . . . Try if you cannot beat me at farming and gardening. I shall be able to bestow a little more money on the place now, to put it in good heart and good order.”

* <div id="Downing_1844"></div>[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], 1844, describing Sunnyside (1844: 38, 380)<ref>Andrew Jackson Downing, ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America'', 2nd ed. (New York: Wiley, 1844), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/IGJXRU9V view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Downing_1844_cite|back up to History]]

:“At Tarrytown, is the cottage residence of Washington Irvings, which is, in location and accessories, almost the beau ideal of a cottage-ornée. The charming manner in which the wild foot-paths, in the neighborhood of this cottage, are conducted among the [[picturesque]] dells and banks, is precisely what one would look for here. . . .

:“The cottage itself is now charmingly covered with ivy and climbing roses, and embosomed in [[thicket]]s of [[shrubbery]].”

* Irving, Washington, February 5, 1846, in a letter to Flora Foster Dawson (''Letters'' 4:13–14)<ref name="Letters IV">Washington Irving, ''Letters, Volume IV, 1846–1859'', ed. Ralph M. Aderman, Herbert L. Kleinfield, and Jenifer S. Banks (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/XNBAEW4X view on Zotero].</ref>

:“As to myself on my return to America I built me a pretty little cottage on the banks of the Hudson in a beautiful country, and not far from my old haunts of Sleepy Hollow. Here I passed several years most happily; my cottage well stocked with nieces and enlivened by visits from friends and connexions, having generally what is called in Scotland is called a house full, that is to say a little more than it will hold. This state of things was too happy to last. I was unexpectedly called from it by being appointed Minister to Madrid. It was a hard struggle for me to part from my cottage and my nieces but I put all under charge of my brother and promised to return at the end of three years. I have overstaid my time. Nearly four years have elapsed; I understand my cottage is nearly buried among the trees I set out, and over run with roses and honeysuckle and ivy from Melrose Abbey, and my nieces implore me to come back and save them from being buried alive in foliage.”

* <div id="Irving_Oct_19"></div>Irving, Washington, October 19, 1846, in a letter to Madame Albuquerque (''Letters'' 4:101)<ref name="Letters IV"/> [[#Irving_Oct_19_cite|back up to History]]

:“I have found my little nest almost buried among trees and over run with clambering vines. My first move has been cut down and clear away so as to make openings for [[prospect]]s and a free circulation of air, my next to commence building an addition, so that I have my hands full of occupation.”

* Irving, Washington, November 8, 1846, in a letter to Sabina O’Shea (''Letters'' 4:105)<ref name="Letters IV"/>

:“In fact I have so completely slipped back into my old rural habits and occupations, that I can scarcely realize, as I go dawdling about trimming and planting and transplanting trees and inspecting the poultry yard, that so short a time has elapsed since I was playing the Courtier and treading the saloons of Royal palaces.”

* Irving, Washington, August 27, 1847, in a letter to his niece Sarah Storrow (''Letters'' 4:144)<ref name="Letters IV"/>

:“My own place has never been so beautiful as at present. I have made more openings by pruning and cutting down trees, so that from the [[piazza]] I have several charming views of the Tappan Zee—and the hills beyond; all set as it were in verdant frames, and I am never tired of sitting there in my old Voltaire chair, of a long summer morning, with a book in my hand, sometimes reading, sometimes musing on the landscape, and sometimes dozing and mixing all up in a pleasant dream.”

* Irving, Washington, September 9, 1847, in a letter to his sister Catharine Paris (''Letters'' 4:150)<ref name="Letters IV"/>

:“I have, however, just finished my last job, making a new ice [[pond]] in a colder and deeper place in the glen just opposite our entrance [[gate]]: and now I would not undertake another job, even so much as to build a wren coop; for the slightest job seems to swell into a toilsome and expensive operation.”

* <div id="Irving_Sept 18"></div>Irving, Washington, September 18, 1847, in a letter to Sabina O’Shea (''Letters'' 4:151)<ref name="Letters IV"/> [[#Irving_Sept 18_cite|back up to History]]
:“The fact is on my return home my whole thoughts and exertions were suddenly turned into a new channel which has almost ever since engrossed them. I found my place very much out of order, my house in need of additions and repairs and the whole establishment in want of completion. I set to work immediately, and kept on at all times and seasons, in defiance of heat and cold, wind and weather and as I was pretty much my own architect; project and landscape gardener, and had but rough hands to work under me, I have been kept busy out of doors from morning until night and from months end to months end until within a week or two past, when I brought my labors to a close, or rather relinquished them, finding I had spent all <my> the money in my pocket and fagged myself into an irritation of the system which has rendered me almost as lame as I used to be in Madrid.”

* Irving, Washington, December 18, 1850, in a letter to Henry Lee Jr. (''Letters'' 4:237)<ref name="Letters IV"/>

:“A rural retreat when it is a mans own, and of his own formation produces a new set of pleasures and interests and ambitions, and every tree he plants awakens a new hope and attaches him to the spot which he has improved. I speak from experience having never been happier than in my present little country nest, where the house is of my own building, the trees of my own planting the garden of my own cultivating and where my continual blunders give me continual occupation in rectifying them.”

* Irving, Washington, May 20, 1851, in a letter to Moses H. Grinnell (''Letters'' 4:255)<ref name="Letters IV"/>

:“Sunnyside is possessed by seven devils and I have to be continually on the watch to keep all from going to ruin. First, we have a legion of Women Kind, cleaning and scouring the house from top to bottom; so that we are all reduced to eat and drink and have our being in my little library. In the midst of this our water is cut off. An Irishman from your establishment undertook to shut up my spring as he had yours, within brick [[wall]]s; the spring shewed proper spirit and broke bounds and all the water pipes ran dry in consequence. In the dearth of painters I have employed a couple of country carpenters to paint my roofs and it requires all my vigilance to keep them from painting them like Josephs coat of divers colors. Your little man Westerfield is to plaster my chimneys tomorrow and your plumbers and bell hangers to attack the vitals of the house. I have a new coachman to be inducted into all the mysteries of the stable and coach house, so all that part of the establishment is in <a> what is called a halla baloo. In a word I never knew of such a tempest in a teapot as is just now going on in little Sunnyside[.] I trust, therefore, you will excuse me for staying at home to sink or swim with the concern.”

* Irving, Washington, July 15, 1852, in a letter to his niece Sarah Storrow (''Letters'' 4:317)<ref name="Letters IV"/>
:“I wish you could see little Sunnyside this season, I think it more beautiful than ever. The trees and shrubs and clambering vines are uncommonly luxuriant. We never had so many singing birds about the place and the humming birds are about the windows continually after the flowers of the honey suckles and trumpet creepers which overhang them.”

[[File:2130.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 9, W. R. Miller (artist) and Richardson & Cox (engraver), ''Irving’s Residence, Sunny-Side'', in ''Homes of American Authors; Comprising Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches by Various Writers'' (1853), 35.]]
[[File:2131.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 10, W. R. Miller (artist) and Richardson & Cox (engraver), ''Irving’s Residence, Sunny-Side'', in ''Homes of American Authors; Comprising Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches by Various Writers'' (1853), 50.]]
* Tuckerman, Henry T., 1853, describing Sunnyside (1853: 50–52)<ref>Henry T. Tuckerman, “Washington Irving,” in ''Homes of American Authors; Comprising Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches, by Various Writers'' (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1853), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/R9BXIQ54 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“It is approached by a sequestered road, which enhances the effect of its natural beauty. A more tranquil and protected abode, nestled in the lap of nature, never captivated a poet’s eye. Rising from the bank of the river, which a strip of woodland alone intercepts, it unites every rural charm to the most complete seclusion. From this interesting domain is visible the broad surface of the Tappan Zee; the grounds [[slope]] to the water’s edge, and are bordered by wooded ravines; a clear brook ripples near, and several neat paths lead to shadowy [[walk]]s or fine points of river scenery. The house itself is a graceful combination of the English cottage and the Dutch farm-house. The crow-stepped gables, the tiles in the hall, and the weathercocks, partake of the latter character; while the white [[wall]]s gleaming through the trees, the smooth and verdant turf, and the mantling vines of ivy and clambering roses, suggest the former. Indeed, in this delightful homestead are tokens of all that is most characteristic of its owner. The simplicity and rustic grace of the abode indicate an unperverted taste,—its secluded position a love of retirement; the cottage ornaments remind us of his unrivalled pictures of English country-life; the weathercock that used to veer about on the Stadt-house of Amsterdam is a symbol of the fatherland; while the one that adorned the grand dwellings in Albany before the revolution, is a significant memorial of the old Dutch colonists; and they are thus both associated with the fragrant memory of that famous and unique historian Diedrich Knickerbocker. The quaint and beautiful are thus blended, and the effect of the whole is singularly harmonious. From the quietude of this retreat are obtainable the most extensive [[prospect]]s; and while its sheltered position breathes the very air of domestic repose, the scenery it commands is eloquent of broad and generous sympathies. . . .

:“And here, in the midst of a landscape his pen has made attractive in both hemispheres and of friends whose love surpasses the highest meed of fame, he lives in daily view of scenes thrice endeared—by taste, association, and habit;—the old locust that blossoms on the green bank in spring, the brook that sparkles along the grass, the peaked turret and vine-covered [[wall]] of that modest yet traditional dwelling, the favorite valley watered by the romantic Pocantoro, and, above all, the glorious river of his heart.” [Figs. 9 & 10]

* Irving, Washington, May 27, 1853, in a letter to Mary E. Kennedy (''Letters'' 4:406)<ref name="Letters IV"/>

:“The grass is growing up to my very door,—the roses and honeysuckles are clamberinga bout my windows, the acacias and liburnums are in full flower, singing birds have built in the ivy against the wall and I have concerts at daybreak almost equal to the serenades you used to have at Washington.”

* Anonymous, April 1855, describing Sunnyside (''New York Quarterly'' 4: 66, 75, 77)<ref>Anonymous, “Washington Irving; His Home and His Works,”''New York Quarterly'' 4, no. 1 (April 1855), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/47NVJ48H view on Zotero].</ref>

:“In a sequestered rural retreat, some twenty-five miles from the din of city life, half-hid among thick foliage through which gleams the silvery expanse of the Hudson, stands a grotesque-looking, antique edifice—half-Dutch, half-Elizabethan in style, and so snugly nestled amid shrubbery and evergreen, as to elude the ken of the casual passer-by. It is an enchanting little nook, charmingly diversified with upland, [[lawn]], and dell, and so rife with [[picturesque]] beauty as completely to fascinate the eye and hold it spell-bound to the spot. This emparadised retreat, with its leafy recesses and antique structure, is the home of the great American essayist and historian—Washington Irving. There is an air of singular quaintness and rural elegance about the scene—every thing that refined taste could devise, and diligent culture effect, is here indicated. . . .

:“We perambulated the beautiful grounds of Sunny-Side, which extend over some six or eight acres, a second time, and as we luxuriated over every fresh variety of ornate landscape, Mr. Irving pointed out some of his favorite [[walk]]s, and indicated to us some of his fine trees, in which he evidently takes pride and pleasure. From a rising knoll on the banks of the river, we caught a glimpse of the roof and turrets of the house, the rest of the edifice being embosomed in foliage; the scene was singularly effective and beautiful. As an evidence of the social and amiable character of Mr. Irving, it may be mentioned that no 'boundary line' is marked by [[hedge]] or by [[fence]], diving his from his neighbors' grounds—an instance somewhat remarkable, since such distinctions are rarely disregarded. The [[kitchen garden]] is a perfect model for neatness and taste, and its lavish provision showed that utility as well as ornament entered into the calculations of his gardener. The only thing that seemed wanting was water, there being but a small rivulet here and there. . . .

:“The radiant summer sunset was now streaming its liquid gold through the windows, tempting us out upon the lawn again, to feast our gaze with the splendors of the scene. A new phase of beauty was now given to these delectable grounds, the leaves and flowers were luminous with the golden rays of the declining sun, and the quiet waters of the Hudson served as a broad mirror reflecting the brilliant and blending tints of the bending skies, rendering the scene one of exquisite loveliness. . . . The dark shadows of the [[clump]]s of forest-trees afforded a rich contrast to the gorgeous hues with which the other portions of the landscape were decked.”

* <div id="Richards"></div>Richards, T. Addison, December 1856, describing Sunnyside (1856: 7–11)<ref>[T. Addison Richards], “Sunnyside: The Home of Washington Irving,” ''Harper’s New Monthly Magazine'' 14, no. 79 (December 1856), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TKKJSCVJ view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Richards_cite|back up to History]]

:“It is a sweet scene of rural simplicity and comfort which is disclosed to us by either approach; as the open sunlit [[lawn]], so affectionately embraced by its protecting trees and [[shrubbery]], which, though permitting little peeps here and there from within, deny all vagrant observation from without. One can scarcely believe himself as thickly surrounded as he really is here by crowding cottage and castle, so entire is the repose and seclusion of the spot. Year ago, when Mr. Irving first took up his abode at Sunnyside, he was all alone by himself, yet now every inch of the adjacent country is gardened, and [[lawn|lawned]], and villaed, to the extreme of modern taste and wealth; yet all so charmingly under the rose, that you always stumble upon the evidences unexpectedly, as you dreamingly pursue the [[thicket]]-covered and brook-voiced [[wood]]-paths. It is like the discovering of birds'-nests amidst forest leaves. Seen from the opposite shore of the river, the whole hillside is glittering with sun-tipped roof and tower, but like the Seven Cities of the Enchanted Island, it all vanishes as you approach.

:“The cottage, with its crow-stepped gables and weathercocks, overrun with honey-suckle and eglantine, with the rose-vine and the clinging ivy, is a wonderfully unique little edifice, totally unlike any thing else in our land, but always calling up our remembrances or our fancies of merrie rural England, with a hint here and there at its old Dutch leaven; in the quaint weathercocks, for instance, one of which actually veered, in good old days gone by, over the great Vander Heyden Palace in Albany, and another on the top of the Stadt House of New Amsterdam. A lady would be apt to call the Sunnyside cottage ‘the dearest, cosiest, cunningest, snuggest little nest in the world.’ Mr. Irving describes it as ‘a little old-fashioned stone mansion, all made up of gable-ends, and as full of angles and corners as an old cocked hat.’ ‘It is said, in fact,’ he continues, ‘to have been modeled after the cocked hat of Peter the Headstrong, as the Escurial was modeled after gridiron of the blessed St. Lawrence.’ . . .

:“Before the intrusion of the railroad, which has profaned so much of the river shore, the quiet beach, with its little cove, into which a rural lane debouched, was one of the sweetest features of Sunnyside. This part of the domain is beautifies by a sparkling spring, draped, like all the region round, as we shall see by-and-by, in the fairy web of romantic fable. . . .

:“The acres of Sunnyside, all told, are not many; and yet so varied is their surface, so richly wooded and flowered, and so full of elfish winding paths and grassy lanes, exploring hillsides and chasing merry brooks, that their numbers seem to be countless; a pleasant deception greatly aided by that agreeable community of feeling between Mr. Irving and his neighbors, which has so banished all dividing [[wall]]s and [[fence]]s, that while you think you are roaming over the grounds of one, you suddenly bring up among the flower-[[bed]]s of another. . . .

:“The woodland of Sunnyside is very happily varied, offering every variety of sylvan growth, beech, birch, willow, oak, locust, maple, elm, linden, pine, hemlock, and cedar; while on the [[lawn]]s are evergreen and flowering shrubs; and, trailing over the vagrant [[wall]]s and [[fence]]s, honey-suckle, rose, trumpet-flowers, and ivy. The latter plant, which is very abundant, is of the famous stock of Melrose Abbey. The garden, which in keeping with its surroundings, is watched by a favorite retainer, for whom Mr. Irving has built a snug cottage, fronting the [[lawn]] in the face of his own mansion. This little edifice is especially interesting, from its having been designed by Mr. Irving himself; his only venture, he once told us, as an architect. . . .

:“Separated from the [[lawn]] around the cottage by the belt of trees in which stands the gardener’s dwelling, is another open area occupied by a pretty [[lake|lakelet]] ‘expansion’ of the brook—an echo of the great bay beyond. The painter gives unity, and harmony, and force to his picture by distributing throughout the work its leading sentiment or story and its prevailing color; so, in the artistic composition of Sunnyside, its chief feature, the great ‘Mediterranean’ of the river, as Mr. Irving calls the Tappan Bay, with its fleet of white sails thick as the passing clouds, is repeated by the little ‘Mediterranean’ of the brooklet and its fleet of snowy ducks. . . .

:“The air of graceful simplicity and cozy comfort which so strongly marks the exterior of the Sunnyside cottage, is felt quite as vividly within doors. It is cut up into just such odd, snug little apartments and boudoirs as the rambling, low-walled, peak-roofed, and gable-ended outside promises. The state entrance is by the [[porch]] at the south end; the household exit is from the drawing-room, across the [[piazza]], to the [[lawn]] on the east or river front. It is on this side of the cottage that the family chat or read the news of the great world, away, on summer days and nights. On the north side of the drawing-room there is a delightful little recess, forming a boudoir some six or eight feet square, the whole front of which is occupied by a window looking across the [[lawn]], and through the up-river [[vista]] chronicled in our portfolio. It is, in summer, neatly matted and furnished with little stands of books, and flowers, and statuettes, and the low-toned walls are hung with drawings and sketches by Leslie, Stuart Newton, and others—mementoes of Mr. Irving’s sojournings and friendships in England—with some of Darley’s admirable etchings from Rip Van Winkle and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It is a little nook which you would set down at once as under special female guardianship. . . .

:“The graceful simplicity which marks the appointments of this Lilliputian sanctum is seen through all the furniture and adornments of the mansion. The spirit throughout is that of refinement without affectation, elegance without display, comfort without waste.”

* <div id="Willis"></div>Willis, N. P., August 1857, describing Sunnyside (quoted in ''American Publishers’ Circular and Literary Gazette'' 3: 530)<ref>Quoted in “Washington Irving at Sunnyside,” from N. P. Willis’s letter in the ''Home Journal'', ''American Publishers’ Circular and Literary Gazette'' 3, no. 34 (August 22, 1857), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NIX4U6IK view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Willis_cite|back up to History]]

:“With the horticulture and arboriculture of ‘Wolfert’s-dell,’ Mr. Grinnell has been singularly successful; and, as we were to make the rounds of the [[shrubbery|shrubberies]] and the [[hothouse|hot-houses]] before the sun should be fairly vertical, we were now admonished that it was time—Mr. Irving at once taking his straw hat to accompany us. A remark upon the beauty of the verdure near his door, drew from him a most poetical outburst as to the happy superiorty of our climate . . . .

:“While we were still in the immediate grounds of Sunnyside, I observed two remarkable triplets of the tulip tree—superb growths of three equal shafts, tall and of arrowy straightness, from each root—and in these fine specimens of the cleanest-leaved and healthiest-looking of trees, he said he took great pleasure. A squirrel ran up one of them as we approached, and, upon this race of depredators, he had been obliged to make war this summer. They were a little bit more destructive than their beauty was an excuse for. With another class of destructives, however, he did not know so well how to contend, the visitors who drive into his grounds and tie their horses to the trees.

:“The well-shaded ravine which has Sunnyside sitting on one of its knees—(once called ‘Wolfert’s Roost,’ and long used by that famous Dutchman as the covert-way between the river and his haunts)—is conveniently and gracefully intersected with paths; but I remarked to Mr. Irving that they were somewhat of the outline character of ours at Idlewild. Yes, he said; on ''his'' side of the dell, they were merely dug out and walked hard; but as they communicated with those of his rich neighbor, he was very often lucky enough to get credit of the smooth gravel-[[walk]]s, too! And he presently gave another of his crayonesque touches to his neighbor, assuring us, very solemnly, while were were wondering at the growth to which the transplanted trees had attained in so short a time, that ‘it was done by Mr. Grinnell’s going round at night, himself, with a lantern and water-pot, to see that the trees did not oversleep themselves:’—a fact, (seen through Irving spectacles,) as Mr. G., engrossed all day with his business in the city and only at home at night, sometimes takes a look at his gardener’s work, by the aid of a lantern.

:“At the door of the [[hothouse|hot-house]], Mr. Irving said it was warm enough for him outside. He preferred to stand under a tree and wait for us—particularly as he had seen the grapes before and hoped to see some of them again. Astonished as my own wilderness-trained eyes were, of course, with the wonderful fecundity of those glass-covered vines, I was more interested in the visit to Mr. Grinnell’s sumptuous stables. . . .

:“As we strolled slowly through the grounds, we came to two dwarf [[statue]]s—grotesque representations of ‘The Spendthrift’ and ‘The Miser’—and Mr. Irving gave us a comic history of their amusing a party of friends by playing at ‘tableaux,’ the other day—stopping in their walk, and dressing these figures up with the shawls and bonnets of the ladies. Our walk was varied with incidental questions of [[landscape gardening]], as we came to points which commanded the river-views more or less effectively; and Mr. Irving made one remark which, I thought, embodied the whole science of wood-thinning, in ornamental grounds—that ‘a tree is only to be cut down when the picture it hides is worth more than the tree.’”

<hr>

==Images==
<span id="roundabout_img"></span>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:1933.jpg|George Harvey, ''The Old Cottage Taken Previous to Improvement'', c. 1835.

File:2141.jpg|George Harvey, ''Scudding Clouds After a Shower/The Residence of Washington Irving, Esq.'', 1836–40.

File:2133.jpg|Benson John Lossing, ''Residence of Washington Irving, Esq.'', in ''The Family Magazine or Monthly Abstract of General Knowledge'' 6 (1839): 135.

File:2132.jpg|William Wade, ''Wade & Croome’s panorama of the Hudson River from New York to Albany'', 1846.

Image:1880.jpg|A. J. Downing, “Residence of Washington Irving, Esq. near Tarrytown, NY,” in ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'' (1849), 409, fig. 59.

Image:1807.jpg|George Inness, ''Sunnyside'', c. 1850–60.

File:2130.jpg|W. R. Miller (artist) and Richardson & Cox (engraver), ''Irving’s Residence, General View'', in ''Homes of American Authors; Comprising Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches by Various Writers'' (1853), 35.

File:2131.jpg|W. R. Miller (artist) and Richardson & Cox (engraver), ''Irving’s Residence, Sunny-Side'', in ''Homes of American Authors; Comprising Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches by Various Writers'' (1853), 50.

File:2140.jpg|Unknown artist, ''Sunnyside from the Hudson'', c. 1860.

File:2138.jpg|Evie Todd, “Sunnyside. March 1866,” in ''Leisure Hours'' sketchbook, 1866.

File:2139.jpg|Ward Carpenter & Sons, “Sunny-Side: Property of C. A. and Sarah Irving,” November 1871.

File:2142.jpg|Currier & Ives, “Sunnyside—on the Hudson,” 1877–94.

File:2152.jpg|Currier & Ives, “Sunnyside—On the Hudson,” n.d.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://www.hudsonvalley.org/historic-sites/washington-irvings-sunnyside Historic Hudson Valley]

[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2008004048.html Library of Congress Authority File]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category: Places]]

Sunnyside

2019-12-30T19:12:21Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

'''Sunnyside''', the home of the American author Washington Irving (1738–1859), is located near Tarrytown, New York, on the east bank of the Hudson River. The small estate is known for the eclectic architecture of Irving’s cottage and for its romantic, [[picturesque]] landscape. Tourists frequently visited the home during Irving’s lifetime, and it became well known to the public through published textual and visual descriptions. Today, Sunnyside is operated as a historic site by Historic Hudson Valley.

==Overview==
'''Alternate Names:''' Greenburgh, The Roost, Wolfert’s Rest, Wolfert’s Roost, Van Tassel Cottage<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' The original Van Tassel cottage dates from the mid-to-late 1600s; Irving purchased the estate in 1835<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Washington Irving (1783–1859)<br/>
'''Associated People:''' George Harvey (c. 1800–1878; architect)<br/>
'''Location and Condition:''' Tarrytown, NY; altered<br/>
[http://goo.gl/maps/HrclJ View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[Image:1933.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, George Harvey, ''The Old Cottage Taken Previous to Improvement'', c. 1835.]]
[[File:2141.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 2, George Harvey, “Scudding Clouds After a Shower/The Residence of Washington Irving, Esq.,” 1836–1840.]]

In June 1835 the American author Washington Irving purchased a 17th-century, Dutch-style farmhouse located just south of Tarrytown, New York, on the east bank of the Hudson River.<ref>Irving purchased the house and ten acres of land from Benson Ferris in 1835. Shortly after, he acquired an additional eight acres from his nephew Oscar Irving, who owned an adjacent property, and an additional three acres from another neighbor. Although additional parcels were bought and sold, these twenty-one acres comprise the core of Irving’s land holdings at Sunnyside. Robert M. Toole, “An American cottage ornée: Washington Irving’s Sunnyside, 1835–1859,” ''Journal of Garden History'' 12, no. 1 (January–March 1992): 55, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero]. At its largest, Sunnyside was twenty-seven acres. Kathleen Eagen Johnson and Timothy Steinhoff, ''Art of the Landscape: Sunnyside, Montgomery Place and Romanticism'' (Tarrytown, NY: Historic Hudson Valley, 1997), 22, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WI4Q62BT view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Ebenezer1_cite"></span><span id="Ebenezer2_cite"></span>Shortly after acquiring the cottage, Irving set out to landscape the grounds ([[#Ebenezer1|view text]]) and expand the house ([[#Ebenezer2|view text]]), collaborating on renovation plans with George Harvey (c. 1800–1878), an English-born landscape painter and amateur architect who had recently constructed his own Gothic house and [[picturesque]] garden in nearby Hastings-on-Hudson.<ref>Harvey immigrated to the United States from England in 1820. Debra Lynne Clyde, “Crayonesque Aesthetics in Prose and Architecture—A Chapter in the Formation of American Culture” (PhD diss., Drew University, 1986), 159–60, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero]; May Brawley Hill, ''Furnishing the Old-Fashioned Garden: Three Centuries of American Summerhouses, Dovecotes, Pergolas, Privies, Fences & Birdhouses'' (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998), 54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/238B4RT2 view on Zotero]. Irving also apparently asked the New York architect Calvin Pollard (1797–1850) to draw up plans for the remodelling as well. Pollard’s plan, entitled “Proposed Alterations to the Property of Washington Irving, Esquire” and dated July 1835, survives in the collection of Historic Hudson Valley and shows a strong influence of the Greek revival style. Clyde 1986, 161–63, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero].</ref> Harvey wrote that Irving enlisted his help on the project because “[Harvey’s] own residence, being in the Elizabethan style, had so pleased the author of the sketch-book as to leave him to desire something similar, but modified with Dutch roofs.”<ref>Irving was the author of ''The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.'', often referred to as ''The Sketch Book'', a collection of short stories originally published in 1819–20. George Harvey, ''Harvey’s Royal Gallery of Illustration . . . A Descriptive Pamphlet of the Original Drawings of American Scenery. . . .'' (London: W. J. Golbourn, 1850), 17; quoted in Clyde 1986, 161, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero]. As Clyde has observed, from existing written correspondence between Irving and Harvey from 1835 and 1847, it appears that Irving would typically express his wishes (and occasionally draw a rough sketch), which Harvey would then translate into more detailed architectural drawings that Irving would either approve or revise (164–65).</ref> Irving and Harvey incorporated the existing two-story, boxy stone farmhouse, which Harvey painted soon after Irving acquired it, into the new design [Fig. 1]. The principal architectural changes from the 1835–36 remodelling—an extension added to the back of the cottage, an open porch facing the Hudson on the west side of the house, a new façade featuring Gothic details and lancet windows, and a cluster of chimneys at the center of the red-shingled roof—combined elements of Dutch colonial history and Gothic revival architecture into a unique blend [Fig. 2].<ref>Adam W. Sweeting, “‘A Very Pleasant Patriarchal Life’: Professional Authors and Amateur Architects in the Hudson Valley, 1835–1870,” ''Journal of American Studies'' 29, no. 1 (April 1995): 40, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/MJGAQD3B view on Zotero]. Toole similarly argues, “Architectural critics have tried to classify Irving’s cottage design, but in fact it is unique.” Robert M. Toole, ''Landscape Gardens on the Hudson, a History: The Romantic Age, the Great Estates & the Birth of American Landscape Architecture'' (Hensonville, NY: Black Dome Press, 2010), 85, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero].</ref> The irregular shape and eclectic style of Irving’s remodeled cottage constituted, according to many scholars, an early shift away from the Greek revival style that had dominated architectural design in the early 19th century toward a more romantic style.<ref>Hill 1998, 54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/238B4RT2 view on Zotero]; Clyde 1986, 14–15, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero].</ref>

In addition to the cottage remodelling, Irving also devoted significant resources to shaping the landscape at Sunnyside. According to Debra Lynne Clyde, because much of Irving’s land had been farmed throughout the previous century, large swathes of it required replanting in order to transform the grounds into a [[picturesque]] landscape, a project that occupied Irving between 1836 and 1841.<ref>Clyde 1986, 176, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero].</ref> Even before Irving had acquired the title for the house, he apparently desired to “clear away all the old outhouses, [[fence]]s and rubbish and have a clear green [[lawn]]” ([[#Ebenezer1|view text]]). <span id="Irving_Sept 18_cite"></span>Irving later wrote, “[I] was pretty much my own architect; project [planner] and landscape gardener, and had but rough hands to work under me” ([[#Irving_Sept 18|view text]]).<ref>Irving, with the assistance of Harvey, created the design for Sunnyside, but he employed various gardeners and hired hands to care for the property and help carry out his many renovations and landscape improvement projects. Toole 2010, 85, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero]. It is known that by the 1850s Irving employed a gardener named Robert. Harold Dean Cater, “Washington Irving and Sunnyside,” ''New York History'' 38, no. 2 (April 1957): 147, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z2X7H9V2 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Irving_Apr_28_cite"><span id="Irving_May 18_cite">By the spring of 1836, Irving reported to relatives that he was busy “[s]etting out trees” ([[#Irving_Apr_28|view text]]) and boasted that he was becoming “a capital florist and horticulturalist and agriculturalist” ([[#Irving_May_18|view text]]). Although Irving had never planned a landscape prior to Sunnyside, he likely acquired a working knowledge of landscape design during the course of his travels through Europe, including several “[[picturesque]] tours” to estates in Britain between 1815 and 1817. According to Robert M. Toole, Irving “did not recreate the rectilinear basis of old [[Dutch style|Dutch]] gardening, but instead manipulated the natural scene as a [[park]]-like composition, following the principles of [[English style|English]] [[landscape gardening]] and the ‘[[Picturesque]] improvers.’”<ref>According to Toole, Irving visited Wye Valley and the Welsh and Scottish Highlands, as well as the landscape gardens at Hagley and The Leasowes near Birmingham. Toole 1992, 54, 66, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero]. Clyde notes Irving’s distaste for formal geometric gardens: “Once in Bordeaux he had observed an extensive formal garden ‘laid out in the told taste of clipd walks alley arbors &c’ and noted his distaste. ‘It has a pretty effect on the eye for the first time, but then there is a degree of sameness in the walks &c that soon grows tiresome.’ He preferred the English vision . . . ,” Clyde 1986, 147, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero].</ref> Irving would have gained experience with horticulture and landscape design more locally as well. In 1832, three years before purchasing Sunnyside, Irving toured Dr. [[David Hosack|David Hosack's]] [[Elgin Botanic Garden]] in Manhattan. He also visited [[Montgomery Place]] twice and would have undoubtedly noticed the horticultural efforts of the estate’s first owner, Janet Livingston Montgomery (1743–1827), who had erected a [[greenhouse]] and established a [[nursery]] for both native and exotic species.<ref>Johnson and Steinhoff 1997, 21, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WI4Q62BT view on Zotero].</ref>

Sunnyside boasted a large variety of plant species. Vines of honeysuckle, English ivy—reportedly from a cutting taken at Abbotsford, the home of the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), that was originally sourced from Melrose Abbey in the Scottish Borders—and wisteria (a newly introduced Chinese exotic) adorned the cottage façades.<ref>Johnson and Steinhoff 1997, 19, 25, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WI4Q62BT view on Zotero]; Clyde 1986, 154, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero].</ref> <span id="Irving_July_13_cite">Irving planted [[grove]]s of chestnut, black walnut, and butternut trees, and noted that “every year the [[grove]]s grow more dense and stately” ([[#Irving_July_13|view text]]). There were also Lombardy poplars, oaks, maples, black locust, horse chestnut, and tulip trees in the wooded areas of Sunnyside, and American elm and sycamore along the shoreline.<ref>Toole 1992, 69, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero]; Toole 2010, 87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero].</ref> Irving planted a [[kitchen garden]] and flower [[bed]]s during this period, and he acquired various plants and fruit trees from London, which his nephew Edgar, who worked in the New York Custom House, sent from New York up the Hudson River via boat up to Tarrytown, as well as plants from [[Andrew Jackson Downing|A. J. Downing's]] [[nursery]] across the river in Newburgh.<ref>Clyde 1986, 176–77, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero]; Toole 2010, 89, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2139.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 3, Ward Carpenter & Sons, ''Sunny-Side: Property of C. A. and Sarah Irving'', November 1871.]]
Irving made significant changes to the landscape along the riverbank that, as Toole has observed, “imparted a decidedly polished treatment to what was originally a more natural river edge.”<ref>Toole 2010, 86, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero].</ref> He cleared out the [[thicket]] of brush and rocks that covered the riverbank, surfaced it with grass, and erected a bulwark to prevent flooding and erosion. The bulwark also served as an important element of the landscape design; Irving wrote to a niece in July 1841 that it was “a great improvement to the place” and that he had installed “footpaths leading down to it, and [[seat]]s under the trees” ([[#Irving_July_13|view text]]). <span id="Downing_1841_cite"></span>Writing about Sunnyside in 1841, [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing]] (1815–1852) praised the charming qualities of the “gently swelling slope” that connected the cottage to the riverbank and the newly installed “foot-paths ingeniously contrived so as sometimes to afford secluded [[walk]]s, and at others to allow fine [[vista]]s” of the river ([[#Downing_1841|view text]]). These paths were part of a larger, complex system of [[walk]]s that “directed movement and so defined the sequence from which the landscape composition was experienced.”<ref>Toole 1992, 68, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero].</ref> Paths ran along the shoreline, through the wooded glen, to the [[kitchen garden|kitchen]] and [[flower garden]]s, and by the wooded belts that ran through the pastures. Irving’s paths connected with his neighbors’ paths to the north, east, and south of Sunnyside, so that visitors could meander onto adjacent properties without interruption, as can be seen in this 1871 survey map (Fig. 3].<ref>Although produced after Irving’s death, this map is the best known representation of the landscape plan as it likely appeared during Irving’s lifetime. According to the National Park Service report, there were “no substantial changes made to the property” between 1859 (the year of Irving’s death) and 1896. ''Sunnyside (Home of Washington Irving)'' (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1978), item 7, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CVNXUMGC view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Willis_cite"></span>In contrast to his neighbors’ gravel [[walk]]s, however, Irving’s paths were surfaced with compacted dirt, reflecting his more naturalistic sensibilities and desire to keep costs low ([[#Willis|view text]]).<ref>Toole 2010, 87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Richards_cite"></span>T. Addison Richards (1820–1900) observed that this system of connected paths made Sunnyside feel much larger than its small acreage: “a pleasant deception greatly aided by that agreeable community of feeling between Mr. Irving and his neighbors, which has so banished all dividing [[wall]]s and [[fence]]s, that while you think you are roaming over the grounds of one, you suddenly bring up among the flower [[bed]]s of another” ([[#Richards|view text]]).

In 1842 Irving left Sunnyside to serve as the United States Minister to the Court of Madrid. <span id="Irving_Feb_17_cite"></span>While in Europe, he left the care of Sunnyside to his brother Ebenezer Irving (1776–1868) and urged him to consult the collection of books related to “gardening, farming, poultry, &c.” that he kept in his library ([[#Irving_Feb_17|view text]]).<ref>James Claudius Loudon’s ''Encyclopedia of Agriculture'' (1835), ''Encyclopedia of Gardening'' (1840), and ''Encyclopedia of Plants'' (1841) are among the books that Irving is known to have owned. Clyde 1986, 180, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero].</ref> <span id="Irving_Oct_19_cite"></span>Upon his return home in 1846, Irving wrote, “I have found my little nest almost buried among trees and over run with clambering vines. My first move has been [to] cut down and clear away so as to make openings for [[prospect]]s and a free circulation of air, my next to commence building an addition, so that I have my hands full of occupation” ([[#Irving_Oct_19|view text]]). Facing a shortage of rooms to accommodate his nieces who often lived with him at Sunnyside as well as his staff, Irving built a three-story tower in what scholar Adam Sweeting has described as an eclectic “Chinese-Gothic” style. The structure, designed by Harvey and nicknamed the Pagoda, comprised a basement, three servants’ rooms, and a guest room and was connected to the main cottage by a one-story passage that contained a pantry and laundry facilities.<ref>Sweeting 1995, 40, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/MJGAQD3B view on Zotero]; Cater 1957, 145–46, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z2X7H9V2 view on Zotero]. Schuyler describes the Pagoda as “in vaguely Spanish style.” David Schuyler, ''Sanctified Landscape: Writers, Artists, and the Hudson River Valley, 1820–1909'' (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012), 53, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/F6CAVE9F view on Zotero].</ref> According to the scholar David Schuyler, during this second round of major renovations, Irving planted annuals, grapes, and figs he acquired from his friend Gouverneur Kemble (1786–1875), constructed a [[hothouse]], and placed wren boxes near his cottage.<ref>Schuyler 2012, 53–54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/F6CAVE9F view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2138_detail.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 4, Evie Todd, ''Sunnyside. March 1866'' [detail] from ''Leisure Hours'' sketchbook, 1866.]]
Irving made significant improvements to the more utilitarian features of the landscape during the mid-1840s as well. He enclosed the barn and stable area and made a large farmyard and poultry [[yard]].<ref>Irving connected the kitchen yard to the porch by constructing a small room that could be accessed from the parlor, which he used as a small plant conservatory. Clyde 1986, 181, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero]; Cater 1957, 146, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z2X7H9V2 view on Zotero].</ref> Irving also enclosed the 1 ½-acre rectangular [[kitchen garden]] and [[flower garden]] (with a coal house, a Gothic-style gardener’s cottage, and a storehouse) located in the northeast corner of the property on a hillside near the [[orchard]].<ref>Toole 1992, 69, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero]; Cater 1957, 146, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z2X7H9V2 view on Zotero].</ref> To the west of the gardens, Irving erected a [[greenhouse]].<ref>''Sunnyside (Home of Washington Irving),'' item 7, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CVNXUMGC view on Zotero]; Cater 1957, 154, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z2X7H9V2 view on Zotero].</ref> Visitors entered the garden using Irving’s system of paths that connected with “a geometric arrangement of [[walk]]s” within the enclosed garden.<ref>Toole 1992, 69, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero].</ref> Pastures were designed with aesthetics in mind, and Irving constructed “[[park]]-like glades, studded with specimen trees and thick woodland belts between them” that shaded the [[walk]]s, as Toole has observed, rather than more efficient, clear pastures devoid of decorative landscape features.<ref>Toole 2010, 87–88, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero].</ref> This combination of practical and aesthetic considerations also characterizes Irving’s approach to other aspects of the landscape at Sunnyside, such as water sources, which Irving controlled and shaped in ways that were both useful and pleasing to the eye. In 1840 Irving constructed a [[picturesque]] Gothic [[icehouse]], located on the shore of a cove [Fig. 4]. In 1847 he dammed the brook that ran through his property to form an ice [[pond]], and just above that, a larger [[pond]], which he shaped to resemble the Mediterranean. The “Little Mediterranean,” which was connected to the cottage through a system of lead pipes in order to provide the kitchen and laundry with water, also served as a reflecting pool. Both the [[icehouse]] and the [[pond]]s were necessary for the operations of the farm and cottage at Sunnyside, but they also served as ornamental features.<ref>Toole 2010, 89, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X view on Zotero]; Cater 1957, 154–55, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z2X7H9V2 view on Zotero]; ''Sunnyside (Home of Washington Irving)'', item 7, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CVNXUMGC view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2140.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 5, Unknown artist, ''Sunnyside from the Hudson'', c. 1860.]]
The construction of a causeway for the Hudson River Railroad in 1847 negatively affected the landscape at Sunnyside by separating the brook that ran through Irving’s property from the Hudson River [Fig. 5]. It also necessitated the damming and eventual draining of the small cove, which exists today only as a marshy depression.<ref>''Sunnyside (Home of Washington Irving)'', item 7, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CVNXUMGC view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Downing_1844_cite"></span>As Toole has observed, the railroad “seriously diminished Sunnyside as the ‘beau ideal’ [[A. J. Downing]] had described” in the 1844 edition of his treatise ([[#Downing_1844|view text]]).<ref>Toole 1992, 62, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero].</ref> Irving was greatly disturbed by the presence of the railroad, which he described as a “constant calamity,” but, like other property owners along the Hudson, he accepted compensation and resigned himself to its existence.<ref>Johnson and Steinhoff 1997, 12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WI4Q62BT view on Zotero]; Toole 1992, 62, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2132_detail.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 6, William Wade, ''Wade & Croome’s panorama of the Hudson River from New York to Albany'' [detail], 1846.]]
Transportation developments helped to make Sunnyside more accessible—and also more familiar—to the general public. Daily steamship service between Manhattan and Albany, started in 1808, opened up the Hudson River Valley as a tourist destination. Members of “the traveling class” used guidebooks and binoculars to view the estates along the Hudson River [Fig. 6]. Artists turned their attention to Sunnyside in the middle and late 19th century, and the estate reached a wider audience through the publication of prints. Prints also accompanied articles about Sunnyside that were published in general-interest illustrated periodicals or in travel literature, such as the well-known descriptions written by “propagators of the Romantic style,” according to Clyde, including Richards and Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–1867) ([[#Willis|view text]]).<ref>Clyde 1986, 134, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JX5WJUE7 view in Zotero]. For an analysis of the role that images played in spreading the association of Sunnyside with Romantic ideals during the 19th century, see pages 142–47.</ref>

Following Washington Irving’s death in 1859, Sunnyside remained in the Irving family and its appearance was largely preserved. The first substantial changes came in 1897, when Washington Irving’s great-nephew Alexander Duer Irving (1842–1911) added an addition to the north side of the cottage and replaced Irving’s original farm buildings and gardener’s cottage with new structures. Alexander Irving also made several significant modifications to the landscape at this time, eliminating public access to Sunnyside Lane, separating the old farm [[pond]] from the brook, and rerouting several driveways and [[fence]]s. In 1945 John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874–1960), purchased Sunnyside to save it from demolition and soon thereafter opened the estate to the public. By 1960 the cottage and kitchen [[yard]] had been restored to appear as they did in Washington Irving’s time. A car park was added on the site of the old [[kitchen garden|kitchen]] and [[flower garden]]s to accommodate visitors, and the entrance to Sunnyside was rerouted from Sunnyside Lane. Visitors now approach the cottage from the east, a route that was never used during Washington Irving’s lifetime. Sunnyside’s present appearance represents a combination of Washington Irving’s original design, Alexander Irving’s late 19th-century landscape alterations, and 20th-century changes made to accommodate the visiting public.<ref>After Washington Irving’s death, Sunnyside passed to Ebenezer Irving and, upon Ebenezer’s death, to the family of Ebenezer’s oldest son. Irving’s nieces continued to live at Sunnyside until 1875. Toole 1992, 64–65, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J4JJXXDD view on Zotero]; ''Sunnyside (Home of Washington Irving)'', item 7, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CVNXUMGC view on Zotero].</ref> The estate is now run as a historic site by Historic Hudson Valley.<ref>Sleepy Hollow Restorations, which was the preservation entity endowed by Rockefeller in 1951, changed its name to Historic Hudson Valley in 1986. For a brief history of the organization, see http://www.hudsonvalley.org/about/our-story/evolution.</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
* <div id="Ebenezer1"></div>Irving, Ebenezer, June 1, 1835, in a letter to his nephew William Irving (quoted in Cater 1957: 134)<ref name="Cater 1957">Cater 1957, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z2X7H9V2 view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Ebenezer1_cite|back up to History]]

:“We are to get possession of it in a day or two and shall then determine what improvements to make. We shall clear away all the old outhouses, [[fence]]s and rubbish and have a clear green [[lawn]].”

* <div id="Ebenezer2"></div>Irving, Ebenezer, June 30, 1835, in a letter to his nephew William Irving (quoted in Cater 1957: 134)<ref name="Cater 1957"/> [[#Ebenezer2_cite|back up to History]]

:“But your uncle and all are more pleased than ever with the place. He purposes enlarging the house, preserving its present old Dutch style, and making it an inviting and comfortable nook for the family. It can, at a small expense, be made a charming little place. The road down from the turnpike to the house winds beautifully along the little brook, and is capable of being made really beautiful.”

* Irving, Washington, August 24, 1835, in a letter to his brother Peter Irving (''Letters'' 2:839–40)<ref name="Letters II">Washington Irving, ''Letters, Volume II, 1823–1838'', ed. Ralph M. Aderman, Herbert L. Kleinfield, and Jenifer S. Banks (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1979), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NE35ZWT5 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The workmen are busy upon my cottage, which I think will be a snug little Dutch nookery when finished. It will be of stone, so as to be cool in summer and warm in winter. The expense will be moderate, as I have it built in the simplest manner, depending upon its quaintness rather than its costliness.”

* <div id="Irving_Apr_28"></div>Irving, Washington, April 28, 1836, in a letter to his sister Catharine Paris (''Letters'' 2:869)<ref name="Letters II"/> [[#Irving_Apr_28_cite|back up to History]]

:“I wish the Cottage was ready, and then there would be no difficulty, but it will be some time in June before it is habitable—if then. We have good workmen and they are getting on well—but there is always a world of finishing that one never calculates on

:“I have been busy out of doors from morning until night ever since I have been up here Setting out trees &c &c.”

* <div id="Irving_May_18"></div>Irving, Washington, May 18, 1838, in a letter to his nephew Pierre M. Irving (''Letters'' 2:928)<ref name="Letters II"/> [[#Irving_May_18_cite|back up to History]]

:“We are all cosily quartered at the Roost, and very comfortable. The season is coming out in all its beauty, and we are in the midst of birds and blossoms and flowers. I look forward with pleasure to the prospect of seeing you and Helen at the cottage in the course of the summer, and showing you what a capital florist and horticulturalist and agriculturalist I am becoming. I beat all the gentleman farmers in my neighborhood, for I can manage to raise my vegetables and fruits at very little more than twice the market price.”

* Irving, Washington, October 24, 1838, in a letter to his sister Sarah Van Wart (''Letters'' 2:939)<ref name="Letters II"/>

:“The girls live very much in the open air. The retired situation of the cottage, with its secluded [[walk]]s, quiet glens and sheltering [[grove]]s, enable them to rove about without fear of restraint. They have lately been busily employed in nutting; my place abounds with fine chestnut, black-walnut and butter nut trees; and this year they are completely laden with fruit.”

[[File:2133.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 7, Benson John Lossing, “Residence of Washington Irving, Esq.,” in ''Family Magazine or Monthly Abstract of General Knowledge'' 6 (1839), 135.]]
* Lossing, Benson J., 1839, describing Sunnyside (1839: 135)<ref>Benson J. Lossing, “Residence of Washington Irving,” ''Family Magazine'' 4 (1839), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/3TS4N8BE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The grounds about it have been cleared, the thick [[copse]] that concealed the ‘Taappan Zee’ from view has been levelled, and Mr. Irving has rendered it one of the most delightful summer residences in the country.” [Fig. 7]

* Irving, Washington, November, 25, 1840, in a letter to his sister Sarah Van Wart, about their niece Sarah Paris (''Letters'' 3:61)<ref name="Letters III">Washington Irving, ''Letters, Volume III, 1839–1845'', ed. Ralph M. Aderman, Herbert L. Kleinfield, and Jenifer S. Banks (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/UUVDM5SK view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Ever since my return to the United States Sarah has been peculiarly my companion; taking the strongest and most affectionate interest in all my concerns, and delighting me by her frank, natural, intelligent, and social qualities. She is especially identified with the cottage and all its concerns, having been in all my councils, when building and furnishing it, and having been the life of the establishment ever since I set it up. How I shall do without her I cannot imagine, or how I shall reconcile myself to her entire absence from a place where every path, tree shrub and flower, is more or less connected with her idea.”

[[Image:1880.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 8, A. J. Downing, “Residence of Washington Irving, Esq. near Tarrytown, NY,” in ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'' (1849), 409, fig. 59.]]

* <div id="Downing_1841"></div>[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], 1841, describing Sunnyside (1841: 334–36)<ref>Andrew Jackson Downing, ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America'', 1st ed. (New York and London: Wiley and Putnam, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/PGUEKHNG view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Downing_1841_cite|back up to History]]

:“There is scarcely a building or place more replete with interest in America, than the cottage of Washington Irving, near Tarrytown. The ‘legend of sleepy Hollow,’ so delightfully told in the Sketch-Book, has made every one acquainted with this neighbourhood, and especially with the site of the present building, there celebrated as the ‘Van Tassel House,’ one of the most secluded and delightful nooks on the banks of the Hudson. With characteristic taste, Mr. Irving has chosen this spot, the haunt of his early days, since rendered classic ground by his elegant pen, and made it his permanent residence. The house of ‘Baltus Van Tassel,’ has been altered and rebuilt in a quaint style, partaking somewhat of the English cottage mode, but retaining strongly marked symptoms of its Dutch origin. The quaint old weathercocks and finials, the crow-stepped gables, and the hall paved with Dutch tiles, are among the ancient and venerable ornaments of the houses of the original settlers of Manhattan, now almost extinct among us. There is also a quiet-keeping in the cottage and the grounds around it, that assists in making up the charm of the whole: the gently swelling [[slope]] reaching down to the water’s edge, bordered by prettily wooded ravines through which a brook meanders pleasantly; and threaded by foot-paths ingeniously contrived so as sometimes to afford secluded [[walk]]s, and at others to allow fine [[vista]]s of the broad expanse of river scenery.” [Fig. 8]

* <div id="Irving_July_13"></div>Irving, Washington, July 13, 1841, in a letter to his niece Sarah Storrow (''Letters'' 3:112)<ref name="Letters III"/> [[#Irving_July_13_cite|back up to History]]

:“I never have seen it look more beautiful—and I think the little domains about the cottage have been more beautiful than ever—The trees and shrubs and clambering vines that have been transplanted within the last year or two, have now taken good root and begin to grow luxuriantly. If vegetation goes on at this rate we shall before long be buried among roses and honeysuckles and ivy and sweet briar. All the [[grove]]s too about the place are magnificent this year. Most of the forest trees you know, are young, and scare any past their prime; so that every year the [[grove]]s grow more dense and stately. The new [[walk]]s are very popular especially that to the fallen Chest-nut tree, which is one of the most shady cool and delightful resorts of a warm sunny day that you can imagine. I was never more conscious of the sweetness of the country than this season.

:“I have nearly completed my bulwark along the foot of the bank. It will not merely be protection against the encroachments of the river, but also a great improvement to the place—I shall have the [[slope]] bank finished off and in some places sloped down to the [[wall]], with footpaths leading down to it, and [[seat]]s under the trees. The shore of the river is cleared of all the rocks and stones that encumbered it and the whole aspect of the place along the river is changed.”

* Irving, Washington, July 18, 1841, in a letter to his niece Sarah Storrow (''Letters'' 3:133)<ref name="Letters III"/>

:“The sweet briars which you and David planted, and which you inquire about, are flourishing finely—You need not fear that they will not be taken fear of. We value too highly every thing that reminds us of you. All our clambering vines have been very luxuriant this season, and are gradually clothing the cottage with verdure. Some of the trumpet creeper too begins to flower; and by another year we shall have the east [[wall]] quite gorgeous.”

* <div id="Irving_Feb_17"></div>Irving, Washington, February 17, 1842, in a letter to his brother Ebenezer Irving (''Letters'' 3:183–84)<ref name="Letters III"/> [[#Irving_Feb_17_cite|back up to History]]

:“I now abandon the care of the place entirely to you. You will find, in my little library, books about gardening, farming, poultry, &c., by which to direct yourself. The management of the place will give you healthful and cheerful occupation, and will be as much occupation as you want. . . . Try if you cannot beat me at farming and gardening. I shall be able to bestow a little more money on the place now, to put it in good heart and good order.”

* <div id="Downing_1844"></div>[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], 1844, describing Sunnyside (1844: 38, 380)<ref>Andrew Jackson Downing, ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America'', 2nd ed. (New York: Wiley, 1844), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/IGJXRU9V view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Downing_1844_cite|back up to History]]

:“At Tarrytown, is the cottage residence of Washington Irvings, which is, in location and accessories, almost the beau ideal of a cottage-ornée. The charming manner in which the wild foot-paths, in the neighborhood of this cottage, are conducted among the [[picturesque]] dells and banks, is precisely what one would look for here. . . .

:“The cottage itself is now charmingly covered with ivy and climbing roses, and embosomed in [[thicket]]s of [[shrubbery]].”

* Irving, Washington, February 5, 1846, in a letter to Flora Foster Dawson (''Letters'' 4:13–14)<ref name="Letters IV">Washington Irving, ''Letters, Volume IV, 1846–1859'', ed. Ralph M. Aderman, Herbert L. Kleinfield, and Jenifer S. Banks (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/XNBAEW4X view on Zotero].</ref>

:“As to myself on my return to America I built me a pretty little cottage on the banks of the Hudson in a beautiful country, and not far from my old haunts of Sleepy Hollow. Here I passed several years most happily; my cottage well stocked with nieces and enlivened by visits from friends and connexions, having generally what is called in Scotland is called a house full, that is to say a little more than it will hold. This state of things was too happy to last. I was unexpectedly called from it by being appointed Minister to Madrid. It was a hard struggle for me to part from my cottage and my nieces but I put all under charge of my brother and promised to return at the end of three years. I have overstaid my time. Nearly four years have elapsed; I understand my cottage is nearly buried among the trees I set out, and over run with roses and honeysuckle and ivy from Melrose Abbey, and my nieces implore me to come back and save them from being buried alive in foliage.”

* <div id="Irving_Oct_19"></div>Irving, Washington, October 19, 1846, in a letter to Madame Albuquerque (''Letters'' 4:101)<ref name="Letters IV"/> [[#Irving_Oct_19_cite|back up to History]]

:“I have found my little nest almost buried among trees and over run with clambering vines. My first move has been cut down and clear away so as to make openings for [[prospect]]s and a free circulation of air, my next to commence building an addition, so that I have my hands full of occupation.”

* Irving, Washington, November 8, 1846, in a letter to Sabina O’Shea (''Letters'' 4:105)<ref name="Letters IV"/>

:“In fact I have so completely slipped back into my old rural habits and occupations, that I can scarcely realize, as I go dawdling about trimming and planting and transplanting trees and inspecting the poultry yard, that so short a time has elapsed since I was playing the Courtier and treading the saloons of Royal palaces.”

* Irving, Washington, August 27, 1847, in a letter to his niece Sarah Storrow (''Letters'' 4:144)<ref name="Letters IV"/>

:“My own place has never been so beautiful as at present. I have made more openings by pruning and cutting down trees, so that from the [[piazza]] I have several charming views of the Tappan Zee—and the hills beyond; all set as it were in verdant frames, and I am never tired of sitting there in my old Voltaire chair, of a long summer morning, with a book in my hand, sometimes reading, sometimes musing on the landscape, and sometimes dozing and mixing all up in a pleasant dream.”

* Irving, Washington, September 9, 1847, in a letter to his sister Catharine Paris (''Letters'' 4:150)<ref name="Letters IV"/>

:“I have, however, just finished my last job, making a new ice [[pond]] in a colder and deeper place in the glen just opposite our entrance [[gate]]: and now I would not undertake another job, even so much as to build a wren coop; for the slightest job seems to swell into a toilsome and expensive operation.”

* <div id="Irving_Sept 18"></div>Irving, Washington, September 18, 1847, in a letter to Sabina O’Shea (''Letters'' 4:151)<ref name="Letters IV"/> [[#Irving_Sept 18_cite|back up to History]]
:“The fact is on my return home my whole thoughts and exertions were suddenly turned into a new channel which has almost ever since engrossed them. I found my place very much out of order, my house in need of additions and repairs and the whole establishment in want of completion. I set to work immediately, and kept on at all times and seasons, in defiance of heat and cold, wind and weather and as I was pretty much my own architect; project and landscape gardener, and had but rough hands to work under me, I have been kept busy out of doors from morning until night and from months end to months end until within a week or two past, when I brought my labors to a close, or rather relinquished them, finding I had spent all <my> the money in my pocket and fagged myself into an irritation of the system which has rendered me almost as lame as I used to be in Madrid.”

* Irving, Washington, December 18, 1850, in a letter to Henry Lee Jr. (''Letters'' 4:237)<ref name="Letters IV"/>

:“A rural retreat when it is a mans own, and of his own formation produces a new set of pleasures and interests and ambitions, and every tree he plants awakens a new hope and attaches him to the spot which he has improved. I speak from experience having never been happier than in my present little country nest, where the house is of my own building, the trees of my own planting the garden of my own cultivating and where my continual blunders give me continual occupation in rectifying them.”

* Irving, Washington, May 20, 1851, in a letter to Moses H. Grinnell (''Letters'' 4:255)<ref name="Letters IV"/>

:“Sunnyside is possessed by seven devils and I have to be continually on the watch to keep all from going to ruin. First, we have a legion of Women Kind, cleaning and scouring the house from top to bottom; so that we are all reduced to eat and drink and have our being in my little library. In the midst of this our water is cut off. An Irishman from your establishment undertook to shut up my spring as he had yours, within brick [[wall]]s; the spring shewed proper spirit and broke bounds and all the water pipes ran dry in consequence. In the dearth of painters I have employed a couple of country carpenters to paint my roofs and it requires all my vigilance to keep them from painting them like Josephs coat of divers colors. Your little man Westerfield is to plaster my chimneys tomorrow and your plumbers and bell hangers to attack the vitals of the house. I have a new coachman to be inducted into all the mysteries of the stable and coach house, so all that part of the establishment is in <a> what is called a halla baloo. In a word I never knew of such a tempest in a teapot as is just now going on in little Sunnyside[.] I trust, therefore, you will excuse me for staying at home to sink or swim with the concern.”

* Irving, Washington, July 15, 1852, in a letter to his niece Sarah Storrow (''Letters'' 4:317)<ref name="Letters IV"/>
:“I wish you could see little Sunnyside this season, I think it more beautiful than ever. The trees and shrubs and clambering vines are uncommonly luxuriant. We never had so many singing birds about the place and the humming birds are about the windows continually after the flowers of the honey suckles and trumpet creepers which overhang them.”

[[File:2130.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 9, W. R. Miller (artist) and Richardson & Cox (engraver), ''Irving’s Residence, Sunny-Side'', in ''Homes of American Authors; Comprising Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches by Various Writers'' (1853), 35.]]
[[File:2131.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 10, W. R. Miller (artist) and Richardson & Cox (engraver), ''Irving’s Residence, Sunny-Side'', in ''Homes of American Authors; Comprising Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches by Various Writers'' (1853), 50.]]
* Tuckerman, Henry T., 1853, describing Sunnyside (1853: 50–52)<ref>Henry T. Tuckerman, “Washington Irving,” in ''Homes of American Authors; Comprising Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches, by Various Writers'' (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1853), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/R9BXIQ54 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“It is approached by a sequestered road, which enhances the effect of its natural beauty. A more tranquil and protected abode, nestled in the lap of nature, never captivated a poet’s eye. Rising from the bank of the river, which a strip of woodland alone intercepts, it unites every rural charm to the most complete seclusion. From this interesting domain is visible the broad surface of the Tappan Zee; the grounds [[slope]] to the water’s edge, and are bordered by wooded ravines; a clear brook ripples near, and several neat paths lead to shadowy [[walk]]s or fine points of river scenery. The house itself is a graceful combination of the English cottage and the Dutch farm-house. The crow-stepped gables, the tiles in the hall, and the weathercocks, partake of the latter character; while the white [[wall]]s gleaming through the trees, the smooth and verdant turf, and the mantling vines of ivy and clambering roses, suggest the former. Indeed, in this delightful homestead are tokens of all that is most characteristic of its owner. The simplicity and rustic grace of the abode indicate an unperverted taste,—its secluded position a love of retirement; the cottage ornaments remind us of his unrivalled pictures of English country-life; the weathercock that used to veer about on the Stadt-house of Amsterdam is a symbol of the fatherland; while the one that adorned the grand dwellings in Albany before the revolution, is a significant memorial of the old Dutch colonists; and they are thus both associated with the fragrant memory of that famous and unique historian Diedrich Knickerbocker. The quaint and beautiful are thus blended, and the effect of the whole is singularly harmonious. From the quietude of this retreat are obtainable the most extensive [[prospect]]s; and while its sheltered position breathes the very air of domestic repose, the scenery it commands is eloquent of broad and generous sympathies. . . .

:“And here, in the midst of a landscape his pen has made attractive in both hemispheres and of friends whose love surpasses the highest meed of fame, he lives in daily view of scenes thrice endeared—by taste, association, and habit;—the old locust that blossoms on the green bank in spring, the brook that sparkles along the grass, the peaked turret and vine-covered [[wall]] of that modest yet traditional dwelling, the favorite valley watered by the romantic Pocantoro, and, above all, the glorious river of his heart.” [Figs. 9 & 10]

* Irving, Washington, May 27, 1853, in a letter to Mary E. Kennedy (''Letters'' 4:406)<ref name="Letters IV"/>

:“The grass is growing up to my very door,—the roses and honeysuckles are clamberinga bout my windows, the acacias and liburnums are in full flower, singing birds have built in the ivy against the wall and I have concerts at daybreak almost equal to the serenades you used to have at Washington.”

* Anonymous, April 1855, describing Sunnyside (''New York Quarterly'' 4: 66, 75, 77)<ref>Anonymous, “Washington Irving; His Home and His Works,”''New York Quarterly'' 4, no. 1 (April 1855), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/47NVJ48H view on Zotero].</ref>

:“In a sequestered rural retreat, some twenty-five miles from the din of city life, half-hid among thick foliage through which gleams the silvery expanse of the Hudson, stands a grotesque-looking, antique edifice—half-Dutch, half-Elizabethan in style, and so snugly nestled amid shrubbery and evergreen, as to elude the ken of the casual passer-by. It is an enchanting little nook, charmingly diversified with upland, [[lawn]], and dell, and so rife with [[picturesque]] beauty as completely to fascinate the eye and hold it spell-bound to the spot. This emparadised retreat, with its leafy recesses and antique structure, is the home of the great American essayist and historian—Washington Irving. There is an air of singular quaintness and rural elegance about the scene—every thing that refined taste could devise, and diligent culture effect, is here indicated. . . .

:“We perambulated the beautiful grounds of Sunny-Side, which extend over some six or eight acres, a second time, and as we luxuriated over every fresh variety of ornate landscape, Mr. Irving pointed out some of his favorite [[walk]]s, and indicated to us some of his fine trees, in which he evidently takes pride and pleasure. From a rising knoll on the banks of the river, we caught a glimpse of the roof and turrets of the house, the rest of the edifice being embosomed in foliage; the scene was singularly effective and beautiful. As an evidence of the social and amiable character of Mr. Irving, it may be mentioned that no 'boundary line' is marked by [[hedge]] or by [[fence]], diving his from his neighbors' grounds—an instance somewhat remarkable, since such distinctions are rarely disregarded. The [[kitchen garden]] is a perfect model for neatness and taste, and its lavish provision showed that utility as well as ornament entered into the calculations of his gardener. The only thing that seemed wanting was water, there being but a small rivulet here and there. . . .

:“The radiant summer sunset was now streaming its liquid gold through the windows, tempting us out upon the lawn again, to feast our gaze with the splendors of the scene. A new phase of beauty was now given to these delectable grounds, the leaves and flowers were luminous with the golden rays of the declining sun, and the quiet waters of the Hudson served as a broad mirror reflecting the brilliant and blending tints of the bending skies, rendering the scene one of exquisite loveliness. . . . The dark shadows of the [[clump]]s of forest-trees afforded a rich contrast to the gorgeous hues with which the other portions of the landscape were decked.”

* <div id="Richards"></div>Richards, T. Addison, December 1856, describing Sunnyside (1856: 7–11)<ref>[T. Addison Richards], “Sunnyside: The Home of Washington Irving,” ''Harper’s New Monthly Magazine'' 14, no. 79 (December 1856), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TKKJSCVJ view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Richards_cite|back up to History]]

:“It is a sweet scene of rural simplicity and comfort which is disclosed to us by either approach; as the open sunlit [[lawn]], so affectionately embraced by its protecting trees and [[shrubbery]], which, though permitting little peeps here and there from within, deny all vagrant observation from without. One can scarcely believe himself as thickly surrounded as he really is here by crowding cottage and castle, so entire is the repose and seclusion of the spot. Year ago, when Mr. Irving first took up his abode at Sunnyside, he was all alone by himself, yet now every inch of the adjacent country is gardened, and [[lawn|lawned]], and villaed, to the extreme of modern taste and wealth; yet all so charmingly under the rose, that you always stumble upon the evidences unexpectedly, as you dreamingly pursue the [[thicket]]-covered and brook-voiced [[wood]]-paths. It is like the discovering of birds'-nests amidst forest leaves. Seen from the opposite shore of the river, the whole hillside is glittering with sun-tipped roof and tower, but like the Seven Cities of the Enchanted Island, it all vanishes as you approach.

:“The cottage, with its crow-stepped gables and weathercocks, overrun with honey-suckle and eglantine, with the rose-vine and the clinging ivy, is a wonderfully unique little edifice, totally unlike any thing else in our land, but always calling up our remembrances or our fancies of merrie rural England, with a hint here and there at its old Dutch leaven; in the quaint weathercocks, for instance, one of which actually veered, in good old days gone by, over the great Vander Heyden Palace in Albany, and another on the top of the Stadt House of New Amsterdam. A lady would be apt to call the Sunnyside cottage ‘the dearest, cosiest, cunningest, snuggest little nest in the world.’ Mr. Irving describes it as ‘a little old-fashioned stone mansion, all made up of gable-ends, and as full of angles and corners as an old cocked hat.’ ‘It is said, in fact,’ he continues, ‘to have been modeled after the cocked hat of Peter the Headstrong, as the Escurial was modeled after gridiron of the blessed St. Lawrence.’ . . .

:“Before the intrusion of the railroad, which has profaned so much of the river shore, the quiet beach, with its little cove, into which a rural lane debouched, was one of the sweetest features of Sunnyside. This part of the domain is beautifies by a sparkling spring, draped, like all the region round, as we shall see by-and-by, in the fairy web of romantic fable. . . .

:“The acres of Sunnyside, all told, are not many; and yet so varied is their surface, so richly wooded and flowered, and so full of elfish winding paths and grassy lanes, exploring hillsides and chasing merry brooks, that their numbers seem to be countless; a pleasant deception greatly aided by that agreeable community of feeling between Mr. Irving and his neighbors, which has so banished all dividing [[wall]]s and [[fence]]s, that while you think you are roaming over the grounds of one, you suddenly bring up among the flower-[[bed]]s of another. . . .

:“The woodland of Sunnyside is very happily varied, offering every variety of sylvan growth, beech, birch, willow, oak, locust, maple, elm, linden, pine, hemlock, and cedar; while on the [[lawn]]s are evergreen and flowering shrubs; and, trailing over the vagrant [[wall]]s and [[fence]]s, honey-suckle, rose, trumpet-flowers, and ivy. The latter plant, which is very abundant, is of the famous stock of Melrose Abbey. The garden, which in keeping with its surroundings, is watched by a favorite retainer, for whom Mr. Irving has built a snug cottage, fronting the [[lawn]] in the face of his own mansion. This little edifice is especially interesting, from its having been designed by Mr. Irving himself; his only venture, he once told us, as an architect. . . .

:“Separated from the [[lawn]] around the cottage by the belt of trees in which stands the gardener’s dwelling, is another open area occupied by a pretty [[lake|lakelet]] ‘expansion’ of the brook—an echo of the great bay beyond. The painter gives unity, and harmony, and force to his picture by distributing throughout the work its leading sentiment or story and its prevailing color; so, in the artistic composition of Sunnyside, its chief feature, the great ‘Mediterranean’ of the river, as Mr. Irving calls the Tappan Bay, with its fleet of white sails thick as the passing clouds, is repeated by the little ‘Mediterranean’ of the brooklet and its fleet of snowy ducks. . . .

:“The air of graceful simplicity and cozy comfort which so strongly marks the exterior of the Sunnyside cottage, is felt quite as vividly within doors. It is cut up into just such odd, snug little apartments and boudoirs as the rambling, low-walled, peak-roofed, and gable-ended outside promises. The state entrance is by the [[porch]] at the south end; the household exit is from the drawing-room, across the [[piazza]], to the [[lawn]] on the east or river front. It is on this side of the cottage that the family chat or read the news of the great world, away, on summer days and nights. On the north side of the drawing-room there is a delightful little recess, forming a boudoir some six or eight feet square, the whole front of which is occupied by a window looking across the [[lawn]], and through the up-river [[vista]] chronicled in our portfolio. It is, in summer, neatly matted and furnished with little stands of books, and flowers, and statuettes, and the low-toned walls are hung with drawings and sketches by Leslie, Stuart Newton, and others—mementoes of Mr. Irving’s sojournings and friendships in England—with some of Darley’s admirable etchings from Rip Van Winkle and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It is a little nook which you would set down at once as under special female guardianship. . . .

:“The graceful simplicity which marks the appointments of this Lilliputian sanctum is seen through all the furniture and adornments of the mansion. The spirit throughout is that of refinement without affectation, elegance without display, comfort without waste.”

* <div id="Willis"></div>Willis, N. P., August 1857, describing Sunnyside (quoted in ''American Publishers’ Circular and Literary Gazette'' 3: 530)<ref>Quoted in “Washington Irving at Sunnyside,” from N. P. Willis’s letter in the ''Home Journal'', ''American Publishers’ Circular and Literary Gazette'' 3, no. 34 (August 22, 1857), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NIX4U6IK view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Willis_cite|back up to History]]

:“With the horticulture and arboriculture of ‘Wolfert’s-dell,’ Mr. Grinnell has been singularly successful; and, as we were to make the rounds of the [[shrubbery|shrubberies]] and the [[hothouse|hot-houses]] before the sun should be fairly vertical, we were now admonished that it was time—Mr. Irving at once taking his straw hat to accompany us. A remark upon the beauty of the verdure near his door, drew from him a most poetical outburst as to the happy superiorty of our climate . . . .

:“While we were still in the immediate grounds of Sunnyside, I observed two remarkable triplets of the tulip tree—superb growths of three equal shafts, tall and of arrowy straightness, from each root—and in these fine specimens of the cleanest-leaved and healthiest-looking of trees, he said he took great pleasure. A squirrel ran up one of them as we approached, and, upon this race of depredators, he had been obliged to make war this summer. They were a little bit more destructive than their beauty was an excuse for. With another class of destructives, however, he did not know so well how to contend, the visitors who drive into his grounds and tie their horses to the trees.

:“The well-shaded ravine which has Sunnyside sitting on one of its knees—(once called ‘Wolfert’s Roost,’ and long used by that famous Dutchman as the covert-way between the river and his haunts)—is conveniently and gracefully intersected with paths; but I remarked to Mr. Irving that they were somewhat of the outline character of ours at Idlewild. Yes, he said; on ''his'' side of the dell, they were merely dug out and walked hard; but as they communicated with those of his rich neighbor, he was very often lucky enough to get credit of the smooth gravel-[[walk]]s, too! And he presently gave another of his crayonesque touches to his neighbor, assuring us, very solemnly, while were were wondering at the growth to which the transplanted trees had attained in so short a time, that ‘it was done by Mr. Grinnell’s going round at night, himself, with a lantern and water-pot, to see that the trees did not oversleep themselves:’—a fact, (seen through Irving spectacles,) as Mr. G., engrossed all day with his business in the city and only at home at night, sometimes takes a look at his gardener’s work, by the aid of a lantern.

:“At the door of the [[hothouse|hot-house]], Mr. Irving said it was warm enough for him outside. He preferred to stand under a tree and wait for us—particularly as he had seen the grapes before and hoped to see some of them again. Astonished as my own wilderness-trained eyes were, of course, with the wonderful fecundity of those glass-covered vines, I was more interested in the visit to Mr. Grinnell’s sumptuous stables. . . .

:“As we strolled slowly through the grounds, we came to two dwarf [[statue]]s—grotesque representations of ‘The Spendthrift’ and ‘The Miser’—and Mr. Irving gave us a comic history of their amusing a party of friends by playing at ‘tableaux,’ the other day—stopping in their walk, and dressing these figures up with the shawls and bonnets of the ladies. Our walk was varied with incidental questions of [[landscape gardening]], as we came to points which commanded the river-views more or less effectively; and Mr. Irving made one remark which, I thought, embodied the whole science of wood-thinning, in ornamental grounds—that ‘a tree is only to be cut down when the picture it hides is worth more than the tree.’”

<hr>

==Images==
<span id="roundabout_img"></span>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:1933.jpg|George Harvey, ''The Old Cottage Taken Previous to Improvement'', c. 1835.

File:2141.jpg|George Harvey, ''Scudding Clouds After a Shower/The Residence of Washington Irving, Esq.'', 1836–40.

File:2133.jpg|Benson John Lossing, ''Residence of Washington Irving, Esq.'', in ''The Family Magazine or Monthly Abstract of General Knowledge'' 6 (1839): 135.

File:2132.jpg|William Wade, ''Wade & Croome’s panorama of the Hudson River from New York to Albany'', 1846.

Image:1880.jpg|A. J. Downing, “Residence of Washington Irving, Esq. near Tarrytown, NY,” in ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'' (1849), 409, fig. 59.

Image:1807.jpg|George Inness, ''Sunnyside'', c. 1850–60.

File:2130.jpg|W. R. Miller (artist) and Richardson & Cox (engraver), ''Irving’s Residence, General View'', in ''Homes of American Authors; Comprising Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches by Various Writers'' (1853), 35.

File:2131.jpg|W. R. Miller (artist) and Richardson & Cox (engraver), ''Irving’s Residence, Sunny-Side'', in ''Homes of American Authors; Comprising Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches by Various Writers'' (1853), 50.

File:2140.jpg|Unknown artist, ''Sunnyside from the Hudson'', c. 1860.

File:2138.jpg|Evie Todd, “Sunnyside. March 1866,” in ''Leisure Hours'' sketchbook, 1866.

File:2139.jpg|Ward Carpenter & Sons, “Sunny-Side: Property of C. A. and Sarah Irving,” November 1871.

File:2142.jpg|Currier & Ives, “Sunnyside—on the Hudson,” 1877–94.

File:2152.jpg|Currier & Ives, “Sunnyside—On the Hudson,” n.d.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://www.hudsonvalley.org/historic-sites/washington-irvings-sunnyside Historic Hudson Valley]

[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2008004048.html Library of Congress Authority File]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category: Places]]

State House Yard

2019-12-30T19:11:35Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

The '''State House Yard''' in Philadelphia was dedicated as a public [[green]] in the 1730s. It was one of the earliest [[public garden]]s in America. Laid out in the mid-1780s, it was also among the first American landscapes designed in a naturalistic [[English style]] featuring American trees. Its importance as a site for civic and patriotic assemblies is reflected in the name by which it has been known since the early 19th century, Independence Square or Mall.

==Overview==
'''Alternate Names:''' State House Square, State House Garden, Independence Square<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1783 to present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' State of Pennsylvania; City of Philadelphia; U.S. National Park Service<br/>
'''Associated People:''' [[Samuel Vaughan]] (1720–1801; landscape designer); William Rees (gardener)<br/>
'''Location:''' Philadelphia, PA<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Independence+Hall/@39.9483686,-75.1501621,18z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c6c8836b1cc977:0x148a1e67397d6ea9 View on Google Maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[File:1991.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, William Russell Birch, State-House Garden, Philadelphia,” 1800.]]

In 1730 the Pennsylvania Assembly authorized the purchase of a city block in Philadelphia for the erection of a new statehouse.<ref>Charles H. Browning, “The State House Yard, and Who Owned It First after William Penn,” ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 40 (January 1916): 89–103 [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/S3VZJQ2T view on Zotero]; Norris S. Barratt, “State House Yard,” ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 39 (October 1915): 506, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2KDGDWBX view on Zotero].</ref> Five years later, the Assembly decreed that no part of the property south of that building, known as the State House Yard, should be built on, “but that the said Ground shall be enclosed, and remain a publick open [[Green]] and [[Walk]]s for ever.”<ref>“An Act for Vesting the State-House and Other Publick Buildings, with the Lots of Land Whereupon the Same Are Erected, in Trustees for the Use of This Province, October 14, 1735,” in ''The Charters of the Province of Pensilvania [sic] and City of Philadelphia'' (Philadelphia: B. Franklin, 1742), 478, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/RJ32PZ25 view on Zotero]. See also Anna Coxe Toogood, ''Independence Square, Volume 1: Historical Narrative'' (Independence Historical National Park: National Park Service, 2004), 11, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref> Thereafter, in addition to serving as a pedestrian thoroughfare, the State House Yard became Philadelphia’s principal location for military activities and civic gatherings. Most famously, it was the site of the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776.<ref>Charlotte Mires, ''Independence Hall in American Memory'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), 17, 19, 24, 35, 37, [[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/FVCMU5QH view on Zotero]; Toogood 2004, 31–55, 138–41, 150–208, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref> Plans to landscape the State House Yard date from 1732, when the Pennsylvania Assembly determined that the uneven ground should “be levelled, and enclosed with a Board [[Fence]], in order that [[Walk]]s may be laid out, and Trees planted, to render the same more beautiful and commodious.”<ref>Gertrude MacKinny, ed., “Votes of Assembly,” in ''Pennsylvania Archives: Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the Province of Pennsylvania, 1682–1776'', 8 vols. (Philadelphia, 1913–35), 3:2163, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ICQFNRMK view on Zotero]. See also Toogood 2004, 9–12, 27, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref> Construction of a brick [[wall]], begun in 1739, proceeded slowly but was evidently complete by 1752, when Nicholas Scull and George Heap documented the presence of “a high [[Wall]]” enclosing the Yard in their Map of Philadelphia. Following the purchase of the few adjacent lots that remained in private hands, the entire block was enclosed in 1770 with a massive seven-foot brick [[wall]] pierced by a single, pedimented [[gateway]], as shown in [[William Birch|William Birch's]] engraving “State House Garden, Philadelphia” of 1800 [Fig. 1].<ref>Toogood 2004, 12–14, 22, 25–26, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero]; Anna Coxe Toogood, ''Cultural Landscape Report: Independence Mall'' (Independence National Historial Park: United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, June 1994), 15, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZKMF6B37 view on Zotero].</ref> Landscaping of the State House Yard meanwhile remained at a standstill. In 1763 the General Assembly ordered that the superintendents of the State House immediately “prepare a Plan for laying out the [[Square]] . . . in proper [[Walk]]s, to be planted with suitable Trees for Shade.”<ref>''Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the Province of Pennsylvania: December 4, 1682–September 26, 1776'', 8 vols. (Philadelphia: Henry Miller, 1752–76), 5:284, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SSTH2P7B view on Zotero]. See also Toogood 2004, 14, 23, 79, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref> Twenty years later, in September 1783, Governor John Dickinson (1732–1808) revived the subject, petitioning the Assembly to begin laying out the grounds in a manner that “would be reputable to the State, particularly useful to the inhabitants of this city, [and] very agreeable to strangers.”<ref>Toogood 2004, 72, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref>

Ironically, it was one of those strangers to Philadelphia who finally took up the long-deferred project of landscaping the property. [[Samuel Vaughan]], a wealthy British merchant and close friend of Benjamin Franklin, arrived in Philadelphia with his family in September 1783, the same month that the governor and Assemblymen were discussing development of the Yard. By the end of the year, [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] had proposed a plan for laying out the property and had hired a professional gardener, William Rees, to begin implementing his design.<ref>Toogood 2004, 74, 76, 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref> [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan’s]] plan called for a double [[alley]] of elm trees lining a broad central [[walk]], with connecting serpentine gravel [[walk]]s on either side.<ref>Toogood 1994, 15, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZKMF6B37 view on Zotero].</ref> He planted a number of elms and pines in March 1784, and the following year transplanted an additional 100 elms from the Princeton, New Jersey, estate of Col. George Morgan (1743–1810).<ref>“The State House Yard,” ''Philadelphia Register, and National Recorder'' (May 29, 1819), p. 361, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JJC5KN25 view on Zotero].</ref> Like [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]], Morgan was a member of the American Philosophical Society and a founding member of the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, established in February 1785. Morgan was also a land speculator and horticulturalist with a particular interest in preserving trees.<ref> Louis Houck, ''The Spanish Regime in Missouri'', 2 vols. (Chicago: E. R. Donnelly & Sons Company, 1909), 1:300, 303, 305, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BKDABA9A view on Zotero].</ref> He donated a further 25 elms to the State House Yard in 1786.<ref>Toogood 2004, 87, 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref>

[[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] initially intended to develop the State House Yard as a national [[arboretum]], with an example of every tree and shrub that grew in the thirteen states of America.<ref>Samuel Vaughan to Humphry Marshall, May 14, 1785,Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Series X, Manuscripts, Box 10/4, file “Humphry Marshall Papers,” USDA History Collection, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SB7UVI3N view on Zotero]. See also Toogood 2004, 86, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref> He received many of these plants as donations. For example, early in 1785 the British expatriate Mahlon Hall (1734–1818), whose [[Schuylkill River]] estate neighbored [[Belmont]] and Landsdowne, supplied ninety-two hollies, two weeping willows, four white cedars, and a number of other trees.<ref>Toogood 2004, 90–91, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref> In early April 1785 [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] compiled a list of over 700 plants representing 40 different species that he had received as donations, and another 75 examples of 55 species that he had purchased from the botanists and nurserymen [[William Bartram|William]] and John Bartram Jr., fellow members of the American Philosophical Society.<ref>Joel T. Fry, ''John Bartram’s House and Garden (Bartram’s Garden)'', Historic American Landscape Survey (2004), 50, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/R9R5T6QS view on Zotero]; Samuel Vaughan, “List of Trees ‘Planted in the State-House Square,’” April 7, 1785, Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Series X, Manuscripts, Box 10/4, file “Humphry Marshall Papers,” USDA History Collection, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/3RW2HBXQ view on Zotero]. See also Toogood 2004, 85, 86, 90–91, 93–94, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero]; Sarah P. Stetson, “The Philadelphia Sojourn of Samuel Vaughan,” ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'', 73 (October 1949): 465–66, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/6QU7WK2J view on Zotero].</ref> In a letter of May 28, 1785, to the Bartrams’ cousin, the botanist and plant dealer [[Humphry Marshall]], [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] appealed for assistance in completing the collection, noting “I am unacquainted with the vast variety remaining . . . and shall be much obliged to you for a list of such as occur to you, with directions in what state or place they are to be had, that I may lay out to procure them to plant in the fall.”<ref>Samuel Vaughan to Humphry Marshall, May 28, 1785, Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Series X, Manuscripts, Box 10/4, file “Humphry Marshall Papers,” USDA History Collection, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4N9E2PIM view on Zotero]; see also Vaughan, May 14, 1785, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SB7UVI3N view on Zotero].</ref> Although [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] ultimately scaled back his ambitious landscape plan, he nevertheless assembled a remarkable variety of specimens. From January to June 1785, he employed the nurseryman and gardener John Lithen to supervise the planting of these trees and shrubs.<ref>Fry 2004, 50, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/R9R5T6QS view on Zotero].</ref> In distinct contrast to the [[geometric style]] that characterized other Philadelphia gardens (such as the Norris garden, which shared a wall with the State House Yard), [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] designed the plantings in informal [[clump]]s in accordance with the fashionable [[natural style]] he had absorbed in England. Quantities of sand, gravel, and earth were carted in to to create artificial [[mound]]s. [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] continued this work in 1786 and 1787, purchasing additional trees and shrubs from John Bartram Jr. and Joseph Sepher. He added a pair of Windsor settees and a pair of garden chairs (both fashioned on the spot from red cedar logs) in 1785, and five street lamps in 1789. A team of laborers maintained the grounds under the supervision of gardener Jonathan Pilling until 1794, and thereafter under Edward Martin.<ref>Toogood 2004, 91, 93–96, 108, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:0324.jpg|thumb|Fig. 2, William Russell Birch, “Back of the State House, Philadelphia,” 1800.]]
While attending to the development of the State House Yard, [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] was simultaneously spearheading plans for an adjacent building, Philosophical Hall, the new headquarters of the American Philosophical Society.<ref>William E. Lingelbach, “Philosophical Hall: The Home of the American Philosophical Society,” ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'', 43, n.s. (1953): 45–50, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/E5XJR6BI view on Zotero]; Stetson, October 1949, 464–65, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/6QU7WK2J view on Zotero].</ref> A new county courthouse (1787–90) and city hall (1790–91) completed the trio of impressive buildings that flanked the north end of the State House Yard. By 1790, when [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] returned to England, the State House Yard had become a fashionable place of public resort for Philadelphia residents and a prime destination for sightseers visiting the city during the decade that it served as the nation’s capital (1790–1800).<ref>Toogood 2004, 114, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero]; Thompson Westcott, ''The Historic Mansions and Buildings of Philadelphia, with Some Notice of Their Owners and Occupants'' (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1877), 110, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QF7PUHNV view on Zotero].</ref> Unfortunately, this early [[public garden]] also attracted the attention of vandals and vagrants. Watch boxes and a brick barracks erected in the Yard accommodated guards responsible for preventing malicious damage to the trees and shrubs, which had become a problem by July 1790.<ref>Toogood 2004, 94, 95, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref> [[William Birch]] included two of these watch boxes in the background of his engraved view, “Back of the State House, Philadelphia” (1799) [Fig. 2]. In 1802 the artist and entrepreneur [[Charles Willson Peale]] relocated the bulk of his museum collections from Philosophical Hall to the State House and assumed the responsibility of maintaining the State House Yard as well. Over the next ten years, he and his son Rembrandt Peale made improvements to the Yard, adding new [[gate]]s and benches and renovating the [[wall]]s and [[lawn]]s.<ref>Toogood 2004, 159–164, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero]; Simon Snyder, ''An Act to Authorize the Further Improvement of the State-House-Yard, in the City of Philadelphia, and for Other Purposes'' (March 10, 1812): 101, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/MIECHTWE view on Zotero].</ref> [[Charles Willson Peale|Peale]] also fenced in a portion of the State House Yard for the outdoor display of his menagerie of live animals, which included monkeys, an elk, a blue and red macaw, and—briefly—two grizzly bears donated in 1808 by his friend [[Thomas Jefferson]].<ref>Brett Mizelle, “Displaying the Expanding Nation to Itself: The Cultural Work of Public Exhibitions of Western Fauna in Lewis and Clark’s Philadelphia,” in ''The Shortest and Most Convenient Route: Lewis and Clark in Context'', ed. Robert S. Cox, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 2004), 224–26, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/DQUZEMNB view on Zotero]; Charles Coleman Sellers, ''Mr. Peale’s Museum: Charles Willson Peale and the First Popular Museum of Natural Science and Art'' (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1980), 77, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/MI3HEZIK view on Zotero].</ref> Longstanding concern over poor air circulation within the State House Yard ultimately resulted in the removal, in 1811, of the seven-foot-high brick [[wall]]s that surrounded it, replaced by lower brick [[wall]]s measuring just three feet in height, topped by a marble coping and a railing of iron palisades.<ref>Toogood 2004, 115–17, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero]; Toogood 1994, 16, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZKMF6B37 view on Zotero]; Westcott 1877, 110, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QF7PUHNV view on Zotero]; “State House Yard,” ''The Register of Pennsylvania'' (June 28, 1828): 416, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/DKHNQCPA view on Zotero].</ref> The addition of two [[gateway]]s allowed for greater access to the Yard. From 1813 to 1815 two wings of the State House were demolished and replaced by modern office wings designed by [[Robert Mills]]. Nothing came of more ambitious plans to fundamentally alter the character and purpose of the State House Yard—for example, by erecting an arched [[bridge]] connecting it to another [[square]]; by expanding the museum into a new building, designed by [[Benjamin Henry Latrobe]]; or by converting the Yard into a [[botanic garden]] modeled on [[David Hosack|David Hosack's]] in New York.<ref>Sellers 1980, 94–95, 99, 148–53, 195, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/MI3HEZIK view on Zotero].</ref> The city of Philadelphia also warded off several proposals by the state legislature to demolish the State House and subdivide the Yard for development.<ref>Toogood 2004, 171–173, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref>

The city succeeded in purchasing the State House Square property in 1818 and, shortly after, approved the appropriation of funds to renovate the Yard, stipulating that the original features designed by [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] should be preserved, as “time has given them a character of sanctity which forbids that they be touched.”<ref>Elizabeth Milroy, “Repairing the Myth and the Reality of Philadelphia’s Public Squares, 1800–1850,” ''Change Over Time'' 1 (2011): 5, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BARZR6HJ view on Zotero].</ref> The city’s improvements included replacing damaged trees with new plants purchased in 1819 from [[David Landreth]]; adding a row of linden trees opposite the State House in 1821; and commissioning the architect John Haviland to design a decorative iron [[gateway]] in 1823. Such efforts gained momentum following the Marquis de Lafayette’s visit to Philadelphia in September 1823, which spurred a new patriotic regard for the State House Yard, officially renamed Independence Square in 1825.<ref>Toogood 2004, 176–178, 182–83, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref> Additional trees planted in the 1840s (overseen by the gardener Lawrence Hart) included sugar maples to replace the caterpillar-ravaged lindens, oaks, silver maples, and buttonwood, the latter particularly singled out for praise as “superb specimens” by [[Andrew Jackson Downing]].<ref>Toogood 2004, 190, 192–93, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref> Two carved wooden [[statue]]s by Benjamin Rush representing female allegories of Wisdom and Justice briefly stood along the main [[walk]], but were removed after eliciting complaints. More controversially, the city fundamentally altered the original [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] design in 1837 by adding diagonal [[walk]]s to accommodate pedestrian traffic across the [[square]].<ref>Toogood 2004, 183–84, 186–88. [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref> Practical concerns continued to erode the original plan in the 19th century, leading Philadelphia historian Thompson Westcott to conclude in 1877 that the 19th-century State House Yard “makes up in utility what it has lost in beauty.”<ref> Westcott 1877, 110, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QF7PUHNV view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Robyn Asleson''

<hr>

==Texts==
*Duché, Rev. Jacob, c. 1774, “Letter to the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount P—, at Oxford” (''Caspipina’s Letters'': 12–13)<ref>Jacob Duché, ''Caspipina’s Letters; Containing Observations on a Variety of Subjects, Literary, Moral, and Religious'' (Philadelphia: John Dunlap, 1774), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5IH6E4VQ view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Mr. [Benjamin] F—[ranklin], the late speaker of the Assembly, with whom I have several times conversed, informed me, that the [[plot]] of ground on which the State-house stands, and which is one of the [[square]]s of the city, is to be planted with trees, and is divided into [[walk]]s, for the recreation of the citizens. I could not help observing to him, that it would be a considerable improvement of their plan, if the Legislature could purchase another [[square]] which lies to the south of this, and apply it to the same salutary purpose; as otherwise, their [[walk]]s must be very contracted, unless they make them of a circular or serpentine form.”

*Belknap, Rev. Jeremy, 1785, “Journal of a Tour to Philadelphia” (quoted in Toogood 2004: 90)<ref>Rev. Jeremy Belknap, “Journal of a Tour to Philadelphia, 1785,” unpublished MS, Massachusetts Historical Society, quoted in Toogood 2004, 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The Elegant Square called ye ‘Area of ye State-house’ wh is now improving & ornamenting [is?] a delightful [[walk]] & rural retreat for ye Citizens. . . . Grass [[plot]]s— & graveled [[Walk]]s . . . filling with young trees.”

*Hunter, Robert, October 31, 1785, diary entry (1943: 169)<ref>Robert Hunter, ''Quebec to Carolina in 1785–1786: Being the Travel Diary and Observations of Robert Hunter, Jr., a Young Merchant of London'', ed. Louis B. Wright and Marion Tinling (San Marino, CA: The Huntington Library, 1943), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/EDP6T3ER view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The state-house is infinitely beyond anything I have either seen in New York or Boston, and the [[walk]] before it does infinite honor to Mr. [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan's]] taste and ingenuity in laying it out.”

*Brissot de Warville, Jacques Pierre, 1788 (1792; repr. 1919: 189)<ref>J. P. Brissot de Warville, ''New Travels in the United States of America, Performed in 1788'' (1792; repr., Bowling Green, OH: Historical Publications Co., 1919), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/GH5VFB9D view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Behind the State-house is a [[public garden]]; it is the only one that exists in Philadelphia. It is not large; but it is agreeable, and one may breathe in it. It is composed of a number of verdant [[square]]s, intersected by [[alley]]s.”

*Swanwick, John, June 30, 1787, “On a Walk in the State House Yard” (''Columbian Magazine'': 609–10)<ref>John Swanwick, “On a Walk in the State House Yard, June 30, 1787,” ''Columbian Magazine'' (August 1787), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K5P9AQW4 view on Zotero].</ref>
:: Joy to the breast which plann’d this soft retreat,
::: And drest with trees, and grassy sods the plain! . . . <br/>

::Oh! How much more shall he be crown’d by fame
::: Who form’d for lovers this auspicious [[grove]]; . . . <br/>

::Who can unfold what joys, in future times,
::: These winding [[walk]]s to thousands shall impart? . . . <br/>

:: What various bliss these shaded paths may yield
::: To many a nation, whose assembled peers
:: May plan their systems on this spacious field,
::: And in a moment form the weal of years! <br/>

::Even now the sages, whom the land convenes,
::: To fix her empire, and prescribe her laws,
:: While pensive wand’ring thro’ these rural scenes,
::: May frame their councils for a world’s applause . . . <br/>

:: Think on the founder of the blissful [[grove]],
::: And with fresh laurels grace his honoured brows.

*Anonymous, July 1787, “Account of the State-House of Pennsylvania” (''Columbian Magazine'' 1: 51)<ref>Anon.,”Account of the State-House of Pennsylvania,” ''Columbian Magazine'' 1 (July 1787), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZDHUSQJF view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The state-house yard has been highly improved by the exertions of Mr. [[Samuel Vaughan]], and affords two gravel [[walk]]s, shaded with trees, a pleasant [[lawn]], and several [[bed]]s of shrubs and flowers.”

*[[Manasseh Cutler|Cutler, Manasseh]], July 13, 1787 (1888: 1:262–63)<ref>Manasseh Cutler, ''Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, L.L.D.'', eds. William Parker Cutler and Julia Perkin Cutler, 2 vols. (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1888), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ASAS6SD5 view on Zotero].</ref>
:“We passed through this broad aisle [of the State House] into the [[mall|Mall]]. It is small, nearly square, and I believe does not contain more than one acre. As you enter the [[mall|Mall]] through the State House, which is the only [[avenue]] to it, it appears to be nothing more than a large inner Court-[[yard]] to the State House, ornamented with trees and [[walk]]s. But here is a fine display of rural fancy and elegance. It was so lately laid out in its present form that it has not assumed that air of grandeur which time will give it. The trees are yet small, but most judiciously arranged. The artificial [[mound]]s of earth, and depressions, and small [[grove]]s in the [[square]] have a most delightful effect. The numerous [[walk]]s are well graveled and rolled hard; they are all in a serpentine direction, which heightens the beauty, and affords constant variety. That painful sameness, commonly to be met with in garden-[[alley]]s, and other works of this kind, is happily avoided here, for there are no two parts of the [[mall|Mall]] that are alike. Hogarth’s ‘Line of Beauty’ is here completely verified. The public are indebted to the fertile fancy and taste of Mr. [[Samuel Vaughan|Sam’l Vaughan]], Esq., for the elegance of this plan. It was laid out and executed under his direction about three years ago. The [[mall|Mall]] is at present nearly surrounded with buildings, which stand near to the board [[fence]] that incloses it, and the parts now vacant will, in a short time, be filled up. On one part the Philosophical Society are erecting a large building for holding their meetings and depositing their Library and Cabinet. This building is begun, and, on another part, a County Court-house is now going up. But, after all the beauty and elegance of this public [[walk]], there is one circumstance that must forever be disgusting and must greatly diminish the pleasure and amusement which these [[walk]]s would otherwise afford. At the foot of the [[mall|Mall]], and opposite to the Court-house, is the Prison, fronting directly to the [[mall|Mall]]. It is very long and high, I believe, four stories, and built of stone. The building itself, which is elegant, would appear well, were it not for its unsavory contents. . . . Whatever part of the [[mall|Mall]] you are in, this cage of unclean birds is constantly in your view, and their doleful cries attacking your ears.”

*Morse, Jedidiah, 1789, describing the State House Yard (1789: 331)<ref>Jedidiah Morse, ''The American Geography; or, A View of the Present Situation of the United States of America'' (Elizabeth Town, NJ: Shepard Kollock, 1789),[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/93EGD8Q5 view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The state house yard, is a neat, elegant and spacious public [[walk]], ornamented with rows of trees; but a high brick [[wall]], which encloses it, limits the [[prospect]].”

*Anonymous [“B.”], January 1790, “Explanation of the Plate, exhibiting a View of several Public Buildings in the City of Philadelphia” (''Columbian Magazine'' 4: 25–26)<ref>Anonymous [“B.”], “Explanation of the Plate, exhibiting a View of several Public Buildings in the City of Philadelphia,”'' Columbian Magazine'' 4 (January 1790), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/7TF4THJP view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The State-house square . . . is inclosed [sic], on three sides, by a brick [[wall]]. . . . This area has, of late, been judiciously improved, under the direction of [[Samuel Vaughan]], Esq. It consists of a beautiful [[lawn]], interspersed with little knobs or tufts of flowering shrubs, and [[clump]]s of trees, well disposed. Through the middle of the gardens, runs a spacious gravel-[[walk]] lined with double rows of thriving elms, and communicating with serpentine [[walk]]s which encompass the whole area. These surrounding [[walk]]s are not uniformly on a level with the [[lawn]]; the margin of which, being in some parts a little higher, forms a bank, which, in fine weather, affords pleasant [[seat]]s. When the trees attain to a larger size, it will be proper to place a few benches under them, in different situations, for the accommodation of persons frequenting the [[walk]]s.

:“These gardens will soon, if properly attended to, be in a condition to admit of our citizens indulging themselves, agreeably, in the salutary exercise of walking. The grounds, though not so extensive as might be wished, are sufficiently large to accommodate very considerable numbers: the objects within [[view]] are pleasing; and the situation is open and healthy. If the ladies, in particular, would occasionally recreate themselves with a few turns in these [[walk]]s, they would find the practice attended with real advantages.”

*Anonymous, June 18, 1791, “For the General Advertiser. Mr. Bache,” (''General Advertiser'')<ref>Anonymous, “For the General Advertiser. Mr. Bache,” ''General Advertiser and Political, Commercial, Agricultural and Literary Journal'' (June 18 1791), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ARTIZ5KZ view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The State House Mall is a pleasing and inexpensive source of amusement; and, especially in the fine evenings we enjoy at present, calculated to restore serenity to the mind, and afford refreshment to the body.”

*Adams, John, May 15, 1794, letter to Abigail Adams, Philadelphia<ref>Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, May 15, 1794, Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society, [http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17940515ja&hi=1&query=yard&tag=text&archive=all&rec=2&start=0&numRecs=82].</ref>

:“By the Way this statehouse Yard is a beautiful Thing formed on an [[English style|English Plan]], like the Inclosure in Grosvenor [[Square]]. I walk there every day for air and Exercise in the shade. It is not a Paines Hill nor a Stowe, nor a Leasowes, but it is pretty.”

*Wansey, Henry, June 7, 1794, diary entry (1970: 103)<ref name="Wansey"> Henry Wansey, ''Henry Wansey and His American Journal'', ed. David John Jeremy (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1970), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/UQTHRX3W view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Behind it [the State House] is a garden, which is open for company to walk in. It was planned and laid out by [[Samuel Vaughan]], Esq. a merchant of London, who went out a few years ago, and resided some time at Philadelphia. It is particularly convenient to the House of Representatives, which being on the ground floor, has two doors that open directly into it, to which they can retire to compose their thoughts, or refresh themselves after any fatigue of business, or confer together and converse, without interrupting the debate.”

* Wansey, Henry, June 10, 1794 (1970: 116)<ref name="Wansey"></ref>
:“The pleasantest [[walk]] at Philadelphia, is the State Gardens, behind the House of Representatives. It is something like Kensington Gardens, but not so large.”

*Morse, Jedidiah, 1797, “Philadelphia” (''The American Gazetteer'')<ref>Jedidiah Morse, ed., ''The American Gazetteer: Exhibiting, in Alphabetical Order, a Much More Full and Accurate Account, Than Has Been Given, of the States, Provinces, Counties, Cities, Towns . . . on the American Continent'' (Boston: S. Hall and Thomas & Andrews, 1797), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TJZPZZEV view on Zotero]. </ref>
:“The state-house garden occupies a whole [[square]]; it is a small neat place, ornamented with several rows of trees and gravel [[walk]]s, and enclosed by a high brick [[wall]] on three sides, and the state-house &c. on the other. Pottersfield, formerly a public [[burying ground]], is now converted into a public [[walk]], and planted with rows of Lombardy poplars on each side. When the trees are grown, and the ground leveled, it will be one of the most pleasant [[promenade]]s in the vicinity.”

*Anonymous, June 1798, ''Philadelphia Monthly Magazine'' (quoted in Toogood 2004: 118)<ref>Toogood 2004, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SVQDZ5EJ view on Zotero].</ref>
:“On the south of [the State-house] buildings is a large area . . . enclosed with a brick [[wall]] and commanding an elegant front [[view]] of the [Walnut-street] jail, Philadelphia Library and Philosophical hall with the valuable Museum of the ingenious Mr. [[Charles Willson Peale|Peale]]. This garden is appropriated as a public [[walk]] for the use of the Citizens. . . . [I]t is laid down in a grass [[plat|platt]], divided in the middle by a spacious gravel [[walk]], lined with a double row of large native and exotic elms, which form a cool shadowy retreat, and is plentifully supplied with benches for the accommodation of visitors. As this is the only spot in this populous city appropriated to the necessary and refreshing uses of exercise and air, it is usually thronged with company . . . and on days of festivity, exhibits a lively scene of busy gaiety.”

*Martin, William Dickinson, May 20, 1809 (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)
:“The State House . . . is a large building on the south side of Chestnut Street. . . . Attached to the State House, is a large [[green]] occupying a whole [[square]] to Walnut Street. This is a neat place, ornamented with rows of Elms & Poplars: as also having handsome gravel[[ walk]]s, one of which extends thro’ the Centre with grass [[plot]]s on each side. The whole is enclosed in high brick [[wall]]s.”

*Watson, John Fanning, 1830 (1830: 343–44)<ref>John F. Watson, ''Annals of Philadelphia, Being a Collection of Memoirs, Anecdotes, and Incidents of the City and Its Inhabitants from the Days of the Pilgrim Fathers'' (Philadelphia: E. L. Carey & A. Hart and G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1830), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4PTREQIN view on Zotero].</ref>
:“About the year 1782 the father of the present John Vaughan, Esq. coming to Philadelphia from England to reside among us, set his heart upon improving and adorning the [[yard]], as an embellishment to the city. He succeeded to accomplish this in a very tasteful and agreeable manner. The trees and [[shrubbery]] which he had planted were very numerous and in great variety. When thus improved, it became a place of general resort as a delightful [[promenade]]. Windsor settees and garden chairs were placed in appropriate places, and all, for a while, operated as a charm. It was something in itself altogether unprecedented, in a public way, in the former simpler habits of our citizens; but after some time it became . . . the haunt of many idle people and tavern resorters; and, in the evening, a place of rendezvous to profligate persons; so that in spite of public interest to the contrary, it run into disesteem among the better part of society. Efforts were made to restore its lost credit; the [[seat]]s were removed, and loungers spoken of as trespassers. &c.—but the remedy came too late; good company had deserted it, and the tide of fashion did not again set in its favour.

:“In later years the fine elms, planted by Mr. [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]], annually lost their leaves by numerous caterpillars, (an accidental foreign importation,) which so much annoyed the visiters [sic], as well as the trees, that they were reluctantly cut down after attaining to a large size. After this, the dull, heavy brick [[wall]] was removed to give place to the present airy and more graceful iron palisade. Numerous new trees were planted to supply the place of the former ones removed, and now the place being revived, is returning again to public favour; but our citizens have never had the taste for promenading public [[walk]]s, so prevalent in Londoners and Parisians—a subject to be regretted, since the opportunity of indulgence is so expensively provided in this and the neighbouring [[Washington Square (Philadelphia)|Washington Square]].”

*[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], 1841, describing the city of Philadelphia (1841: 161, 168)<ref> Andrew Jackson Downing, ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America; with a View to the Improvement of Country Residences.'', (New York: Wiley, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QDVESTBX view on Zotero].</ref>
:“In [[avenues]] it [the plane tree] is often happily employed, and produces a grand effect. It also grows with great vigor in close cities, as some superb specimens in the [[square]] of the State-house, Pennsylvania Hospital, and other places in Philadelphia fully attest. . . .
:“In this country the European lime is also much planted in our cities; and some [[avenue]]s of it may be seen in Philadelphia, particularly before the State-house in Chestnut-street.”

*[[J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon|Loudon, J. C. (John Claudius)]], 1850, describing the city of Philadelphia (1850: 332–33)<ref>J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon, ''An Encyclopaedia of Gardening; Comprising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, and Landscape-Gardening'', rev. ed. (London: Longman et al., 1850), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/W8EQFZUG view on Zotero].</ref>
:“856. ''[[Public Garden]]s''. . . .
:“''[[Promenade]] at Philadelphia''. There is a very pretty enclosure before the walnut tree entrance to the state-house, with good well-kept gravel [[walk]]s, and many beautiful flowering trees. It is laid down in grass, not in turf; which indeed, Mrs. Trollope observes, ‘is a luxury she never saw in America.’”

<hr>

==Images==
<span id="roundabout_img"></span>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">
Image:0324.jpg|William Russell Birch, “Back of the State House, Philadelphia,” 1799.

Image:1991.jpg|William Russell Birch, “State-House Garden, Philadelphia,” 1800.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Map==
{{#display_map:
State House Yard, Philadelphia, United States
| service=google
| enablefullscreen=yes
}}

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://tclf.org/landscapes/independence-square The Cultural Landscape Foundation]

[http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/hh/17/hh17f.htm U.S. Park Service, Independence National Historical Park]

[http://ggll.weebly.com/peale.html Ghost Gardens, Lost Landscapes]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category: Places]]

Rosedown Plantation

2019-12-30T19:10:30Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

'''Rosedown Plantation''' is one of the best-preserved and best-documented [[plantation]] gardens of early nineteenth-century Louisiana. Built and maintained with the profits from and labor of uncompensated enslaved people, the ornamental gardens of the cotton [[plantation]] synthesized local ideas about the spatial organization of agricultural and residential landscapes with [[picturesque]] principles and horticultural specimens popularized in New York and Philadelphia.

==Overview==
'''Alternate Names:''' Rose Down<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1834 to present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Martha and Daniel Turnbull (1834–1896); Sarah Turnbull Bowman (1896–1914); Nellie, Empsie, Isa, and Maggie Bowman (The Misses Bowman) (1914–1956); Milton Underwood and Catherine Fondren Underwood (1956–); Gene Raymond Slivka (1994–2000); the State of Louisiana (2000 to present)<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Samuel Richardson (landscape gardener); Moses; Charles; Ben; Primus; Augustus; Dave; Jane; Jim (enslaved gardeners)<br/>
'''Location:''' St. Francisville, West Feliciana Parish, LA<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/dJkR3wMC1DG2 View on Google Maps]

<hr>

==History==
Located several miles inland on the eastern bank of the Mississippi river, the 3,455 acres of Rosedown Plantation were formed from seven tracts of land that Daniel Turnbull (1796–1861) and Martha Hilliard Barrow Turnbull (1809–1896) purchased between 1829 and 1861. The first of these purchases, which had been owned by members of Martha’s family, already contained an existing cotton [[plantation]] built and maintained by 74 enslaved people.<ref>Nesta Jean Anderson, “Comparing Alternative Landscapes: Power Negotiations in Enslaved Communities in Louisiana and the Bahamas, an Archaeological and Historical Perspective” (PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2004), 123, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QRGQ2RD8 view on Zotero].</ref> Profits from the Turnbull’s other [[plantation]]s, Inheritance, Desoto, and Styopa, helped fund the construction and upkeep of Rosedown. In the 1840s and 1850s, just under 450 enslaved people worked without pay on the largest [[plantation]]s owned by Daniel and Martha Turnbull.

Most information about the built landscape of Rosedown Plantation is preserved in Martha Turnbull’s garden diary, edited and annotated by the historian of landscape architecture Suzanne Turner, which documents a period from 1836 to 1895.<ref>Martha Barrow Turnbull, ''The Garden Diary of Martha Turnbull, Mistress of Rosedown Plantation'', ed. Suzanne Turner (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2012), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> Martha’s diary provides insights into the plantings, maintenance, and design, of the [[kitchen garden]], [[orchard]], [[greenhouse]]s, and ornamental gardens located closest to the main house, as well as a separate [[plantation]] garden in which she grew vegetables for the enslaved residents of Rosedown.<ref>Turnbull 2012, 145, (plantation cabbages), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> It largely ignores, however, other landscapes on the [[plantation]], which included cotton fields, fields for fodder crops, pastures for livestock, and probably a [[cemetery]].<ref>Turnbull 2012, 217, (graveyard), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2202.jpg|thumb|Fig. 1, Frances Benjamin Johnston, Lattice summerhouse at Rosedown Plantation, in ''Rosedown Plantation, St. Francisville, W. Feliciana Parish, Louisiana'', 1938.]]
Like other early nineteenth-century garden diaries, such as that of the Hudson River head gardener [[James Francis Brown]], Martha Turnbull’s records of her garden are focused on weather and largely devoid of the stylistic terms that characterized prescriptive gardening literature. Later historians of gardens, however, have characterized the design of the ornamental gardens at Rosedown as an early and innovative southern example of [[picturesque]] elements inserted within a flat, symmetrical, axial plan that was typical of the region.<ref>Donna Fricker and Suzanne Turner, “Rosedown Plantation,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (Baton Rouge: Division of Historic Preservation, 2005), 4, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AGCFHILK view on Zotero]. See also Elaine Ware, “Formal Ornamental Gardens in the Ante-Bellum South,” ''Studies in Popular Culture'' 19, no. 2 (1996): 49–66, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NLRQ2WFK view on Zotero].</ref> An [[avenue]] lined with oak trees connected the main house to the road, bisecting a rectangular garden that visitors could navigate via gently curving [[walk]]s. Around the Turnbull house, geometric [[flower garden]]s featured [[parterre]]s bordered with boxwoods and flowering shrubs.<ref>Turnbull 2012, 92 (avenue), 106 (partarre [''sic'']), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> A [[kitchen garden]] and an [[orchard]] added in 1838 provided food for the Turnbulls to consume and sell at a local market. A variety of functional and recreational structures dotted the gardens. These included two [[greenhouse]]s, one built before 1836 and the other completed in 1855, hot [[bed]]s used to cultivate tropic fruits like pineapple, and cold [[bed]]s.<ref>Turnbull 2012, 109 (pineapple), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> A lattice [[summerhouse]] [Fig. 1], first mentioned in an 1858 entry but possibly built as early as 1835, stood among the [[flower garden]]s.<ref>Turnbull 2012, 124, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero]; Fricker and Turner 2005, 18, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AGCFHILK view on Zotero]. Two later summerhouses of uncertain date were placed in the north and south gardens on either side of the oak-lined avenue. Fricker and Turner, 18 (dated to before 1861), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AGCFHILK view on Zotero]; Richard Koch, “[https://www.loc.gov/item/la0045/ Rosedown Plantation, St. Francisville, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana],” Historic American Buildings Survey (New Orleans, LA, June 1958), 2 (dated to 1895), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FKU7UJBS view on Zotero].</ref>

Around the edges of these gardens, the grounds of Rosedown Plantation contained living [[quarter]]s and a church for enslaved people, a doctor’s office, a barn, and a milkshed.<ref>The church was moved relocated farther from the main house of the plantation in the mid-twentieth century. Thomas J. Durant, Jr., “The Enduring Legacy of an African-American Plantation Church,” ''The Journal of Negro History'' 80, no. 2 (Spring 1995): 81–95, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/S4D4MTVJ view on Zotero].</ref> Based on historic aerial photos, oral histories, and archaeological finds dateable to the period between 1820 and 1860, archaeologist Nesta Jean Anderson located the site of Rosedown’s slave [[quarter]]s in a depression to the northwest of the Turnbull house, between the main drive of the [[plantation]] and Alexander Creek.<ref>Anderson 2004, “Comparing Alternative Landscapes,” 127 (location), 161-162 (dateable ceramics), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QRGQ2RD8 view on Zotero].</ref>

Early inspiration for the Rosedown Plantation gardens would have come from a variety of descriptions, images, and firsthand experiences. Turner has revealed that the Turnbulls owned general works on gardening and agriculture by such notable figures as [[John Claudius Loudon]], and [[Andrew Jackson Downing]], and may also have been familiar with gardening literature adapted for the American South by Jacques-Felix Lelièvre (1795–1854), in French, and the nurseryman and plantation owner Thomas Affleck (1812–1868), in English.<ref>Turnbull 2012, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> Their library also contained more specialized works, like Robert Leuchars’s ''Practical Treatise on the Construction, Heating, and Ventilation of Hot-Houses'', first printed in 1850.<ref>Turnbull 2012, 112, (Leuchars), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> The entrance hall of the main house was decorated with a panoramic Joseph Dufour wallpaper that depicted a dramatic landscape, one of many French imports that may also have shaped the taste of Martha and Daniel Turnbull.<ref>The wallpaper has been replaced at least twice, and the original subject matter of the panorama is unknown. Ola Mae Word, ''Reflections of Rosedown'' (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979), 11, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/SHL4LDKA view on Zotero].</ref> They must also have found ideas in firsthand experience of leisure landscapes, which the Turnbulls encountered in their seasonal travels. To escape the Louisiana heat and outbreaks of yellow fever, the Turnbulls summered in Saratoga Springs, New York, and after 1850 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.<ref>Turnbull 2012, 22, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2204.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 2, “Italian walk,” in [[J. C. Loudon]], ''The Villa Gardener'' (1850), p. 182.]]
In 1851, the Turnbull family embarked on a tour of Europe that reflected their taste in garden design and informed Martha’s approach to the Rosedown Plantation gardens in following years. Their itinerary included Liverpool Botanic Garden, Versailles, and Florence, offering them the opportunity to visit a variety of public and palatial gardens. Possibly inspired by one of [[John Claudius Loudon|Loudon’s]] illustrations of an “Italian walk,” [Fig. 2], Martha purchased twelve statues for the garden from F. Leopold Pisani in Florence, maker of marble and alabaster sculptures for wealthy travelers, which she installed throughout the garden upon her return.<ref>Turnbull 2012, 86; Ola Mae Word 1979, Reflections of Rosedown (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979), 25. For Leopold (or Leopoldo) Pisani see Giuseppe Formigli, ed., ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=N3QM15fKOyYC&lpg=PA258&dq=Guida%20della%20citta%CC%80%20di%20Firenze%20e%20suoi%20contorni%20leopoldo%20pisani&pg=PA258#v=onepage&q=pisani%20leopoldo&f=false Guida per la città di Firenze e suoi contorni]'' (Firenze: Presso i F. Carini e Giuseppe Formigli, 1849), 258, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/B7ZGAYSS view on Zotero].</ref> These included mythological figures as well as female allegorical personifications of Asia, Africa [Fig. 3], Europe, and America.<ref>The marble sculptures, several of which were photographed in the Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South, were removed by Gene Raymond Slivka. Cast-iron garden decorations from Rosedown appeared at Cakebread Auction (April 25–26, 2015).</ref> The seashell-encrusted [[rockery]] that Martha added in 1858 was probably also inspired by features that she observed on her journey.<ref>Turnbull 2012, 125, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2203.jpg|thumb|Fig. 3, Frances Benjamin Johnston, Statue of the personification of Africa, in ''Rosedown Plantation, St. Francisville, W. Feliciana Parish, Louisiana'', 1938.]]
Prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, most of the construction and maintenance of Rosedown Plantation was undertaken by enslaved people. <span id="ForeignGardner_cite"></span> An anecdote in Frederic Law Olmsted's travelogues, published first as ''A Journey in the Back Country'' and later as ''The Cotton Kingdom'', reveals that it was "all the fashion" for rich [[plantation]] owners like the Turnbulls to hire European immigrant landscape gardeners ([[#ForeignGardner|view text]]). The only professional gardener who can be identified in Martha Turnbull’s diary is Samuel Richardson, a landscape gardener who lived in Bayou Sara in the 1840s and left the service of Martha Turnbull in November of 1847.<ref>Turnbull 2012, 56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Richardson_cite"></span>His advertisements in the local newspaper cite the Turnbulls of Rosedown among his references, as well as Isaac Johnson (1803–1853), the governor of Louisiana and owner of Fairview Plantation on Bayou Sara, David Austin at Bayou Sara, and Martha’s nephew Robert Hilliard Barrow (1824–1878), owner of the Rosale Plantation near St. Francisville ([[#Richardson|view text]]). By 1868, a gardener’s house stood on the [[plantation]] grounds, although Martha’s diary never mentions the title of head gardener.<ref>Turnbull 2012, 183, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref>

With the exception of her children Sarah (1831–1914) and William (1829–1856), most of the people named in Martha’s diary prior to the Civil War can be identified with enslaved individuals listed in an 1858 succession document: Moses (age 21), Charles (17); or an 1862 inventory of enslaved people: Ben, Primus (28), Augustus (16?), Dave (17?), Jane (28 or 31), and Jim (65 or 66?).<ref>Anderson 2004, 225-227 (1858), 57-63 (1862), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QRGQ2RD8 view on Zotero]. Jane may in fact have been recaptured after fleeing enslavement in 1849, although it is not clear if the escaped woman is the same individual mentioned by Martha Turnbull.</ref> Charles may have specialized in propagating and potting [[greenhouse]] plants, <span id="Budding_cite"></span>Jane and Moses grafted fruit trees using a technique known as budding ([[#Budding|view text]]), and <span id="Strawberries_cite"></span>Ben sold vegetables and other produce at a nearby town market ([[#Strawberries|view text]]). Daniel Turnbull’s journal entries from 1860 frequently mention “invalids in garden,” suggesting that the enslaved people whom the Turnbulls regularly forced to work in the gardens at Rosedown had disabilities or illnesses that precluded more physically demanding tasks.<ref>Fricker and Turner 2005, 30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AGCFHILK view on Zotero].</ref>

Early gardening literature from the region suggests that the number of enslaved people forced to work in the Turnbull gardens was atypically high, perhaps a consequence of the size and wealth their plantations. <span id="ExtraHeavy_cite"></span>Daniel Turnbull ranked among the “extra heavy” plantation owners of West Feliciana, one of the richest parishes in Louisiana, in which enslaved African Americans outnumbered white people five to one ([[#ExtraHeavy|view text]]). Thomas Affleck, owner of a [[nursery]] in Washington, Mississippi outside of Natchez, asserted in the 1851 edition of his ''Southern Rural Almanac and Plantation and Garden Calendar'', “Very rarely is any assistance given by the plantations hands, the whole [[kitchen garden|[kitchen] garden]] being kept in fine order by house-servants, during their leisure time.”<ref>Thomas Affleck, ''Affleck’s Southern Rural Almanac, and Plantation and Garden Calendar, for 1851'' (New Orleans: Office of the “Picayune,” 1850), 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/7SIH9KQH view on Zotero]. Via Turnbull 2012, 102, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> Contrary to Affleck’s claims, large groups of enslaved people carried out labor intensive tasks in the gardens at Rosedown, especially during the busiest spring and fall months. <span id="Strawberries_cite"></span>One entry from April 1856 in Martha’s diary states “I had 18 negroes picking strawberries” ([[#Strawberries|view text]]), <span id="15Hands_cite"></span>while another from March 1860 records “Jim has had 15 hands cleaning Garden for a month” ([[#15Hands|view text]]).

Martha Turnbull acquired the plants and seeds for her gardens from both long distance and local sources. The [[nursery]] of [[Robert Buist]] in Philadelphia was a preferred source for many of the seeds and plants for Rosedown, possibly by way of local nurserymen and importers in Louisiana, but Martha also bought from the [[nursery]] of Colonel Hebron near Vicksburg, Mississippi; Makenzie in Philadelphia; William Prince in Flushing, New York; and a nursery in Long Island.<ref>Turnbull 2012, 21 (Buist and Prince), 114 (Makenzie), 127 (Hebron), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> Other plants and cuttings she acquired through exchanges with the owners of neighboring [[plantation]]s, including Mrs. Mathews of Oakley Plantation, Mr. Fort of Catalpa Plantation, and possibly Judge Thomas Butler of the Cottage Plantation, each of whom also had extensive gardens.<ref>Turnbull 2012, 41 (Judge Thomas Butler), 89 (Mrs. Mathews and Mr. Fort), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero]. For more about the gardens of Thomas Butler at his plantation, the Cottage, see Suzanne Louise Turner, “Plantation Papers as a Source for Landscape Documentation and Interpretation: The Thomas Butler Papers,” ''Bulletin of the Association for Preservation Technology'' 12, no. 3 (1980): 28–45, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/3DVEFUZC view on Zotero].</ref>

Although Martha participated in the economy of plants and ideas that emerged in Philadelphia and New York, her diary reveals that her own ideas about gardening were mediated by local practicalities and regional preferences. Martha and Daniel Turnbull subscribed to the ''Horticulturist'', published by nurseryman and theorist [[A. J. Downing]]’s publications beginning in the 1840s. Yet as Turner notes, the phrase “[[pleasure ground]]s” does not appear in Martha’s garden diary until 1872, twenty years after [[A.J. Downing|Downing’s]] death, and several of Martha’s planting and maintenance decisions disregard [[A.J. Downing|Downing’s]] guidelines for producing [[picturesque]] landscapes.<ref>Turnbull 2012, 75 (trimming trees), 110-111 (lombardy poplars), 216 (pleasure ground), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="MossHouse_cite"></span>A moss house that an enslaved man named Jim built in January of 1849 ([[#MossHouse|view text]]), could equally have been inspired by one of [[A.J. Downing|Downing’s]] publications, <span id="Richardson_cite"></span>or by the local landscape gardener Samuel Richardson, who mentioned such features by name in newspaper advertisements that appeared the same month ([[#Richardson|view text]]).

Martha Turnbull continued to maintain the gardens following the death of Daniel Turnbull in 1861, the American Civil War, and the emancipation of her enslaved workforce. While some formerly enslaved gardeners, particularly Ben and Augustus, are also mentioned in entries dated after the war in 1865, <span id="Sharecroppers_cite"></span>the emergence of a sharecropping economy at Rosedown was reflected by a new group of paid laborers who appear in the garden diary ([[#Sharecroppers|view text]]). As a consequence of the economic hardship that the [[plantation]] faced, entries written after 1867 demonstrate a new and systematic emphasis on garden-related expenses.<ref>Turnbull 2012, 171, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> Following Martha’s death in 1896, the gardens survived largely unaltered, if somewhat neglected, until the property was acquired by Catherine Fondren Underwood in 1956. Underwood sponsored a restoration of the gardens overseen by Ralph Ellis Gunn, but she demolished the remains of slave [[quarter]]s north of the gardens in which many of Martha’s gardeners would have resided.<ref>Anderson 2004, 143, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QRGQ2RD8 view on Zotero].</ref> Gunn’s restoration has been praised for its historical accuracy, although it altered the planting and design with the addition of several [[fountain]]s, one built on foundations that originally supported a [[greenhouse]].<ref>Fricker and Turner 2005, 9, 19–20 [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AGCFHILK view on Zotero].</ref> In 2000, the State of Louisiana purchased Rosedown, which it operates it as a State Historic Site.

—''Alexander Brey''

<hr>

==Texts==
*<div id="Richardson"></div>Richardson, Samuel, January 13, 1849, advertisement for landscape and ornamental gardening services (''Mississippi Free Trader and Natchez Gazette'', issue 161)<ref>Samuel Richardson, “Landscape and Ornamental Gardening,” ''Mississippi Free Trader and Natchez Gazette'', January 13, 1849, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/YASNYULR view on Zotero]. Also printed in issues published January 2, 1849 and January 10, 1849.</ref> [[#Richardson_cite|Back up to History]]
:“LANDSCAPE AND ORNAMENTAL GARDENING
:“THE undersigned respectfully tenders his services in the above line of work, and in building of MOSS and [[Rustic style|RUSTIC]] houses. Garden [[Seat]]s, will give places for [[greenhouse|Green-houses]], [[Conservatory|Conservitorys]], &c., in his depart- as a practical Gardener.
:“REFERENCES
:“His Excellency Isaac Johnson, Gov. of La.
:“Daniel Turnbull, Esqr., ‘Rosedown,’ W.F.
:“David Austin, Esqr., Bayou Sara.
:“Robert H. Barrow, Esqr., near St. Francisville, where extensive specimens of his work will be seen.
:“Communications to me, to the care of Mr. B. Marshall, Commission Merchant, will be immediately attended to.
:“SAMUEL RICHARDSON
:“Bayou Sara, Dec. 9, 1848.—Dec. 29–4t”

*<div id="MossHouse"></div>Turnbull, Martha, January 4–February 1, 1849, describing the construction of moss house (Turnbull: 65–66)<ref>Turnbull 2012, 65–66, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> [[#MossHouse_cite|Back up to History]]
:“Jany. 1849 4 we have spaded all the Garden today—the first time. Sewed Peas, Irish Potatoes. Set out the [[Orangery]] today.
:“6 cleaning & trimming our [[Orchard]] over the creek—done all the other triming & putting out cuttings—set out all the flowers that were sewed in October
:“14th still rainy walks very grassy. Putting down box, sewed Tomattoes—burnt off strawberry bed—Jim is mossing the house—Egg Plant
:“20th put down corn, green house in good order—sewed Beets.
:“22 Some more Mashanoc Irish Potatoes, still putting down box cuttings & trimed down the Wild Peach [[hedge]] to 14 inches—set out Pinks sown in October & all kinds of flowers—
:“25 all cuttings, triming done, & gone to general gardening—still wet as water—forked asparagus [[bed]]—
:“February 1st Sticking Peas—planting more Irish Potatoes—finished the walks on one side of garden—began on the other—got half of Moss house done mossing—”

*Turnbull, Daniel, November 17, 1849 (''Mississippi Free Trader and Natchez Gazette'', Issue 84)<ref>Daniel Turnbull, “$500 Reward,” Mississippi Free Trader and Natchez Gazette, November 17, 1849, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JPBWWWFL view on Zotero].</ref>
:“$500 REWARD!!
:“RUNAWAY, or was enticed away on the evening of the 6th instant, girl JANE; she is a likely mulatto, 19 or 20 years old, five feet, four or five inches in height, she cannot straighten one of her small fingers, and one thumb is deformed from a whitlow, it is believed to be on the right hand; one of her large toes is also disfigured from the same cause; she has a good deal of fine clothing with her.
:“I will give for her apprehension if secured in jail, so that I can get her, one hundred dollars if taken in this State, and two hundred dollars if taken out of the State; three hundred dollars for the apprehension and conviction of the person or persons who have abducted or conspired her abduction.
:“DANIEL TURNBULL
:“Rosedown, W. F. Nov. 10, 1849.
:“P.S.—It is possible she may have been sent by steamboat up the river.”

*Turnbull, Martha, November 1, 1852, describing work in the gardens at Rosedown mentioning several enslaved people, including Jane, Jim, and Primus, and Martha’s twenty-one-year-old daughter Sarah Turnbull, who had responsibility for half of the garden (Turnbull: 87–89)<ref>Turnbull 2012, 87–89, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Nov 1st Jane is sticking down all kinds of cuttings—Jim fixing hot [[bed]]—it was cool this morning—but really hot in the sun—& looks like too much fair weather—arranging all my shrubs that are too close—gathering hay—manure all hauled on Sarah’s side—Primus tying up the roses—& trimming the [[hedge]]s—& shrubs into shapes”

*Turnbull, Martha, July 4–July 8, 1853, describing some of the many pulses, vegetables, and fruit in her [[kitchen garden]] and [[orchard]] (Turnbull: 94–96)<ref>Turnbull 2012, 94–96, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref>
:“July 4th the first rain for six weeks—put down layers of many [[greenhouse]] plants & put down Tomattoes slips—Lettuce seed, Arbor beans, Snap, Watermelons, Cauliflower seed Cabbage & Celery set out & put down seed, Carrots, Parsnips, Salsify, Corn, & all sewed. My garden looked deplorable my violets I feared were gone—but everything now revived—My Paris Artichokes seed not good, also saved some of my old kind.
:“8 A continuation of rains, too wet to plough or work in my garden—set out Celery & Cabbage plants—My Cuttings are much improved—
:“July We had on the creek [[Orchard]] many Peach trees—8 Blue Figs—2 Pear Trees—11 apples—9 quince—30 Azelia’s—13 Heliotrope—15 Red flower from coast.”

*<div id="Budding"></div>Turnbull, Martha, September 1855, describing the autumnal tasks assigned to skilled enslaved workers in the garden (Turnbull: 101–103)<ref>Turnbull 2012, 101–103, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Budding_cite|Back up to History]]
:“Sept. 2nd Made two small Strawberry [[bed]]s & planted them down Sewed Carrots, Parsnips, Salsify—Turnips—Leeks Onions Beets Spinage &c—Mr. T. sewed his grass seed from Carolina—I had to put out all my servants in the Garden, it was overgrown with grass, weeds, &c—Jane & Moses budded many Peach, Pear, Roses Japonicas—2 whole days at it—very cloudy, threatening &—I have no Tomattoes, snap beans, Arbor beans, &c to eat—I gave a new Gardners line out—Charles is constantly potting off & put out many verbenas that he had in [[pot]]s during the summer—”

*<div id="Strawberries"></div>Turnbull, Martha, April 1–26, 1856, describing flowers and an abundant strawberry harvest (Turnbull: 122)<ref>Turnbull 2012, 122, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Strawberries_cite|Back up to History]]
:“April 1st—My Chrysanthemums are beautiful—All new shrubs are exausted & I think will die—The Geraneams are beautiful I cut down—
:“April 20 I shall put down all my Chrysanthemums in the ground—I am eating Peas for two weeks—Strawberries are very abundant—picked off of one 3rd of the [[bed]] enough for 30 people—& still the [[bed]] red—
:“24 I picked 17 Quarts of Strawberries off 1 third of the [[bed]]
:“25th I had 18 negroes picking strawberries until 11 O & did not go over but ½ the [[bed]]—I now have 8 Watering [[Pot]]s—2 Engines.
:“26 I gathered 2 ½ bushels Strawberries—Ben made 9$—”

*<div id="15Hands"></div>Turnbull, Martha, March 18–August 21, 1860, mentioning more than fifteen enslaved workers active in the gardens (Turnbull: 127)<ref>Turnbull 2012, 127, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> [[#15Hands_cite|Back up to History]]
:“18th All my Paris Artichokes to 6 killed—It look like an abundant Spring garden—Jim has had 15 hands cleaning Garden for a month—but since drouth it is getting clean—Charles is propigating.
:“April One shower only—a drouth—Myrtle [[hedge]] &c all come up & things look better than I expected—I never had such a fine garden notwithstanding drouths—No more rain until July 7th a good shower—No more rain until August 21st such a drouth never saw before—Dave planted out Cauliflower, Broccoli, Celery & how he has managed to keep it alive I cannot tell.”

*<div id="ExtraHeavy"></div>Anonymous (“Tourist”), May 21, 1860, “Louisiana in Slices. Parish of West Feliciana” mentioning Daniel Turnbull among the owners of the largest [[plantation]]s in Louisiana (''New Orleans Daily Crescent'', vol. 13, no. 66: 1)<ref>“Louisiana in Slices: Parish of West Feliciana,” ''New Orleans Daily Crescent'', May 21, 1860, Morning edition, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/3RHHZ4ZI view on Zotero].</ref> [[#ExtraHeavy_cite|Back up to History]]
:“West Feliciana is one of the wealthiest parishes of the State, being high among the second rates in wealth and population. [. . . .] The total population of the parish is 12,000, in round numbers, of which about 2000 are whites and about 10,000 slaves, the free negroes being few. [. . . .] Cotton is the principal product. Of the 227,367 acres forming its entire area, about 35,000 are in cotton, 5000 in cane and 19,000 in corn, leaving some 165,000 or 170,000 uncultivated. [. . . .] Many of the planters grown both cotton and cane, but they are generally engaged exclusively in raising either one or the other rather than both. Some of the planters of this parish rank among the largest in the State, and among the extra heavy men may be mentioned Mssrs. Joseph A. S. Acklen, David Barrow, Wm. Ruffin Barrow, Sr., Wm. J. Fort, John Scott Smith, Wm. H. Stirling, Daniel Turnbull, etc.”

*<div id="ForeignGardner"></div>Frederick Law Olmsted, 1861, ''The Cotton Kingdom'' (Olmsted 1861: 163–164)<ref>Frederick Law Olmsted, [https://archive.org/details/cottonkingdomtra00olms/page/n5 ''The Cotton Kingdom: A Traveller’s Observations on Cotton and Slavery in the American Slave States''], vol. 2 (New York: Mason Brothers, 1861), 163–64, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RM4AZRBH view on Zotero].</ref> [[#ForeignGardner_cite|Back up to History]]
:“‘Do you remember a place you passed?’ [describing the locality].
:“‘Yes,’ said I; ‘a pretty cottage with a large garden, with some [[statue]]s or [[Vase/Urn|vases]] in it.’
:“‘I think it likely. Got a foreign gardener, I expect. That’s all the fashion with them. A nigger isn’t good enough for them. Well, that belongs to Mr. A. J. Clayborn.[?] He’s got to be a very rich man. I suppose he’s got as many as five hundred people on all his places. He went out to Europe a few years ago, and sometime after he came back, he came up to Natchez. I was there with my wife at the same time, and as she and Mrs. Clayborn came from the same section of country, and used to know each other when they were girls, she thought she must go and see her. Mrs. Clayborn could not talk about anything but the great people they had seen in Europe. She was telling of some great nobleman’s castle they went to, and the splendid [[park]] there was to it, and how grandly they lived. For her part, she admired it so much, and they made so many friends among the people of quality she said, she didn’t care if they always stayed there. In fact, she really wanted Mr. Clayborn to buy one of the castles, and be a nobleman himself. “But he wouldn’t,” says she; “he’s such a strong Democrat, you know.” Ha! Ha! Ha! I wonder what old Tom Jeff. would have said to these swell-head Democrats.’”

*Turnbull, Martha, January 1863, describing the impact of the Civil War on her gardens at Rosedown Plantation (Turnbull: 151–152)<ref>Turnbull 2012, 151–152, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Jany. 1864—Up to this time, since the Federals landed in May neither field or garden has been worked, the garden is a [[wilderness]], sedge grass. It looks melancholly—My vegetable garden being plowed—I have commenced work, but slowly—before Christmas I put out trees &c—fixed up hot [[bed]]—& filled it with Pine Apple—continued rains & very hard—Celery very good—Spinage very good—put out a number of trees—put out the Strawberries I could find left in the [creek]—made my new road in field—all plow lines made—began to plow 5th—with 15 plows—making up fences, cutting wood, going in swamp, all plows, chains &c fixed up in Dec. by Old Joe—I have 30 lbs. of Pork & beef together—36 barrels Molasses & 8 hogshead of Sugar for the year—50 head of small cattle—8 old sheep &c—It is intensely cold, ground all frozen—creek higher than it has been for years—so soon as water falls it freezes. Thermometer at 12 O (clock) in the day 27°. [2nd Jan] It was 17 at sunrise [on Gallery]—22° in Study at 8 O morning—”

*<div id="Sharecroppers"></div>Turnbull, Martha, March 4, 1869, mentioning the paid gardeners whom Martha employed following the emancipation of her enslaved gardeners (Turnbull: 188)<ref>Turnbull 2012, 188, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Sharecroppers_cite|Back up to History]]
:“[March] 4th Planted, Corn, Spinach, Ben hawling manure, John plowing Penny Lancaster & Bob helped me two days—Bicks, James, & Truckpatch Orchard contains 8 acres—I suppose I cultivate in vegetables 5 acres—Trees 3 acres—[[Flower garden]]—5 acres—Big Ben Prenter & John are to cultivate it—”

*Turnbull, Martha, April 15, 1872, the first entry in which Turnbull uses the term “[[Pleasure ground/Pleasure garden|pleasure grounds]]” rather than “gardens” to describe part of Rosedown Plantation (Turnbull: 216)<ref>Turnbull 2012, 216, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FQ4JFX7V view on Zotero].</ref>
:“[April] 15 Augustus worked two days for himself—& Ben in [[Pleasure ground/Pleasure garden|pleasure grounds]], cleaning [[Statue|Stattues]]”

<hr>

==Images==
<span id="roundabout_img"></span>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

File:2204.jpg|Anonymous, “Italian walk,” in [[J. C. Loudon]], ''The Villa Gardener'' (1850), p. 182, fig. 93.

File:2202.jpg| Frances Benjamin Johnston, Lattice summerhouse at Rosedown Plantation, in ''Rosedown Plantation, St. Francisville, W. Feliciana Parish, Louisiana'', 1938.

File:2203.jpg|Frances Benjamin Johnston, Statue of the personification of Africa, in ''Rosedown Plantation, St. Francisville, W. Feliciana Parish, Louisiana'', 1938.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Map==
{{#display_map:
30.797698, -91.371521
| service=google
| enablefullscreen=yes
}}

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[https://www.crt.state.la.us/louisiana-state-parks/historic-sites/rosedown-plantation-state-historic-site/index Louisiana State Historic Sites– Rosedown Plantation]

[https://www.loc.gov/item/la0045/ Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) Documentation]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references></references>

<hr/>

[[Category:Places]]

Point Breeze

2019-12-30T19:09:39Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

'''Point Breeze''' on the Delaware River was the country estate of Joseph Bonaparte, older brother of Napoleon I, who resided in the United States between 1816 and 1839. Bonaparte regularly welcomed members of the public to enjoy the grounds and river [[View/Vista|views]] at Point Breeze, and his landscape design provided an important early model of a [[picturesque]] [[park]] in the United States.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Bonaparte’s Park<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1816 to present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Joseph Bonaparte (1816–1844); Joseph Lucien Bonaparte (1844–1847); Thomas Richards (1847–1850); Henry Beckett (1850–1874); Vincentian Fathers of Philadelphia (1874–1911); Harris Hammond (1911–?); Divine Word Seminary (1941 to present)<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Theodore Mauroy (master mason); Michel Bouvier (cabinetmaker)<br/>
'''Location:''' Burlington County, NJ<br/>
'''Condition:''' extant; altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/kgBb64S6zZy7rn7GA View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
Joseph Bonaparte (1768–1844), the former king of Naples and Spain, known as Count de Survilliers, resided at his country estate, Point Breeze, for much of his time in the United States between 1815 and 1839.<ref>Bonaparte fled to the United States following the abdication and surrender to British forces of his younger brother Napoleon I after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.</ref> He first purchased seven tracts of land comprising approximately 395 acres near Bordentown, New Jersey. A 125-acre farm known as Point Breeze, at the junction of Crosswick Creek and the Delaware River, formed the core of the property. Soon after taking possession of the farm from Stephen Sayre (1736–1818) in July 1816, Bonaparte replaced Sayre’s existing Georgian home with a larger manor house situated on a sixty-foot promontory with spectacular [[View/Vista|views]] of the Delaware River.<ref>Although Bonaparte purchased Point Breeze from Sayre, historically the land had been owned by the Farnsworth and Douglas families. Richard Veit and Michael J. Gall, “‘He Will Be a Bourgeois American and Spend His Fortune in Making Gardens’: An Archaeological Examination of Joseph Bonaparte’s Point Breeze Estate,” in ''Historical Archaeology of the Delaware Valley, 1600–1850'', ed. Richard Veit and David Orr (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2014), 299, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero]. For the full ownership history of the property between 1681 and Bonaparte’s purchase of it in 1816, see United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places—Nomination Form, “Point Breeze,” February 1977, 6, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/C5KD7RI7 view on Zotero]. Bonaparte hired Theodore Mauroy, a master mason whom he had employed previously at his residence Mortefontaine in France, to design the new home, although Bonaparte largely oversaw the construction process himself. Stephen Girard, an entrepreneur, financier, and philanthropist, helped Bonaparte acquire high-quality building supplies, including Carolina pine and imported marble. Bonaparte moved into the house by August 1817. Patricia Tyson Stroud, ''The Man Who Had Been King: The American Exile of Napoleon’s Brother Joseph'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), 23–24, 58, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]; and Veit and Gall 2014, 300, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero].</ref> Within four months he amassed an additional three hundred acres, and would continue to add to the estate over the next nineteen years until it reached approximately eighteen hundred acres.<ref>Bonaparte’s first land purchases had to be made through his agent, James Carret, because Bonaparte was not a United States citizen. However, the law changed in 1817, when New Jersey permitted non-naturalized foreigners from countries not at war with the United States to hold real estate. Stroud 2005, 23, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Bonaparte_cite"></span>

[[File:2221.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 1, Thomas Birch, ''View from the Hill near Bordentown'', 1818, Oil on Canvas, 37.5 x 48.5 in, Purchase 2004 Helen McMahon Brady Cutting Fund, Collection of the Newark Museum of Art 2004.12.]]
The proximity of Bordentown’s steamboat docks to Point Breeze made the estate readily accessible to visitors. According to Bonaparte, steamboats arrived four times daily ([[#Bonaparte|view text]]). <span id="Gordon_1834_cite"></span>In addition to frequently entertaining dignitaries, including many French exiles, at Point Breeze, Bonaparte welcomed members of the public on a weekly basis to view the [[picturesque]] [[park]] and gardens, and to see his collection of art (including a version of David’s ''Napoleon crossing the Alps''), decorative arts, and library, then the largest in the United States ([[#Gordon_1834|view text]]).<ref>Bonaparte’s collection of art and furnishings was very large; one 1818 memorandum lists nineteen cases of paintings, engravings, furniture, rugs, candelabra, sconces, mirrors, clocks, maps, table linens and kitchenware that Bonaparte shipped from Le Havre to Philadelphia. Stroud 2005, 57, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]. Paintings in the collection included, among others, a version of Jacques Louis David’s ''Bonaparte Crossing the Alps'' (1801) commissioned by Charles IV of Spain; Frans Snyders’s ''Two Lions and a Fawn''; Charles Joseph Natoire’s ''La Toilette de Psyche'' (1745; New Orleans Museum of Art); Noël Nicolas Coypel’s ''Rape of Europa'' (1726–1727; Philadelphia Museum of Art); and various portrait statues and paintings of the Bonaparte family by artists such as Lorenzo Bartolini (1777–1850), Antonio Canova (1757–1822), Raimondo Trentanove (1792–1832), and François Gérard. Bonaparte often loaned artworks to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’s annual exhibitions, making his collection even more widely accessible to the public. Bonaparte’s library included approximately eight thousand volumes, compared to the 6,500 in the Library of Congress during this period. Patricia Tyson Stroud, “Point Breeze: Joseph Bonaparte’s American Retreat,” ''Magazine Antiques'' 162, no. 4 (October 2002): 133–34, 136, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RVZ47VFC view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Barber_Howe_cite"></span> Noted artists including Thomas Birch (1779–1851) and Karl Bodmer (1809–1893) created paintings that emphasize Point Breeze’s elevated position over the river and highlight the fruits of Bonaparte’s efforts to transform the landscape, as one nineteenth-century account described it, from “a wild and impoverished tract... into a place of beauty” ([[#Barber_Howe|view text]]) [Fig. 1].

[[File:0098.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 2, Miller & Co., Map of the residence & park grounds, near Bordentown, New Jersey: of the late Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain, 1847.]]
For his landscape improvements at Point Breeze, Bonaparte drew on his previous experiences designing gardens at his European estates, Mortefontaine in France (where he lived off and on between 1798 and 1815) and Prangins in Switzerland (where he resided from 1814–1815). His designs reflected the taste for [[picturesque]], asymmetrical landscapes that had recently become popular in France.<ref>Stroud 2005, 74, 77, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]. Mortefontaine was located adjacent to Ermenonville, an estate belonging to the Marquis René-Louis Girardin (1735–1808), an eighteenth-century theorist of picturesque gardens whose ideas informed the design of the gardens at Mortefontaine. Ermenonville and Mortefontaine also informed Bonaparte’s landscape design for Point Breeze. See Constance A. Webster, “Bonaparte’s Park: A French Picturesque Garden in America,” ''Journal of Garden History'' 6, no. 4 (October–December 1986): 330–47, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/EJ5RQV8I view on Zotero]; and Constance A. Webster, “Recreating an American Landscape: Joseph Bonaparte’s Park at Point Breeze,” ''Journal of the New England Garden History Society'' 4 (Spring 1996): 14–15, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/R6RM996Z view on Zotero]. According to Stroud, the design also reflected Bonaparte’s familiarity with the gardens at El Escorial, the sixteenth-century palace of Philip II (1527–1598) located northwest of Madrid. Stroud 2005, 78, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Watson_1826_cite"></span>Point Breeze was an early example of this style of landscape design in the United States.<ref>Webster 1986, 330, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/EJ5RQV8I view on Zotero].</ref> Teams of approximately thirty to fifty workmen planted trees and an [[orchard]], built roads, created a [[deer park]], and made a half-mile-long artificial [[lake]] [Fig. 2]. Islands in the [[lake]] were planted with velvet grass and exotic trees and shrubs, and swan-shaped pleasure boats were anchored at the boat house with an adjacent garden featuring forget-me-nots and veronica ([[#Watson_1826|view text]]).<span id="Haines_cite"></span> Twelve miles of carriage roads led passengers around the [[lake]], over stone [[bridge]]s, and past gazebos.<ref>Stroud 2005, 59, 78, 80, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]; Stroud 2002, 137, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RVZ47VFC view on Zotero]; and Veit and Gall 2014, 302, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero]. In the winter, Bonaparte and his guests used the frozen lake for ice skating. Webster 1996, 16, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/R6RM996Z view on Zotero].</ref> One commentator reported driving by the [[lake]], an [[aviary]], and [[statue]]s situated in [[alcove]]s during a visit to Point Breeze in 1825 ([[#Haines|view text]]).

Bonaparte imported plants and trees from France including apricots and peaches, but he also relied on the services of Philadelphia collectors and nurserymen. In the spring of 1818, for example, Stephen Girard wrote to Bonaparte offering him raspberry bushes, hazelnut trees, and artichokes. In 1821, Bonaparte received from Landreth Nursery shipments of grapevines and assorted [[Shrubbery|shrubs]] and trees, including “20 White Lindens, 40 Athenia Poplars, 40 Lombardy Poplars, 20 Weeping Willows, [and] 10 Button-Flowering Locusts.” Bonaparte’s [[park]] included sassafras and tulip trees, beech, chestnut, ash white birch, sweet gum, dogwood, honey locust, pines, twenty-five species of oak, persimmon trees, and eight species of walnut. According to Bonaparte’s son-in-law, native wildflowers grew in the [[wood]]s and [[fountain]]s in the park were surrounded by [[Rustic style|rustic]] [[seat]]s and planted with stargrass, andromeda, and tulip trees. He also reported that Bonaparte had planted azalea, mock orange, viburnum, and rhododendron near the main house.<ref>Stroud 2005, 78–80; quote on 79, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Frances_cite"></span> During a visit to Point Breeze in June 1819, the Englishwoman Frances Wright observed that the mansion house stood on a [[lawn]] encircled by “the choice [[Shrubbery|shrubs]] of the American forest, magnolias, kalmias, &c. planted tastefully under the higher trees” ([[#Frances|view text]]).

<span id="Berkley_cite"></span>After a fire destroyed Bonaparte’s first mansion house on January 4, 1820, he reportedly considered buying [[The Woodlands]], [[William Hamilton|William Hamilton’s]] estate on the west bank of the [[Schuylkill River]], but decided instead to rebuild at Point Breeze. Bonaparte engaged French émigré Michel Bouvier, a skilled cabinetmaker, to supervise the building of the second manor house. It was constructed by expanding the existing stables ([[#Berkley|view text]]), which were located further back from the promontory than the first house had been. This new location, as seen in this 1823 sketched plan, provided better protection from high winds that had helped fan the flames and hasten the destruction of the first house [Fig. 3].<span id="Trollope_cite"></span> Only a [[belvedere]], with winding interior stairs and various balconies, survived the fire and remained on the promontory [Fig. 4]. This and the [[terrace]] nearby offered extensive [[view]]s of the river ([[#Trollope|view text]]). Bonaparte’s private apartments on the second floor of the home included a balcony, from which he could take in panoramic views of the gardens and river landscape.<ref>Bonaparte was away from Point Breeze when the fire broke out, but, thanks to the efforts of the people of Bordentown, most of his collection was saved. Stroud 2005, 46–7, 62–66, 71, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]; and Veit and Gall 2014, 300, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero].</ref>
[[File:2222.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 4, Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809-1893), ''View on the Delaware near Bordentown'', 1832, watercolor on paper, Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, Gift of the Enron Art Foundation, 1986.49.24.]]

In addition to the new mansion, Bonaparte built several other dwellings on the property. The largest of these was a three-story Lake House, erected near the new mansion probably in the spring of 1820. Bonaparte’s daughter Zénaïde (1801–1854) resided in the Lake House with her husband, the ornithologist Charles-Lucien Bonaparte (1803–1857), after they emigrated in 1823.<ref>The Lake House was connected to the manor house by a forty-foot subterranean passage as well as a lattice-covered arcade. Stroud 2005, 81, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero].</ref> Bonaparte also constructed a smaller guest house, known as the Wash or [[Icehouse|Ice House]]; a two-story gardener’s house (still extant) with [[kitchen garden]]; and servants’ quarters. The gardener’s house as well as tenant farmhouses were situated on the eastern end of the property, along a main road leading away from the second mansion house. At the site of the original mansion, Bonaparte added the servants’ house and a classical domed-circular [[temple]]. Winding sandstone steps led down the steep bluffs from this part of the property to the wharves and docks on Crosswicks Creek below.<ref>Veit and Gall 2014, 306–8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero].</ref> Bonaparte also constructed subterranean tunnels, modeled after one at his Mortefontaine estate, to connect buildings throughout the grounds. These tunnels facilitated the transportation of supplies and hid laborers as they traversed the property. One tunnel connecting the main manor house to the lake had three doors leading to different destinations in the vicinity: the wine cellar, the Lake House, and [[icehouse]]s that stored ice cut from the Delaware River in winter.<ref>Stroud 2005, 81, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]; and Veit and Gall 2014, 300, 302, 310, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero].</ref>

Bonaparte retained ownership of Point Breeze until his death in 1844, but, finding himself in ill health, he returned permanently to Europe in 1839. After his death, Point Breeze passed to his grandson Joseph Lucien Bonaparte (1824–1865) who sold his grandfather’s possessions and country estate three years later. The purchaser, Thomas Richards (1780–1860) and his wife Anna Bartram (1787–1865), granddaughter of celebrated botanist [[John Bartram]], sold it to Henry Beckett (1791–1871), the son of a British consul in Philadelphia, in 1850. According to scholar Patricia Tyson Stroud, Beckett, “a fervent Francophobe,” moved into the gatehouse and quickly razed Bonaparte’s manor house. He built a new home, which survived until it was destroyed by fire in 1983. The Vincentian Fathers of Philadelphia purchased Point Breeze in 1874 and used it as a summer retreat until 1911, before selling it to the wealthy industrialist Harris Hammond. Point Breeze was repossessed by Hammond’s bank following the 1929 stock market crash and lay derelict for many years. Since 1941 the Divine Word Seminary, a facility for Roman Catholic missionary priests, has occupied the site. Between 2005 and 2012, Point Breeze was the subject of investigation by archaeologists Richard Veit and Michael Gall, who led annual field schools in historic archaeology through Monmouth University and volunteer excavations by members of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey at the site. These investigations documented extant above-ground structures and conducted selective subsurface testing, shedding new light on the history and design of Point Breeze.<ref>Stroud 2005, 218–19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]; and Rev. Raymond Lennon, "The Bordentown Story, 1941–2012," Chicago Province, 2014, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FR2X94ZK view on Zotero]. According to Veit and Gall, Hammond had hired the noted Ashcan artist Everett Shinn to help reconstruct the Bonaparte-era landscape at Point Breeze, but the plan was never executed due to Hammond’s losses in the 1929 stock market crash. Veit and Gall 2014, 297, 302, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==

*<div id="Bonaparte"></div>Bonaparte, Joseph, September 14, 1817, in a letter to his daughter Zénaïde Bonaparte, describing Point Breeze (quoted in Stroud 2005: 32)<ref name="Stroud_2005">Stroud 2005, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero].</ref>

:“I am writing from a room which is the most appealing in the house and perhaps all of the left bank of the Delaware. It has seven windows of which five are on the river. Four times a day the steamboats stop below the windows—I hope that someday I will have the pleasure to be here with you. Today I am all alone.” [[#Bonaparte_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Frances"></div>Wright, Frances, June 1819, in a letter describing Point Breeze (Wright 1821: 99–103)<ref>Frances Wright, ''Views of Society and Manners in America; in a Series of Letters from that Country to a Friend in England, During the Years 1818, 1819, and 1820'' (New York: E. Bliss and E. White, 1821), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FGFR7QUU view on Zotero].</ref>

:“It is a pretty villa, commanding a fine [[prospect]] of the river; the soil around it is unproductive; but a step removed from the ''pine-barren''; the pines, however, worthless as they may be, clothe the banks pleasantly enough, and, altogether, the place is cheerful and pretty. Entering upon the [[lawn]], we found the choice [[Shrubbery|shrubs]] of the American forest, magnolias, kalmias, &c. planted tastefully under the higher trees which skirted, and here and there shadowed, the green carpet upon which the white mansion stood. Advancing, we were now faced at all corners by gods and goddesses in naked, —I cannot say ''majesty'', for they were, for the most part, clumsy enough. . .

:“Until the entrance of the count, who was superintending the additions yet making to the house, we employed ourselves in considering the paintings and Canovas, of which last we found a small but interesting collection. It consists chiefly of busts of the different members of the Buonaparte family. The similar and classic outline prevailing in all is striking, and has truly something ''imperial'' in it. . . Turning to look at David’s portrait of Napoleon crossing the Alps, I was greatly disappointed with the expression of the young soldier; the horse has far more spirit than the rider, who sits carelessly on his steed, a handsome beardless boy, pointing his legions up the beetling crags as though they were some easy steps into a drawing room. Such, at least, was my impression. Count Survillier (he wears this title, perhaps, to save the awkwardness of ''Mr. Bonaparte'') soon came to us from his workmen, in an old coat, from which he had barely shaken off the mortar, and, –a sign of the true gentleman, –made no apologies. . . He walked us round his improvements in-doors and out. When I observed upon the amusement he seemed to find in beautifying his little villa, he replied, that he was happier in it than he had ever found himself in more bustling scenes. He gathered a wild flower, and, in presenting it to me, carelessly drew a comparison between its minute beauties and the pleasures of private life; contrasting those of ambition and power with the more gaudy flowers of the [[parterre]], which look better at a distance than upon a nearer approach. He said this so naturally, with a manner so simple, and accent so mild, that it was impossible to see in it attempt at display of any kind. . .” [[#Frances_cite|back up to History]]

*Douglas, David, August 27, 1823, in a journal entry describing Point Breeze (1914: 9)<ref>David Douglas, ''Journal Kept by David Douglas During His Travels in North America 1823–1827 Together with a Particular Description of Thirty-Three Species of American Oaks and Eighteen Species of Pinus, with Appendices Containing a List of the Plants Introduced by Douglas and an Account of His Death in 1834'' (London: W. Wesley & Son, for the Royal Historical Society, 1914), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GVY4XWI3 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“We set off by steamboat at 11 o’clock from Philadelphia to Bordentown. Here stands the house of Joseph Bonaparte, a most splendid mansion, fields well cultivated, [[pleasure ground]] laid out in the English style; there are many fine [[view]]s.”

*<div id="Haines"></div>Haines, Reuben, July 3, 1825, in a letter to Ann Haines, describing Point Breeze (quoted in Stroud 2002: 137)<ref>Stroud 2002, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RVZ47VFC view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Drawn by two ''Elegant Horses'' along the ever varying roads of the [[park]] amidst splendid Rhododendrons on the margin of the artificial [[lake]] on whose smooth surface gently glided the majestic European swans. Stopping to visit the [[Aviary]] enlivened by the most beautiful English Pheasants, passing by [[alcove]]s ornamented with [[statue]]s and busts of Parian marble, our course enlivened by the footsteps of the tame deer and the flight of the Woodcock, and when alighting stopping to admire the graceful form of two splendid Etruscan vases of Porphyry 3 ft. high & 2 in diameter presented by the Queen of Sweden.” [[#Haines_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Watson_1826"></div>Watson, John Fanning, 1826, describing Point Breeze (quoted in Stroud 2005: 81)<ref name="Stroud_2005"></ref>

:“Nothing can be more romantic than the whole Scenery–the Shades, where so required, are so very deep & impressive—In the midst of the premises is a beautiful [[Lake]], surrounded by high Banks covered with innumerable [[Shrubbery|Shrubs]] & Trees–In the middle an Island (artificial) beautifully covered with weeping Willows—Swans & Exotic Geese, sported upon the bosom of the [[Lake]]. . . The novelty of such costliness & elegance was like enchantment to my feelings & when I had traversed the various sections of the [[wood]]s & [[lawn]]s, through all their charming & meandering [[avenue]]s & mazes, I could not forbear to think it was the best terrestrial paradise I ever enjoyed.” [[#Watson_1826_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Trollope"></div>Trollope, Frances Milton, 1830, describing Point Breeze (1832: 2:153)<ref>Frances Milton Trollope, ''Domestic Manners of the Americans'', 3rd ed., 2 vols. (London: Wittaker, Treacher, 1832), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/T5RXDF7G view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The country is very flat, but a [[terrace]] of two sides has been raised, commanding a fine reach of the Delaware River; at the point where this [[terrace]] forms a right angle, a lofty chapel has been erected, which looks very much like an observatory.” [[#Trollope_cite|back up to History]]

*Wied, Prince Maximilian, July 19, 1832, describing Point Breeze (2008: 1:73–75)<ref>Maximilian of Wied, ''The North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied, Volume 1, May 1832–April 1833'', edited by Stephen S. Witte and Marsha V. Gallagher (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8EM56HZP view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Early on the nineteenth, I undertook a walk to the country home of Louis [''sic'', Joseph] Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain. It is located 300 paces from Bordentown, not far from the railroad from Amboy, which passes here in the direction of Camden, opposite Philadelphia, and is already sixty miles in length. This road is still under construction, and in sections of the valley, large embankments have been thrown up, as for a highway. . .

:“On the right side of the path, in the region near L. [''sic'', Joseph] Bonaparte’s country home, I went botanizing. Near a deep ditch in the swamp, with dense thickets and woods on the opposite side, there were magnificent rhododendron shrubs blooming, ten to fifteen and more feet tall, with thick tufts of large, beautiful white or pale reddish flowers and stiff, laurel-like leaves. The young blossoms are rose pink, the older ones almost completely white with a pale shimmer or reddish color. Count Survilliers’ gardener maintains that this is ''Rhododendron maximum''. The [[Shrubbery|shrubs]] were thickly entangled by wild grapevines. I took all of these plants with me. . .

:“As the day began to cool off, I went to Louis [''sic'', Joseph] Bonaparte’s country home. The gardener, who was working in the large garden, well and nicely planted with all sorts of European vegetables and fruits, opened the door for me. The county home itself is nice and simple, moderately large with three floors and a flat roof built in this shape [see diagram of house]: ‘a’ is the garden side; ‘b,’ a [[terrace]] surrounded with a white railing above a deep ditch, here passing through dark forest. Several heads (probably antiques) have been set up in ‘e.’ A flower garden is found in ‘c,’ before which, closer to the street, the administrative buildings of the superintendent, or manager, and servants are located. In ‘d,’ on the left wing of the house, there is a small, single-story [[pavilion]] with glass doors all around. Behind this wing a row of white and red oleander (''Nerium''), now in bloom, has been planted.

:“I now passed through the entire, very shady, [[park]], which extends on the same level areas along Crosswicks Creek, a rapid brook that flows into the Delaware near Bordentown. On the elevation facing Bordentown, there is a high, narrow [[pavilion]] with a small tower and a balcony, from which there must be an excellent view. Around the [[pavilion]] there is a [[terrace]] with [a] railing from which one enjoys the beautiful [[view]], high over the wooded bank of the river, toward the green region, covered with [[wood]]s and bushes, through which the Delaware gently glides. From here dark, shady paths go along this tall bank, always on the edge, in twists and turns; this forest, as well as the one shading the mountain face down toward the creek, is magnificent.

:“All the beautiful forest trees of this region, with a now magnificently blooming undergrowth of rhododendron with its white-reddish tufts, provided dark shade. Coniferous and deciduous trees were intermingled. I heard only a few kinds of bird calls here, which seldom came from a few small songbirds but, on the contrary, frequently from catbirds (''Turdus felivox'' Vicill.), which were uncommonly numerous here...

:“An elevated spot on the steep creek bank, mentioned earlier, is interesting. Here in the dark forest, a [[bridge]] with a railing has been constructed out over the edge, and beside a stout old hemlock fir (''Pinus canadensis''), from which I took branches with young fruit, there is a roomy, rectangular platform with benches and railings from which one has an extensive [[view]] of the Delaware and its green surroundings, as well as the creek emptying into it at the right and left. Along its banks this rapid brook has extensive strips of an aquatic plant with a shieldlike leaf. And the wooded [[slope]] below the [[park]] was adorned with the white-reddish flower clusters of the tall rhododendron. Farther away there were rugged pathways in this forest; everywhere the wild grape sent out vines and the rhododendron bloomed. In this [[park]] there are also several large fields on which grain had evidently been harvested; other grain was still standing.”

*<div id="Gordon_1834"></div>Gordon, Thomas F., 1834, describing Point Breeze (1834: 106–7)<ref>Thomas F. Gordon, ''A Gazetteer of the State of New Jersey'' (Trenton, NJ: Daniel Fenton, 1834), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/62RCWJ2Q view on Zotero].</ref>

:“From the brow of the hill, there is a delightful [[view]] of the majestic Delaware, pursuing for miles its tranquil course through the rich country which it laves. . . The attractions of the scene determined Joseph Buonaparte, Count de Surveilliers, in his choice of a residence in this country; and this distinguished exile, who has filled two thrones, and has pretensions based on popular suffrage to a third, has dwelt here many years in philosophic retirement. He has in the vicinity of about 1500 acres of land, part of which possessed natural beauty, which his taste and wealth have been employed to embellish. At the expense of some hundred thousand dollars, he has converted a wild and impoverished tract, into a [[park]] of surpassing beauty, blending the charms of woodland and [[plantation]] scenery, with a delightful water [[prospect]]. The present buildings, plain but commodious, are on the site of the offices of his original and more splendid mansion, which was destroyed by fire, together with some rare pictures from the pencils of the first masters, whose merit made them invaluable. With characteristic liberality, the County has opened his grounds to the public, we regret to perceive, that he has been ungratefully repaid, by the defacement of his ornamental structures and mutilation of his [[statue]]s.” [[#Gordon_1834_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Barber_Howe"></div>Barber, John Warner, and Henry Howe, 1844, describing Point Breeze (1844: 102–3)<ref>John Warner Barber and Henry Howe, ''Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey; Containing a General Collection of the Most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, &c. Relating to History and Antiquities, with Geographical Descriptions of Every Township in the State'' (Newark, NJ: Benjamin Olds, 1844), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KBBHZ5NT view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The [[park]] and grounds of the Count comprise about fourteen hundred acres, which, from a wild and impoverished tract, he has converted into a place of beauty, blending the charms of [[Wood|woodland]] and [[plantation]] scenery with a delightful water-[[prospect]]. . . While here, his time was occupied in planning and executing improvements upon his grounds. He did not mingle in society; but was frequently seen walking through his [[park]], attending to his workmen, or, with hatchet in hand, lopping branches from the trees.” [[#Barber_Howe_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Berkley"></div>Berkley, Helen [Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie], 1845, describing Point Breeze (1845: 184–86)<ref>Helen Berkley, “A Sketch of Joseph Buonaparte,” ''Godey’s Lady’s Book'' 30 (April 1845): 184–87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JSH3AAAF view on Zotero].</ref>

:“We came within sight of his country-[[seat]] at eleven o’clock in the morning. I presume you have heard that his former residence had been burnt to the ground; his stables, which were about a quarter of a mile distant, remained uninjured. Their architectural construction was very beautiful and their situation remarkably [[picturesque]]. These he had converted into a mansion, hardly inferior in elegance to his former dwelling. The house was long and low, built of stone, and thickly embowered with fine old trees. The expansive folding doors of the front entrance, in spite of their finely-carved workmanship, reminded you that they had once been thrown back to admit horses and carriages instead of the guests which alighted from them. . . The doors at the further end of the hall were open, and displayed several marble [[fountain]]s flinging their glittering spray over the willows–''weeping willows'' I might say–that gracefully bent around them. We could steal but a hasty glance at the emblematical [[statue]]s which graced the centre of every [[fountain]]. . .

[[File:0992.jpg|thumb|Fig. 5, Charles B. Lawrence (attr.), ''Point Breeze, the Estate of Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte at Bordentown, New Jersey'', 1817–20.]]
:“About half an hour after the ''dejeuner'', a couple of the count’s carriages drove to the door, and he invited us to take a [[drive]] around his grounds. . . I cannot even attempt to give you any idea of the romantic beauty of the grounds, or even of the tasteful manner in which they were laid out. Your imaginations will do them greater justice than any description, and yet will hardly overstep the bounds of reality. If I remember correctly, they are twelve miles round. We visited the site of his former chateau, but every trace of the conflagration had been carefully removed. The only portion of the building left is the [[Belvedere|observatory]], which is surrounded by a stone enclosure and looked like a miniature ruin left purposely in this dilapidated state to add to the [[Picturesque|picturesqueness]] of the scene. A narrow stream winds itself gracefully through one part of the grounds, over which several [[Rustic style|rustic]] [[bridge]]s are erected. Equally [[Rustic style|rustic]] [[seat]]s are scattered beneath the shade of the tall trees on its banks, and upon its clear surface a flock of snow-white swans were floating about, diving for fish, or flapping their wings as they bathed their fleecy plumage in the clear stream. A few years ago, a railroad was cut through the count’s property, dividing off one of the pleasantest portions of his grounds. At this he was exceedingly incensed, and could only content himself by building a tunnel ''beneath'' the railroad, so that his carriage could drive through without traversing the offensive steam-car path.

:“We occupied several hours in driving about and enjoying the beautiful [[view]]s. . .

:“The next morning we rose early, and each wrapping herself in a ''robe de chamber'', stole into the garden and wandered for an hour or two through the private [[pleasure ground]]s, which we had not yet visited.” [[#Berkley_cite|back up to History]]

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:0992.jpg|Charles B. Lawrence (attr.), ''Point Breeze, the Estate of Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte at Bordentown, New Jersey'', 1817–20.

Image:2221.jpg| Thomas Birch, ''View from the Hill near Bordentown'', 1818, Oil on Canvas, 37.5 x 48.5 in, Purchase 2004 Helen McMahon Brady Cutting Fund, Collection of the Newark Museum of Art 2004.12.

Image:1021.jpg|Charles B. Lawrence, Point Breeze, c. 1820.

Image:2006.jpg|Joseph Drayton, ''View near Bordentown, from the Gardens of the Count de Survilliers'', c. 1820.

Image:1018.jpg|Thomas Birch, Point Breeze, c. 1820, in Edward J. Nygren, ''Views and Visions: American Landscape before 1830'' (1986), p. 146, pl. 120.

Image:0665.jpg|Anonymous, Bonaparte's residence and the surrounding park, c. 1830.

Image:2223.jpg|Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809-1893), ''Manor House of Joseph Bonaparte near Bordentown'', 1832, watercolor on paper, Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, Gift of the Enron Art Foundation, 1986.49.26.

Image:2222.jpg|Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809-1893), ''View on the Delaware near Bordentown'', 1832, watercolor on paper, Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, Gift of the Enron Art Foundation, 1986.49.24.

Image:2224.jpg|After Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809-1893), Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein, engraver, ''View on the Delaware near Bordentown'', 1839, hand-colored aquatint, Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, Gift of Enron Art Foundation, 1986.49.542.50.

Image:0098.jpg|Miller & Co., Map of the residence & park grounds, near Bordentown, New Jersey: of the late Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain, 1847.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==

[https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/point-breeze-bonaparte/ The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Mount Vernon

2019-12-30T19:08:18Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

'''Mount Vernon''', located in Fairfax County, Virginia, was the [[plantation]] home of the first president of the United States, [[George Washington]] (1732–1799), who made significant alterations to the mansion house and grounds throughout the late 18th century. The estate was especially well known for its [[greenhouse]], gardens, and unusual two-story [[portico]] overlooking the Potomac River. Today, Mount Vernon is operated as a historic site by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association.

==Overview==
'''Alternate Names:''' Little Hunting Creek Plantation (before 1743)<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' Established 1674<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' John Washington (c. 1631–1677); Lawrence Washington (1659–1698); Mildred Washington (c. 1697–1747); Augustine Washington (1694–1743); Lawrence Washington (1718–1752); Ann Fairfax Washington Lee (1728–1761); [[George Washington]] (1732–1799); Bushrod Washington (1762–1829); John Augustine Washington II (1789–1832); Jane Charlotte Blackburn Washington (1786–1855); John Augustine Washington III (1821–1861); Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association (1858 to present)<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Philip Bateman (gardener from 1773–1789); David Cowan (gardener from 1773–1774); Lund Washington (estate manager); George Augustine Washington (farm manager); Johann Christian Ehlers (gardener from 1789–1797); Anthony Whiting (estate manager from 1790–1793); John Gottleib Richter (gardener from 1793–1796); William Spence (gardener from 1797–c. 1800)<br/>
'''Location:''' Alexandria, VA<br/>
'''Condition:''' extant<br/>
[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=mount+vernon&ll=38.708336,-77.086623&spn=0.009728,0.014977&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&fb=1&gl=us&hq=mount+vernon&cid=0,0,6280114765250044428&t=m&z=16&iwloc=A View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[Image:0566.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, George Washington, “Survey and plot of Mount Vernon and neighboring farms,” 1793.]]
When [[George Washington]] began leasing Mount Vernon, his family’s estate on the banks of the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia, from his elder half-brother’s widow in 1754, it comprised approximately 2,100 acres and a modest, one-and-a-half story dwelling.<ref>By the time George Washington moved to Mount Vernon, the plantation had already been in the Washington family for several generations. In 1674 John Washington (George Washington’s great-grandfather) and Nicholas Spencer obtained a grant for 5,000 acres of land that included the property now known as Mount Vernon. John Washington’s portion of the land grant passed to his son Lawrence Washington and then to Lawrence’s daughter Mildred Washington Gregory. In 1726 Mildred sold the estate, then named Little Hunting Creek Plantation, to her brother Augustine Washington. Augustine built a house on the property and, in 1735, moved his family (including his three-year-old son George) to the plantation, where they remained for three years before relocating to Ferry Farm in Stafford County, Virginia. Augustine deeded the estate to his son Lawrence Washington (George Washington’s older half-brother) in 1740. In 1743 Lawrence moved to the plantation and renamed it Mount Vernon, in honor of Admiral Edward Vernon (1684–1757), with whom Lawrence had served in the Caribbean in 1741–42. Lawrence Washington died in 1752, and his will stated that George would inherit Mount Vernon after the death of Lawrence’s wife, Ann Fairfax Washington, and daughter Sarah. On December 17, 1754, Ann offered George, then twenty-two years old, a long-term lease of the plantation. Mount Vernon officially passed into George’s possession upon Ann’s death in 1761. Joseph Manca, ''George Washington’s Eye: Landscape, Architecture, and Design at Mount Vernon'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012), 14–15, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GUDJUIC7 view on Zotero]; Marilynn Larew, “Mount Vernon,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1977), 2–3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9TE3BH8M view on Zotero].</ref> Shortly after taking up residence, [[George Washington|Washington]] made significant improvements to the property. From 1757–59 he added an additional story to the house as well as what he called a “rusticated” wooden exterior that was made of beveled pine boards coated with paint and sand or pulverized stone (in a process [[George Washington|Washington]] called “sanding”) to imitate the appearance of stone blocks.<ref>For Washington’s use of the term “rusticated” to describe the effect, see Washington’s letter to Lund Washington, August 20, 1775, Washington Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-01-02-0234 ''Founders Online'', National Archives]. Washington describes the process of “sanding” in a letter to William Thornton, October 1, 1799, Washington Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-04-02-0282 ''Founders Online'', National Archives]. See also Manca 2012, 50, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GUDJUIC7 view on Zotero].</ref> This first round of renovations was largely complete by the time [[George Washington|Washington]] married Martha Dandridge Custis (1731–1802), a wealthy widow, in 1759. He acquired additional property after officially inheriting Mount Vernon in 1761 and divided the land into five farms—Mansion House, Dogue Run, Muddy Hole, Union, and River farms—which together totaled more than 8,000 acres [Fig. 1]. By the early 1770s [[George Washington|Washington]] oversaw a prosperous and diversified [[plantation]] as well as a herring and shad fishery at Mount Vernon. He relied on enslaved labor to maintain these large operations and to complete much of the construction and landscaping of his estate.<ref>For more on Washington’s labor practices at Mount Vernon, see Robert F. Dalzell Jr. and Lee Baldwin Dalzell, ''George Washington’s Mount Vernon: At Home in Revolutionary America'' (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), especially pages 129–87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/7JPVJBPP view on Zotero]. Martha Custis brought a fortune of more than £23,000 as well as real estate and hundreds of slaves to the marriage. George Washington also added to the number of slaves working at Mount Vernon. Manca 2012, 2, 14–15, 165, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GUDJUIC7 view on Zotero]. By June 1797, acting on the advice of his Scottish farm manager, James Anderson, Washington had decided to add a commercial distillery to the operations at Mount Vernon. Letter from George Washington to John Fitzgerald, June 12, 1797, Washington Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-01-02-0147 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

[[George|Washington]] commenced a second round of renovations to the house in 1773, turning the structure into a much larger mansion topped with a cupola, and adding a [[portico]] to the west façade and arcaded wings to the north and south that connected the mansion to various dependencies. He also landscaped the surrounding grounds to complement the new architectural design. The arcaded wings opened up views of the landscape so that visitors could glimpse the Potomac River when looking east through the [[column]]s from the west side of the mansion, or see the [[grove]]s of trees when looking west from the east [[lawn]].<ref>Manca 2012, 14, 52–53, 110–11, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GUDJUIC7 view on Zotero].</ref> He transplanted native trees from other sites on his property to create two new [[grove]]s near the mansion on the north and south sides of the house. When [[George Washington|Washington]] was away from Mount Vernon between 1774 and 1783, while serving as a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress and commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, much of the construction and landscaping was carried out, according to his specifications, by his cousin and estate manager, Lund Washington. Even in the midst of the American Revolution, [[George Washington|Washington]] maintained a strong interest in the ongoing improvements at Mount Vernon. <span id="GW_August 1776_cite"></span>He wrote to Lund Washington on August 19, 1776, from New York, during the siege of the city, instructing him to plant locust trees in the northern [[grove]] and “all the clever kind of Trees (especially flowering ones)” in the southern [[grove]] ([[#GW_August 1776|view text]]).

[[George Washington|Washington]] significantly redesigned the gardens at Mount Vernon in 1784, after the conclusion of the American Revolution and during a period of brief respite from public duties. While implementing the plan between 1785 and 1787, he relied on the labor of both free and enslaved workers to transplant trees, build [[wall]]s, and create gravel paths.<ref>Adam T. Erby, “Designing the Beautiful: General Washington’s Landscape Improvements, 1784–1787,” in ''The General in the Garden: George Washington’s Landscape at Mount Vernon'', ed. Susan P. Schoelwer (Mount Vernon: Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, 2015), 28, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AXUPDAXA view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="GW_January 1785_cite"></span> <span id="GW_1786_cite"></span>Although many trees were transplanted from other parts of his [[plantation]] ([[#GW_January 1785|view text]]), he also imported trees from places such as South Carolina and New York. In 1785 he wrote to a nephew who resided in South Carolina to request “acorns of the live Oak—and the Seeds of the Ever-green Magnolia,” which [[George Washington|Washington]] planted at Mount Vernon in April 1786 ([[#GW_1786|view text]]).<ref>In a diary entry for February 18, 1795, Washington wrote that “four Lime or Linden Trees, sent to me by Govr. Clinton of New York. . . . were planted in the Serpentine Roads to the door.” Washington Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-02-02-0185 ''Founders Online'', National Archives]. See also George Washington, January 6, 1785, letter to George Augustine Washington, Washington Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-02-02-0185 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref> <span id="GW_1787_cite"></span>During this period, [[George Washington|Washington]] also completely redesigned the overland, western approach to the mansion—the route used by most visitors to reach the estate—so that, after traveling through a dense [[wood]] for several miles, visitors reached an opening, staked out by Washington in 1785, that created a dramatic [[vista]] onto the [[bowling green]] and mansion ([[#GW_1787|view text]]).<ref>Dalzell and Dalzell 1998, 116–19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/7JPVJBPP view on Zotero]; Manca 2012, 85; [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/GUDJUIC7 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[Image:1110.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 2, Samuel Vaughan, Sketch plan of Mount Vernon, 1787.]]
[[George Washington|Washington’s]] style was idiosyncratic. <span id="Humphreys_cite"></span>One late-18th-century visitor to the estate apparently noticed that the gardens at Mount Vernon did not fit neatly within a single style, remarking that they were “laid out somewhat according to the form of English gardens” ([[#Humphreys|view text]]). On the one hand, the updated design—with naturalistic features such as shaded, serpentine paths and sweeping [[lawn]]s—reflected his knowledge of fashionable English gardens and the influence of English gardening texts, especially Batty Langley's ''New Principles of Gardening'' (London, 1728) and Philip Miller’s ''Abridgement of the Gardener’s Dictionary'' (London, 1763).<ref>Washington ordered Langley’s book from a London-based merchant house on May 1, 1759, and kept a copy of it in his library for the remainder of his life. See George Washington’s Invoice to Robert Cary & Company, May 1, 1759, Washington Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-06-02-0166-0002 ''Founders Online '', National Archives]. At the time of his death, Washington owned the abridged version of Philip Miller’s ''Gardener’s Dictionary'' (1763), Washington Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-06-02-0164-0026 ''Founders Online'', National Archives]. Washington’s library also contained Thomas Mawe and John Abercrombie’s ''The Universal Gardener and Botanist'' (1778). See Therese O’Malley, “Appropriation and Adaptation: Early Gardening Literature in America,” ''Huntington Library Quarterly'' 55, no. 3 (Summer 1992): 421–24, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5CQ4IVX2 view on Zotero]; Dennis J. Pogue, “Giant in the Earth: George Washington, Landscape Designer,” in ''Landscape Archaeology: Reading and Interpreting the American Historical Landscape'', ed. Rebecca Yamin and Karen Bescherer Metheny (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1996), 57–59, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/76S2DCKP view on Zotero].</ref> On the other hand, [[George Washington|Washington]] retained some of the symmetrical and geometric elements that had been more popular in American gardens during the colonial period. The symmetrically arranged [[bowling green]] and plantings of trees and [[shrubbery|shrubberies]], for example, were a central feature of the landscape on the west side of the mansion, as indicated by this 1787 sketch of the [[pleasure ground]]s made by the British merchant [[Samuel Vaughan]] (1720–1802) [Fig. 2].<ref>For additional discussion of Vaughan’s drawings of Mount Vernon, see Erby 2015, “Designing the Beautiful,” 32, 34, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AXUPDAXA view on Zotero]; Manca 2012, 85, 88–89, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GUDJUIC7 view on Zotero].</ref>

During this period, [[George Washington|Washington]] also updated the so-called upper and lower gardens located to the northwest and southwest of the mansion, changing the preexisting rectangular gardens into a shape resembling a pointed [[arch]], with bowed perimeters that complemented the curvilinear forms of the serpentine paths nearby. The upper garden, located on the north side of the [[bowling green]], was often a guest’s first stop on a tour of Mount Vernon. <span id="Frost_cite"></span>Amariah Frost, a visitor from Massachusetts, noted in his diary that he was invited to “walk in the garden” while waiting for [[George Washington|Washington]] to return to the mansion ([[#Frost|view text]]).<ref>Manca 2012, 104, 109, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GUDJUIC7 view on Zotero]. In addition to Frost’s account, Manca also cites the example of a 1799 visit to Mount Vernon by John Latta, in which Martha Washington showed Latta to the garden while he waited for George Washington’s arrival.</ref> The upper garden was divided into six rectangular [[bed]]s that were separated by gravel paths and arranged symmetrically. In the centers of the three main planting [[bed]]s, which were edged with dwarf boxwood and flowering shrubs, [[George Washington|Washington]] grew vegetables and fruit for the household. <span id="Latrobe_cite"></span>Another planting [[bed]] contained a formal boxwood [[parterre]] in the shape of a fleur-de-lis, which was by then already an old-fashioned garden style, as [[Benjamin Henry Latrobe|Benjamin Latrobe]] noted ([[#Latrobe|view text]]). Other [[bed]]s were filled with flowering trees, bushes, and flowers, and [[espalier|espaliered]] fruit trees grew against the upper garden’s brick [[wall]] perimeter.<ref>Manca 2012, 106–9, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GUDJUIC7 view on Zotero]; Adam T. Erby, “Gardens and Groves: A Landscape Guide,” in Schoelwer 2015, 114, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZAVXZPMS view on Zotero].</ref>

In the upper garden’s [[greenhouse]], [[George Washington|Washington’s]] gardeners cultivated exotic tropical plants, ranging from citrus trees to aloe vera and sago palm. [[George Washington|Washington]] began planning the structure in 1784, at a time when [[greenhouse]]s were not yet common in British North American gardens. <span id="GW_August 1784_cite">He had seen [[greenhouse]]s during his travels but was uncertain about how to construct one, and he wrote to his friend Tench Tilghman (1744–1786) in August 1784 asking for the specifications of Margaret Tilghman Carroll’s (1742–1817) [[greenhouse]] at Mount Clare, her estate outside of Baltimore ([[#GW_August 1784|view text]]). Upon completion of the main section of the [[greenhouse]] in 1787, [[George Washington|Washington]] sought a gardener who had experience raising tropical plants and the knowledge to operate the structure’s subterranean heating system. Through the recommendation of a friend, he hired the German gardener Johann (John) Christian Ehlers, who immigrated to the United States in 1789 specifically to work at Mount Vernon and was employed by Washington until 1797. Washington next hired the Scottish gardener William Spence, who worked at Mount Vernon until shortly after [[George Washington|Washington’s]] death in 1799.<ref>Pogue 1996, 59, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/76S2DCKP view on Zotero]. According to Erby, Washington’s friend Henrich Wilmans of Bremen, Germany, dined at Mount Vernon in November 1788 and offered to help Washington find a suitable gardener from Germany. Wilmans hired Ehlers on Washington’s behalf in 1789. Ehlers arrived to New York City, where he was met by Washington’s secretary, Tobias Lear, and then sent to Mount Vernon via stage coach. Ehlers oversaw a team of two or three enslaved gardeners, and he reported to the farm manager. Washington opted not to renew Ehler’s contract after it expired, apparently exasperated by Ehler’s reported propensity to abuse alcohol, and he sought the help of his friend James Anderson in finding a new gardener from Scotland because he believed Scotsmen to be especially industrious and because the Scottish climate was similar to that of Virginia. Erby 2015, “Designing the Beautiful,” 31–32, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AXUPDAXA view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:0339 bottom.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 3, Mutual Assurance Society, Richmond, Declaration for Assurance Book, vol. 35, policy no. 18, Insurance policy drawings for Mount Vernon [detail], June 5, 1805.]]
[[Image:0337.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 4, Edward Savage, ''The West Front of Mount Vernon'', c. 1787–92.]]
In 1792 [[George Washington|Washington]] added wings—each comprising two rooms with sleeping berths—on the east and west sides of the [[greenhouse]] to house up to eighty enslaved people who worked at the Mansion House Farm. A fire on December 16, 1835, destroyed [[George Washington|Washington’s]] [[greenhouse]] and slave quarters, but their appearance is recorded in this 1805 insurance drawing [Fig. 3], which, in addition to other drawings and archaeological evidence, served as the basis for the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association’s 1951 reconstruction of the building that stands today. The central section of the [[greenhouse]] opened up to the [[pleasure garden]]s at the south, while the slave quarters opened up to the service lane to the north, an arrangement designed to maintain racialized social hierarchies by controlling access to the landscape. The [[bowling green]] was reserved for the Washington family and their guests [Fig. 4], and [[George Washington|Washington]] once instructed that enslaved children be kept away from playing in the area.<ref>Erby 2015, “Gardens and Groves,” 18, 118, 120, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZAVXZPMS view on Zotero]; Manca 2012, 27–33, 95, 98, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GUDJUIC7 view on Zotero]. According to Manca, “by the 1790s the presence of slaves on the estate was a point of shame in Washington’s national and international reputation, and he took steps to shield visitors from seeing them.” For a detailed analysis of the slave quarters at Mount Vernon, see Dennis J. Pogue, “The Domestic Architecture of Slavery at George Washington’s Mount Vernon,” ''Winterthur Portfolio'' 37, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 3–22, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/U37FD83U view on Zotero].</ref>

[[George Washington|Washington]] also maintained a [[botanic garden|botanical garden]], located near the upper garden and behind the spinning house, where he experimented with growing rare and delicate seeds and plants—many of which he received as gifts from friends—until they were strong enough to transplant to other areas of his estate ([[#GW_1786|view text]]). <span id="Chastellux_cite">On the south side of the [[bowling green]], the lower garden served as the [[kitchen garden]]. To the south of the lower garden was the so-called Vineyard Enclosure, named for the failed grape-growing experiments that Washington conducted there ([[#Chastellux|view text]]). By the mid-1780s, the Vineyard Enclosure contained other plant materials, including trees, grasses, and grains as well as a “fruit garden.”<ref>Pogue 1996, 60–65, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/76S2DCKP view on Zotero].</ref>

Much as he had during his first period of extended absence, [[George Washington|Washington]] remained active, from a distance, in the cultivation of the gardens at Mount Vernon while serving as the first United States president between 1789 and 1797. In March 1792 [[George Washington|Washington]] sent to Mount Vernon from Philadelphia more than thirty species obtained from [[William Hamilton|William Hamilton’s]] [[The Woodlands|Woodlands]] estate and specimens of more than one hundred species that he purchased from [[Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery]]. He also required that his gardener and farm manager send weekly updates to Philadelphia from Mount Vernon every Wednesday, reporting on the tasks accomplished each week and the amount of time spent on each task.<ref>Many of the plants sent from Bartram’s died upon arrival and were replaced with an additional shipment in November. For lists of the plants that Washington obtained from Bartram and Hamilton, see Erby 2015, “Gardens and Groves,” 143–55, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZAVXZPMS view on Zotero].</ref>

[[Image:0088.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 5, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, “View to the North from the Lawn at Mount Vernon,” 1796.]]
For many 18th- and 19th-century visitors to Mount Vernon, the view from the large [[portico]] on the east façade of the mansion, overlooking a [[lawn]] that sloped down towards the Potomac River, was the most striking aspect of [[George Washington|Washington’s]] landscape design [Fig. 5]. <span id="Niemcewicz_cite">The Polish nobleman Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1758—1841), who visited Mount Vernon in June 1798, recorded in his journal that he thought the [[portico]] afforded “perhaps the most beautiful view in the world” ([[#Niemcewicz|view text]]). Facing the river, late 18th-century visitors would have been able to see [[George Washington|Washington’s]] locust [[grove]] to the left and the broad, sweeping [[lawn]] that led to the riverbank before them. Manca has argued that [[George Washington|Washington]] planted a few isolated trees on the brow of the hill to increase the sense of distance between the [[portico]] and the water.<ref>Manca 2012, 168, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/GUDJUIC7 view on Zotero].</ref> Just below the crest of the hill, [[George Washington|Washington]] built a [[ha-ha]], and he intended to create a gravel [[walk]] along the river’s edge with a fish[[pond]] nearby, but these features were never installed.<ref>Manca 2012, 155–61, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/GUDJUIC7 view on Zotero]; Erby 2015, “Gardens and Groves,” 104, 116–17, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZAVXZPMS view on Zotero].</ref>

[[Image:0342.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 6, Edward Savage, ''The East Front of Mount Vernon'', c. 1787–92.]]
[[Image:0550.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 7, Victor de Grailly, ''The Tomb at Mount Vernon'', c. 1840–50.]]
In 1785 [[George Washington|Washington]] added a [[deer park]] and [[icehouse]] to sections of the east [[lawn]] that were not easily visible from the [[portico]]. He fenced off approximately eighteen acres of the east [[slope]] to create the [[deer park]], which he stocked with both American and English deer [Fig. 6]. The [[deer park|park]] fell into disrepair while Washington was serving as president in Philadelphia. Once the deer broke out of the [[fence]], they were permitted to roam freely throughout the estate ([[#Niemcewicz|view text]]). On the far edge of the east [[lawn]], a small but elaborate [[icehouse]], constructed of brick and wood with a vaulted interior and pediment over the door, was built between the mansion and the river (the source of the ice). In the early 19th century, [[George Washington|Washington’s]] nephew Bushrod Washington, who inherited Mount Vernon after the deaths of George and Martha Washington, reduced the size of the [[icehouse]] and constructed a [[summerhouse]] on the site, as seen at the center of Victor de Grailly’s mid-19th-century painting of [[George Washington|Washington’s]] tomb [Fig. 7].<ref>Manca 2012, 33, 82, 142, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/GUDJUIC7 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[George Washington]] died at Mount Vernon in December 14, 1799, and Martha Washington continued to reside at the estate until her own death in 1802. Bushrod Washington owned it until the time of his death in 1829. In the area of the upper garden, he added a rammed-earth [[greenhouse]] as well as a brick [[hothouse]] and pinery (to cultivate pineapples) adjacent to his uncle’s [[greenhouse]] and slave quarters. Like [[George Washington|Washington’s]] original structures, Bushrod Washington’s additions were badly damaged in the 1835 fire. [[George Washington|George Washington's]] will instructed that a new brick family tomb should be constructed at the foot of the Vineyard Enclosure to replace the existing—and badly decayed—family vault. Washington’s descendants relocated George and Martha Washington’s remains, as well as those of other members of the family, from the so-called Old Tomb to the New Tomb in 1831, in accordance with [[George Washington|Washington’s]] wishes. Mount Vernon gradually fell into disrepair after Bushrod Washington’s death, but it remained in the possession of the Washington family until 1858, when John Augustine Washington III, [[George Washington|George Washington's]] great-grand-nephew, sold the mansion and two-hundred acres of the property to the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. The organization took formal possession of the estate in February 1860 and continues to operate it as a historic site today.<ref>For more on the ownership of Mount Vernon after George Washington’s death in 1799, see Esther C. White, “‘Laid Out in Squares, and Boxed with Great Precision’: Uncovering George Washington’s Upper Garden,” in Schoelwer 2015, 86, 89–90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PR9TSBAZ view on Zotero]. For a detailed history of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association’s restorations of the grounds at Mount Vernon, see J. Dean Norton, “George Washington’s Gardens: Under the Watchful Eye of the Mount Vernon Ladies,” in Schoelwer 2015, 39–69, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/HHMZ79SG view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
*<div id="GW_August 1776"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], August 19, 1776, in a letter to Lund Washington<ref>Washington Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0078 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref> [[#GW_August 1776_cite|back up to History]]
:“Plant Trees in the room of all dead ones in proper time this Fall. and as I mean to have [[grove]]s of Trees at each end of the dwelling House, that at the South end to range in a line from the South East Corner to Colo. Fairfax’s, extending as low as another line from the Stable to the dry well, and towards the Coach House, Hen House, & Smoak House as far as it can go for a Lane to be left for Carriages to pass to, & from the Stable and Wharf. from the No. Et Corner of the other end of the House to range so as to Shew the Barn &ca. in the Neck—from the point where the old Barn used to Stand to the No. Et Corner of the Smiths Shop, & from thence to the Servants Hall, leaveng a passage between the Quarter & Shop, and so East of the Spinning & Weaving House (as they used to be called) up to a Wood pile, & so into the [[yard]] between the Servts Hall & the House newly erected—these Trees to be Planted without any order or regularity (but pretty thick, as they can at any time be thin’d) and to consist that at the North end, of locusts altogether. & that at the South, of all the clever kind of Trees (especially flowering ones) that can be got, such as Crab apple, Poplar, Dogwood, Sasafras, Lawrel, Willow (especially yellow & Weeping Willow, twigs of which may be got from Philadelphia) and many others which I do not recollect at present—these to be interspersed here and there with ever greens such as Holly, Pine, and Cedar, also Ivy—to these may be added the Wild flowering Shrubs of the larger kind, such as the fringe Tree & several other kinds that might be mentioned.”

*[[George Washington|Washington, George]], December 25, 1782 (quoted in Johnson 1953: 87–88)<ref name="Johnson_1953">Gerald W. Johnson, ''Mount Vernon: The Story of a Shrine'' (New York: Random House, 1953), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/F2JS5DHZ view on Zotero].</ref>
:“I wish that the afore-mentioned shrubs and ornamental and curious trees may be planted at both ends that I may determine hereafter from circumstances and appearances which shall be the [[grove]] and which the [[wilderness]]. It is easy to extirpate Trees from any spot but time only can bring them to maturity.”

*[[George Washington|Washington, George]], January 15, 1784, in a letter to [[William Hamilton]]<ref>Washington Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-01-02-0033 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>
:“If I recollect right, I heard you say when I had the pleasure of seeing you in Philadelphia, that you were about a Floor composed of a Cement which was to answer the purpose of Flagstones or Tiles, and that you proposed to variegate the colour of the squares in the manner of the former.
:“As I have a long open Gallery in Front of my House to which I want to give a Stone, or some other kind of Floor which will stand the weather; I would thank you for information respecting the Success of your experiment—with such directions and observations (if you think the method will answer) as would enable me to execute my purpose. If any of the component parts are scarce & expensive, please to note it, & where they are to be obtained—& whether all seasons will do for the admixture of the Composition.”

*<div id="GW_August 1784"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], August 11, 1784, in a letter to Tench Tilghman<ref>Washington Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-02-02-0032 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref> [[#GW_August 1784_cite|back up to History]]
:“I shall essay the finishing of my [[greenhouse|Green Ho.]] this fall; but find that neither my own knowledge, or that of any person abt me, is competent to the business.
:“Shall I, for this reason, ask the favor of you to give me a short detail of the internal construction of the [[greenhouse|Green House]] at Mrs Carrolls?
:“I am perswaded now, that I planned mine upon too contracted a Scale—My [[greenhouse|House]] is (of Brick) 40 feet by 24 in the outer dimensions—& half the width is disposed of for two rooms back of the part designed for the [[greenhouse|Green House]]; leaving not more than about 37 by 10 in the clear for the latter. As there is no cover on the walls yet, I can raise them to any height.”

*<div id="GW_January 1785"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], January 12, 1785, diary entry (Fitzpatrick, ed., 1925: 2:334)<ref name="Fitzpatrick_1925">John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., ''The Diaries of George Washington, 1748–1799'', 4 vols. (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company for the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, 1925), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/39ZET6HP view on Zotero].</ref> [[#GW_January 1785_cite|back up to History]]
:“Road to my Mill Swamp, where my Dogue run hands were at Work, and to other places in search of the sort of Trees I shall want for my [[Walk]]s, [[grove]]s, and [[Wilderness]]es.”

*[[George Washington|Washington, George]], 1785, diary entries (Jackson and Twohig, eds., 1978: 4:86, 89, 94, 96, 97, 99, 101, 107, 161, 199, 215)<ref name="Jackson-Twohig_1978">Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds., ''The Diaries of George Washington'', 6 vols. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9ZIIR3FT view on Zotero].</ref>
:[February 8] “Finding that I should be very late in preparing my [[Walk]]s & [[shrubbery|Shrubberies]] if I waited till the ground should be uncovered by the dissolution of the Snow—I had it removed Where necessary & began to Wheel dirt into the [[Ha-Ha/Sunk fence|Ha! Haws]] &ca.—tho' it was it exceeding miry & bad working. . . .

:[February 12] “Planted Eight young Pair Trees sent me by Doctr. Craik in the following places. . . .

:“3 Brown Beuries in the west [[square]] in the Second flat—viz. 1 on the [[border]] (middle thereof) next the Fall or [[slope]]—the other two on the [[border]] above the [[walk]] next the old Stone Wall. . . .

:[February 22] “I also removed from the [[Woods]] and old fields, several young Trees of Sassafras, Dogwood, & red bud, to the [[Shrubbery]] on the No. Side the grass [[plat]]. . . .

:[February 28] “Planted all the Mulberry trees, Maple trees, & Black gums in my Serpentine [[walk]]s and the Poplars on the right [[walk]]—the Sap of which and the Mulberry appeared to be moving. Also planted 4 trees from H. Hole the name unknown but of a brittle wood which has the smell of Mulberry. . . .

:[March 2] ”Planted the remainder of the Ash Trees—in the Serpentine [[walk]]s—the remainder of the fringe trees in the [[shrubbery|Shrubberies]]—all the black haws—all the large berried thorns with a small berried one in the middle of each [[clump]]—6 small berried thorns with a large one in the middle of each [[clump]]—all the swamp red berry bushes & one [[clump]] of locust trees. . . .

:[March 3] “Planted the remainder of the Locusts—Sassafras—small berried thorn & yellow Willow in the [[shrubbery|Shrubberies]], as also the red buds— a honey locust and service tree by the South Garden House. Likewise took up the [[clump]] of Lilacs that stood at the Corner of the South Grass [[plat]] & transplanted them to the clusters in the [[shrubbery|Shrubberies]] & standards at the south Garden [[gate]]. The Althea trees were also planted. . . .

:“Employed myself the greatest part of the day in pruning and shaping the young [[plantation]] of Trees & Shrubs. . . .

:[March 7] “Planted all my Cedars, all my Papaw, and two Honey locust Trees in my [[shrubbery|Shrubberies]] and two of the latter in my [[grove]]s—one at each (side) of the House and a large Holly tree on the Point going to the Sein landing. . . .

:“Finished Plowing the Ground adjoining the Pine [[Grove]], designed for Clover & [[Orchard]] grass Seed. . . .

:[March 11] “Planted . . . 13 Yellow Willow trees alternately along the Post and Rail [[fence]] from the Kitchen to the South [[Ha-Ha/Sunk fence|ha-haw]] and from the Servants’ Hall to the Smith’s Shop. . . .

:[March 24] “Finding the Trees round the [[Walk]]s in my [[wilderness|wildernesses]] rather too thin I doubled them by putting (other Pine) trees between each.

:“Laid off the [[Walk]]s in my [[Grove]]s, at each end of the House. . . .

:[July 8] “Sowed one half the Chinese Seed given me by Mr. Porter and Doctr. Craik, in three rows in the Section next the Quarter (in my [[Botanical garden]]) beginning in that part next the garden [[Wall]], and at the end next the Middle [[Walk]]. . . .

:[September 30] “Began again to Smooth the Face of the [[Lawn]], or [[bowling green|Bolling Green]] on the West front of my House—what I had done before the Rains, proving abortive. . . .

:[October 28] “Finished levelling and Sowing the [[lawn]] in front of the Ho[use] intended for a [[bowling green|Bolling Green]]—as far as the Garden Houses.”

*[[George Washington|Washington, George]], February 28, 1785, in a letter to Henry Knox<ref>Washington Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-02-02-0267 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>
:“. . . I perceive, & was most interested by something which was said respecting the composition for a public [[walk]]. . . . Now, as I am engaged in works of this kind, I would thank you, if there is any art in the preparation, to communicate it to me—whether designed for Carriages, or walking. My Gardens have gravel [[walk]]s (as you possibly may recollect) in the usual Style, but if a better composition has been discovered for these, I should gladly adopt it. the matter however which I wish principally to be informed in, is, whether your [[walk]]s are designed for Carriages, and if so, how they are prepared, to resist the impression of the wheels. I am making a Serpentine road to my door, & have doubts (which it may be in your power to remove) whether any thing short of solid pavement will answer.”

*<div id="Chastellux"></div>Chastellux, François-Jean de, December 12, 1785, in a letter to [[George Washington]]<ref>Washington Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-03-02-0385 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref> [[#Chastellux_cite|back up to History]]
:“What satisfaction should it be for me, if I was walking upon your [[bowling green|bowlingreen]], to look upon the Potomack, and endeavour with the help of a Telescope to distinguish, whether the aproaching vessel wears the american, the french or the brittish colours; to say: ’tis a brittish ⟨illegible⟩ who comes and fetch tabacco; then continue quietly our walk and go towards the [[grove]] to observe the growth of your trees, even of your vineyard, that a french man can, I dare say, examine without jealousy; for, my dear general, you can sow and reap laurels, but grapes and wine are not within the compass of your powers: do not be angry, dear general: foreigners have been always welcome at your house, and black billy is an exceeding good gentleman usher for madeyra, champain, and Burgundy’s ⟨travellers⟩.”

*<div id="GW_1786"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], 1786, diary entries (Jackson and Twohig, eds., 1978: 4:267, 293, 304, 308, 350)<ref name="Jackson-Twohig_1978"></ref> [[#GW_1786_cite|back up to History]]
:[January 25] “And set about the Banks round the [[Lawn]], in front of the [[gate]] between the two [[Mound]]s of Earth. . . .

:[March 13] “The ground being in order for it, I set the people to raising and forming the [[mound]]s of Earth by the [[gate]] in order to plant weeping willow thereon. . . .

:[April 6] “Transplanted 46 of the large Magnolio of So. Carolina from the box brought by G. A. Washington last year—viz.—6 at the head of each of the Serpentine [[Walk]]s next the Circle—26 in the [[Shrubbery]] or [[grove]] at the South end of the House & 8 in that at the No. end. The ground was so wet, more could not at this time be planted there. . . .

:[April 11] “In the Section in my [[botanic garden|botanical garden]], next the House nearest the circle, I planted 4 Rows of the laurel berries in the grd. where, last year I had planted the Physic nuts &ca.—now dead & next to these in the same section are [ ] rows of the pride of China. The Rows of both these kinds are 16 inches asunder & the Seeds 6 inches apart in the Rows. . . .

:[June 19] “A Monsr. Andri Michaux—a Botanest sent by the Court of France to America (after having been only 6 Weeks returned from India) came in a little before dinner with letters of Introduction & recommendation from the Duke de Lauzen, & Marqs. de la Fayette to me. He dined and returned afterwards to Alexandria on his way to New York, from whence he had come; and where he was about to establish a [[botanic garden|Botanical garden]].”

*[[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan, Samuel]], 1787 (quoted in Norton and Schrage-Norton 1985: 142)<ref name="Norton-Schrage-Norton_1985">John D. Norton and Susanne A. Schrage-Norton, ''The Upper Garden at Mount Vernon Estate—Its Past, Present, and Future: A Reflection on 18th Century Gardening. Phase II: The Complete Report'' (Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association Library, 1985), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/3R9Z6WZT view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Before the front of the house . . . there are [[lawn]]s, surrounded with gravel [[walk]]s 19 feet wide. with trees on each side the larger, for shade. outside the [[walk]]s trees & [[shrubbery|shrubberies]]. Parralel [''sic''] to each exterior side a [[kitchen garden|Kitchen Gardens]]. with a stately [[hothouse|hot house]] on one side.”

[[File:0069.jpg|thumb|225px|Fig. 8, Samuel Vaughan, ''Plan of the buildings and grounds of Mount Vernon'', 1787.]]
*<div id="GW_1787"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], November 12, 1787, in a letter to [[Samuel Vaughan]]<ref>Washington Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-05-02-0397 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref> [[#GW_1787_cite|back up to History]]
:“The letter without date, with which you were pleased to honor me, accompanied by a plan of this [[Seat]], came to my hands by the last Post—for both I pray you to accept my sincere and hearty thanks.
:“The plan describes with accuracy the houses, [[walk]]s, [[shrubbery|shrubs beries]] &ca except in the front of the [[Lawn]]—west of the Ct [[yard]]. There the plan differs from the original—in the former, you have closed the [[prospect]] with trees along the [[walk]] to the [[gate]]—whereas in the latter the trees terminate with two [[mound]]s of earth one on each side on which grow Weeping Willows leaving an open and full view of the distant [[wood]]s—the [[mound]]s are at 60 yards apart. I mention this because it is the only departure from the origl.” [Fig. 8]

*Brissot de Warville, Jacques Pierre, 1788 (1919: 254)<ref name="BrissotdeWarville_1919">J.-P. (Jacques Pierre) Brissot de Warville, ''New Travels in the United States Performed in 1788'' (Bowling Green, OH: Historical Publications Co., 1919), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/GH5VFB9D view on Zotero].</ref>
:“I hastened to arrive at Mount Vernon, the [[seat]] of [[George Washington|General Washington]], ten miles below Alexandria on the same river. On this rout you traverse a considerable [[wood]], and after having passed over two hills, you discover a country house of an elegant and majestic simplicity. It is preceded by grass [[plat]]s; on one side of the [[avenue]] are the stables, on the other a [[greenhouse|green-house]], and houses for a number of negroe mechanics. In a spacious back yard are turkies, geese, and other poultry. This house overlooks the Potowmack, enjoys an extensive [[prospect]], has a vast and elevated [[portico]] on the front next to the river, and a convenient distribution of the apartments within.”

*Enys, Lt. John, February 12, 1788 (Cometti, ed., 1976: 246)<ref name="Cometti_1976">Elizabeth Cometti, ed., ''The American Journals of Lt. John Enys'' (Syracuse, NY: Adirondack Museum and Syracuse University Press, 1976), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/3MFFCCFE view on Zotero].</ref>
:“From hence is one of the most delightfull [[Prospect]]s I ever beheld. It had the Command of a [[View]] each way of some Miles up and down the River Potowmack whch [''sic''] is here about two Miles broad On which during the Summer there are constantly ships moving. The Hills arrownd it are coverd with [[plantation]]s some of which have Elegant houses standing on them all of which being situated on [[Eminence]]s form very beautifull Objects for each other.”

* <div id="Humphreys"></div>Humphreys, David, c. 1788–89, describing Mount Vernon (quoted in Manca 2012: 84–85)<ref>David Humphreys, unpublished manuscript of an authorized biography of George Washington, quoted in Manca 2012, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/GUDJUIC7 view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Humphreys_cite|back up to History]]
:“The area of the [[Mount]], is 200 feet above the surface of the water, and after furnishing a [[lawn]] of 5 acres in front & about the same in rear of the buildings, falls off rather abruptly on those quarters. On the north-end it subsides gradually into extensive pasture grounds; while on the south it [[slope]]s more steeply in a shorter distance, and terminates with the coach-house, stables, vineyard & [[nursery|nurseries]]. On either wing is a dense & opaque [[grove]] of different flowering forest trees. Parellel [''sic''] with them, on the land-side, are two spacious gardens, into which one is led by the two serpentine gravel-[[walk]]s, planted with weeping willows & umbrageous shrubs. The Mansion House itself, though much embellished by yet not perfectly satisfactory to the chaste taste of the present Possessor, appears venerable & convenient. The superb banquetting room has been finished since he returned home from the army. A lofty [[Portico]], 96 feet in length, supported by eight pillars, has a pleasing effect when viewed from the water; and the ''tout ensemble'', of the [[greenhouse|green-house]], schoolhouse, offices & servants-hall, when seen from the countryside, bears a resemblance to a rural village: especially as the lands in that site are laid out somewhat according to the form of English gardens, in [[meadow]]s & grass-grounds, ornamented with little [[copse]]s, circular [[clump]]s & single trees. [O]n the opposite side of a little creek to the Northward, an extensive plain, exhibiting cornfields & cattle grazing, affords in summer a luxurus landscape to the eye; While the cultivation declivities, intermingle with woodlands on the Maryland shore concludes the [[prospect]]; While to blended verdure of woodlands & cultivated declivities on the Maryland shore variegates the [[prospect]]on another side in a charming manner. A small Park on the margin of the river, where the English fallow-deer & the American wild-deer are seen through the [[thicket]]s, alternately with the vessels as they are sailing along, adds a romantic & [[picturesque]] appearance to the whole scenery. Such are the philosophic shades, to which the late Commander in Chief of the American armies has retired, from the tumultuous scenes of a busy world.”

*Weld, Isaac, December 1795, describing Mount Vernon (1799: 1:90–95)<ref name="Weld_1799">Isaac Weld Jr., ''Travels through the States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797'', 2nd ed., 2 vols. (London: John Stockdale, 1799), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4HPKRDA7 view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Very thick [[woods]] remain standing within four or five miles of the place; the roads through them are very bad, and so many of them cross one another in different directions, that it is a matter of very great difficulty to find the right one. . . .
:“The [[Mount]] is a very high part of the bank of the river, which rises very abruptly about two hundred feet above the level of the water. The river before it is three miles wide, and on the opposite side it forms a bay about the same breadth, which extends for a considerable distance up the country. This, at first sight, appears to be a continuation of the river; but the Patowmac takes a very sudden turn to the left, two or three miles above the house, and is quickly lost to the view. Downwards, to the right, there is a [[prospect]] of it for twelve miles. The Maryland shore, on the opposite side, is beautifully diversified with hills, which are mostly covered with [[wood]]; in many places, however, little patches of cultivated ground appear, ornamented with houses. The scenery altogether is most delightful. The house, which stands about sixty yards from the edge of the [[Mount]], is of wood, cut and painted so as to resemble hewn stone. The rear is towards the river, at which side is a [[portico]] of ninety-six feet in length, supported by eight pillars. The front is uniform, and at a distance looks tolerably well. The dwelling house is in the center, and communicates with the wings on either side, by means of covered ways, running in a curved direction. Behind these wings, on the one side, are the different offices belonging to the house, and also to the farm, and on the other, the cabins for the SLAVES. In front, the breadth of the whole building, is a [[lawn]] with a gravel [[walk]] round it, planted with trees, and separated by [[hedge]]s on either side from the farm [[yard]] and garden. As for the garden, it wears exactly the appearance of a [[nursery]], and with every thing about the place indicates that more attention is paid to profit than to pleasure. The ground in the rear of the house is also laid out in a [[lawn]], and the declivity of the [[Mount]], towards the water, in a [[deer park]]. . . .
:“As almost every stranger going through the country makes a point of visiting Mount Vernon, a person is kept at the house during [[George Washington|General Washington’s]] absence, whose sold business is to attend to strangers. Immediately on our arrival every care was taken of our horses, beds were prepared, and an excellent supper provided for us, with claret and other wine, &c.”

* [[George Washington|Washington, George]], June 5, 1796, in a letter to William Pearce, estate manager of Mount Vernon<ref>Washington Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-00588 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>
:“In a few days after ''we'' get there, we shall be visited, I expect, by characters of distinction; I could wish therefore that the Gardens, [[Lawn]]s, and every thing else, in, and about the Houses, may be got in clean & nice order. If the Gardener needs aid, to accomplish as much of this as lyes within his line, let him have it; & let others rake, & scrape up all the trash, of every sort & kind about the houses, & in holes & corners and throw it (all I mean that will make dung) into the Stercorary and the rest into the gullied parts of the road, coming up to the House—And as the front gate of the [[Lawn]] (by the Ivies) is racked, and scarcely to be opened, I wish you would order a new one (like the old one) to be immediately made—and that, with the new ones you have just got made, and all the boarding of every kind that was white before, to be painted white again. If Neal and my own people cannot make the front gate, abovementioned, get some one from Alexandria to do it—provided he will set about & finish it immediately. This must be the way up to the House.
:“. . . Tell the Gardener, I shall expect every thing that a Garden ought to produce, in the most ample manner. . . .
:“I have no doubt but that you will endeavor so to arrange matters, as to keep your grain, & Hay harvests from interfering as much as possible with each other; and this too without either suffering, by standing too long, if it can possibly be avoided. Begin the former as soon as it can be cut without loss.”

* <div id="Latrobe"></div>[[Benjamin Henry Latrobe|Latrobe, Benjamin Henry]], July 19, 1796 (1977: 1:163–65)<ref name="Latrobe_1977">Benjamin Henry Latrobe, ''The Virginia Journals of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 1795–1798'', ed. Edward C. Carter II, 2 vols. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SZEEBG9K view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Latrobe_cite|back up to History]]
:“The general plan of the building is as at Mr. Man Pages at Mansfield near Fredericsburg, of the old School. . . . The center is an old house to which a good dining room has been added at the North end, and a study &c. &c., at the South. The House is connected with the Kitchen offices by [[arcade]]. . . . Along the other front is a [[portico]] supported by 8 square pillars, of good proportions and effect . . . The ground on the West front of the house is laid out in a level [[lawn]] bounded on each side with a wide but extremely formal serpentine [[walk]], shaded by weeping Willows. . . . On one side of this [[lawn]] is a plain [[Kitchen garden]], on the other a neat [[flower garden]] laid out in squares, and boxed with great precission. Along the North [[Wall]] of this Garden is a plain [[Greenhouse]]. The Plants were arranged in front, and contained nothing very rare, nor were they numerous. For the first time again since I left Germany, I saw here a [[parterre]], chipped and trimmed with infinite care into the form of a richly flourished Fleur de Lis: The expiring groans I hope of our Grandfather’s pedantry.”

*<div id="Frost"></div>Frost, Amariah, June 26, 1797, in a diary entry describing a visit to Mount Vernon (quoted in Staples 1879: 8, 10–11)<ref>Hamilton B. Staples, ''A Day at Mount Vernon, in 1797'' (Worcester, MA: Press of Charles Hamilton, 1879), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RTNP9URJ view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Frost_cite|back up to History]]
:“We arrived at the President’s [[seat]] about 1 o’clock. [[George Washington|The General]] was out on horseback viewing his labourers at harvest; we were desired to tarry until he should return. Mr. Law, who married a granddaughter of the lady of the President’s, was there, and his wife. . . . We had rum punch brought us by a servant. Mr. Law complained of being unwell and desired us to walk in the garden and to excuse him. We viewed the garden and [[walk]]s, which are very elegant, abounding with many curiosities, Fig trees, raisins, limes, oranges, etc., large English mulberries, artichokes, etc. . . .
:“The situation of Mount Vernon is pleasant, very night the Potomac, not on any post road. We passed a number of [[gate]]s and long tracts of [[wood]] before we came to the most cultivated parts of the General’s farm. There are very large fields of Indian corn under good cultivation, except the number of trees left for shades and for their growth, yet they prevent the corn from coming to maturity. Planting corn, however, prevents the shrubs from growing and well prepairs the ground for wheat and also for grass when seeded.
:“There are beautiful [[grove]]s arranged in proper order back of both the gardens and rows of trees exactly corrisponding with each other, between which and the two gardens is the great [[green]] and circular [[walk]] fronting northerly from the house and seen at a great distance. The southern part of the house fronts the river. The house is long but not high, with a cupola in the centre of the roof. The chamber windows are small, being only 12 lights, 8 by 10, or less, to a window. The lower windows are larger. Two wings and other buildings corresponding to each other on either side, also, a large [[piazza]] in the front, add much to the beauty of the house.”

* [[George Washington|Washington, George]], May 16, 1798, in a letter to Sarah Cary Fairfax<ref>Washington Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-02-02-0204 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>
:“Before the War, & even while it existed, altho’ I was eight years from home at one stretch, (except the ''en passant visits'' made to it on my March to and from the Siege of Yorktown) I made considerable additions to my dwelling house, & alterations in my Offices, & Gardens; but the dilapidati(on) occasioned by time, & those neglects which are co-extensive with the absence of Proprietors, have occupied as much of my time, within the last twelve months in repairing them, as to any former period in the same space.”

* <div id="Niemcewicz"></div>Niemcewicz, Julian Ursyn, June 1798, journal entry describing Mount Vernon (1965: 95–102, 104)<ref name="Niemcewicz">Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, ''Under Their Vine and Fig Tree: Travels through America in 1797–99, 1805, with Some Further Account of Life in New Jersey'', ed. and trans. Metchie J. E. Budka (Elizabeth, NJ: Grassmann Publishing Company, 1965), xiv, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/URG5ABAD view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Niemcewicz_cite|back up to History]]
:[June 2] “We continued through the country scored with ravines and well wooded. After 7 miles of road we arrived at the foot of a hill where the properties of [[George Washington|Gl. Washington]] begin. We took a road newly cut through a forest of oaks. Soon we discovered still another hill at the top of which stood a rather spacious house, surmounted by a small cupola, with mezzanines and with blinds painted green. It is surrounded by a ditch in brick with very pretty little turrets at the corners; these are nothing but outhouses. Two [[bowling green]]s, a circular one very near the house, the other very large and irregular, form the courtyard in front of the house. All kinds of trees, bushes, flowering plants, ornament the two sides of the court. near the two ends of the house are planted two [[grove]]s of acacia, called here ''locust'', a charming tree, with a smooth trunk and without branches leaving a clear and open space for the movement of its small and trembling leaves. The ground where they are planted is a green carpet of the most beautiful velvet. This tree keeps off all kinds of insects. There were also a few catalpa and tulip trees there etc.
:“We entered into the house . . . .
:“One enters into a hall which divides the house into two and leads to the ''piazza''. . . . At the right, on entering, is a ''parlor''. . . .
:“From this room one goes into a large salon that the Gl. has recently added. It is the most magnificent room in the house. . . . At the side of the first room is yet another ''parlor'', decorated with beautiful engravings representing storms and seascapes. . . . On the other side of the hall are the dining room, a bedroom, and the library of the Gl; above, several apartments for Madame, Miss Custis and guests. They are all very neatly and prettily furnished.
:“On the side opposite the front is an immense open [[portico]] supported by eight pillars. It is from there that one looks out on perhaps the most beautiful view in the world. One sees there the waters of the Potomak rolling majestically over a distance of 4 to 5 miles. Boats which go to and fro make a picture of unceasing motion. A [[lawn]] of the most beautiful green leads to a steep [[slope]], covered as far as the bank by a very thick [[wood]] where formerly there were deer and roebuck, but a short time ago they broke the enclosure and escaped. . . . It is there that in the afternoon and evening the Gl, his family and the ''gustes'' [guests] go to sit and enjoy the fine weather and the beautiful view. I enjoyed it more than anyone. I found the situation of Mount Vernon from this side very similar to that of Pulawy. The opposite bank, the course of the river, the dense [[woods]] all combined to enhance this sweet illusion. What a remembrance! . . . .
:“After dinner one goes out onto the [[portico]] to read the newspaper. In the evening [[George Washington|Gl. Wash[ington]]] showed us his garden. It is well cultivated and neatly kept; the gardener is an Englishman. One sees there all the vegetables for the kitchen, ''Corrents'', ''Rasberys'', ''Strawberys'', ''Gusberys'', quantities of peaches and cherries, much inferior to ours, which the ''robins'', ''blackbirds'' and Negroes devour before they are ripe.
:“Opium, some poppies. . . .
:“One sees also in the garden lilies, roses, pinks, etc. The path which runs all around the [[bowling green]] is planted with a thousand kinds of trees, plants and bushes; crowning them are two immense Spanish chestnuts that [[George Washington|Gl. Wash[ington]]] planted himself; they are very bushy and of the greatest beauty. The tree of the ''tulip'', called here ''Poplar'', or ''Tulip Tree'', is very high with a beautiful leaf and the flower in a bell resembling a ''Tulip'', white with a touch of orange at the base. The magnolia [is] a charming tree . . . with a whitish and smooth trunk; the leaf resembles that of the orange; in bud the flower is like a white acorn which opens out and gives off an odor less strong than the orange but just as agreeable; the fruit is a little cone with crimson seeds; these seeds are held to the cone by small threads. The ''Sweet Scented Shroub'', a shrub which grows in a [[thicket]], with a very deep purple, nearly black flower, has a fragrance which from my point of view surpasses all the others. . . . The superb catalpa was not yet in flower. The fir of Nova Scotia, ''Spruce Tree'', is of a beautiful deep green; it is from their cones that the essence of ''Spruce'' is extracted to mix it with the beer. [There was] a tree [blank] bearing thousands and thousands of pods like little pea pods. A thousand other bushes, for the most part species of laurel and thorn, all covered with flowers of different colors, all planted in a manner to produce the most beautiful hues. The weeping willows are deprived of their greatest beauty Last winter there was such a great amount of snow that their branches, not being able to support it, broke. . . . In a word the garden, the [[plantation]]s, the house, the whole upkeep, proves that a man born with natural taste can divine the beautiful without having seen the model. The Gl. has never left America. After seeing his house and his gardens one would say that he had seen the most beautiful examples in England of this style.
:[June 3] “I went out for a walk with Mr. Law. he showed me a hill covered with old chestnuts, oaks, weeping willows, cedars, etc. It was a burial ground. . . . The sun was setting behind the bluish hills and thick forests of oak and laurel, its rays falling obliquely on the smooth waters of the Potowmak.
:[June 4] “We left on horseback with Mr. Law to see the Gl.’s farm. Mount Vernon was already a large property when [[George Washington|Gl. Washington]] inherited it from his half brother of the first marriage. When he married Mrs. Custis, he took with her as dowry 20,000 pounds of the money of Virginia, about 70,000 doll. He bought, with a large part of this money, land at 20 and 30 shlings per acre, between 4 and 5 pounds (today he would not give them up for ten times as much). His lands in Mount Vernon today enclose 10,000 acres in a single unit. . . .
:“This morning we saw vast fields covered with different kinds of grain. One hundred acres in peas alone, much rye which is distilled into ''whiski'', maize, wheat, flax, large meadows sown to lucerne; the soil although for the most part clayey produces, as a result of good cultivation, abundant harvests. All these lands are divided into four farms with a number of Blacks attached to each and a Black overseer over them. The whole is under the supervision of Mr. Anderson, a Scottish farmer.
:“We saw a very large mill built in stone. An American machine invented by Evens (who has published a work on mills) for the aeration of the flour is very ingenious. Beside the different kinds of grain that are ground for the use of the house, and for the nourishment of the Blacks, each year a thousand kegs of wheat flour are ground for export. . . .
:“Just near by is a ''whiski'' distillery. Under the supervision of the son of Mr. Anderson, they distill up to 12 thousand gallons a year. . . . If this distillery produces poison for men, it offers in return the most delicate and the most succulent feed for pigs. . . . We saw here and there flocks of sheep. The Gl. has between six and seven hundred. . . .
:“Blacks. We entered one of the huts of the Blacks, for one can not call them by the name of houses. They are more miserable than the most miserable of the cottages of our peasants. The husband and wife sleep on a mean pallet, the children on the ground; a very bad fireplace, some utensils for cooking, but in the middle of this poverty some cups and a teapot. . . . A very small garden planted with vegetables was close by, with 5 or 6 hens, each one leading ten to fifteen chickens. It is the only comfort that is permitted them; for they may not keep either ducks, geese, or pigs. They sell the poultry in Alexandria and procure for themselves a few amenities. . . . Not counting women and children the Gl. has 300 Negroes of whom a large number belong to Mrs. Washington. Mr. Anderson told me that there are only a hundred who work in the fields. They work all week, not having a single day for themselves except for holidays. One sees by that that the conditions of our peasants is infinitely happier. The mulattoes are ordinarily chosen for servants. . . .
:[June 5] “This morning the Gl. had the kindness to go with us on horseback to show us another of his farms. The soil of it was balck, much better looking and more fertile than that of the others. . . . The Gl. showed us a plow of his own invention: in the middle on the axle itself is a hollow cylinder filled with grain; this cylinder is pierced with different holes, according to the size of the grain. As the plow moves ahead, the cylinder turns and the grain falls, the ploughshare having prepared the furrow for it, and a little blade behind then covers it with earth. He then took us to see a barn for threshing the grain. It is an octagonal building; on the first story the floor is made from planed poles three inches wide which do not touch, leaving an empty space between. Grain is placed on them and horses, driven at a trot, trample it; the kernals fall through to the bottom. . . .
:[June 8] “For three years the deer have almost disappeared from the Gl.’s [[deer park|park]]. When today we discovered three grazing on the grass a little distance from the house, the Gl. suggested to me to look at them close up. We left. He walked very quickly; I could hardly follow him. We maneuvered to force them to leave their retreat and go towards the field, but the maneuver, clever as it was, did not succeed; they plunged into the wood.”

*[[Manasseh Cutler|Cutler, Manasseh]], January 2, 1802, journal entry describing a visit to Mount Vernon (1888: 2:55–58)<ref>Manasseh Cutler, ''Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D.'', ed. William Parker Cutler and Julia Perkin Cutler, 2 vols. (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1888), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J2DCEB82 view on Zotero].</ref>
:“After leaving Alexandria about three miles, we entered a woodland, which continued, with the exception of a few openings of cultivated fields, until we cam within about a quarter of a mile of the mansion-house on Mt. Vernon. As the road goes out of the [[wood]]s, which consist of tall and beautiful forests, variegated with all the different kinds of trees, native in this part of the country, it passes by a [[gate]], where we leave the road and pass through the [[gate]] nearly at right-angles, and enter an open pasture. On passing through the [[gate]], which stands on an [[eminence]], we at once, and very abruptly, come in full view of the house, on the side back from the river. It appears on an [[eminence]], not like a hill, but a level ground, with a pretty deep valley between, covered with [[wood]]s and bushes of different kinds, which conceal the winding passage from the [[gate]] to the house. . . . In this situation the house, with two ranges of small buildings extending in a curved form, from near the corners of the house, till interrupted by the trees, has quite a [[picturesque]] appearance, and the effect is much heightened by coming out of a thick [[wood]], and the sudden and unexpected manner in which it is seen. . . .
:“After breakfast we rambled about the house and gardens, which were not in so high a style as I expected to have found them. The house stands on an elevated level, is two stories, high, with a [[piazza]] in front, supported by a row of pillars on the side toward the river, and is about five or six rods from a steep bank descending to the edge of the water. The river is wide, and affords a most delightful [[prospect]] far distant up and down the stream. as well as beyond the opposite shore. But the whole country appears to be an extended [[wood]]s, with very few houses or cultivated fields in any direction. In front of the house is a grass [[plot]], with trees on each side, and inclosed with a circular ditch. On the right is an [[orchard]], consisting principally of large cherry and peach trees. At the bottom of this [[orchard]], and nearly opposite the eastern end of the house, is a venerable tomb, which contains the remains of the great Washington. This precious monument was the first object of our attention. . . . Situated at the extremity of the grass [[plot]], and on the edge of the bank, it is not seen until you approach near to it. The [[mound]] of earth is not much elevated, and is covered over with a growth of cypress trees, a few junipers, and near it the ever-green holly tree, which conceals it from the view until you come almost to it. The side of the steep bank to the river is covered with a [[thicket]] of forest trees in its whole extent within view of the house. The tomb opens nearly toward the river, at an upright door, which was locked, and all the stone work is covered with earth, overgrown with tall grass and these trees, which appear to have been planted, except at the sides and over the cap of the door. Between the tomb and the bank, a narrow foot-path, much trodden, and shaded with trees, passes round it. . . . After we had taken a melancholy leave of the tomb, we rambled over the gardens and [[shrubbery]], which discovered much taste and neatness of design in its former owner. . . . I collected a quantity of seeds. . .”

[[File:0314.jpg|thumb|225px|Fig. 3, William Russell Birch, “Mount Vernon, Virginia, the Seat of the late Genl. G. Washington,” 1808, in William Russell Birch ''The Country Seats of the United States'' (1808), pl. 7.]]
*[[William Russell Birch|Birch, William Russell]], 1808 (n.p.)<ref>William Russell Birch, ''The Country Seats of the United States of North America: With Some Scenes Connected with Them'' (Springland, PA: W. Birch, 1808), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BAIMV4GZ view on Zotero].</ref>
:“This hallowed mansion is founded upon a rocky [[eminence]], a dignified height on the Potomac. During the French war, Admiral Vernon, who commanded the British fleet on this station, frequently made visits to his friend the father of Gen. W. and thence is derived its name. The additions of a [[piazza]] to the water front, and of a drawing room, are proofs of the legitimacy of the General’s taste. It is now the residence of Judge Washington.” [Fig. 3]

*Gerry, Elbridge, Jr., July 1813 (1927: 174)<ref name="Gerry_1927">Elbridge Gerry Jr., ''The Diary of Elbridge Gerry, Jr.'' (New York: Brentano’s, 1927), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8P4QSRIF/q/gerry view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Back of the mansion is a [[summerhouse|summer house]], which commands an elegant [[view]] of the Potomac.”

*Willis, Nathaniel Parker, 1840, describing the disposition of house and grounds at Mount Vernon (1840: 2:38–39)<ref name="Willis_1840">Nathaniel Parker Willis, ''American Scenery; or, Land, Lake and River Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature'', 2 vols. (London: G. Virtue, 1840), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/3GKD7BUA view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The house fronts north-west, the rear looking to the river. In front of the house is a [[lawn]], containing five or six acres of ground, with a serpentine [[walk]] around it, fringed with [[shrubbery]], and planted with poplars. On each side of the [[lawn]] stands a garden; the one on the right is a [[flower garden|flower-garden]], and contains two [[greenhouse|green-houses]] (one built by General Washington, the other by Judge Washington,) a [[hothouse|hot-house]], and a pinery. It is laid out in handsome [[walk]]s, with box-wood [[border]]s, remarkable for their beauty. It contains also a quantity of fig-trees, producing excellent fruit. The other is a [[kitchen garden|kitchen-garden]] containing only fruit and vegetables.

:“About two hundred yards from the house, in a southerly direction, stands a [[summerhouse|summer-house]], on the edge of the river-bank, which is here lofty and sloping, and clothed with [[wood]] to the water’s edge. The [[summerhouse|summer-house]] commands a fine [[prospect]] of the river and the Maryland shore; also of the White House, at a distance of five or six miles down the river, where engagement took place with the British vessels which ascended the river during the last war.”

*Willis, Nathaniel Parker, 1840, quoting an early visitor’s description of Mount Vernon (1840: 39)<ref name="Willis_1840"></ref>
:“At the extremity of these extensive [[alleys]] and [[pleasure-ground]]s, ornamented with fruit-trees and [[shrubbery]], and clothed in perennial verdure, stands two [[hothouse]]s, and as many [[greenhouse|green-houses]], situated in the sunniest part of the garden, and shielded from the northern winds by a long range of wooden buildings for the accommodation of servants.”

<hr>

==Images==
<span id="roundabout_img"></span>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:1285a.jpg|George Washington, Alternate plan (“Plan No. 1”) for the greenhouse at Mount Vernon, n.d.

Image:1285b.jpg|George Washington, Alternate plan (“Plan No. 2”) for the greenhouse at Mount Vernon, n.d.

Image:0599.jpg|George Washington, A Plan of My Farm on Little Huntg. Creek & Potomk R., 1766.

Image:1110.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, Sketch plan of Mount Vernon, 1787.

Image:0069.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, Plan of the buildings and grounds of Mount Vernon, 1787.

Image:0337.jpg|Edward Savage, ''The West Front of Mount Vernon'', c. 1787–92.

Image:0342.jpg|Edward Savage, ''The East Front of Mount Vernon'', c. 1787–92.

Image:0338.jpg|Anonymous, ''A View of Mount Vernon'', c. 1790.

Image:0566.jpg|George Washington, “Survey and plot of Mount Vernon and neighboring farms,” 1793.

Image:0343.jpg|George Isham Parkyns, ''Mount Vernon'', 1795.

Image:0088.jpg|Benjamin Henry Latrobe, “View to the North from the Lawn at Mount Vernon,” 1796.

Image:0089.jpg|Benjamin Henry Latrobe, “View of Mount Vernon looking towards the South West,” 1796.

Image:0087.jpg|Benjamin Henry Latrobe, “View of Mount Vernon looking to the North,” July 17, 1796.

Image:0710.jpg|J. Weiss, ''Home of George Washington, “The Father of His Country”'', 1797.

Image:0331.jpg|George Washington, ''Drawing and Notes for a [[Ha-Ha]] Wall at Mount Vernon, October 1798'', 1798.

Image:0345.jpg|Alexander Robertson (artist), Francis Jukes (engraver), “Mount Vernon in Virginia,” 1800.

Image:0740.jpg|William Russell Birch, ''Potomak Front of Mount Vernon'', c. 1801–3.

Image:0340.jpg|Mutual Assurance Society, Richmond, Declaration for Assurance Book, vol. 26, policy no. 2049, Insurance policy drawings for Mount Vernon, March 13, 1803.

Image:0339.jpg|Mutual Assurance Society, Richmond, Declaration for Assurance Book, vol. 35, policy no. 18, Insurance policy drawings for Mount Vernon, June 5, 1805.

File:0339 top.jpg|Mutual Assurance Society, Richmond, Declaration for Assurance Book, vol. 35, policy no. 18, Insurance policy drawings for Mount Vernon [detail], June 5, 1805.

File:0339 bottom.jpg|Mutual Assurance Society, Richmond, Declaration for Assurance Book, vol. 35, policy no. 18, Insurance policy drawings for Mount Vernon [detail], June 5, 1805.

Image:0344.jpg|George Ropes, ''Mount Vernon'', 1806.

Image:0314.jpg|William Russell Birch, “Mount Vernon, Virginia, the Seat of the late Genl. G. Washington,” 1808, in William Russell Birch, ''The Country Seats of the United States'' (1808), pl. 7.

File:2153.jpg|Pavel Petrovich Svinin, ''General Washington’s Tomb at Mount Vernon (Copy after Engraving in the ''Port Folio Magazine'', 1810)'', c. 1811–13.

Image:0330.jpg|Anne-Marguerite-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny Hyde de Neuville, attr., ''Tomb du grande Washington au Mount Vernon'', 1818.

Image:0332.jpg|Alexander Jackson Davis, ''Mount Vernon'', c. 1831.

Image:1119.jpg|W. H. Bartlett, “Washington’s House, Mount Vernon,” in Nathaniel Parker Willis, ''American Scenery'' (1840), vol. 2, pl. 20.

Image:0549.jpg|Victor de Grailly, ''Mount Vernon'', c. 1840–50.

Image:0550.jpg|Victor de Grailly, ''The Tomb at Mount Vernon'', c. 1840–50.

Image:0328.jpg|Anonymous, “Front View of the Mansion at Mount Vernon,” in Franklin Knight, ed., ''Letters on Agriculture from His Excellency George Washington . . .'' (1847), opp. 14.

Image:0329.jpg|Anonymous (artist), August Kollner (lithographer), “North West View of the Mansion of George Washington Mount Vernon,” in Franklin Knight, ed., ''Letters on Agriculture from His Excellency George Washington . . .'' (1847), opp. 124.

Image:1980.jpg|August Kollner (artist), Isidore Deroy (lithographer), ''Mount Vernon, Tomb of Washington'', 1848.

Image:0580.jpg|Lewis Miller, “Mount Vernon” [detail], in ''Orbis Pictus'' (c. 1849), 108.

Image:0292.jpg|William Matthew Prior, ''Washington’s Tomb at Mount Vernon'', c. 1855.

File: 2145.jpg|Thomas S. Sinclair (lithographer), after H. Whateley, ''Mount Vernon, Home of Washington'', 1859.

Image:0333.jpg|G. & F. Bill (firm), “Birds eye view of Mt. Vernon the home of Washington,” c. 1859.

Image:0334.jpg|Middleton, Strobridge & Co. (engraver), “Mount Vernon, the home of Washington,” c. 1861.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85087766 Library of Congress Authority File]

[http://tclf.org/landscapes/mount-vernon The Cultural Landscape Foundation]

[http://www.mountvernon.org/ Mount Vernon Official Website]

[https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/presidents/mount_vernon.html National Park Service]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category: Places]]

Mount Auburn Cemetery

2019-12-30T19:07:36Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

'''Mount Auburn Cemetery''' was founded by Harvard botanist Jacob Bigelow and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and was the first cemetery to be laid out according the principles of English landscape design. Its establishment marked the beginning of the rural cemetery movement in the United States.

==Overview==
'''Alternate Names:''' Sweet Auburn<br>
'''Site Dates:''' 1831 to present<br>
'''Site Owner:''' Massachusetts Horticultural Society (1831−1835); Proprietors of the Cemetery of Mount Auburn (1835 to present)<br>
'''Associated People:''' Jacob Bigelow (1787−1879; original proponent of the cemetery); [[H. A. S. Dearborn]] (1783−1851; designer); Alexander Wadsworth (1806−1898; surveyor)<br>
'''Location''' Cambridge, MA<br>
'''Condition:''' extant<br/>
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mount+Auburn+Cemetery/@42.3711528,-71.1449564,16z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e37781c382fb8b:0x1cbffa1239f2d6f9!8m2!3d42.3752083!4d-71.1449745?hl=en View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[File:0117.jpg|thumb|Fig. 1, Thomas Chambers, ''Mount Auburn Cemetery'', mid-19th century.]]
Prior to the founding of Mount Auburn Cemetery [Fig. 1] in 1831, residents of New England were generally interred in graveyards associated with their respective churches; in Boston, these included the King’s Chapel, Old Granary, and Central Burying Grounds along the perimeter of the [[Common]], and Copp’s Hill Burying Ground in the North End. With the enormous growth of Boston’s population following the American Revolution, however, these sites were quickly overcrowded. Boston’s early [[burial ground|burying grounds]], with their disorganized jumble of headstones, came to be seen as an aesthetic blight on the developing city, and their close proximity to both residences and businesses was considered a public health hazard.<ref>Blanche M. G. Linden, ''Silent City on a Hill: Picturesque Landscapes of Memory and Boston’s Mount Auburn Cemetery'' (1989; repr., Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007), 118–20, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero]. See also David Charles Sloane, ''The Last Great Necessity: Cemeteries in American History'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), 45, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero], and James R. Cothran and Erica Danylchak, ''Grave Landscapes: The Nineteenth-Century Rural Cemetery Movement'' (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2018), 37–38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/THCP4J2V view on Zotero].</ref>

In the mid-1820s Boston mayor Josiah Quincy passed the Ordinance on the Burial of the Dead, which forbade further interments at the King’s Chapel and Old Granary Burying Grounds and better regulated other burials within city limits.<ref>Sloane 1991, 44–45, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero]; Linden 2007, 130, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero]; and Cothran and Danylchak 2018, 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/THCP4J2V view on Zotero]. For the text of the ordinance, see ''The Charter of the City of Boston, and Ordinances Made and Established by the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council'' (Boston: True and Greene, 1827), 182–87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8Z9RGAV2 view on Zotero].</ref> About the same time, according to historian Blanche Linden, a growing movement for a “rural” cemetery emerged. In 1823 Dr. John Coffin, a fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society, published a pamphlet arguing that bodies should be interred in a pastoral setting where they could “naturally” return to the earth, and in 1825 Jacob Bigelow, a professor of botany at Harvard, established an association for creating a cemetery that situated burial plots within a carefully cultivated landscape.<ref>Linden 2007, 128–35, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1027.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 2, Anonymous, “View of Mount Auburn,” ''American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge'' 2, no. 6 (February 1836): 234.]]
Despite the crowding and public health concerns of city burials, Bigelow’s proposal for a rural cemetery encountered some resistance. Many Bostonians believed rural interment was appropriate only for social outcasts; they also feared burial outside the city limits might lead to the theft of bodies by “resurrection men”—body snatchers who stole corpses for medical study.<ref>Linden 2007, 161, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref> Bigelow and his associates argued that a pastoral setting would allow for a more socially productive, and more American, type of mourning. Graves situated in a beautiful landscape would highlight the naturalness of death and reduce the anxiety and fear associated with the end of life [Fig. 2]. Moreover, a rural setting would recall the original landscape of New England, inviting the general public to connect to the country’s past and engage with ideas of continuity and posterity.<ref>Sloane 1991, 45, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero], and Linden 2007, 141, 145, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref>

The development of Mount Auburn Cemetery began in earnest in 1830, with the coordination of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, founded only a year earlier. The plan was to incorporate in one expansive site a rural burying ground, or “garden of graves,” alongside an experimental garden that together could foster “historical and horticultural consciousness.”<ref>Sloane 1991, 46, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero], and Linden 2007, 145, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero]. The phrase “Garden of Graves” was the title of an essay on Mount Auburn by John Pierpont, published in Nathaniel Parker Willis, ed., ''The Token'' (Boston: S. G. Goodrich, 1832), 374–90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JKTSIA5Q view on Zotero].</ref> The land Bigelow’s association purchased for the cemetery’s construction—Stone’s Woods or “Sweet Auburn,” 72 acres of rolling, wooded hills across the Charles River from Boston—had long been a place of pastoral respite for locals, including Harvard students. Writing in his journal in 1824, Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that “there is some wild land called Sweet Auburn . . . [and] the students will go in bands over a flat sandy road & in summer evenings the woods are full of them.”<ref>Edward Waldo Emerson and Waldo Emerson Forbes, eds., ''Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1820–24'' (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1909), 350, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/7APXZ4GT view on Zotero].</ref> Not surprisingly the connection between nature, culture, and the divine that drove the founding of Mount Auburn Cemetery would also shape the views of such Transcendentalists as Emerson.

[[File:0598.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 3, Alexander Wadsworth, “Plan of Mount Auburn,” November 1831.]]
The layout of Mount Auburn began in 1831 and was overseen by the first president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, [[H. A. S. Dearborn]], aided by Alexander Wadsworth [Fig. 3]. [[H. A. S. Dearborn|Dearborn]] drew on the design of the Parisian cemetery Père Lachaise—the world’s first garden or “ornamental” cemetery—and laid out the grounds according to the [[natural style]] of English landscape design.<ref>Sloane 1991, 46, 49–50, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero], and Linden 2007, 173–74, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero]. As Linden notes, Alexander Wadsworth surveyed the site but the design was primarily Dearborn’s. For more on the design and architecture of Père Lachaise, see Richard A. Etlin, ''The Architecture of Death: The Transformation of the Cemetery in Eighteenth-Century Paris'' (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984), 310–35, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G6QIFAZT/q/etlin view on Zotero].</ref> He incorporated winding gravel [[path]]s, wide planted [[border]]s, and small [[pond]]s among the rolling hills of the site, which created the variety of views so essential to the English garden.<ref>Linden 2007, 147, 155–59, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref> It was also a means of keeping burial lots properly distanced from one another. These were sold by subscription, mostly to families, but also to several local organizations, such as Harvard College and the Tremont House, a Boston hotel. The few corporate lots were intended for deceased students and visitors whose bodies could not be shipped home.<ref> Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (New York: R. Martin, 1847), 68, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/CN79BMN8 view on Zotero], and Linden 2007, 164, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref>

Lingering concerns about a pastoral cemetery, particularly regarding the security of graves, did not seem to limit interest in Mount Auburn, but the cemetery faced other challenges. Revenue generated by the sale of lots failed to cover the cost of establishing an experimental garden, leading to the Massachusetts Historical Society’s withdrawal from the project in 1835 and the chartering of a new, charitable organization–the Proprietors of the Cemetery of Mount Auburn–to oversee the site.<ref>Cothran and Danylchak 2018, 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/THCP4J2V view on Zotero].</ref> Another challenge was the behavior of some of Mount Auburn’s visitors: although originally designed as a fully public space, the cemetery was enclosed by [[fence]]s in 1833 to deter vandalism, and public visitation was limited to daylight hours. A system of fines was established to counter destructive behavior toward plants, trees, and burial markers.<ref>Linden 2007, 167, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1071.jpg|thumb|Fig. 4, James Smillie (artist), Robert Hinshelwood (engraver), “View of the Appleton Monument, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 76.]]
Mount Auburn also came under scrutiny for its apparent elitism. The prohibitive costs of the average 300-square-foot lot—about $60—were thought by some to undermine the cemetery’s accessibility and openness.<ref>Sloane 1991, 53, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero], and Linden 2007, 163, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref> Early critics saw the cemetery less as a site of moral education and more as an aggrandizement of New England’s elite, a number of whom marked their burial sites with imposing monuments. Although the cemetery’s board encouraged simplicity in burial markers—preferring obelisks, tombs, and sarcophagi over more elaborate constructions—the lot of the wealthy merchant and philanthropist Samuel Appleton boasted a 12-by-6-foot Grecian temple made of Italian marble, for which he paid the enormous sum of $10,000 [Fig. 4].<ref>Sloane 1991, 53, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero], and Linden 2007, 186–87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref> For those who could not afford the expense of a standard lot, Mount Auburn Cemetery offered 160 individual graves that could be purchased for $10 each, though this accommodation did not fully quash the view of rural interment as a luxury unattainable for many.<ref>Sloane 1991, 54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero], and Linden 2007, 163, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1974.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 5, James Smillie, “Entrance to the Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), title page.]]
Many of Mount Auburn’s visitors were neither proprietors nor friends and family of people interred at the site; despite the restrictions placed on the public, the cemetery functioned as “a place of general resort and interest, as well to strangers as to citizens,” one whose “shades and paths, ornamented with monumental structures, of various beauty and elegance, have already . . . awakened a deep moral sensibility in many a pious bosom.”<ref>Joseph Story, October 17, 1834, ''Records of Committees'', quoted in Linden 2007, 168, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref> A market for Mount Auburn guidebooks quickly developed, beginning with ''The Picturesque Companion, and Visitor’s Guide, through Mount Auburn'' (1839) and perhaps reaching its apogee with Cornelia W. Walter’s ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847), which was frequently reprinted over the next decade. In her book Walter, a former editor of the ''Boston Transcript'', provided readers a brief history of the cemetery and an architectural tour through its more celebrated monuments, illustrated by the prolific engraver James Smillie. The volume begins with a description of the imposing Egyptian-style portal at the cemetery’s entrance [Fig. 5] and passes by a variety of architectural styles—the neo-Gothic design of the Chapel and the classicizing temple on Samuel Appleton’s lot—before concluding with a view from Mount Auburn’s highest point, the “mount” of its name.

[[File:1066.jpg|thumb|Fig. 6, James Smillie, “View from Mount Auburn, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 112.]]
Walter’s guidebook, organized by prospects both of and from Mount Auburn, offsets manmade structures against the site’s pastoral setting to underscore the restorative qualities of nature. The mount of Mount Auburn, she observed, provides a view of “the numerous spires of the near city of Boston,” which—framed by the Charles River and the “varied undulations of the hills and dales, the tranquil lakes, and the deep shadows of the groves”—metamorphoses from an overcrowded metropolis into an image of solemnity and repose [Fig. 6].<ref>Walter 1847, 112–13, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/CN79BMN8 view on Zotero].</ref> The effect she described is the very one articulated by Mount Auburn’s promoters, who had intended to articulate a harmonious accord between life and death, culture and nature, history and horticulture.

The creation of Mount Auburn Cemetery, along with the reframing of death and decay as wholly natural processes, permanently altered Americans’ practices of burial and mourning and led to development of rural cemeteries across the United States. Between 1831 and 1873, more than 175 such cemeteries were established, including Philadelphia’s celebrated [[Laurel Hill]] (1838) and Brooklyn’s [[Green-Wood Cemetery]] (1838).<ref>Sloane 1991, 63, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero]; see also Appendix C in Cothran and Danylchak 2018, 231–39, which provides a select list of rural cemeteries organized by name, date, and location, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/THCP4J2V view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Elizabeth Athens''

<hr>

==Texts==
*Story, Joseph, September 24, 1831, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (1831: 16–17, 29)<ref>Joseph Story, ''An Address Delivered on the Dedication of the Cemetery at Mount Auburn'' (Boston: Joseph T. and Edwin Buckingham, 1831), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ABFHUWTP/q/address%20delivered%20on%20the%20dedication view on Zotero].</ref>
:“A rural [[Cemetery]] seems to combine in itself all the advantages, which can be proposed to gratify human feelings, or tranquillize human fears; to secure the best religious influences, and to cherish all those associations, which cast a cheerful light over the darkness of the grave.

:“And what spot can be more appropriate than this for such a purpose? Nature seems to point it out with significant energy, as the favorite retirement for the dead. There are around us all the varied features of her beauty and grandeur—the forest-crowned height; the abrupt acclivity; the sheltered valley; the deep glen; the grassy glade; and the silent [[grove]]. Here are the lofty oak, the beech, that ‘wreaths its old fantastic roots so high,’ the rustling pine, and the drooping willow; —the tree, that sheds its pale leaves with every autumn, a fit emblem of our own transitory bloom; and the evergreen, with its perennial shoots, instructing us, that ‘the wintry blast of death kills not the buds of virtue.’ Here is the thick [[shrubbery]] to protect and conceal the new-made grave; and there is the wild-flower creeping along the narrow path, and planting its seeds in the upturned earth. All around us there breathes a solemn calm, as if we were in the bosom of a wilderness, broken only by the breeze as it murmurs through the tops of the forest, or by the notes of the warbler pouring forth his matin or his evening song. . . .

:“The grounds of the [[Cemetery]] have been laid out with intersecting [[avenue]]s, so as to render every part of the [[wood]] accessible. These [[avenue]]s are curved and variously winding in their course, so as to be adapted to the natural inequalities of the surface. By this arrangement, the greatest economy of the land is produced, combining at the same time the [[picturesque]] effect of [[landscape gardening]]. Over the more level portions, the [[avenue]]s are made twenty feet wide, and are suitable for carriage roads.”

*[[H. A. S. Dearborn|Dearborn, H. A. S.]], 30 September 1831, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (quoted in Ward 1831: 48)<ref>Malthus Ward, ''An Address Pronounced Before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society'' (Boston: J. T. & E Buckingham, 1831), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/P7GWBEPX/q/an%20address%20pronounced%20before view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The [[nursery|nurseries]] may be established, the departments for culinary vegetables, fruit, and ornamental trees, [[shrubbery|shrubs]] and flowers, laid out and planted, a [[greenhouse|green house]] built, hot-[[bed]]s formed, the small ponds and morasses converted into [[picturesque]] sheets of water, and their margins diversified by clumps and belts of our most splendid native flowering trees, and [[shrubbery|shrubs]], requiring a soil thus constituted for their successful cultivation, while their surface may be spangled with the brilliant blossoms of Nymphae, and the other beautiful tribes of aquatic plants.”

*[[H. A. S. Dearborn|Dearborn, H. A. S.]], 1832, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (quoted in Harris 1832: 63–65, 67–68, 72, 80)<ref>Thaddeus William Harris, ''A Discourse Delivered Before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society on the Celebration of its Fourth Anniversary, October 3, 1832'' (Cambridge, MA: E. W. Metcalf, 1832), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/3A3UDHF3/q/a%20discourse%20delivered view on Zotero].</ref>
:“With the Experimental Garden it is recommended to unite a Rural [[Cemetery]]; for the period is not distant, when all the [[burial ground]]s within the city will be closed, and others must be formed in the country,—the primitive and only proper location. There the dead may repose undisturbed, through countless ages. There can be formed a public place of sepulture, where monuments can be erected to our illustrious men, whose remains, thus far, have unfortunately been consigned too obscure and isolated tombs, instead of being collected within one common depository, where their great deeds might be perpetuated and their memories cherished by succeeding generations. Though dead, they would be eternal admonitors to the living,—teaching them the way which leads to national glory and individual renown. . . .
:“For the accommodation of the Garden of Experiment and [[Cemetery]], at least seventy acres of land are deemed necessary; and in making the selection of a site, it was very important that from forty to fifty acres should be well or partially covered with forest trees and [[shrubbery|shrubs]], which could be appropriated for the latter establishment; and that it should present all possible varieties of soil, common in the vicinity of Boston; be diversified by hills, valleys, plains, brooks, and low [[meadow]]s and bogs, so as to afford proper localities for every kind of tree and plant, that will flourish in this climate;—be near to some large stream or river; and easy of access by land and water; but still sufficiently retired.

:“To realize these advantages it is proposed, that a tract of land called ‘Sweet Auburn,’ situated in Cambridge, should be purchased. As a large portion of the ground is now covered with trees, shrubs, and wild flowering plants, [[avenue]]s and [[walk]]s may be made through them, in such a manner as to render the whole establishment interesting and beautiful, at a small expense, and within a few years; and ultimately offer an example of [[landscape gardening|landscape]] or [[picturesque]] gardening, in conformity to the [[modern style]] of laying out grounds, which will be highly creditable to the Society. . . .

:“The establishment of rural [[cemetery|cemeteries]] similar to that of Pere La Chaise, has often been the subject of conversation in this country, and frequently adverted to by the writers in our scientific and literary publications. . . .

:“That part of the land which has been recommended for a [[Cemetery]] may be circumvallated by a spacious [[avenue]] bordered by trees, [[shrubbery]], and perennial flowers; rather as a line of demarcation than of disconnexion; for the ornamental grounds of the Garden should be apparently blended with those of the [[Cemetery]], and the [[walk]]s of each so intercommunicate as to afford an uninterrupted range over both, as one common domain.

:“Among the hills, glades, and dales, which are now covered with evergreen and deciduous trees and [[shrubbery|shrubs]], may be selected sites for isolated graves, and tombs, and these, being surmounted with [[column]]s, [[obelisk]]s, and other appropriate monuments of granite and marble, may be rendered interesting specimens of art; they will also vary and embelish the scenery embraced within the scope of the numerous sinuous [[avenue]]s, which may be felicitously opened in all directions and to a vast extent, from the diversified and [[picturesque]] features which the topography of the tract of land presents. . . .

:“The approach from the main road leading to Watertown, was by a broad and umbrageous [[avenue]] to the foot of the hill, which closes the dale of consecration on the north. . . . In the rear, under the shade of a stately [[grove]] of walnuts, where the main [[avenue]] divides and gracefully sweeps round the lofty hills to the east and west, the company [attending the consecration] descended from their carriages, and entered the secluded and romantic silvan theatre, by two foot paths, which wound through lonely vales of arching verdure. . . .

:“The upper Garden [[Pond]] has been excavated, to a sufficient depth to afford a constant sheet of water, with a fall at the outlet of three feet, and being embanked, [[avenue]]s with a [[border]] of six feet, for [[shrubbery|shrubs]] and flowers, have been made all round it. . . .

:“Arrangements have been made for excavating, to a greater depth, Forest and Consecration-Dell [[Pond]]s, and surrounding them by embellished pathways, like those of Garden-[[Pond]], and for cleaning the eastern portion of Garden and of [[Meadow]] [[Pond]]s, of bushes and weeds; all which will be done during the winter, that season being the most favorable for such work.”

*Anonymous, 1839, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (1839: 3)<ref>Anonymous, ''The Picturesque Pocket Companion and Visitor’s Guide through Mount Auburn'' (Boston: Otis, Broader, 1839), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TFW4IVDB view on Zotero].</ref>
:”The celebrity attained by '''Mount Auburn''', pronounced by European travellers the most beautiful [[Cemetery]] in existence, and which, perhaps, without assuming too much, may be called the Père la Chaise of America,—the extraordinary natural loveliness of the spot,—the admirable character of the establishment which is there maintained,—the fact that this was the first conspicuous example of the kind in our country.”

*Anonymous, 1839, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (1839: 47–48)<ref>''The Picturesque Pocket Companion'' 1839, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TFW4IVDB view on Zotero].</ref>
:“That part of the land which has been recommended for a [[cemetery|CEMETERY]], may be circumvallated by a spacious [[avenue]], bordered by trees, [[shrubbery]] and perennial flowers,—rather as a line of demarcation, than of disconnexion,—for the ornamental grounds of the GARDEN should be apparently blended with those of the [[Cemetery]], and the [[walk]]s of each so intercommunicate, as to afford an uninterrupted range over both, as one common domain.”

*Buckingham, James Silk, 1841, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (1841: 2:382)<ref>James Silk Buckingham, ''America, Historical, Statistical, and Descriptive'', 2 vols. (New York: Harper, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PIANFMVK/q/buckingham view on Zotero].</ref>
:“A comparison has been often made between the Père la Chaise of Paris and the '''Mount Auburn''' of Boston, and the similarity of their situation and their purpose naturally forces this comparison on the mind. Having seen both, I may venture to offer an opinion on this subject, with great deference, however, to those who may think otherwise. In many respects, then, I think Mount '''Auburn''' superior to Père la Chaise. Its natural scenery of hill and dale, of river, [[lake]], and forest-trees, with other surrounding objects, presents a combination which is not to be found in the [[cemetery]] of Paris, and which is far more in harmony with the repose of the dead than the most sumptuous monuments, without these combinations, can be. In this last respect Père la Chaise is perhaps unrivalled.”

[[File:1063.jpg|thumb|Fig. 7, James Smillie, “Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), frontispiece.]]
*[[Cornelia W. Walter|Walter, Cornelia W.]], 1847, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (1847: 14)<ref>Walter 1847, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/CN79BMN8 view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The [[avenues]] are winding in their course and exceedingly beautiful in their gentle circuits, adapted [[picturesque|picturesquely]] to the inequalities of the surface of the ground, and producing charming landscape effects from this natural arrangement, such as could never be had from straightness or regularity. . . .

:“The [[gate|gateway]] of '''Mount Auburn''' opened from what is known as the north boundary line of the [[Cemetery]]. This [[avenue]] forms a wide carriage-road, and is one of the most beautiful openings ever improved for such a purpose. With the exception of the necessary grading, levelling, and cutting done of the brushwood, and the planting of a few trees, it has been left as Nature has made it. On either side it is overshadowed by the foliage of forest-trees, firs, pines, and other evergreens; and here you first begin to see the monuments starting up from the surrounding verdure, like bright remembrances from the heart of earth” [Fig. 7].

*[[Nehemiah Cleaveland|Cleaveland, Nehemiah]], 1847, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (quoted in Walter 1847: 20)<ref>Walter 1847, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/CN79BMN8 view on Zotero].</ref>
:“In 1844, the increasing funds of the corporation justified a new expenditure for the plain but massy iron [[fence]] which encloses the front of the [[Cemetery]]. This [[fence]] is ten feet in height, and supported on granite posts extending four feet into the ground. It measures half a mile in length, and will, when completed, effectually preserve the [[Cemetery]] inviolate from any rude intrusion. The cost of the [[gate|gateway]] was about $10,000—the [[fence]], $15,000.

:“A continuation of the iron [[fence]] on the easterly side is now under contract, and a strong wooden palisade is, as we learn, to be erected on the remaining boundary during the present year.”

*[[A. J. Downing|Downing, Alexander Jackson]], July 1849, “Public Cemeteries and Public Gardens” (''Horticulturist'' 4: 9–10)<ref>A. J. Downing, “Public Cemeteries and Public Gardens,” ''Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste'' 4, no. 1 (July 1849): 9–12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/EI9BER3I/q/public%20cemeteries%20and%20public%20gardens view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Indeed, in the absence of great [[public garden]]s, such as we must surely one day have in America, our rural [[cemetery|cemeteries]] are doing a great deal to enlarge and educate the popular taste in rural embellishment. They are for the most part laid out with admirable taste; they contain the greatest variety of trees and [[shrubbery|shrubs]] to be found in the country, and several of them are kept in a manner seldom equalled in private places. . . .

:“The character of each of the three great [[cemetery|cemeteries]] is essentially distinct. Greenwood, the largest, and unquestionably the finest, is grand, dignified, and [[park]]-like. It is laid out in a broad and simple style, commands noble ocean [[view]]s, and is admirably kept. '''Mount Auburn''' is richly [[picturesque]], in its varied hill and dale, and owes its charm mainly to this variety and intricacy of sylvan features. Laurel Hill is a charming [[pleasure ground|pleasure-ground]], filled with beautiful and rare [[shrubbery|shrubs]] and flowers; at this season, a wilderness of roses, as well as fine trees and monuments.”

*[[J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon|Loudon, J. C. (John Claudius)]], 1850, describing cemeteries in America (1850: 333)<ref>J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon, ''An Encyclopaedia of Gardening; Comprising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, and Landscape-Gardening'', new ed., corrected and improved (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1850), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/W8EQFZUG/order/creator/q/loudon/sort/descc view on Zotero].</ref>
:“857. [[Cemeteries]]. . . .

:“A public [[cemetery]] was formed in 1831 at '''Mount Auburn''', about three miles from Boston, and is easily approached either by the road, or the river which washes its [[border]]s. . . . ‘This romantic and [[picturesque]] [[cemetery]],’ says Dr. Mease, ‘is the fashionable place of interment with the people of Boston.’ . . .

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="5">

File:0117.jpg|Thomas Chambers, ''Mount Auburn Cemetery'', mid-19th century.

File:0598.jpg|Alexander Wadsworth, “Plan of Mount Auburn,” November 1831.

File:1025.jpg|Anonymous, “Entrance to Mount Auburn,” in ''American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge'' 1, no. 1 (September 1834): 9.

File:1026.jpg|Anonymous, “Mount Auburn,” ''American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge'' 1, no. 10 (June 1835): 450.

File:1027.jpg|Anonymous, “View of Mount Auburn,” ''American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge'' 2, no. 6 (February 1836): 234.

File:1035.jpg|Anonymous, “Garden Pond,” in ''The Picturesque Pocket Companion, and Visitor’s Guide, Through Mount Auburn'' (1839), 85.

File:1034.jpg|Anonymous, “Monument of ‘Dr. Bigelow,’” in ''The Picturesque Pocket Companion, and Visitor’s Guide, Through Mount Auburn'' (1839), 113.

File:1031.jpg|Anonymous, “Tomb and obelisk of ‘George W. Coffin,’” in ''The Picturesque Pocket Companion, and Visitor’s Guide, Through Mount Auburn'' (1839), 147.

File:1032.jpg|Anonymous, “Consecration Dell,” in ''The Picturesque Pocket Companion, and Visitor’s Guide, Through Mount Auburn'' (1839), 161.

File:1033.jpg|Anonymous, “Forest Pond," in ''The Picturesque Pocket Companion, and Visitor’s Guide, Through Mount Auburn'' (1839), 171.

File:1304.jpg|John Warner Barber, “Entrance to Mount Auburn Cemetery,” ''Historical Collections . . . Relating to the History & Antiquities of Every Town in Massachusetts'' (1844), 361.

File:1063.jpg|James Smillie, “Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), frontispiece.

File:1974.jpg|James Smillie, “Entrance to the Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), title page.

File:1074.jpg|James Smillie (artist), O. G. Hanks (engraver), “View of the Naval Monument (Central Avenue), Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 22.

File:1073.jpg|James Smillie (artist), Alfred Jones (engraver), “View of the Chapel, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 36.

File:1072.jpg|James Smillie (artist), Robert Hinshelwood (engraver), “View of the Tomb to Spurzheim, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 40.

File:1070.jpg|James Smillie (artist), J. A. Rolph (engraver), “View of the Central Square, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 61.

File:1071.jpg|James Smillie (artist), Robert Hinshelwood (engraver), “View of the Appleton Monument, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 76.

File:1975.jpg|James Smillie, “View from Battle Hill,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 79.

File:1976.jpg|James Smillie (artist), J. A. Rolph (engraver), “Forest Pond, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 94.

File:1069.jpg|James Smillie, “View of the Consecration Dell, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 100.

File:1068.jpg|James Smillie, “View of the Bowditch Monument, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 105.

File:1066.jpg|James Smillie, “View from Mount Auburn, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 112.

File:1065.jpg|James Smillie (artist), Robert Hinshelwood (engraver), “View of Gossler’s Monument, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 115.

File:1064.jpg|James Smillie (artist), Rice & Buttre (engravers), “View of Oxnard’s Monument, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 116.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Map==
{{#display_map:
42.375208,-71.144974
| service=google
| enablefullscreen=yes
}}

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[https://mountauburn.org/ Mount Auburn Cemetery]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Monticello

2019-12-30T19:06:33Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

'''Monticello''', located near Charlottesville, Virginia, was the [[plantation]] home of the third president of the United States, [[Thomas Jefferson]] (1743–1826). Jefferson designed and redesigned the neoclassical mansion and gardens at Monticello over a period of more than forty years, from approximately 1767 until 1809. Especially notable landscape features include the innovative terraced vegetable garden and vineyards. Today, Monticello is operated as a historic site by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.

==Overview==
'''Site Dates:''' 1767 to present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Peter Jefferson (1707/8–1757); [[Thomas Jefferson]] (1743–1826); Martha Jefferson Randolph (1772–1836) and children; James T. Barclay (1807–1874); Uriah P. Levy (1792–1862); Jefferson Monroe Levy (1852–1924); Thomas Jefferson Foundation (1923 to present)<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Antonio Giannini (b. 1747, gardener from 1778–82); Giovannini da Prato (gardener from c. 1781–1812); Robert Bailey (gardener from 1794–96); Wormley Hughes (1781–1858, enslaved gardener); Tom Shackleford (enslaved gardener); George Granger Sr. (1730–1799, enslaved gardener and overseer 1796); “Gardener John” (enslaved gardener from 1798–1800); Goliah (enslaved gardener from c. 1802); Edmund Bacon (1785–1866; overseer from 1806–22); Anne Cary Randolph (1791–1826)<br/>
'''Location:''' Charlottesville, VA<br/>
'''Condition:''' extant<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/pgHk5m5fZqK2 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[Image:0079.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, Jane Braddick Peticolas, ''View of the West Front of Monticello and Garden'', 1825.]]
Over a period of more than forty years, between approximately 1767 and 1809, [[Thomas Jefferson]] designed, constructed, and renovated the house and gardens of his plantation home, Monticello [Fig. 1]. Located on a mountaintop southwest of Charlottesville in the Piedmont region of Virginia, the site was part of the 5,000-acre property in the Rivanna River district that he inherited from his father, Peter Jefferson, in 1757.<ref>For a transcription of Peter Jefferson’s will, see http://tjrs.monticello.org/letter/1797.</ref>

[[File:2162.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 2, Thomas Jefferson, ''Monticello: 1st version (elevation)'', probably before March 1771.]]
[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] began planning Monticello in 1767, and construction began two years later. He drew heavily from Andrea Palladio’s ''Four Books of Architecture'' (1570) when designing the first version of his neoclassical house, a six-room structure featuring a two-story [[portico]] at the entrance [Fig. 2]. In an architectural memorandum that he wrote in 1769, for example, [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] recorded specific figures from Palladio’s text as well as from [[James Gibbs|James Gibb's]] ''Rules for Drawing the Several Parts of Architecture'' (1738), to which he referred during the construction of Monticello.<ref>Thomas Jefferson, Memorandum Books, 1767, Jefferson Papers, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/02-01-02-0001 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref> He held copies of both architectural treatises as part of his extensive personal library, which contained a significant collection of architecture and landscape design literature.<ref>Jefferson relied on either the 1715 or 1742 edition by Giocomo Leoni of Palladio’s text. For a catalogue of Jefferson’s library holdings, see E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., ''Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson'', 5 vols. (Washington, DC, 1952–59), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/BBH82MR6 view on Zotero]. See also William Bainter O’Neal, ''Jefferson’s Fine Arts Library: His Selections for the University of Virginia Together with His Own Architectural Books'' (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1976), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/CUP9BNW2 view on Zotero].</ref> On November 26, 1770, [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] moved from Shadwell, his childhood home in Albemarle County, Virginia, to Monticello, occupying the top floor of the recently completed South Pavilion, the first brick building to be constructed on the property.<ref>Edwin Morris Betts, ed., ''Thomas Jefferson’s Garden Book, 1766–1824'' (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1944), 20, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8ZA5VRP5 view on Zotero]; Kevin J. Hayes, ''The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 119, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DFI87IXS view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Chastellux_cite">In 1782 the French Major General François-Jean Beauvoir, Marquis de Chastellux, an early visitor to Monticello, wrote that [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] was “the architect, and often one of the workmen” on the project and described the house—then still in progress—as “very elegant,” proclaiming “[[Thomas Jefferson|Mr. Jefferson]] is the first American who has consulted the fine arts to know how he should shelter himself from the weather” ([[#Chastellux|view text]]). By the summer of 1784, when [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] departed for Paris to serve as minister to France, the exterior of the first house at Monticello was largely complete but the interior remained unfinished.<ref>William L. Beiswanger, “Thomas Jefferson’s Essay in Architecture,” in ''Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello'' (Charlottesville: Thomas Jefferson Foundation; Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002), 2–5, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DEFR85RJ view on Zotero]. The north wing—the first part of the house to be habitable—was completed by about 1772, around the time that Jefferson married Martha Wayles Skelton (1748–1782).</ref>

[[File:2163.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 3, Thomas Jefferson, ''Monticello: mountaintop (plat)'', 1809.]]
Whereas much is known about the construction of the dwelling during this initial phase, the landscape design during this period is less well understood. On May 15, 1768, [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] recorded in his ''Account Book'' that he had contracted with John Moore to clear and level 250 square feet of the mountaintop before Christmas, so that construction on the new house could begin the following year. By by summer of 1769, Jefferson had planted fruit trees in an [[orchard]] on the southeast side of the mountain and begun also begun preparations for a [[kitchen garden]]. A park with a circumference measuring 1,850 yards had been cleared on the north side of the mountain by September. Work on the first (or uppermost) of four roundabouts—roads that encircled the mountain at different elevations—began by November 1772. The roundabouts were connected to one another by roads that cut across the mountainside obliquely, as seen in this 1809 survey by [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] of the mountaintop [Fig. 3].<ref>Betts 1944, 12, 17, 18, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8ZA5VRP5 view on Zotero]. The first mention of the roundabout is a November 12, 1772, entry in Jefferson’s ''Garden Book'' (34). The exact dates of construction for the other three roundabouts is unknown, but Jefferson mentions the second roundabout in a March 30, 1782, entry in his ''Garden Book'' (94). The third and fourth roundabouts were completed by the time of his 1809 survey.</ref>

[[Image:0167.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 4, Thomas Jefferson, General plan of the summit of Monticello Mountain, before May 1768.]]
[[Image:0074.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 5, Thomas Jefferson, Plan showing the rectangular flower [[bed]]s and proposed [[temple]]s at the corners of the [[terrace]] [[walk]]s at Monticello, before August 4, 1772.]]
[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] also recorded an elaborate landscaping plan for Monticello in his Account Book of 1771, but much of the design was never realized. In the plan, he called for the establishment of a [[burial ground]] with a “small Gothic [[temple]] of antique appearance” and the construction of a [[temple]] or [[grotto]] by the spring on the north side of the property. <span id="TJ_1771_cite">He also planned to thin the trees throughout the grounds and “intersperse Jessamine, honeysuckle, sweetbriar, and . . . hardy flowers” ([[#TJ_1771|view text]]).<ref>See also Peter Martin, ''The Pleasure Gardens of Virginia: From Jamestown to Jefferson'' (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991), 150, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6TAHS88N view on Zotero].</ref> Two early plans by [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] of the house and surrounding grounds indicate that he intended to create rectangular flower [[bed]]s on the west side of the mansion and a semicircular arrangement of trees on the east side, but these features were not added until more than three decades later [Figs. 4–5]. Additional clues about Jefferson’s planting activities during these early years are provided in his ''Garden Book'', which he maintained between 1766 and 1824. According to Jefferson’s records, various trees and flowers had been planted before he departed for Europe in 1784. This suggests the presence of flower [[bed]]s near the house, although their exact location is undetermined.<ref>Betts 1944, vii, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8ZA5VRP5 view on Zotero]. Jefferson’s ''Garden Book'' is in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society.</ref>

[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] cultivated a wide variety of fruits and vegetables at Monticello, planting an [[orchard]], as noted above, as early as 1768 and a vegetable garden and vineyards by 1774. Under the guidance of Filippo Mazzei (1730–1816)—a Florentine horticulturalist and wine merchant who befriended [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] and settled in Albemarle County in 1773—[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] hired professional Italian gardeners Antonio Giannini and Giovanni da Prato to oversee the care of his fruit trees and vineyard.<ref>Martin 1991, 150–151, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6TAHS88N view on Zotero]; Edwin M. Betts, “Jefferson’s Gardens at Monticello,” ''Agricultural History'' 19, no. 3 (July 1945): 182, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZZ3ZJRVI view on Zotero]; Philip J. Pauly, ''Fruits and Plains: The Horticultural Transformation of America'' (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007), 24, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RM4928T view on Zotero]; Peter J. Hatch, ''“A Rich Spot of Earth”: Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), 56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9DWZKRZG view on Zotero].</ref> Enslaved gardeners such as George Granger Sr., carried out much of the day-to-day work caring for the “[[orchard]]s, grasses &c.”<ref>Letter from Thomas Jefferson, July 29, 1787, from Paris to Nicholas Lewis, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-11-02-0564 ''Founders Online'', National Archives]. During the late 1780s, while serving as minister to France, Jefferson entrusted friends and neighbors, especially Nicholas Lewis (1734–1808), to run Monticello as a tobacco [[plantation]] in his absence. Enslaved people living at Monticello not only maintained Jefferson’s gardens but also established their own vegetable gardens on the property and sold extra produce to the Jefferson family. Hatch 2012, 63, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9DWZKRZG view on Zotero].</ref>

The five years that [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] spent abroad had a significant impact on his views of domestic architecture and landscape design.<ref>Beiswanger 2002, 5, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DEFR85RJ view on Zotero].</ref> During a visit to England in April 1786, [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]], accompanied by John Adams (1735–1826), visited sixteen English gardens, using Thomas Whateley’s ''Observations on Modern Gardening'' (1770) as his guide, and he recorded his impressions in his travel diary.<ref>Adams was then serving as minister to the Court of St. James. Martin 1991, 145, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6TAHS88N view on Zotero]; Hatch 2012, 20, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9DWZKRZG view on Zotero].</ref> Jefferson apparently disliked the more formal gardens he visited, complaining, for example, that Chiswick House “shows still too much of art” and that the gardens at Hampton Court Palace were “old fashioned.” He preferred the style of the gardens at Esher Place, remarking that the [[clump]]s of trees “balance finely–a most lovely mixture of concave and convex.”<ref>Betts 1944, 111–12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8ZA5VRP5 view on Zotero]. The memorandum, “A Tour to Some of the Gardens of England,” is reproduced on pages 111–14.</ref>

[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] returned from Europe in 1789, eager to transform Monticello according to his new ideas. <span id="TJ_1793_cite">In a letter to Angelica Schuyler Church (1756–1814), written just before he departed for Virginia, [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] wrote that he looked forward to being “liberated from the hated occupations of politics” so that he could turn his attention back to Monticello: “I have my house to build, my fields to form, and to watch for the happiness of those who labor for mine” ([[#TJ_1793|view text]]). However, just a few months after landing in the United States, President [[George Washington]] appointed [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] the first U.S. secretary of state, a position he held through 1793; the implementation of his new plans for Monticello would have to wait. Jefferson’s son-in-law Thomas Mann Randolph (1768–1828), with the participation of Jefferson’s daughters Martha Jefferson Randolph (1772–1836) and Mary Jefferson (1778–1804), directed basic farming and gardening activities at Monticello in Jefferson’s absence.<ref>Hatch 2012, 22, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9DWZKRZG view on Zotero].</ref>

[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] resigned as secretary of state in January 1794 and retired to Monticello. Lucia Stanton has argued that Jefferson was largely focused between 1794 and 1796 on reorganizing the [[plantation]], dividing it into quarter farms—each with seven fields of forty acres—in a “quest for economy and efficiency.” Perhaps the most significant transformation during these years was Jefferson’s decision, in an effort to reverse soil exhaustion, to replace tobacco with wheat as the [[plantation]]’s primary cash crop. The switch greatly affected the living and working conditions of the approximately one hundred enslaved people who lived at Monticello during this period. Wheat demanded more land for cultivation than tobacco, and thus, Stanton argues, drawing on archaeological evidence, that the accommodations for many enslaved field workers changed from from close clusters of large multi-family dwellings located near the overseer’s house to smaller, single-family cabins located on “scattered sites on the fringes of cultivated lands.”<ref>Lucia Stanton, ''“Those Who Labor for My Happiness”: Slavery at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello'' (Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2012), 72–73, 63, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AB6FV92A view on Zotero].</ref> Jefferson also made some improvements to the ornamental landscape at Monticello during these years, hiring the professional Scottish gardener Robert Bailey in 1794 to assist in laying out the grounds.<ref>Bailey left Monticello in 1797 to start his own commercial nursery in Washington, DC. Hatch 2012, 23, 25, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9DWZKRZG view on Zotero].</ref>

<span id="TJ_1809_cite">In 1796 [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] embarked on a major expansion and renovation of the neoclassical house that he would later term his “essay in Architecture”—a project that was informed by the modern domestic architecture he had seen while living in Europe ([[#TJ_1809|view text]]). [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] removed the upper story of the original house; extended the northeast front to include a large entrance hall, library, and three bedrooms; and completed a second level of bedrooms within the first floor so that the house appears to be only a single story from the outside. He also added a dome—a first in American domestic architecture—to the house in 1800, inspired by the [[Temple]] of Vesta in Rome. L-shaped dependency wings nestled into the hillside to the north and south of the mansion largely kept utilitarian areas of the house—such as the kitchen, dairy, washhouse, privy, and horse stalls—out of view. Above the dependency wings, [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] constructed nine-foot-wide raised [[terrace]]s that provided open [[view]]s of the landscape from the house. According to William L. Beiswanger, these L-shaped terraces recall the elevated walkways suggested by the Scottish theorist and critic Lord Kames (1696–1782) in his ''Elements of Criticism'' (1762), a work that Jefferson knew by 1771.<ref>Lord Kames discussed the walkways in his in his essay “Gardening and Architecture.” Beiswanger 2012, 5, 9, 23, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DEFR85RJ view on Zotero].</ref> Other utilitarian spaces, including several slave quarters, servant quarters, storehouses, and skilled workshops (such as the joinery and weaving cottage), were located along Mulberry Row—a street named for the mulberry trees planted on either side of it—that was located about 200 feet southeast of the mansion.<ref>William M. Kelso, “Jefferson’s Garden: Landscape Archaeology at Monticello,” ''Archaeology'' 35, no. 4 (July/August 1982): 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AVNWU6R9 view on Zotero].</ref>

<span id="Weld_cite">Following a visit to the estate in May 1796, Isaac Weld (1774–1856), an Irish travel writer, described the changes underway and predicted that Monticello “[would] be one of the most elegant private habitations in the United States” ([[#TJ_1 March 1808|view text]]). One of the features of the house noted by Weld was the addition of a [[greenhouse]] adjacent to Jefferson’s private apartments, situated where his study opened onto the Southeast [[Piazza]]. <span id="TJ_1 March 1808_cite">Writing to [[William Hamilton]], owner of the Philadelphia estate [[The Woodlands]], in 1808, [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] described his [[greenhouse]] as “only a [[piazza]] adjoining my study” and explained that he intended to use “it for nothing more than some oranges, Mimosa Farnesiana & a very few things of that kind” ([[#TJ_1 March 1808|view text]]). The [[piazza]] was apparently without a heating system, and, according to Beiswanger, “its success as a [[greenhouse]] was limited.” The space was multipurpose, and [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] even added a workbench in order to use the space as a small workshop. Although nothing remains of the [[aviary]] at Monticello, which [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] likely designed to house his pet mockingbirds, a brief description in Jefferson’s building notebook suggests that it too was located in the Southeast [[Piazza]] and that the floor of the cage was high enough to walk under.<ref>Beiswanger 2012, 18, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DEFR85RJ view on Zotero].</ref>

[[Image:0969.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 6, Thomas Jefferson, Plan of the grounds at Monticello, 1806.]]
Between 1797 and 1809, [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] spent much of his time in Washington, DC, while serving first as vice president of the United States (1797–1801) and then as president (1801–1809). Renovations on the house at Monticello continued throughout Jefferson’s absence and were not completed until 1809. [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] waited to implement a second major round of improvements to Monticello’s landscape. <span id="TJ_1806_cite">On July 31, 1806, while in the midst of his second term as president of the United States, Jefferson wrote from Washington to [[William Hamilton|Hamilton]] that “having decisively made up my mind for retirements at the end of my present terms, my views & attentions are all turned homewards” and noted that he would wait to improve the grounds “in the style of the English gardens” until his return to Monticello ([[#TJ_1806|view text]]). <span id="TJ_1804_cite">However, as early as 1804, [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] began to put his ideas to paper, penning his “General ideas for the improvement of Monticello” ([[#TJ_1804|view text]]). Jefferson’s plans aimed to improve the [[view]]s from the house, intending to arrange [[lawn]]s and [[clump]]s of trees to maximize [[vista]]s between the upper and lower roundabouts and to create a [[pleasure ground]] with a large [[grove]] of trees “broken by [[clump]]s of [[thicket]].” He also wrote of his desire to create a [[ha-ha]] made of stone excavated from the nearby garden (likely to save costs) along Mulberry Row. The [[ha-ha]], which surrounded the west [[lawn]], was not completed until 1814.<ref>Martin 1991, 153–154, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6TAHS88N view on Zotero]; William L. Kelso, “Landscape Archaeology and Garden History Research: Success and Promise at Bacon’s Castle, Monticello, and Poplar Forest, Virginia,” in ''Garden History: Issues, Approaches, Methods'', ed. John Dixon Hunt (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1992), 36, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QUIXX2CZ view on Zotero].</ref> In 1806 [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] sketched plans for the mountaintop, featuring a large [[grove]] northwest of the mansion; an expansion of the vegetable garden and [[orchard]] to the south of the house; and an oval [[lawn]] or “Level” on the west front [Fig. 6].

The expansion of the fruit and vegetable gardens was a major undertaking during these years. In 1807 [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] hired a crew of enslaved laborers from Fredericksburg, Virginia, to move approximately 200,000 cubic feet of Piedmont clay to expand and transform the existing vegetable garden into a 1,000-foot-long [[terrace|terraced]] vegetable garden. 5,000 tons of rocks were placed to retain the [[terrace]]s, and the arduous work took three years to complete. During the years [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] lived in Washington, his daughter Martha, aided by the enslaved gardeners George Granger Sr., “Gardener John,” and Goliah, tended the vegetable garden at Monticello.<ref>Jefferson paid Lewis Dangerfield, a farmer from Fredericksburg, for the use of Dangerfield’s enslaved workers. Hatch 2012, 5, 25, 30, 59, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9DWZKRZG view on Zotero].</ref> After an 1809 visit to the [[plantation]], [[Margaret Bayard Smith]] (1778–1844) noted that there was still much work to be done on the vegetable garden and wrote that the view from the garden was “at present its greatest beauty.” <span id="Smith_cite">Smith also observed that [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] kept all of his garden seeds “labeled and in the neatest order” in a closet ([[#Smith|view text]]). 330 varieties of 99 species of vegetables and herbs were grown in this two-acre garden at Monticello, including species native to the hot climates of South and Central America, the Mediterranean, Africa, and the Middle East, and seeds that [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] acquired through the Lewis and Clark expedition.<ref>Hatch 2012, 3–4, 47, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9DWZKRZG view on Zotero]. Jefferson kept some of the seeds from the Lewis and Clark expedition to grow at Monticello, but he sent most to William Hamilton and Bernard M’Mahon in Philadelphia. Jefferson also received annual shipments of seeds from André Thöuin, director of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, between 1808 and 1822. In 1809, shortly before leaving Washington, DC, to retire to Monticello, Jefferson purchased at least thirty new vegetable varieties for his garden from seedsman Theophilus Holt. See pages 19–20, 27, 33.</ref> According to Peter J. Hatch, [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] took advantage of the [[terrace|terraced]] microclimates to “grow more vegetables with significantly less skill or labor” than was required by a more traditional and refined English-style [[kitchen garden]]s like the one found at George Washington’s [[Mount Vernon]] estate.<ref>Hatch 2012, 7–8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9DWZKRZG view on Zotero].</ref>

[[Thomas Jefferson]] also improved the fruit garden, comprising two small vineyards, berry squares, a small [[nursery]], and the 400-tree South [[Orchard]], located to the south of the vegetable garden. The [[orchard]] had been surrounded by a [[hedge]] of hawthorn bushes that Jefferson purchased from the nurseryman Thomas Main in Washington, DC, and shipped to Monticello in February 1806.<ref>Hatch 2012, 27, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9DWZKRZG view on Zotero].</ref> In 1809, workers erected a ten-foot chestnut board paling [[fence]] surrounding the vegetable and fruit gardens that could be locked to keep the produce out of the reach of animals, plantation workers, and unwanted guests.<ref>Kelso 1982, 39, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AVNWU6R9 view on Zotero].</ref> On the north side of the mansion, a second [[orchard]] was planted with cider apples (to take advantage of this [[orchard]]’s relatively cooler temperatures) and peach trees.<ref>Peter J. Hatch, “The Gardens of Monticello,” in ''Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello'' (Charlottesville, VA: Thomas Jefferson Foundation; Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002), 141, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8MKDXCV5 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:0166.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 7, Thomas Jefferson, Sketch of the garden and flower [[beds]] at Monticello, June 7, 1807.]]
<span id="TJ_June 1807_cite">From Washington, [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] worked primarily with his granddaughter Anne Cary Randolph to design and care for the new oval flower [[bed]]s that were installed in 1807–8 on the east and west fronts of the mansion and the flower [[border]] along the winding [[walk]] surrounding the [[lawn]] ([[#TJ_June 1807|view text]]) [Fig. 7]. <span id="TJ_Feb 1808_cite">[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] instructed the overseer Edmund Bacon that Wormley Hughes, an enslaved man who had been trained by Bailey and by 1806 had become the principal gardener at Monticello, should prepare the flower [[bed]]s for planting ([[#TJ_Feb 1808|view text]])<ref>Stanton 2012, 190–91, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AB6FV92A view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="TJ_1811_cite">Many of the flower seeds and bulbs were procured by [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] from the Philadelphia nurseryman [[Bernard M’Mahon]] ([[#TJ_1811|view text]]).<ref>Hatch 2002, 125, 129, 130, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8MKDXCV5 view on Zotero]. According to Hatch, twenty-five percent of the flowers documented at Monticello were native to North America.</ref>

[[File:0092.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 8, Thomas Jefferson, “Plan of Spring Roundabout at Monticello,” c. 1804.]]
<span id="TJ_to Bacon_cite">In 1808 [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] also sent Bacon instructions for an experimental garden, reserving part of the ground between the third and fourth roundabouts for “lots for the minor articles of husbandry, and for experimental culture, disposing them into a [[ferme ornée]] by interspersing occasionally the attributes of a garden” ([[#TJ_to Bacon|view text]]).<ref>See also Martin 1991, 148, 161, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6TAHS88N view on Zotero].</ref> According to Therese O’Malley, southern [[plantation]]s in the United States such as Monticello exemplify the [[ferme ornée]], as endorsed by the English garden designer and writer Stephen Switzer (1682–1745) in his ''Ichnographia Rustica'' (1742). Jefferson’s plan for the spring roundabout at Monticello shows how [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] integrated farm and garden elements at Monticello [Fig. 8]. With its use of spiral and serpentine forms, the plan also suggests the influence of Batty Langley's "irregular" garden designs published in his ''New Principles of Gardening'' (1728).<ref>Therese O’Malley, “Appropriation and Adaptation: Early Gardening Literature in America,” ''Huntington Library Quarterly'' 55, no. 3 (Summer 1992): 409, 412–13, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5CQ4IVX2 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] continued to play an active role in managing his gardens and farms at Monticello until about 1816, when, at the age of seventy-three, he turned their care over to his grandson Francis Eppes (1801–1888).<ref>Martin 1991, 163, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6TAHS88N view on Zotero].</ref> [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] died at Monticello a decade later, on July 4, 1826, and was interred in the [[cemetery]] on the site. To pay off Jefferson’s debts, his daughter Martha and grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph (1792–1875) sold most of the contents of the mansion, as well as farm animals, equipment, and 140 enslaved people by public auction in 1827.<ref>Stanton 2012, 69–70, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AB6FV92A view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Smith_1828_cite">Smith, who returned to Monticello for a second visit in 1828, remarked on the dilapidated state in which she found the property at that time, noting “Ruin has already commenced its ravages” ([[#Smith_1828|view text]]). In 1831, Jefferson’s heirs sold the Monticello to Dr. James T. Barclay of Charlottesville, who attempted to turn the estate into a silkworm farm. The venture quickly failed, and in 1834 Barclay sold Monticello to U.S. naval officer Uriah Phillips Levy. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation purchased the estate from Levy’s nephew, Jefferson Monroe Levy, in 1923.

Soon after taking over the estate, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation began to restore it, starting with the mansion and then replanting the [[grove]]s, vegetable garden, [[orchard]]s, and vineyards. Information for the restoration was gleaned not only from Jefferson’s detailed plans and notes but also from pioneering landscape archaeological excavations, which began in June 1979 and uncovered the remains of the roundabouts, the [[ha-ha]] and paling [[fence]], a complex of buildings along Mulberry Row, and the [[terrace|terraced]] gardens, vineyards, and [[orchard]]s.<ref>Kelso 1982, 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AVNWU6R9 view on Zotero]; Kelso 1992, 37–53, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QUIXX2CZ view on Zotero].</ref> In 1997, archaeologists began a long-term Plantation Archaeological Survey to document and analyze the history of settlement and land-use on the more than 2,000 acres of land that comprised the core of Jefferson’s [[plantation]]. Through extensive examinations of the [[terrace|terraced]] garden [[wall]], the kitchen dependency, and the four corner [[terrace]]s, the survey has yielded significant insights into how Monticello was constructed and how the surrounding landscape was modified during and after Jefferson’s lifetime. The survey has revealed much about the lives of Monticello’s enslaved inhabitants as well. Between 2000 and 2002, for example, archaeologists uncovered the Park Cemetery, a [[burial ground]] for enslaved African-Americans, which was located on the southern flank of Monticello Mountain.<ref>For documents related to past and current archaeological projects at Monticello, see https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/current-research.</ref> The Thomas Jefferson Foundation continues to operate Monticello as a historic site, and archaeological research into the house and grounds is ongoing.

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
* <div id="TJ_1771"></div>[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], 1771, describing plans for Monticello (1944: 25–27)<ref name="Jefferson 1944">Betts 1944, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8ZA5VRP5 view on Zotero].</ref> [[#TJ_1771_cite|back up to History]]
:“. . . choose out for a Burying place some unfrequented vale in the [[park]]. . . . let it be among antient and venerable oaks; intersperse some gloomy evergreens. the area circular, abt. 60 f. diameter, encircled with an untrimmed [[hedge]] of cedar, or of stone [[wall]] with a holly [[hedge]] on it. . . . in the center of it erect a small Gothic [[temple]] of antique appearance. appropriate one half to the use of my own family, the other of strangers, servants, etc. erect pedestals with urns, etc., and proper inscriptions. the passage between the [[wall]]s, 4 f. wide. . . . in the middle of the [[temple]] an altar, the sides of turf, the top of plain stone. very little light, perhaps none at all, save only the feeble ray of an half extinguished lamp. . . .
:“at the spring on the North side of the park.
:“a few feet below the spring level the ground 40 or 50 f. sq. let the [[waterfall|water fall]] from the spring in the upper level over a [[terrace]] in the form of a [[cascade]]. then conduct it along the foot of the terrace to the Western side of the level, where it may fall into a cistern under a [[temple]], from which it may go off by the western [[border]] till it falls over another [[terrace]] at the Northern or lower side. let the [[temple]] be raised 2. f. for the first floor of stone. under this is the cistern, which may be a bath or anything else. the 1st story arches on three sides; the back or western side being close because the hill there comes down, and also to carry up stairs on the outside. the 2d story to have a door on one side, a spacious window in each of the other sides, the rooms each 8. f. cube; with a small table and a couple of chairs. the roof may be [[Chinese_manner|Chinese]], Grecian, or in the taste of the Lantern of Demosthenes at Athens. . . .

:“This would be better.

:“the ground above the spring being very steep, dig into the hill and form a cave or [[grotto]]. build up the sides and arch with stiff clay. cover this with moss. spangle it with translucent pebbles from Hanovertown, and beautiful shells from the shore at Burwell’s ferry. pave the floor with pebbles. let the spring enter at a corner of the [[grotto]], pretty high up the side, and trickle down, or fall by a spout into a [[basin]], from which it may pass off through the [[grotto]]. the figure will be better placed in this. form a couch of moss. the English inscription will then be proper.

::Nymph of the [[grotto|grot]], these sacred springs I keep,
::And to the murmur of these waters sleep;
::Ah! spare my slumbers! gently tread the cave!
::And drink in silence, or in silence lave!

:“The ground in General

:“thin the trees. cut out stumps and undergrowth. remove old trees and other rubbish, except where they may look well. cover the whole with grass. intersperse Jessamine, honeysuckle, sweetbriar, and even hardy flowers which may not require attention. keep in it deer, rabbits, Peacocks, Guinea poultry, pigeons, etc. let is be an asylum for hares, squirrels, pheasants, partridges, and every other wild animal (except those of prey). court them to it, by laying good food for them in proper places. procure a buck-elk, to be, as it were, monarch of the [[wood]]; but keep him shy, that his appearance may not lose its effect by too much familiarity. a buffalo might be confined also. inscriptions in various places, on the bark of trees or metal plates, suited to the character or expression of the the particular spot.
:“benches or [[seat]]s of rock or turf.”

* <div id="Chastellux"></div>Chastellux, François Jean Marquis de, April 13, 1782, describing Monticello (1787: 2:41–42)<ref> François Jean Chastellux, Marquis de Chastellux, ''Travels in North America in the Years 1780, 1781, and 1782,'' 2 vols. (London: G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1787),[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/UXHRGXKX/q/Fran%C3%A7ois%20Jean| view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Chastellux_cite|back up to History]]
:“He calls his house ''Monticello'', (in Italian, ''Little Mountain'') a very modest title, for it is situated upon a very lofty one, but which announces the owner’s attachment to the language of Italy. . . . This house, of which [[Thomas Jefferson|Mr. Jefferson]] was the architect, and often one of the workmen, is rather elegant, and in the Italian taste, though not without fault; it consists of one large square pavilion, the entrance of which is by two [[portico|porticoes]] ornamented with pillars. The ground floor consists chiefly of a very large lofty saloon, which is to be decorated entirely in the antique style: above it is a library of the same form, two small wings, with only a ground floor, and attic story, are joined to this pavilion, and communicate with the kitchen, offices, &c. which will form a kind of basement story over which runs a [[terrace]]. My object in this short description is onto to shew the difference between this, and the other houses of the country; for we may safely aver, that [[Thomas Jefferson|Mr. Jefferson]] is the first American who has consulted the fine arts to know how he should shelter himself from the weather.”

*[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], October 12, 1786, in a letter to Maria Cosway, describing Monticello (1786; repr., 1954: 443–550)<ref>Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway, October 12, 1786, ''Founders Online, National Archives'', last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-10-02-0309. Original source: ''The Papers of Thomas Jefferson'', vol. 10, ''June 22–December 31, 1786'', ed. Julian P. Boyd (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954, 443–550).</ref>
:“. . . And our own dear Monticello, where has nature spread so rich a mantle under the eye? mountains, forests, rocks, rivers. With what majesty do we there ride above the storms! How sublime to look down into the workhouse of nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, thunder, all fabricated at our feet! And the glorious Sun, when rising as if out of a distant water, just gilding the tops of the mountains, and giving life to all nature! . . .”

* <div id="TJ_1793"></div>[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], November 27, 1793, in a letter from Germantown to his friend Angelica Schuyler Church<ref>Thomas Jefferson to Angelica Schuyler Church, November 27, 1793, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-27-02-0416 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref> [[#TJ_1793_cite|back up to History]]
:“In the mean time I am going to Virginia. I have at length been able to fix that to the beginning of the new year. I am then to be liberated from the hated occupations of politics, and to sink into the bosom of my family, my farm and my books. I have my house to build, my feilds to form, and to watch for the happiness of those who labor for mine.”

*<div id="Weld"></div>Weld, Isaac, May 1796, describing Monticello (1799: 1:207–8)<ref name="Weld_1799">Isaac Weld Jr., ''Travels through the States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797'', 2nd ed., 2 vols. (London: John Stockdale, 1799), i, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4HPKRDA7 view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Weld_cite|back up to History]]
:“It is most singularly situated, being built upon the top of a small mountain, the apex of which has been cut off, so as to leave an area of about an acre and a half. At present it is in an unfinished state; but if carried on according to the plan laid down, it will be one of the most elegant private habitations in the United States. A large apartment is laid out for a library and museum, meant to extend the entire breadth of the house, the windows of which are to open into an extensive [[greenhouse|green house]] and [[aviary]]. In the center is another very spacious apartment, of an octagon form, reaching from the front to the rear of the house, the large folding glass doors of which, at each end, open under a [[portico]]. . . . The house commands a magnificent [[prospect]] on one side of the blue ridge mountains for nearly forty miles, and on the opposite one, of the low country, in appearance like an extended heath covered with trees, the tops alone of which are visible. The mists and vapours arising from the low grounds give a continual variety to the scene. The mountain whereon the house stands is thickly wooded on one side, and [[walk]]s are carried round it, with different degrees of obliquity, running into each other. On the fourth side is the garden and a large vineyard, that produces abundances of fine fruit.”

* [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], May 16, 1796, in a letter from Monticello to his friend Mann Page<ref>Thomas Jefferson to Mann Page, May 16, 1796, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-29-02-0068 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>
:“I am full of business for this year. Besides the attention to my farms I am uncovering and repairing my house, which during my absence had gone much to decay. I make some alterations in it with a greater eye to convenience than I had when younger.”

*Thornton, Anna Maria Brodeau, September 22, 1802, describing Monticello (Library of Congress, Papers of Anna Maria Brodeau, 1793–1863)
:“The House is situated on the very summit of the mountain, on a circular level, formed by art, commanding a [[view]] of all the surrounding country, the small town of Charlottesville and a little winding river . . . with a [[view]] of the blue ridge & even more distant mountains form a beautiful scene on the north side of the house.—There is something grand & awful in the situation but far from convenient or in my opinion agreeable—it is a place you wo’d rather look at now & then than live at.”

[[File:0091.jpg|thumb|Fig. 9, Thomas Jefferson, General ideas for the improvement of Monticello [detail], c. 1804.]]
[[File:0090.jpg|thumb|Fig. 10, Thomas Jefferson, Letter describing plans for a “Garden Olitory,” c. 1804.]]
* <div id="TJ_1804"></div>[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], c. 1804, notebook suggesting improvements for Monticello (Massachusetts Historical Society, Coolidge Collection) [[#TJ_1804_cite|back up to History]]
:“General ideas for the improvement of Monticello
:“all the houses on the Mulberry [[walk]] to be taken away, except the stone house, and a [[ha-ha|ha! ha!]] instead of the paling along it for an inclosure. This will of course be made when the garden is levelled, and stone for the [[wall]] will be got out of the garden itself, in digging, aided by that got out of the level in front of the S.W. offices, the old stone [[fence]] below the stable, and the lower [[wall]] of the garden, which is thicker than necessary.
: “The ground between the upper and lower roundabouts to be laid out in [[lawn]]s & [[clump]]s of trees, the [[lawn]]s opening so as to give advantageous catches of [[prospect]] to the upper roundabout.
:“[[Vista]]s from the lower roundabout to good portions of [[prospect]].
:“[[Walk]]s in this style, wind- [Fig. 9] -ing up the mountain.
:“the spring of Montalto [Carter’s Mountain] either to be brought to Monticello by pipes or to fall over steps of stairs in [[cascade]], made visible at Monticello through a [[vista]].
:“a fish [[pond]] to be visible from the house.
:“a level round-about from the thoroughfare to circumscribe the garden grounds.
:“The north side of Monticello below the thoroughfare roundabout quite down to the river, and all Montalto above the thoroughfare to be converted into park & riding grounds, connected at the thoroughfare by a [[bridge]], open, under which the public road may be made to pass so as not to cut off the communication between the lower & upper [[park]] grounds.
:“all the farm grounds of Monticello had better be turned into [[orchard]] grounds of cyder apple & peach trees, & [[orchard]] grass cultivated under them.
:“at the Rocks build a turning Tuscan [[temple]] 10. f. diam. 6. columns. proportions of Pantheon.
:“at the Point build Demosthenes’s lantern. . . .
:“Garden Olitory. make the upper [[slope]] thus [drawing] at ''a'' plant a [[hedge]] of hedgethorn & at ''b'' one of privet, or Gleditria, or cedar to be trimmed down to 3 ft. high, the whole appearance thus taking a [[border]] of 8 ft. at the foot of the [[terrace|terras]] for forward productions, the main [[bed]]s must be reduced from 50 f. to 42 f. [drawing]
:“Garden or [[pleasure ground]]s
:“The canvas at large must be [[Grove]], of the largest trees, (poplar, oak, elm, maple, ash, hickory, chestnut, Linden, Weymouth pine, sycamore) trimmed very high, so as to give it the appearance of open ground, yet not so far apart but that they may cover the ground with close shade.
:“This must be broken by [[clump]]s of [[thicket]], as the open grounds of the English are broken by [[clump]]s of trees. plants for thickets are broom, calycanthus, altheas, gelder rose, magnolia glauca, azalea, fringe tree, dogwood, red bud, wild crab, kalmia, mezereon, euonymous, halesia, quamoclid, rhododendron, oleander, service tree, lilac, honeysuckle, brambles.
:“The best way of farming [[thicket]] will be to plant in [[labyrinth]] spirally, putting the tallest plants in the center & lowering gradation to the external termination. a [[temple]] or [[seat]] may be in the center thus [drawing] leaving space enough between the rows to walk & to trim up, replant etc. the shrubs.
:“[[Vista]]s to very interesting objects may be permitted, but in general it is better so to arrange the [[thicket]]s as that they may have the effect of [[vista]] in various directions.
:“Dells or ravines should be in close in trees & undergrowth. Glens, or hollows should be opened downward, being embraced by forest. Glades opened on sloping hill sides, with [[clump]]s of trees within them. [[Temple]]s or [[seat]]s at those spots on the [[walk]]s most interesting either for [[prospect]] or the immediate scenery.
:“The Broom [[wilderness]] on the South side to be improved for winter walking or riding, conducting a variety of roads through it, forming chambers with [[seat]]s, well sheltered from winds, & spread before the sun. a temple with yellow glass panes would suit these, as it would give the illusion of sunshine in cloudy weather.
:“a [[thicket]] may be of Cedar, topped into a bush, for the center, surrounded by Kalmia. or it may be of Scotch broom alone.” [Fig. 10]

* [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], 1804, describing Monticello (quoted in Nichols and Griswold 1978: 111)<ref name="Nichols and Griswold">Frederick Doveton Nichols and Ralph E. Griswold, ''Thomas Jefferson, Landscape Architect'' (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/RUZC4Q3D view on Zotero]</ref>
:“The [[kitchen garden]] is not the place for ornaments of this kind. bowers and [[trellis|treillages]] suit that better, & these [[temple|temples]] will be better disposed in the [[pleasure ground|pleasure grounds]].”

* <div id="TJ_1806"></div>[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], July 31, 1806, in a letter from Washington, DC, to [[William Hamilton]]<ref>Thomas Jefferson to William Hamilton, July 31, 1806, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-4111 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref> [[#TJ_1806_cite|back up to History]]
:“having decisively made up my mind for retirement at the end of my present term, my views & attentions are all turned homewards. I have hitherto been engaged in my buildings, which will be finished in the course of the present year. the improvement of my grounds has been reserved for my occupation on my return home. for this reason it is that I put off to the fall of the year, after next the collection of such curious trees as will bear our winters in the open air. the grounds which I destine to improve in the [[English style|style of the English gardens]] are chiefly in their native [[wood]]s not a bush scarcely having been suffered to be cut out of them. it is easier to take away what is superfluous than to supply a chasm. are in a form very difficult to be managed. they compose the Northern quadrant of a mountain for about ⅔ of it’s height, & then spread for the upper third over it’s whole crown. they contain about 300. acres, washed at the foot, for about a mile, by a river of the size of the [[Schuylkill River|Schuylkill]]. the hill is generally too steep for direct ascent, but we make level [[walk]]s successively along on it’s side, which in it’s upper part encircle the hill, & we intersect these again by others of easy ascent in various parts. they are chiefly still in their native [[wood]]s, which are majestic, and very generally, a close undergrowth, which I have not suffered to be touched, knowing how much easier it is to cut away, than to fill up. the upper third is chiefly open, but to the South is covered with a dense [[thicket]] of [. . . .] (Cerastium supparium Lin.) which being favorably spread before the sun will admit of adventageous arrangement for winter enjoyment. you are sensible that this disposition of ground takes from me the first beauty in gardening, the variety of hill & dale, & leaves me as an awkward substitute a few hanging hollows & ridges. this subject is so original unique & at the same time refractory that to make a disposn analogous to it’s character, would require much more of the genius of the landscape painter & gardener than I pretend to: I had once hoped to get Parkins to go & give me some outline. but I was disappointed. certainly I could never wish your health to be such as to render travelling necessary: but should a journey at anytime promise improvement to it, there is no one on which you would be recieved with more pleasure than at Monticello should I be there. you would have an opportunity of indulging on a new field some of the taste which has made [[the Woodlands]] the only rival I have known in America to what may be seen in England. thither we are to go without doubt, for the first models in this art. their sun-less climate has permitted them to adopt what is certainly a beauty of the very first order in landscape. their canvas is of open ground, variegated with [[clump]]s of trees distributed with taste. they need no more of [[wood]] than will serve to embrace a [[lawn]] or a glade. but under the beaming, constant & almost vertical sun of Virga, shade is our Elysium. in the absence of this no beauty of the eye can be enjoyed. this organ then must yield it’s gratificn to that of the other senses, without the hope of any equivalent to the beauty relinquished. the only substitute I have been able to imagine is this. let your ground be covered with trees of the loftiest stature. trim up their bodies as high as the constitution & form of the tree will bear, but so as that their tops shall still unite and yield a dense shade. a [[wood]], so open below, will have nearly the appearance of open grounds. then, where in open ground you would plant a [[clump]] of trees, place a [[thicket]] of shrubs presenting a hemisphere, the crown of which shall distinctly show itself under the branches of the trees. this may be effected by a due selection & arrangement of the shrubs, and will I think offer a groupe not much inferior to that of trees. the [[thicket]]s may be varied too by making some of them of evergreens, altgether. our red cedar made to grow in a bush, ever green Privet, Hyacanthus, Kalmia, Scotch broom, either separately or an[. . . .] are proper for this purpose, would be elegant; it will not grow in my part of the country.
:“Of [[prospect]] I have a rich profusion and offering itself at every point of the compas, mountains distant & near, smooth & shaggy, single & in ridges, a little river hiding itself among the hills so as to shew in lagoons only, cultivated grounds, under the eye and two small villages. to prevent a satiety of this is the principal difficulty. it may be successively offered, & in separate different portions through [[vista]]s, or which will be better, between [[thicket]]s so disposed as to serve for [[vista]]s, with the advantage of shifting the scenes as you advance on your way.
:“You will be sensible by this time of the truth of my informan that my views are turned so steadfastly homeward that the subject runs away with me whenever I get on it. I sat down to thank you for kindnesses recieved, & to bespeak permission to ask further contribns from your collection, & I have written you a treatise on gardening generally, in which, art lessons would come with more justice from you to me.”

* <div id="TJ_June 1807"></div>[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], June 7, 1807, in a letter from Washington, DC, to his granddaughter, Anne Cary Randolph<ref>Thomas Jefferson to Anne Cary Randolph, June 7, 1807, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-5709 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref> [[#TJ_June 1807_cite|back up to History]]
:“I find that the limited number of our flower [[bed]]s will too much restrain the variety of flowers in which we might wish to indulge, & therefore I have resumed an idea, which I had formerly entertained, but had laid by, of a winding [[walk]] surrounding the [[lawn]] before the house, with a narrow [[border]] of flowers on each side. this would give us abundant room for a great variety. I inclose you a sketch of my idea, where the dotted lines on each side of the black line shew the [[border]] on each side of the [[walk]]. the hollows of the [[walk]] would give room for oval [[bed]]s of flowering shrubs.”

* [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], November 24, 1807, in a letter from Washington, DC, to Edmund Bacon, overseer at Monticello<ref>Thomas Jefferson to Edmund Bacon, November 24, 1807, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-6838 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>
:“P.S. I have forgot to mention that in the box of Paccans there are 3. papers of seeds, to wit, Cucumber tree, Mountain Laurel, & Pitch pine. the 2 former Wormley must plant in the [[Nursery]] and he must plant the Pitch pine in the [[wood]]s along the new road leading from the house to the river, on both sides of the road. he is just to lay the seed on the ground & scratch half an inch of earth over it.”

* <div id="TJ_to Bacon"></div>[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], February 1, 1808, instructions for Edmund Bacon, overseer, for an experimental garden at Monticello (1944: 360)<ref name="Jefferson 1944"/> [[#TJ_to Bacon_cite|back up to History]]
: “in all the open grounds on both sides of the 3d. & 4th. Roundabouts, lay off lots for the minor articles of husbandry, and for experimental culture, disposing them into a [[ferme ornée]] by interspersing occasionally the attributes of a garden.”

* <div id="TJ_Feb 1808"></div>[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], February 16, 1808, in a letter from Washington, DC, to his granddaughter Anne Cary Randolph<ref>Thomas Jefferson to Anne Cary Randolph, February 16, 1808, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-7433 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref> [[#TJ_Feb 1808_cite|back up to History]]
:“The time at which Congress will adjourn is very uncertain, but certainly not till April, and whether I shall be free to come home even then is doubtful. under these prospects I shall not attempt to get any more flower roots & seeds from Philadelphia this season, and must rely entirely on you to preserve those we have by having them planted in proper time. this you will see from [[Bernard M'Mahon|McMahon’s]] book, & mr Bacon will make Wormley prepare the [[bed]]s whenever you let him know, so that they may be ready when you go over to set out the roots. the first time I come home I will lay out the projected flower [[border]]s round the level so that they shall be ready for the next fall; and in the spring of the next year I will bring home a full collection of roots & plants. we shall then have room enough for every thing.”

* <div id="TJ_1 March 1808"></div>[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], March 1, 1808, in a letter from Washington, DC, to [[William Hamilton]] (1944: 366)<ref name="Jefferson 1944"/> [[#TJ_1 March 1808_cite|back up to History]]
:“I am very thankful to you for thinking of me in the destination of some of your fine collection. within one year from this time I shall be retired to occupations of my own choice, among which the farm & garden will be conspicuous parts. my [[greenhouse|green house]] is only a [[piazza]] adjoining my study, because I mean it for nothing more than some oranges, Mimosa Farnesiana & a very few things of that kind. I remember to have been much taken with a plant in your [[greenhouse|green house]], extremely odoriferous, and not large, perhaps 12. or 15. I. high if I recollect rightly. you said you would furnish me a plant or two of it when I should signify that I was ready for them. perhaps you may remember it from this circumstance, tho’ I have forgot the name. this I would ask for the next spring if we can find out what it was, and some seeds of the Mimosa Farnesiana or Nilotica. the Mimosa Julibrisin or silk tree you were so kind as to send me is now safe here, about 15. I. high. I shall carry it carefully to Monticello. I will not trouble you for the paper Mulberry mr Maine having supplied me with 12. or 15. which are now growing at Monticello.”

* [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], March 22, 1808, in a letter from Washington, DC, to his granddaughter Anne Cary Randolph<ref>Thomas Jefferson to Anne Cary Randolph, March 22, 1808, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-7684 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>
:“you had better direct Wormly to plant these seeds in some open place in the [[nursery]], by dropping two or three seeds every 10. or 12. I. along a row, and his rows 2. feet apart. the plant grows somewhat like hemp. it was brought to S. Carolina from Africa by the negroes, who alone have hitherto cultivated it in the Carolinas & Georgia. they bake it in their bread, boil it with greens, enrich their broths &c. it is not doubted it will grow well as far North as Jersey, tho’ [[Bernard M'Mahon|Mc.Mahon]] places it among [[greenhouse]] plants.”

* <div id="Smith"></div>[[Margaret Smith Bayard|Smith, Margaret Bayard]], August 1, 1809, describing Monticello (1906: 66, 68, 71–73, 75)<ref name="Smith 1906">Margaret Bayard Smith, ''The First Forty Years of Washington Society'', ed. by Gaillard Hunt (New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1906), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/FTDFHRFH view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Smith_cite|back up to History]]
:“At last we reached the summit, and I shall never forget the emotion the first view of this sublime scenery excited. Below me extended for above 60 miles round, a country covered with [[wood]]s, plantations and houses; beyond, arose the blue mountains, in all their grandeur. Monticellow rising 500 feet above the river, of a conical form and standing by itself, commands on all sides an unobstructed and I suppose one of the most extensive [[view]]s any spot on the globe affords. The sides of the mountain covered with [[wood]], with scarcely a speck of cultivation, present a fine contrast to its summit, crowned with a noble pile of buildings, surrounded by an immense lawn, and shaded her and there with some fine trees. . . .
:“When we rose from table, a walk was proposed and he [Jefferson] accompanied us. He took us first to the garden he has commenced since his retirement. It is on the south side of the mountain and commands a most noble view. Little is as yet done. A [[terrace]] of 70 or 80 feet long and about 40 wide is already made and in cultivation. A broad grass [[walk]] leads along the outer edge; the inner part is laid off in [[bed]]s for vegetables. This [[terrace]] is to be extended in length and another to be made below it. The view it commands, is at present its greatest beauty. We afterwards walked round the first circuit. There are 4 roads about 15 or 20 feet wide, cut round the mountain from 100 to 200 feet apart. These circuits are connected by a great many roads and paths and when completed will afford a beautiful shady ride or [[walk]] of seven miles. The first circuit is not quite a mile round, as it is very near the top. It is in general shady, with openings through the trees for distant [[view]]s. We passed the outhouses for the slaves and workmen. They are all much better than I have seen on any other plantation, but to an eye unaccustomed to such sights, they appear poor and their cabins form a most unpleasant contrast with the palace that rises so near them. . . .
:“When we descended to the hall, he asked us to pass into the Library, or as I called it his sanctum sanctorum, where any other feet than his own seldom intrude. This suit of apartments opens from the Hall to the south. It consists of 3 rooms for the library, one for his cabinet, one for his chamber, and a [[greenhouse|green house]] divided from the other by glass compartments and doors; so that the view of the plants it contains, is unobstructed. He has not yet made his collection, having but just finished the room, which opens on one of the [[terrace]]s. . . . His cabinet and chamber contained every convenience and comfort, but were plain. His bed is built in the wall which divides his chamber and cabinet. He opened a little closet which contains all his garden seeds. They are in little phials, labled and hung on little hooks. Seeds such as peas, beans, etc. were in tin cannisters, but everything labeled and in the neatest order. . . .
:“[[Thomas Jefferson|Mr. J.]] explained to me all his plans for improvement, where the roads, the [[walk]]s, the [[seat]]s, the little [[temple]]s were to be placed. There are two springs gushing from the mountain side; he took me to one which might be made very [[picturesque]]. As we passed the graveyard, which is about half way down the mountain, in a sequestered spot, he told me he there meant to place a small gothic building,—higher up, where a beautiful little mound was covered with a [[grove]] of trees, he meant to place a monument to his friend Wythe. . . .
:“I looked on him with wonder as I heard him describe the improvements he designed in his grounds, they seemed to require a whole life to carry into effect, and a young man might doubt of ever completing or enjoying them.”

* <div id="TJ_1809"></div>[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], October 10, 1809, in a letter from Monticello to the architect [[Benjamin Henry Latrobe]]<ref>Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Henry Latrobe, October 10, 1809, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-01-02-0468 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref> [[#TJ_1809_cite|back up to History]]
:“Your promised visit to Monticello, whenever it can be effected, will give me real pleasure, and I think could not fail of giving some to you. my essay in Architecture has been so much subordinated to the law of convenience, & affected also by the circumstance of change in the original design, that it is liable to some unfavorable & just criticisms. but what nature has done for us is sublime & beautiful and unique. you could not fail to take out your pencil & to add another specimen of it’s excellence in landscape to your drawing of the Capitol & Capitol hill. the difficulty would be in the choice between the different scenes, where a panorama alone could fully satisfy.”

* <div id="TJ_1811"></div>[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], April 8, 1811, in a letter to [[Bernard M’Mahon]] (1944: 455)<ref name="Jefferson 1944"/> [[#TJ_1811_cite|back up to History]]
: “I have an extensive flower [[border]], in which I am fond of placing ''handsome'' plants or ''fragrant''. those of mere curiosity I do not aim at, having too many other cares to bestow more than a moderate attention to them. in this I have placed the seeds you were so kind as to send me last. in it I have also growing the fine tulips, hyacinths, tuberoses & Amaryllis you formerly sent me. my wants there are Anemones, Auriculas, Ranunculus, Crown Imperials & Carnations: in the garden your fine gooseberries, Hudson & Chili strawberries: some handsome lillies.”

* [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], June 6, 1814, in a letter from Poplar Forest plantation to his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph<ref>Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, June 6, 1814, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-07-02-0298 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>
:“if Wormly & Ned should get through the [[ha-ha|ha! ha!]] and cleaning all the grounds within the upper roundabout, they should next widen the Carlton road, digging it level and extending it upwards from the corner of the graveyard up, as the path runs into the upper Roundabout, so as to make the approach to the house from that quarter on the North side instead of the South.”

[[File:0080.jpg|thumb|Fig. 11, Thomas Jefferson, Letter describing an obelisk for his grave marker at Monticello [detail], n.d.]]
* [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], pre-1826, description of his own tombstone planned for Monticello (Massachusetts Historical Society, Coolidge Collection: K162)
:“On the grave a plain die or cube of 3 feet without any moldings, surmounted by an [[obelisk]] of 6 f. height, each of a single stone: on the face of the [[Obelisk]] the following inscription, and not a word more: Here was buried / [[Thomas Jefferson]], / author of the Declaration of Independence / of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom / & Father of the University of Virginia because by these, as testimonials that I have lived, I [w]ish most to be remembered. to be of the coarse stone of which my [[column|columns]] are made, that no one might be tempted hereafter to destroy it for the value of the materials. my bust by Ciracchi, with the pedestal and truncated [[column]] on which it stands, might be given to the University if they would place it in the Dome room of the Rotunda. on the Die of the [[obelisk]] might be engraved Born Apr. 2. 1763.O.S. / Died___" [Fig. 11]

* Bacon, Edmund, 1825 or after, describing Monticello (quoted in Martin 1991: 163)<ref>Martin 1991, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/6TAHS88N view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The grounds around the house were most beautifully ornamented with flowers and shrubbery. There were [[walk]]s, and [[border]]s, and [[bower]]s, that I have never seen or heard of anywhere else. Some of them were in bloom from early in the spring until late in the winter. A good many of them were foreign. Back of the house was a beautiful [[lawn]] of two or three acres, where his [Jefferson’s] grandchildren used to play a great deal.”

* <div id="Smith_1828"></div>[[Margaret Smith Bayard|Smith, Margaret Bayard]], August 12, 1828, describing Monticello (1906: 230)<ref name="Smith 1906"/> [[#Smith_1828_cite|back up to History]]
:“I will, then, restrain my pen and carry you with me to the summit of the mountain, on which his [Jefferson’s] now desolate mansion stands. How different did it seem from what it did 18 years ago!. . . . Ruin has already commenced its ravages—the inclosures, the [[terrace]]s, the outer houses.”

* [[J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon|Loudon, J. C. (John Claudius)]], 1850, describing Monticello (Loudon 1850: 331)<ref>J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon, ''An Encyclopaedia of Gardening; Comprising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, and Landscape-Gardening'', rev. ed. (London: Longman et al., 1850), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/W8EQFZUG view on Zotero].</ref>
: “849. ''Monticello'', the seat of Jefferson, is situated on the summit of an [[eminence]] commanding extensive [[prospect]]s on all sides.”

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:0167.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, General plan of the summit of Monticello Mountain, before May 1768.

Image:0077.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, Drawing for a gate in Chinese lattice at Monticello, c. 1771.

Image:1095.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, Study for an [[belvedere|observation tower]] for Monticello, c. 1771.

File:2162.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, ''Monticello: 1st version (elevation)'', probably before March 1771.

Image:0074.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, Plan showing the rectangular flower [[bed]]s and proposed [[temple]]s at the corners of the [[terrace]] [[walk]]s at Monticello, before August 4, 1772.

Image:0072.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, Plan of an [[orchard]] at Monticello, c. 1778.

Image:0075.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, Design for a garden [[temple]] and [[dovecote]] at Monticello, c. 1778.

Image:0076.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, Design for a decorative outchamber at Monticello, c. 1778.

Image:0078.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, Drawing for a gate in Chinese lattice at Monticello, c. 1778.

Image:0429.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, A [[temple]] for a garden at Monticello (after Gibbs), c. 1780.

Image:0430.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, A garden [[temple]] at Monticello (after Gibbs), c. 1780.

Image:1096.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, Study for an [[belvedere|observation tower]] for Monticello, c. 1784.

File:2161.jpg|Robert Mills, ''Monticello: lodge and [[greenhouse]] designs, plan and elevation'', 1796.

File:1256.jpg|Robert Mills, ''Monticello: 2nd version (west elevation)'', recto, 1803.

Image:0091.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, General ideas for the improvement of Monticello [detail], c. 1804.

Image:0090.jpg|Letter describing plans for a “Garden Olitory,” c. 1804

Image:0092.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, “Plan of Spring Roundabout at Monticello,” c. 1804.

Image:0969.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, Plan of the grounds at Monticello, 1806.

Image:0968.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, Plan of Monticello with oval and round flower [[bed]]s [detail], 1807.

Image:0166.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, Sketch of the garden and flower [[bed]]s at Monticello, June 7, 1807.

Image:0073.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, Plan of serpentine [[walk]] and flower [[bed]]s at Monticello, May 23, 1808.

File:2163.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, ''Monticello: mountaintop (plat)'', 1809.

Image:0079.jpg|Jane Braddick Peticolas, ''View of the West Front of Monticello and Garden'', 1825.

Image:0080.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, Letter describing an [[obelisk]] for his grave marker at Monticello [detail], n.d.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Map==

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85087069.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[http://tclf.org/landscapes/monticello?destination=search-results The Cultural Landscape Foundation]

[https://www.monticello.org/ Monticello Official Website]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references></references>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Lemon Hill

2019-12-30T19:04:36Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

See also: [[Springettsbury]], [[The Hills]]

'''Lemon Hill''' was the [[Schuylkill River]] estate of the Philadelphia merchant [[Henry Pratt]] (1761–1838). [[Henry Pratt|Pratt]] purchased the property, which comprised the southern portion of [[Robert Morris|Robert Morris's]] (1734–1806) [[The Hills]], in 1799. Under [[Henry Pratt|Pratt's]] ownership, Lemon Hill was known for its [[geometric style|geometric-style]] gardens and extensive [[greenhouse]] and [[hothouse]] complex. In 1855 Lemon Hill became part of the newly formed Fairmount Park, where the house still stands and operates as a historic site.

==Overview==
'''Alternate Names:''' Pratt’s Gardens (after 1847)<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' Established 1799<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' [[Henry Pratt]] (1761–1838)<br/>
'''Associated People:''' John McAran (landscape gardener); [[Robert Buist]] (gardener); Peter Mackenzie (head gardener)<br/>
'''Location:''' Philadelphia, PA<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Lemon+Hill+Mansion,+Kelly+Drive,+Philadelphia,+PA&hl=en&sll=39.970712,-75.187233&sspn=0.018582,0.033689&oq=lemon+hill+man&hq=Lemon+Hill+Mansion,+Kelly+Drive,+Philadelphia,+PA&t=m&z=15 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
On March 15, 1799, [[Henry Pratt]] (1761–1838), a wealthy shipping merchant and land speculator from Philadelphia, purchased the southern portion of [[Robert Morris|Robert Morris's]] Schuylkill River estate, [[The Hills]], at a sheriff’s sale. He renamed the property Lemon Hill, supposedly after the citrus trees that grew in Morris’s gardens, and built a new Federal-style villa to replace Morris’s house.<ref>At the sheriff’s sale, Pratt paid $14,654.22 for two plots comprising 42 acres and 93 perches of land, including the portion of Morris’s estate that housed the farmhouse and renowned greenhouse complex. Owen Tasker Robbins, “Toward a Preservation of the Grounds of Lemon Hill in Light of Their Past and Present Significance for Philadelphians” (master’s thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1987), 25, 30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero]. See also Elizabeth Milroy, ''The Grid and the River: Philadelphia’s Green Places, 1682–1876'' (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2016), 144, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VBR8QEHX view on Zotero]. According to his accounts, Pratt ordered lumber to begin construction on the new country house in April 1800. Martha Halpern, “Henry Pratt’s Account for Lemon Hill,” ''Antiques & Fine Art Magazine'' [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/T5QDN3UB view on Zotero].</ref> [[Henry Pratt|Pratt]] maintained his primary residence within the city of Philadelphia, and Lemon Hill served mainly as a suburban retreat for entertaining friends and business associates.<ref>For much of his life, Pratt lived in a townhouse 112 North Front Street. See the official Lemon Hill website, www.lemonhill.org.</ref>

[[Image:1138.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 1,William Groombridge, ''View of Lemon Hill'', c. 1800.]]
[[Henry Pratt|Pratt]] also permitted members of the public to tour Lemon Hill. <span id="Boyd_cite"></span>In 1830 a Committee of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society remarked upon the estate’s popularity, reporting that “[f]ew strangers omit paying it a visit” ([[#Boyd|view text]]). <span id="Oldschool 1813_cite"></span>Situated on a bluff above the east bank of the [[Schuylkill River]], Lemon Hill afforded an “elegant and extensive” [[prospect]] of the river [[#Oldschool 1813|view text]]) [Fig. 1].<ref>Oliver Oldschool [Joseph Dennie], “American Scenery—for the Port Folio,” ''Port Folio'', n. s. 3, vol. 2, no. 2 (August 1813): 166, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QGAABXDC view on Zotero]. See also Karl Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, ''Travels through North America, during the Years 1825 and 1826'', 2 vols. (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1828), 1:140–41, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/H2FI56FP view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Oldschool 1813_cite"></span>In 1813 one commentator proclaimed that the grounds were “in the highest state of cultivation” and praised [[Henry Pratt|Pratt's]] “picturesque and ornamental improvements” [[#Oldschool 1813|view text]]). <span id="Boyd_cite"></span>The Committee of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society also commended Lemon Hill’s “[[picturesque]] effect,” with “water and [[wood]] . . . distributed in just proportions with hill and [[lawn]] and buildings of architectural beauty” ([[#Boyd|view text]]). <span id="Bernhard_cite"></span>Karl Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who visited the estate in 1825, was especially impressed by the “very handsome” chestnut and hickory trees as well as two very large tulip trees that ornamented the grounds ([[#Bernhard|view text]]).<ref>Bernhard 1828, 1:140–41, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/H2FI56FP view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2112.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 2, James Fuller Queen, ''Temple in Pratt’s garden on the Schuylkill'', recto, 1840.]]
<span id="Wailes_cite"></span>The gardens at Lemon Hill were elaborately designed, featuring a circular [[grotto]] and numerous [[summerhouse]]s adorned with marble [[statue]]s, goldfish [[pond]]s, [[fountain]]s, [[cascade]]s, and [[bower]]s ([[#Wailes|view text]]), <span id="Downing 1849_cite"></span>as well as [[trellis|trellises]], springhouses, and [[temple]]s such as the one drawn by James Fuller Queen in 1840 ([[#Downing 1849|view text]]) [Fig. 2]. <span id="Boyd_cite"></span>According to the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, flower [[border]]s along the [[walk]]s at Lemon Hill were interspersed with evergreens and flowering plants, including many exotic warm-weather varieties that were able to “bear the winter with a little straw covering” ([[#Boyd|view text]]). <span id="Downing 1849_cite"></span>Writing in 1849, [[Andrew Jackson Downing]] claimed that Lemon Hill had been “the most perfect specimen of the [[geometric style|geometric mode]] in America” during the 1820s, and that its gardens had exhibited “all the symmetry, uniformity, and high art of the old school” ([[#Downing 1849|view text]]). However, even decades before [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing]] penned these words, some already considered the [[geometric style|geometric]] or [[French style|French mode]] of landscape design to be old-fashioned; <span id="Watson_cite"></span>indeed, in 1816 the British naval officer Captain Joshua Rowley Watson complained that the grounds at Lemon Hill were “too much after the [[French style|French manner]] of [[pleasure garden]]s” for his taste ([[#Watson|view text]]).

[[Image:0043.jpg|thumb|Fig. 3, John Archibald Woodside, ''Lemon Hill'', 1807.]]
[[File:2125 detail.jpg|thumb|Fig. 4, J. Allbright (illustrator), J. B. Longacre (engraver), J. & W. W. Warr (engraver), Title page, in D. & C. Landreth, ''Floral Magazine and Botanical Repository'' (1832).]]
<span id="Wailes_cite"></span>The [[greenhouse]] and [[hothouse]]s at Lemon Hill were said to be the largest of their kind in the United States and often dominate 19th-century depictions of the estate ([[#Wailes|view text]]) [Figs. 3–4]. The [[greenhouse]] had been a major feature of [[The Hills]] as well, and [[Henry Pratt|Pratt]] built upon [[Robert Morris|Morris’s]] already significant investment when he acquired the property. In August 1799, several months after purchasing Lemon Hill at the sheriff’s sale, [[Henry Pratt|Pratt]] paid [[Robert Morris|Morris]] $750 for [[greenhouse]] plants.<ref>Robbins 1987, 30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> Under [[Henry Pratt|Pratt’s]] ownership, the [[hothouse]]s contained an enormous quantity and variety of plants, including many exotics. A June 1838 auction catalogue of the contents of Lemon Hill’s [[greenhouse]]s and [[hothouse]]s lists 2,701 individual plants for sale, including various roses, carnations, geraniums, camellias, citrus, aloes, cactuses, hydrangeas, and coffee trees, among many others kinds.<ref>''Catalogue of Splendid and Rare Green House and Hot House Plants: To Be Sold by Auction, at Lemon Hill, Formerly the Seat of the Late Henry Pratt, Deceased, on Tuesday, the 5th day of June, 1838, and to Be Continued Daily Till Completed by D. & C. A. Hill, Auctioneers'' (Philadelphia, 1838), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/S2MZSHJ4 view on Zotero]. See also Robbins 1987, 36, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Aloe_cite"></span>[[Henry Pratt|Pratt]] invited the public to view his rarest specimens. In June 1821, for example, [[Henry Pratt|Pratt]] exhibited a flowering aloe—one of the plants he had purchased from [[Robert Morris|Morris’s]] greenhouse—alongside “a considerable number of rare and beautiful tropical plants” at the Philadelphia’s Orphan’s Asylum as part of a fundraiser for the institution ([[#Aloe|view text]]). [[Henry Pratt|Pratt’s]] collection also won awards from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, including prizes for exhibiting the first mango as well as a particularly “splendid specimen” of poinsettia.<ref>Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, ''From Seed to Flower: Philadelphia 1681–1876'' (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 1976), 73, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/T79WT7WS view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Bernhard_cite"></span>In order to water the extensive collection of plants at Lemon Hill, [[Henry Pratt|Pratt]] installed a hydraulic water-delivery system, which pumped water up from the [[Schuylkill River]] to a series basins that supplied the [[greenhouse|green]] and [[hothouse]]s ([[#Bernhard|view text]]).

Caring for the [[grove]]s, [[flower garden|flower]] and vegetable gardens, and [[greenhouse]] plants at Lemon Hill required a large team of gardeners. <span id="Boyd_cite"></span>According to an 1830 report by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, “For many years the chief gardener [at Lemon Hill] was assisted by eleven or twelve labourers,” but by 1830 that number had been reduced by about half, “probably owing to the finished condition” of the grounds at that time ([[#Boyd|view text]]). Although many of the skilled gardeners’ names remain unknown, we can identify three important members of Philadelphia’s horticultural community who worked at Lemon Hill early in their careers.<ref>Karl Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, for example, simply reported after his 1825 visit to Lemon Hill that “The gardener, an Englishman by birth, seemed to be well acquainted with his plants.” Karl Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, ''Travels through North America, during the Years 1825 and 1826'', 2 vols. (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1828), 1:141, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/H2FI56FP view on Zotero].</ref> It was to the “science and taste as a landscape gardener” of John McAran, who would later run a successful [[nursery]] and [[pleasure garden]] in Philadelphia, that the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society credited “the decorations of Lemon-Hill.”<ref>“Report of the Committee appointed by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society for Visiting the Nurseries and Gardens in the vicinity of Philadelphia—13th July, 1830, as it appeared in ''The Register of Pennsylvania'', edited by Samuel Hazard, Philadelphia, February 12, 1831,” in James Boyd, ''A History of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 1827–1927'' (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 1929), 434, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/UN9TRH8T view on Zotero]. According to J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, [[John McAran|McAran]] had been a gardener at The Woodlands for seven years and “laid out and improved Lemon Hill for Henry Pratt.” J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, ''Philadelphia, 1609–1884'', 3 vols. (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1884), 2:944, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AGXZPRK7 view on Zotero].</ref> [[Robert Buist]] (1805–1880), another prominent Philadelphia nurseryman, worked briefly as a gardener at Lemon Hill shortly after emigrating from Scotland in 1828.<ref>By 1830 Buist had left to form a partnership in a florist business with Thomas Hibbert. Boyd 1929, 385, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/UN9TRH8T view on Zotero]. See also Thomas J. Mickey, ''America’s Romance with the English Garden'' (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2013), 5, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/UEQKGRPV view on Zotero].</ref> Peter Mackenzie (1809–1865), a Scottish immigrant who had trained as a horticulturalist at London’s Kew Gardens, was the last head gardener employed by [[Henry Pratt|Pratt]] at Lemon Hill, working there after arriving to Philadelphia in 1827. While a gardener at Lemon Hill, Mackenzie earned the distinction, according to an article in ''Magazine of Horticulture'', of being “the first [in the United States] to flower the Poinsettia in superb condition.”<ref>See Pennsylvania Horticultural Society 1976, 73, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/T79WT7WS view on Zotero]; “Peter Mackenzie,” ''A Historical Catalogue of The St. Andrew’s Society of Philadelphia with Biographical Sketches of Deceased Members, 1749–1907'' (Philadelphia: Press of Loughead & Co. for the St. Andrew’s Society, 1907), 257, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/3UHQDACM view on Zotero]; “Death of Peter Mackenzie,” ''Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs'' 34, no. 3 (March 1868): 94, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/EQBU2C77 view on Zotero]; “What Scots Have Done for Horticulture in America,” ''Gardener’s Magazine'' 50 (January 12, 1907): 33, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QP6WPV8D view on Zotero].</ref>
[[File:2117.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 5, T. Mason Mitchell, ''Plan of the Fair Mount docks and the adjoining property belonging to Knowles Taylor, Matthew Newkirk, Sam’l Downer junr. & Isaac S. Loyd.'', c. 1840.]]

On February 29, 1836, [[Henry Pratt]] sold Lemon Hill to Knowles Taylor, a speculator and merchant, for $225,000.<ref>Appendix A in Robbins’s thesis traces the chain of title for the property. See Robbins 1987, 134, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero]. Keyser mistakenly reports that Pratt sold Lemon Hill to Isaac S. Loyd in 1836 for $225,000. See Charles S. Keyser, Thomas Cochran, and Horace J. Smith, ''Lemon Hill and Fairmount Park: The Papers of Charles S. Keyser and Thomas Cochran, Relative to a Public Park for Philadelphia'' (Philadelphia: Times Printing House, 1886), 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/IXV8W2NV view on Zotero]. According to Robbins, Knowles sold Lemon Hill to Henry J. Williams in trust for the Bank of the United States on September 12, 1840. Robbins 1987, 135, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> In an effort to take advantage of Lemon Hill’s proximity to the [[Schuylkill River]] and to the Philadelphia Columbia Railroad, Taylor and his fellow speculator Isaac Loyd, who had purchased the neighboring estate Sedgeley, made plans to develop a system of canals and wharves along the river (in much the same way that Thomas Mitchell had planned to do at [[The Woodlands]] just a few years earlier) and to construct high-density housing on the grounds of the two properties [Fig. 5]. However, the business partners went bankrupt before the plan could be put into action.<ref> Elizabeth Milroy, ''The Grid and the River: Philadelphia’s Green Places, 1682–1876'' (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2016), 207, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VBR8QEHX view on Zotero].</ref> When Lemon Hill went up for sale again in 1843, Thomas P. Cope (d. 1854), a prominent merchant and Select Councilman, proposed that the city should purchase the property and turn it into a public park in order to prevent future development along the [[Schuylkill River]]. Cope’s plan received the support of the College of Physicians, among other citizens’ groups concerned with the effects of pollution in the river, and the city of Philadelphia completed the purchase of Lemon Hill on July 24, 1844, for $75,000.<ref>Robbins 1987, 43–44, 135, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero]; Milroy 2016, 212–14, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VBR8QEHX view on Zotero].</ref> Soon after this purchase, the Pennsylvania Historical Society offered to establish a garden at Lemon Hill, but the city rejected the proposal. Instead, in 1847, the city signed a ten-year lease with William Kern, an ice dealer, who sublet the estate to a tavern-keeper to be operated as a beer garden and public [[pleasure garden]].<ref>Milroy 2016, 242, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VBR8QEHX view on Zotero]. According to Maria F. Ali’s history of Fairmount Park, Lemon Hill was sublet to Mr. P. Zaiss, a German immigrant, who operated a brewery on the site until 1855. Maria F. Ali, ''Fairmount Park; Along the Schuylkill River, Spring Garden Street to Northwestern Avenue, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania'', Historic American Buildings Survey PA-6183 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1995), 5, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WGSWNJRB view on Zotero].</ref> In 1855, ''Ballou’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion'' described the boisterous atmosphere at the beer garden at Lemon Hill, characterizing the estate as “a favorite resort of the German population of Philadelphia . . . [who] assemble in large numbers to consume quantities of lager-bier, cheese, and other refreshments, and to amuse themselves with dancing . . .” [Fig. 6].<ref>“Lemon Hill, Phila.,” ''Ballou’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion'' 8, no. 19 (May 12, 1855): 297, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/EEIISWK8 view on Zotero]. For the controversy surrounding the use of Lemon Hill as a beer garden, especially on Sundays, see Milroy 2016, 252–53, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VBR8QEHX view on Zotero].</ref>
[[Image:1803.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 6, Benjamin R. Evans, ''Lemon Hill'', 1852.]]

<span id="Downing 1849_cite">Within twenty years of [[Henry Pratt|Pratt]] selling Lemon Hill, the estate’s grounds—once described by [[A. J. Downing]] as “brilliant and striking”—had fallen into disrepair ([[#Downing 1849|view text]]). <span id="Keyser_cite">Charles S. Keyser, who advocated for a public park at Lemon Hill, lamented the condition of the grounds in 1856, describing the charred remains of the [[hothouse]]s, the “decayed” [[grotto]] and [[summerhouse]]s, and goldfish ponds now “loathsome with slime” ([[#Keyser|view text]]).<ref>For more on Keyser’s lobbying efforts on behalf of a public park at Lemon Hill, see Milroy 2016, 250–254, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VBR8QEHX view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Fisher_cite">In 1861, Sidney George Fisher, who remembered Lemon Hill as “beautifully wooded,” decried the felling of its timber at the hands of speculators ([[#Fisher|view text]]).

[[Image:1038.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 7, Frederick Graff, ''Plan of Lemon Hill and Sedgley Park, Fairmount and Adjoining Property'', 1851.]]
Philadelphians renewed the push to transform Lemon Hill into a public park. Concerned about the deteriorating condition of the [[Schuylkill River|Schuylkill]], Frederick Graff Jr. (1817–1890), Chief Engineer of Philadelphia’s Water Department and the nearby Fairmount Water Works, devised a landscaping plan for Lemon Hill and Sedgeley Park, which John Price Wetherill, chairman of the Watering Committee, presented to the city councils in 1851 [Fig. 7].<ref>Milroy 2016, 243–45, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VBR8QEHX view on Zotero].</ref> The plan laid out a system of winding, forty-foot-wide roads that would create a [[drive]] several miles long by which the public could navigate the estate, and also proposed preserving Pratt’s mansion.<ref>Keyser et al. 1886, 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/IXV8W2NV view on Zotero]; Elizabeth Milroy, “Assembling Fairmount Park,” in ''Philadelphia’s Cultural Landscape: The Sartain Family Legacy'', ed. Katharine Martinez and Page Talbott (Philadelphia: Temple University Press for the Barra Foundation, 2000), 75, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Q2IX32XD view on Zotero].</ref> However, according to Elizabeth Milroy, Graff “made no recommendations for new plantings or for the care of existing trees and shrubs.”<ref>Milroy 2016, 245, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VBR8QEHX view on Zotero].</ref> Graff’s plan was never implemented, but in September 1855, Philadelphia’s Committee on City Property passed a resolution to integrate the Lemon Hill estate into a new public park that was to be named Fairmount Park.<ref> Keyser et al. 1886, 10, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/IXV8W2NV view on Zotero]; Robbins 1987, 49, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2129.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 8, James C. Sidney and Andrew Adams, ''Plan of Fairmount-Park'', in ''Description of Plan for the Improvement of Fairmount Park'', 1859.]]
In 1859 the city selected a design for the new Fairmount Park by James C. Sidney (1819–1881) and Andrew Adams (ca. 1800–1860), which encompassed 110 acres extending from the Fairmount Water Works at the south to just north of the Spring Garden Water Works and from the [[Schuylkill River]] at the west and the Reading Railroad at the east [Fig. 8].<ref>Milroy 2016, 261, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VBR8QEHX view on Zotero]. Sidney and Adams were partners from 1858–1860 and maintained an office at 520 Walnut Street in Philadelphia. Ali 1995, 24, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WGSWNJRB view on Zotero].</ref> Like Graff’s earlier plan, the Sidney & Adams plan also called for a system of circuitous [[drive]]s and [[walk]]s throughout the grounds of the Lemon Hill estate and the restoration of Pratt’s house. Sidney and Adams recommended the creation of a sixteen-foot-wide [[piazza]] that would surround Pratt’s mansion on three sides and the restoration of [[terrace]]s to the east of the house that would be planted with [[bed]]s of roses and flowering shrubs.<ref>The piazza would be located on the south, east, and west sides of the house to “afford shelter and a resting place for a large number of visitors.” James C. Sidney and Andrew Adams, ''Description of Plan for the Improvement of Fairmount Park'' (Philadelphia: Merrihew & Thompson, 1859), 18, 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/F3CCFCGD view on Zotero].</ref> Their plan also proposed the creation of a grand tree-lined [[avenue]] of American Lindens; the planting of various flowering, deciduous, and evergreen trees; and the construction of “summer houses, kiosks, rustic seats, fountains, ornamental bridges, boat houses, fish ponds &c.” In the view of a writer for the ''Gardener’s Monthly'', such improvements would help return the grounds to some “vestige of its former splendor,” when, under Pratt’s ownership, Lemon Hill had been considered one of the finest gardens in America.<ref>“The New Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, and Its History,” ''Gardener’s Monthly'' 1, no. 4 (April 1, 1859): 58, 57, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/FQAATT55 view on Zotero]. According to Milroy, it is likely that Pratt’s greenhouse was demolished around 1860. Milroy 2016, 373n103, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VBR8QEHX view on Zotero]. For a comparison of the Sidney & Adams plan with Olmsted and Vaux’s Greensward plan for Central Park in New York, see Milroy 2000, 79, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Q2IX32XD view on Zotero]; Milroy 2016, 261–62, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VBR8QEHX view on Zotero]; Michael J. Lewis, “The First Design for Fairmount Park,” ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 130, no. 3 (July 2006): 288–90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/R3V3TEUA view on Zotero].</ref> Although the execution of the Sidney & Adams plan for Fairmount Park was often delayed during the Civil War, as Michael J. Lewis has argued, the city moved decisively and, by 1866, “Sidney’s plan was in large measure realized,” with “its apparatus of [[drive]]s and paths, its planting scheme, and landscaping” completed and available for public use.<ref>Lewis 2006, 293, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/R3V3TEUA view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
[[File:2106.jpg|thumb|Fig. 9, John G. Exilious, “A View of Lemon Hill the Seat of Henry Pratt Esq<sup>r</sup>.,” in Oliver Oldschool [Joseph Dennie], ed. ''The Port Folio'' (August 1813): opp. p. 166.]]
*<div id="Oldschool 1813"></div>Oldschool, Oliver, August 1813, describing Lemon Hill (quoted in Oldschool 1813: 166)<ref>Oliver Oldschool [Joseph Dennie], “American Scenery—for the Port Folio,” ''Port Folio'', n.s. 3, vol. 2, no. 2 (August 1813): 166, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QGAABXDC view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Oldschool 1813_cite|back up to History]]
:“Lemon Hill . . . is the seat of [[Henry Pratt]], esq. of Philadelphia; it is situated on a beautiful part of the [[Schuylkill River|river Schuylkill]], about two and a half miles from the city. The [[prospect]] from it is elegant and extensive; the grounds are in the highest state of cultivation; the [[hothouse|hot-house]] is admirably stored, and the [[picturesque]] and ornamental improvements, are highly creditable to the taste of the present liberal proprietor.” [Fig. 9]

*<div id="Watson"></div>Watson, Joshua Rowley, July 7, 1816, describing Lemon Hill (quoted in Foster 1997: 298)<ref>Kathleen A. Foster, ''Captain Watson’s Travels in America: The Sketchbooks and Diary of Joshua Rowley Watson, 1772–1818'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/J6Q29IVS view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Watson_cite|back up to History]]
:“We drove over the Upper Bridge to [[Henry Pratt|Mr Pratts]] who has a large collection of plants and extensive [[greenhouse|Greenhouses]] & ca. His grounds are too much after the [[French style|French]] manner of [[pleasure garden]]s. The view looking up the [[Schuylkill River|Schuylkill]] and over towards Eaglesfield is pretty.”

*<div id="Aloe"></div>Anonymous, 1821, describing an exhibition of an aloe plant from Lemon Hill (''Plough Boy'': 30)<ref>“The Flowering Aloe,” ''Plough Boy, and Journal of the Board of Agriculture'' (June 23, 1821): 30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/RNZNFE7H view on Zotero]; a nearly identical article appears in “The Flowering Aloe, From ''The Philadelphia ‘Democratic Press’'',” ''Niles’ Weekly Register'' (June 16, 1821): 255, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/E63UISSF view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Aloe_cite|back up to History]]
:[June 6] “It is believed that, but two of those plants have come to perfection in the United States. One was at [[Springettsbury|Springbury]], the seat of [[William Penn]], near Bush Hill. This plant flowered in 1777. From it the late Mr. [[William Hamilton]] got a sucker, which he was fortunate enough to rear, and it flowered at [[the Woodlands]], in the year 1804. When [[Henry Pratt]], Esq. bought Lemon Hill, from the late [[Robert Morris]], there was an Aloe in the [[greenhouse|Green House]]. This plant has been cherished and tended for 70 years, with great care, and is now RAPIDLY advancing to an exhibition of all the fragrance and beauty, of which it is susceptible. We will here, perhaps a little out of place, embrace the occasion, to pay homage of our consideration and thankfulness to [[Henry Pratt|Mr. Pratt]], for the distinguished liberality with which his gardens, [[greenhouse|green houses]], &c. are, and long have been, thrown open to strangers and to citizens.
:“[[Henry Pratt|Mr. Pratt]], with a liberality and benevolence which entitle him to great praise, has bestowed his plant on the ''Orphan Asylum'', on Cherry-street, near Schuylkill Sixth-street: where it will be exhibited to the public for the benefit of that charitable institution. A building for the reception of the Aloe, being completed at the Asylum, the plant was yesterday moved thither from Lemon Hill. The greatest care was necessary and was taken in the removal. The Aloe was carried, the whole distance, on the shoulders of 24 men, and we have pleasure in saying that it did not sustain the slightest injury.
:“On the 28th of May last, it was observed that this interesting plant had put forth and unerring evidence that it was about to flower. It put forth an upright shoot, like a strong asparagus. This stem, since that time, has grown 5 feet 8 inches; considerably more than the plant had grown in 60 years before. It will be in full flower about the middle of July next.
:“We give this early notice of this interesting exhibition to afford persons at a distance an opportunity of making their arrangements to enable them to enjoy the gratification of beholding so rare and beautiful a sight.—''Democratic Press.''
:[June 8] “We have great satisfaction in announcing, that Mr. [[Henry Pratt]], not content with the liberality he had already shewn to the ''Widow’s and Orphan’s Asylum'', by the generous gift of the FLOWERING ALOE, has made most liberal additions to his bounty. To render the exhibition at the Asylum as interesting and of course as profitable as possible, [[Henry Pratt|Mr. Pratt]] yesterday sent to that institution a considerable number of rare and beautiful tropical plants. Among them were the Night Blooming Ceres, the Rose Apple of the West Indies, the Sago Palm, the Coffee Tree, the Sugar Cane, &c. &c.--''Ibid.''”

*<div id="Bernhard"></div>Bernhard, Karl, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, 1825, describing Lemon Hill (1828: 1:140–41)<ref>Karl Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, ''Travels through North America, during the Years 1825 and 1826'', 2 vols. (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1828), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/H2FI56FP view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Bernhard_cite|back up to History]]
:“A merchant, Mr. Halbach, to whom I was introduced, took a walk with me to two gardens adjoining the city. One of these belongs to a rich merchant, [[Henry Pratt|Mr. Pratt]], and is situated upon a rocky peninsula, formed by the [[Schuylkill River|Schuylkill]], immediately above the water-works. The soil consists mostly of quartz and clay. The owner seldom comes there, and this is easy to be perceived, for instead of handsome [[plot|grass-plots]] you see potatoes and turnips planted in the garden. The trees, however, are very handsome, mostly chestnut, and some hickory. I also observed particularly two large and strong tulip trees; the circumference of one was fifteen feet. In the [[hothouse|hot-houses]] was a fine collection of orange trees, and a handsome collection of exotic plants, some of the order Euphorbia from South America; also a few palm trees. The gardener, an Englishman by birth, seemed to be well acquainted with his plants. Through a hydraulic machine the water is brought up from the river into several basins, and thence forced into the [[hothouse|hot-houses]]. There was also in the garden a mineral spring of a ferruginous quality. From several spots in the garden there are fine views of the [[Schuylkill River|Schuylkill]], whose banks, covered with trees, now in the fall of the year, have a striking and pleasant effect from the various hues of foliage.”

*<div id="Wailes"></div>Wailes, Benjamin L. C., December 29, 1829, describing Lemon Hill (quoted in Moore 1954: 359–60)<ref name="Moore_1954">John Hebron Moore, “A View of Philadelphia in 1829: Selections from the Journal of B. L. C. Wailes of Natchez,” ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 78 (July 1954): 353–60, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z9IBV7A4/q/Moore view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Wailes_cite|back up to History]]
:<p>“But the most enchanting [[prospect]] is towards the grand pleasure [[grove]] & [[greenhouse|green house]] of a [[Henry Pratt|Mr. Prat[t]]], a gentleman of fortune, and to this we next proceeded by a circutous rout, passing in view of the fish [[pond]]s, [[bower]]s, rustic retreats, [[summerhouse|summer houses]], [[fountain]]s, [[grotto]], &c., &c. The [[grotto]] is dug in a bank [and] is of a circular form, the side built up of rock and arched over head, and a number of Shells [?]. A dog of natural size carved out of marble sits just within the entrance, the guardian of the place. A narrow aperture lined with a [[hedge]] of arbor vitae leads to it. Next is a round fish [[pond]] with a small [[fountain]] playing in the [[pond]]. An Oval & several oblong fish [[pond]]s of larger size follow, & between the two last is an artificial [[cascade]]. Several [[summerhouse|summer houses]] in [[rustic style]] are made by nailing bark on the outside & thaching the roof. There is also a rustic [[seat]] built in the branches of a tree, & to which a flight of steps ascend. In one of the [[summerhouse|summer houses]] is a Spring with [[seat]]s around it. The houses are all embelished with marble busts of Venus, Appollo, Diana and a Bacanti. One sits on an Island on the fish [[pond]]. All the [[pond]]s filled with handsome coloured fish.</p>
:“The grounds are planted with a great variety of [[shrubbery]] & evergreens of various kinds of the pine & fir, and the [[hothouse|hot house]] is said to be the largest in the US. It is filled to overflowing with the choicest Exotics: the Chaddock Orange of different kinds & the Lemon loaded with fruit. There are two coffee trees with their berries. Some few shrubs were in flower & others seeded, & I was politely furnished with a few seed of 2 varieties of flowers (Myrtle & an accacia). In front of the [[hothouse|hot house]], one at each end, is a Lion of marble, well executed, & a dog in front. On the roof is a range of marble busts.”

*<div id="Boyd"></div>Committee of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 1830, describing Lemon Hill (quoted in Boyd 1929: 431–33)<ref name="Boyd_1929">James Boyd, ''A History of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 1827–1927'' (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 1929), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/UN9TRH8T/q/boyd view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Boyd_cite|back up to History]]
:<p>“This beautiful garden, so creditable to the owner, and even to the city of Philadelphia, is kept in perfect order at great expense. Few strangers omit paying it a visit, a gratification which is afforded to them in the most liberal manner by the proprietor. Nor can any person of taste contemplate the various charms of this highly improved spot, without being in rapture with the loveliness of nature—everywhere around him, so chastely adorned by the hand of man.</p>
:<p>“Undoubtedly this is the best kept garden in Pennsylvania, and when associated with the [[greenhouse|green]] and [[hothouse|hot house]] department, may be pronounced unrivalled in the Union. The gravel [[walk]]s, [[espalier]]s, plants, shrubs, [[mound]]s, and grass [[plat]]s, are dressed periodically and minutely. . . . </p>
:<p>“Along the [[walk]]s, the flower [[border]]s are interspersed with Thunbergias, Eccremocarpus, Chelonias, Mimosas, &c. The Laurustinus, sweet Bay, English Laurel, Rosemary, Chinese privet, Myrtle, Tree Sage and South Sea Tea, stand among them, and bear the winter with a little straw covering. Even the Verbena triphylla, or Aloysia Citriodora, has survived through our cold season in [[Henry Pratt|Mr. Pratt’s]] city garden; seven of these plants are evergreens, and if they become inured to our climate, they will add greatly to our ornamental shrubs.</p>
:<p>“The treasures contained in the [[hothouse|hot]] and [[greenhouse|green houses]] are numerous. Besides a very fine collection of Orange, Lemon, Lime, Citron, Shaddock, Bergamot, Pomgranate and Fig trees in excellent condition and full of fruit, we notice with admiration the many thousand of exotics to which [[Henry Pratt|Mr. Pratt]] is annually adding. The most conspicuous among these, are the tea tree; the coffee tree——loaded with fruit; the sugar cane; the pepper tree; Banana, Plantain, Guva, Cherimona, Ficus, Mango, the Cacti in great splendour, some 14 feet high, and a gigantic Euphorbia Trigonia—19 years old, and 13 feet high. The [[greenhouse|green houses]] are 220 feet long by 16 broad; exhibiting the finest range of glass for the preservation of plants, on this continent.</p>
:<p>“Colonel Perkins, near Boston, has it is true, a grapery and peach [[Espalier]], protected by 330 feet of glass, yet as there are neither flues not foreign plants in them, they cannot properly be called [[greenhouse|green houses]], whereas [[Henry Pratt|Mr. Pratt's]] are furnished with the rarest productions of every clime, so that the committee place the [[conservatory]] of Lemon Hill at the very head of all similar establishments in this country.</p>
:“There are some pretty [[bower]]s, [[summerhouse|summer houses]], [[grotto]]s and fish [[pond]]s in this garden—the latter well stored with gold and silver fish. The mansion house is capacious and modern, and the [[prospect]]s, on all sides, extremely beautiful. In [[landscape gardening]], water and wood are indispensable for [[picturesque]] effect; and here they are found distributed in just proportions with hill and lawn and buildings of architectural beauty, the whole scene is cheerfully animated by the brisk commerce of the river, and constant movement in the busy neighborhood of Fairmount.
:<p>“An engine for raising water to the plant houses, is sometimes put in operation. [[Henry Pratt|Mr. Pratt]] placed it here at a cost of three thousand dollars. The vegetable garden is well kept and is of suitable size. For many years the chief gardener was assisted by eleven or twelve labourers, he now employs only six; probably owing to the finished condition to which the proprietor has brought his grounds. The whole plot may contain about 20 acres; [[Henry Pratt|Mr. Pratt]] has owned it 30 years or more. The superintendent aided by the liberal spirit of that gentleman, conducts his business with skill and neatness, and may challenge any garden for minute excellence or general effect.”

[[File:2125.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 10, J. Allbright (illustrator), J. B. Longacre (engraver), J. & W. W. Warr (engraver), Title page, in D. & C. Landreth, ''Floral Magazine and Botanical Repository'' (1832).]]
*D. & C. Landreth, 1832, describing Lemon Hill (''Floral Magazine and Botanical Repository'' 1: 6)<ref>D. & C. Landreth, eds., “Lemon Hill,” ''Floral Magazine and Botanical Repository'' 1 (1832), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/UTAZX6SE view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The vignette on the title-page, affords an excellent view of these far-famed grounds, from the pencil of ALBRIGHT, engraved by LONGACRE. The Garden is situate on the [[Schuylkill River|Schuylkill]], above Fairmount Water-works, and is one of the oldest private establishments of its nature in Pennsylvania.
:“For years it was the favourite summer residence of our first financier, [[Robert Morris|ROBERT MORRIS]], who originally laid out the grounds, and erected a part of the [[conservatory|conservatories]] which there exist.
:“In this fascinating spot, that worthy man and truly patriotic citizen, passed many of his happiest hours; returned from the city, whither his avocations daily called him, it was his custom and greatest pleasure to ramble around the grounds, planning new improvements, or entering with zest into the operations which were going on. The mutability of all earthly possessions transferred the premises, with the collection, about thirty years ago, to Mr. [[Henry Pratt|HENRY PRATT]], the present proprietor, who is deserving of much applause for the improvements he is constantly creating. These magnificent grounds are, perhaps, as much favoured by nature, and more by art, than any in the Union; on the southern extremity, they are bounded by the [[Schuylkill River|Schuylkill]], one of the most picturesque of rivers, enlivened by innumerable craft, laden with mineral and agricultural wealth: at a short distance is beheld the celebrated Water-works, and on a little further, is the 'Upper Ferry [[Bridge]],' that with a single span of 334 feet clasps either shore; still further, the eye rests on a second [[bridge]], with shipping and commercial bustle.
:“The annual expenditure is very considerable. For many years, ten or a dozen labourers under the direction of a gardener, found ample work. The [[conservatory|conservatories]] present an uninterrupted range of 220 feet, and are greater than any others in this country,—indeed would suffer little if compared with many of the trans-atlantic world. An engine for raising water to them, was erected by the present owner, at $3000 cost.
:“In this fairy place, may be seen in a state of perfection, rivalling that of the climes from whence they came, the useful Sugar-cane, the Guava, Mango, and Banana: the exhilarating Tea of India, and Coffee of Arabia; and the Annona Cherimolia, the delicacy of whose fruit, travellers in South America dwell on with rapture. Thousands of exotics decorate the grounds in summer, or crowd the [[hothouse|Hot]] and [[greenhouse|Green Houses]] in winter, filling the air with foods of delightful perfume, whilst Oranges, Lemons, Limes, Shaddocks, and other tropical productions, are here in vast profusion.
:“[[Fountain]]s and fish-[[pond]]s, with gold and silver fish, added to the beauty of the scene. [[Grotto]]s, [[bower]]s, and [[rustic style|rustic]] cots, are blended with natural beauties,—all combined, producing an influence no less enchanting than the 'Leasowes.' And surely SHENSTONE had not been the less eloquent, had his poetic genius been cultivated at Lemon Hill.
:“Few strangers visit Philadelphia without an examination of these grounds, and the proprietor has received the thanks of thousands for the gratification his liberality afforded.” [Fig. 10]

*W., A., August 1835, describing Lemon Hill (quoted in ''New-York Farmer and American Gardener’s Magazine'' 8: 332)<ref name="The New-York Farmer_November 1835">A. W., “Extract of a Letter from Our Correspondent, A. W., Dated Lansingburgh, 27th August,” ''New-York Farmer and American Gardener’s Magazine'' 8, no. 11 (November 1835), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/676ZWWM6 view on Zotero].</ref>
:“. . . I steered my course to Lemon Hill, which is the name very appropriately given to the [[pleasure ground]]s of Mr. [[Henry Pratt]]. It is situated in the immediate vicinity of the grand Water-works, and is said to contain over twenty acres. Nature seems to have displayed her utmost power in modeling this charming situation, leaving but little for art to accomplish, to render it one of the most delightful spots on earth; and art, with such a bold and lovely model, appears to have availed herself of every advantage, to beautify and complete what Nature had so happily begun.
:“The mansion is placed on an eminence, commanding a delightful view of the [[Schuylkill River|Schuylkill]], just at that point where every thing is in pleasant motion. The busy neighborhood of Fairmount, the interesting [[view]]s of this fine landscape, are fully kept before the eye, by gently winding paths, through a rich and well kept grass [[plot]]; every turn producing some new and pleasing effect. The foot does not tread in the same path which the eye has gone over before. The groups of lofty trees, so advantageously placed on the hill, near the house, with their deep green foliage, form a beautiful contrast with those of more light and stinted growth, situated in front of the ground bordering on the water; thereby adding much to the effect, by seeming to remove the perspective to the farthest extremity of the picture. The numerous well stocked [[pond|fishponds]], with their islands and aquatic productions, [[summerhouse|summer-houses]], gardens, porters’ and laborers’ lodges, all well placed for [[picturesque]] effect; and the beautiful little [[grotto]], thrown so chastely over the mineral spring, all conspire to complete the beauty and variety, without, in the least marring the productions of nature, so very interesting in the immediate vicinity. The spacious green [[hothouse|hot houses]] with their numerous and lovely tenants, spread far and wide in every direction, making the whole garden a repository of flowers and fragrance, certainly stand prominent in their kind; and as we migrate along the well kept gravel [[walk]]s, so richly adorned by tree, shrub, and plant, of every shade and shape, and from every climate, intermixed with the inmates of the [[greenhouse|green house]], the shaddock, orange, citron, lime, the fig tree, laden with inviting fruit; the sugar cane, pepper tree, banana, guava, and plantain; the cheremalia, mango, and splendid cactus; a reflecting mind must be lost in admiration, not knowing which most to admire, the amazing variety produced by nature, or the wealth, liberality, and taste, which have planted and sustain them there.”

*[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], January 1837, Notices on the State and Progress of Horticulture in the United States,” describing Lemon Hill (''Magazine of Horticulture'' 3: 4)<ref name="Downing_January 1837">Andrew Jackson Downing, “Notices on the State and Progress of Horticulture in the United States,” ''Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs'' 3, no. 1 (January 1837): 1–10, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/HPNHTESI view on Zotero].</ref>
:“For a long time the grounds of [[Henry Pratt|Mr. Pratt]], at Lemon Hill, near Philadelphia, have been considered the show-garden of that city: and the proprietor, with a praiseworthy spirit, opening his long-shaded [[walk]]s, cool [[grotto|grottoes]], [[jet|jets d’eau]], and the superb range of [[hothouse|hot-houses]], to the inspection of the citizens, contributed in a wonderful degree to improve the taste of the inhabitants, and to inspire them with a desire to possess the more beautiful and delicate productions of nature.”

*<div id="Downing 1849"></div>[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], 1849, describing Lemon Hill (1849: 43)<ref name="Downing_1849">Andrew Jackson Downing, ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America''; . . . 4th ed. (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1849), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5M4S2D64 view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Downing 1849_cite|back up to History]]
:“''Lemon Hill'', half a mile above the Fairmount water-works of Philadelphia, was, 20 years ago, the most perfect specimen of the [[geometric style|geometric]] mode in America, and since its destruction by the extension of the city, a few years since, there is nothing comparable with it, in that style, among us. All the symmetry, uniformity, and high art of the old school, were displayed here in artificial plantations, formal gardens with [[trellis|trellises]], [[grotto|grottoes]], spring-houses, [[temple]]s, [[statue]]s, and [[vase]]s, with numerous [[pond]]s of water, [[jet|jets-d'eau]], and other water-works, [[parterre]]s and an extensive range of [[hothouse]]s. The effect of this garden was brilliant and striking; its position, on the lovely banks of the [[Schuylkill River|Schuylkill]], admirable; and its liberal proprietor, [[Henry Pratt|Mr. Pratt]], by opening it freely to the public, greatly increased the popular taste in the neighborhood of that city.”

*[[J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon|Loudon, J. C. (John Claudius)]], 1850, describing Lemon Hill (1850: 331)<ref>J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon, ''An Encyclopaedia of Gardening; Comprising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, and Landscape-Gardening'', rev. ed. (London: Longman et al., 1850), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/W8EQFZUG view on Zotero].</ref>
:“850. ''Lemon Hill, near Philadelphia''. . . . [Downing observes:] ‘. . . An extensive range of [[hothouse|hothouses]], curious [[grotto|grottoes]] and spring-houses, as well as every other [[gardenesque]] structure, gave variety and interest to this celebrated spot, which we regret the rapidly extending trees, and the mania for improvement there, as in some of our other cities, have now nearly destroyed and obliterated.’ (''Downing’s Landscape Gardening adapted to North America.'')"

*<div id="Keyser"></div>Keyser, Charles S., 1856, describing Lemon Hill (quoted in Keyser, et al. 1886: 6–7, 18)<ref>Charles S. Keyser, Thomas Cochran, and Horace J. Smith, ''Lemon Hill and Fairmount Park: The Papers of Charles S. Keyser and Thomas Cochran, Relative to a Public Park for Philadelphia'' (Philadelphia: Times Printing House, 1886), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/IXV8W2NV view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Keyser_cite|back up to History]]
:“. . . by neglect, by fire and by wanton destruction, this place, the abode of a once princely luxury had fallen into ruin; where beautiful [[hothouse|hot-houses]] filled with rare exotics overlooked the [[Schuylkill River|river]], only falling walls blackened by fire remained; the [[shrubbery]] had been destroyed; the little bark [[grotto]] over the spring and the shady [[summerhouse|summer houses]] had decayed; and the ponds once filled with the gold fish had become loathsome with slime; only the grand old tulip trees remained, and the pines which stood as they still stand to-day, silent sentinels around the deserted mansion. . . .
:“The grounds lie in undulating slopes, breaking off in bluffs at the water’s edge, at heights of perhaps from 50 to 100 feet. The intervening hollows are filled below and near the water’s edge, with an undergrowth of [[shrubbery]]. They spread out in an easy ascent to the slopes above, covered with greensward. Upon the highest point of the grounds midway between the two Water Works, are the remains of the foundation of a small building, perhaps a [[summerhouse|summer house]]; it is surrounded with a broken circle of cedar trees. Further down towards the dam, on a beautiful [[lawn]] overlooking Fairmount, stands the mansion house; near this are the ruins of the [[summerhouse|summer houses]]. Back towards the railroad from the mansion, down a thickly wooded descent, is the once beautiful spring. A carriage [[drive]] appears from the position of some trees, yet remaining in a traceable order, to have followed the course of the river along the summit of the slopes through the grounds. Some large tulip trees of beautiful form and some venerable pines remain.”

*<div id="Fisher"></div>Fisher, Sidney George, November 21, 1861, describing Lemon Hill and Sedgley (quoted in Fisher 2007: 122)<ref>Sidney George Fisher, ''A Philadelphia Perspective: The Civil War Diary of Sidney George Fisher'', ed. Jonathan W. White (New York: Fordham University Press, 2007), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/STS4EM33 view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Fisher_cite|back up to History]]
:“It is a rolling piece of ground, commanding fine views of the river, but unfortunately has but little timber, that having been cut down some years ago by Isaac Loyd, a speculator who bought one or both these estates. Before that act of vandalism, it was beautifully wooded.”

<hr>

==Images==
<span id="roundabout_img"></span>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:1138.jpg|William Groombridge, ''View of Lemon Hill'', c. 1800.

File:2107.jpg|Artist/maker unknown, ''A View of Lemon Hill on the River Schuylkill, the Seat of Henry Pratt Esq. of Philadelphia'', Early 19th century.

Image:0043.jpg|John Archibald Woodside, ''Lemon Hill'', 1807.

File:2102.jpg|Pavel Petrovich Svinin, ''The Upper Bridge over the Schuylkill, Philadelphia—Lemon Hill in the Background'', 1811–ca. 1813.

File:2106.jpg|John G. Exilious, “A View of Lemon Hill the Seat of Henry Pratt Esq<sup>r</sup>.,” in Oliver Oldschool [Joseph Dennie], ed. ''The Port Folio'' (August 1813): opp. p. 166.

Image:0300.jpg|Thomas Birch, ''Fairmount Water Works'', 1821.

Image:2119.jpg|Robert Campbell, after Thomas Birch, ''View of the Dam and Water Works at Fairmount, Philadelphia'', 1824.

File:2105.jpg|Firm of Joseph Stubbs, decoration after Thomas Birch, Plate with view of Lemon Hill, c. 1825.

File:2104.jpg|Firm of Joseph Stubbs, decoration after Thomas Birch, Soup plate with view of Lemon Hill, c. 1825.

File:2103.jpg|Firm of Joseph Stubbs, Tureen and cover with view of Lemon Hill, c. 1828.

File:2125.jpg|J. Allbright (illustrator), J. B. Longacre (engraver), J. & W. W. Warr (engraver), Title page, in D. & C. Landreth, ''Floral Magazine and Botanical Repository'' (1832).

File:2112.jpg|James Fuller Queen, ''Temple in Pratt’s garden on the Schuylkill'', recto, 1840.

File:2117.jpg|T. Mason Mitchell, ''Plan of the Fair Mount docks and the adjoining property belonging to Knowles Taylor, Matthew Newkirk, Sam’l Downer junr. & Isaac S. Loyd.'', c. 1840.

File:2144.jpg|William Southgate Porter, ''Panorama of Fairmount'', May 22, 1848.

Image:1038.jpg|Frederick Graff, ''Plan of Lemon Hill and Sedgley Park, Fairmount and Adjoining Property'', 1851.

Image:1803.jpg|Benjamin R. Evans, ''Lemon Hill'', 1852.

File:2099.jpg|Anonymous, “Lemon Hill,” in M. M. Ballou, ed., ''Ballou’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion'' 8, no. 19 (May 12, 1855), p. 297.

File:2111.jpg|James Fuller Queen, View from the Schuylkill River looking up toward a mansion, possibly Lemon Hill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ca. 1856.

File:2129.jpg|James C. Sidney and Andrew Adams, ''Plan of Fairmount-Park'', in ''Description of Plan for the Improvement of Fairmount Park'', 1859.

File:2109.jpg|John C. Sinclair, ''Entrance to Lemon Hill'', c. 1870.

Image:1999.jpg|Benjamin R. Evans, ''Lemon Hill'', c. 1880.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Map==
{{#display_map:
39.970712,-75.187233
|service=google
|imageoverlays=
|enablefullscreen=yes
}}

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://tclf.org/landscapes/fairmount-park The Cultural Landscape Foundation]

[http://www.lemonhill.org/ Lemon Hill Official Website]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category: Places]]

Montgomery Place

2019-12-30T19:03:34Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

Established as a nursery and farm on the Hudson River following the American Revolution, '''Montgomery Place''' was transformed into a pleasure ground between 1828 and 1840, tracking the emergence of a new aesthetic understanding of the American landscape. Theorists and landscape architects cited Montgomery Place in their works to illustrate key terms and design principles, and praised its successful adaptation of European picturesque design principles for American landscapes.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Chateau de Montgomery, Barton place, Montgomery Place Historic Estate<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1802 to present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Janet Livingston Montgomery (1802–1828), Edward Livingston (1828–1836), Louise Davezac Livingston (1836–1860), Cora Livingston Barton (1860–1873), Louise Livingston Hunt (1873–1914) and her brother Carleton Hunt (1873–1921), John Ross Delafield (1921–1964), John White Delafield (1964–1985), J. Dennis Delafield (1985–1986), Sleepy Hollow Restorations/Historic Hudson Valley (1986–2016), Bard College (2016 to present)<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Frederick Catherwood (architect), [[Andrew Jackson Downing]] (landscape gardener), Alexander Jackson Davis (architect), Philip Dederick (farmer), Hans Jacob Ehlers (landscape gardener), John George (gardener), Alexander Gilson (gardener), James McWilliams (nurseryman), Jacques-Gérard Milbert (naturalist and artist), John Hare Otton (architect)<br/>
'''Location:''' Dutchess County, NY<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Montgomery+Place+Historic+Estate/@42.0145766,-73.921152,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89dd0a3dc3ffffa1:0xa3cedcdc71e8daff!8m2!3d42.0145766!4d-73.9189633 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[File:2176.JPG|thumb|right|Fig. 1, Alexander Thompson, ''Map of the Town of Rhinebeck in the County of Dutchess'' [detail], 1797–1798.]]
In 1802, Janet Livingston Montgomery (1743–1828) purchased a 242-acre farm on the bank of the Hudson River from John Van Benthuysen [Fig. 1–2]. Janet, the widow of General Richard Montgomery (1738–1775) who died in the American Revolutionary War, constructed a federal-style house on the property with the assistance of her nephew, William Jones (unknown–1822), which she named “Chateau de Montgomery.”<ref>Jacquetta M. Haley, ed., ''Pleasure Grounds: Andrew Jackson Downing and Montgomery Place'' (Tarrytown, N.Y.: Sleepy Hollow Press, 1988), 11, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/SSZXJFSC/q/haley view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="MontgomeryContract_cite"></span> Janet partnered with James McWilliams to establish a commercial [[nursery]] on her property in 1804 ([[#MontgomeryContract|view text]]), on which they planted 50 varieties of apple trees that her brother Robert shipped from France in 1805.<ref>Kathleen Eagen Johnson and Margaret L. Vetare, “[http://apps.hudsonvalley.org/american-arcadia/content/nursery3.html Agriculture: Nursery at Lower Red Hook],” ''Montgomery Place: An American Arcadia,'' 2011, accessed October 18, 2018, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GPU6PMHP/q/american%20arcadia view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="MontgomeryGeorge_cite"></span>Although the management of this [[nursery]] would change hands, first in 1815, to a gardener and nurseryman named John George hired by Janet as an employee rather than a business partner ([[#MontgomeryGeorge|view text]]), it remained in operation until sometime before her death in 1828. Janet and her partners planned to sell seeds to nurseries in New York, as well as to the nursery of Gordon, Dermer, & Co. in London, where American varieties were considered desirable curiosities.<ref>Johnson and Vetare, “[http://apps.hudsonvalley.org/american-arcadia/content/nursery4.html Agriculture: Nursery at Lower Red Hook],” [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GPU6PMHP/q/american%20arcadia view on Zotero].</ref> In addition to revenue from the nursery, Janet also made money by renting out her farmland to tenants, some of whom were responsible for managing her own livestock. According to one contract, she paid Philip Dederick one hundred and fifty dollars, along with housing, firewood, and the right to keep some farm animals in exchange for his labor managing her farmland and livestock.<ref>Johnson and Vetare, “[http://apps.hudsonvalley.org/american-arcadia/content/gardeners3.html The Workers: Gardeners and Nurserymen],” [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GPU6PMHP/q/american%20arcadia view on Zotero].</ref> The 1820 census also documents twelve slaves who worked in Janet’s house and estate, whom she was eventually forced to free in 1827 when New York State abolished slavery.<ref>United States Census Bureau [http://files.usgwarchives.net/ny/dutchess/census/1820/redhook.txt 1820 census records for Red Hook in Dutchess County], reel M33-71, sheet no. 114 via Johnson and Vetare, “[http://apps.hudsonvalley.org/american-arcadia/content/slavery2.html The Workers: Age of Slavery in New York],” [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GPU6PMHP/q/american%20arcadia view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2178.JPG|thumb|left|Fig. 2, John Cox Jr., ''Map of a Farm in the Town of Red Hook, the Property of Mrs. Janet Montgomery'', October 1802.]]
Although Janet planned to leave her estate to her nephew William, his early death in 1822 preceded her own, and she willed the property to her youngest brother Edward Livingston (1764–1836) and his wife Louise d’Avezac Livingston (1781–1860). They renamed the site Montgomery Place. Edward and Louise occupied the estate seasonally, but they continued to rely year round on the [[kitchen garden]] and [[orchard]]s, planting apricot, nectarine, cherry, peach, and pear trees.<ref>Haley 1988, 32, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/SSZXJFSC/q/haley view on Zotero].</ref> Drawing on their experiences in Europe, where Edward had served as United States Minister to France from 1833 to 1835, they brought a new approach to the design of the estate that emphasized visual beauty over agriculture and commerce.<ref>Haley 1988, 13, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/SSZXJFSC/q/haley view on Zotero].</ref> New attitudes towards the landscape emerged at estates along the Hudson River, such as Montgomery Place, [[Blithewood]], and [[Hyde Park]] as they shed many of their earlier economic functions. In 1829, Edward and Louise began laying out and building what would eventually grow to five miles of walking paths throughout the estate.<ref>Kathleen Eagen Johnson and Timothy Steinhoff, ''Art of the Landscape: Sunnyside, Montgomery Place and Romanticism'' (Tarrytown, N.Y.: Historic Hudson Valley, 1997), 30 [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WI4Q62BT/q/art%20of%20the%20landscape view on Zotero].</ref> The Hudson valley took on new importance as a shipping and transportation route following the completion of the Erie Canal in 1835, but Edward's unexpected death in 1836 brought a temporary halt to these projects. He left the estate in the hands of Louise and their only child, Coralie “Cora” Livingston Barton (1806–1873), wife of Thomas Pennant Barton (1803–1869).

[[File:0852.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 3, Alexander Jackson Davis, "The Conservatory," Montgomery Place, c. 1839.]]
Louise and Cora continued to develop their property with additions and renovations, prioritizing a genteel conception of beauty in their development of the property. In 1839, Louise commissioned Frederick Catherwood to design a large private [[conservatory]] for the property, in which she could grow exotic plants [Fig. 3]. Her vision for the estate, however, was threatened by industrial developments. When John C. Cruger, who owned part of the Sawkill ravine that formed the northern border of the estate, attempted to sell it to industrial developers, Louise and her neighbor Robert Donaldson, owner of the adjacent [[Blithewood]] estate, joined together to purchase the land in 1841. Historians Johnson and Vetare have suggested that the legal agreement between them could be considered among the first scenic preservation covenants in the United States.<ref>Johnson and Vetare, “[http://apps.hudsonvalley.org/american-arcadia/content/beauty-1.html The Sawkill Creek: Preserving & Enhancing Nature’s Beauty],” [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GPU6PMHP/q/american%20arcadia view on Zotero].</ref> Louise would continue to assert her control over the property and its viewshed in the coming years. She had warning signs printed and posted in 1845 to curtail recreational shooting on the land, and petitioned New York State for control of a rock in the Hudson River off the shore of her property, which, to her annoyance and moral consternation, was a popular swimming spot.<ref>For the recreational shooting, see the “No Trespassing” broadside issued by Louise Livingston in 1845, now in the Bard College Montgomery Place Collection, illustrated in Johnson and Vetare, “[http://apps.hudsonvalley.org/american-arcadia/content/beauty-7.html The Sawkill Creek: Preserving & Enhanging Nature’s Beauty],” [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GPU6PMHP/q/american%20arcadia view on Zotero]. For the swimming spot, see Johnson and Vetare, “[http://apps.hudsonvalley.org/american-arcadia/content/scenic-protection-partner3.html Louise Livingston: Scenic Preservation Partner],” [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GPU6PMHP/q/american%20arcadia view on Zotero].</ref>

Archival documents preserve the names of a number of gardeners who worked on the estate, of whom the most significant was Alexander Gilson (1823–1889).<ref>Johnson and Vetare, “[http://apps.hudsonvalley.org/american-arcadia/content/gilson2.html The Workers: Alexander Gilson, Head Gardener],” [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GPU6PMHP/q/american%20arcadia view on Zotero].</ref> From around 1840 to 1860, Louise and Cora employed Gilson as the head gardener of the estate. He was the child of Janet Montgomery’s African American housekeeper Sarah (Sally) and butler John, both of whom may have started working for the Livingston family as slaves. <span id="Henderson_cite"></span>In the 1860s, Gilson cultivated a new plant in the amaranth family, ''Achyranthes Verschaffeltii, var. Gilsoni'', that was named in his honor, and made known to the larger horticultural community by a notice published in the ''American Horticultural Annual'' of 1869 ([[#Henderson|view text]]).

[[File:2179.JPG|thumb|left|Fig. 4, Hans Jacob Ehlers, ''Map of the Montgomery Place Arboretum'', c. 1849.]]
<span id="DowningArboretum_cite"></span>Cora and Thomas Barton became friends with the noted landscape gardener and theorist Andrew Jackson Downing, who visited the estate periodically, commented on their plans for additions and renovations, and sold them plants ([[#DowningArboretum|view text]]). Cora commissioned Alexander Jackson Davis to design a series of structures for the grounds, and designed her own garden furnishings. Thomas began work on an [[arboretum]] in 1846 ([[#DowningArboretum|view text]]), eventually hiring Hans Jacob Ehlers, a German landscape architect, to design the grounds after an unknown designer recommended by Downing had failed to complete the project [Fig. 4]. <span id="Ehlers_cite"></span>A dispute between Thomas and Ehlers gives some idea of the expense involved in the project, for which the designer asked one hundred dollars ([[#Ehlers|view text]]). <span id="Smith_cite"></span>In 1857, John Jay Smith praised the [[arboretum]] for its breadth and pioneering approach, but criticized the crowded planting of the different specimens, “which, in progress of time, must be seriously injured by their too close proximity” ([[#Smith|view text]]).

[[File:2175.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 5, Louise-Jules-Frédéric Villeneuve and Victor Adam (lithographers), after Jacques Gerard Milbert, ''Lower Falls—Near the Residence of Mrs. Montgomery,'' 1828–29.]]
A number of published images and descriptions established the natural beauty of Montgomery Place within the broader public imagination. A print of the lower falls of the Sawkill [Fig. 5] appeared in an 1828 travelogue by Jacques-Gérard Milbert, who traveled the United States collecting specimens for the Museum of Natural History in Paris.<ref>Jacques Milbert, ''Itinéraire pittoresque du fleuve Hudson et des parties latérales de l’Amérique du Nord: D’après les dessins originaux pris sur les lieux'' (Paris: Gaugain, 1829), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PN7SCTGD/q/milbert view on Zotero].</ref> His publication offered European readers a glimpse of the property. <span id="JDS_cite"></span>A vivid narrative of an autumnal visit to the estate published in an 1840 issue of the ''New-York Mirror'' helped establish its reputation closer to home ([[#JDS|view text]]). Downing’s ''Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'', first published in 1841, included a short description of Montgomery Place.<ref>A. J. [Andrew Jackson] Downing, ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening,'' 1st ed. (New York and London: Wiley and Putnam, 1841), 23–24, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QDVESTBX/q/1841 view on Zotero].</ref> Holding up many of its individual feature as exemplars for imitation or inspiration, this text, more than any other, shaped the reception of the estate.

[[File:0359.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 6, Anonymous, "The Lake," Montgomery Place, October 1847.]]
[[File:0844.jpg|thumb|Fig. 7, Alexander Jackson Davis, ''Montgomery Place—Shore Seat'', c. 1847.]]
<span id="DowningEditorial_cite"><span>The longest description of Montgomery Place was published in 1847, when Downing devoted an entire editorial to it in the ''Horticulturist'' ([[#DowningEditorial|view text]]), illustrated with prints based on sketches by Davis [Fig. 6]. In Downing’s description, the estate exemplifies the rugged and romantic natural beauty of the Hudson River Valley tempered with elements of a modern garden in the [[picturesque]] style. The most notable features included a path along the shore of the Hudson, a trail at the [[wilderness]] and [[lake]] along the Sawkill creek, a [[conservatory]] and [[flower garden]] near the main house, and a scenic [[drive]] suitable for “exercise in the carriage, or on horseback” that wound through the property. Small [[bridge]]s, a “[[pavilion]],” and an octagonal “rustic [[temple]],” emphasized the scale of the forty-foot [[waterfall]]s of the Sawkill, the [[lake]], the [[wood]]s, and the silhouettes of the Catskills hovering on the horizon across the river [Fig. 7]. The [[conservatory]] and [[arboretum]] provided not only “scenic effect,” but also controlled environments in which the owners and visitors could systematically analyze and compare individual species. [[Flower garden]]s nearby, laid out in a [[parterre]] described as a “rich oriental pattern of carpet or embroidery,” and a carriage [[drive]] through the wooded area in the southern part of the estate offered yet other ways to experience the property.

[[File:0843.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 8, Alexander Jackson Davis, ''Montgomery Place'', n.d.]]
[[File:0855.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 9, Alexander Jackson Davis, ''Garden Arch at Montgomery Place'', c. 1850.]]
[[File:1841.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 10, John Hare Otton, ''Design for a Garden Pagoda at Montgomery Place'', 1839–47.]]
With the exception of the main house, the architectural elements described by Downing no longer survive. Watercolor sketches and architectural drawings by Davis, however, give a sense of their varied styles and plans. Close to the house, neo-classical elements prevailed [Fig. 8], while rustic and neo-gothic structures dotted the periphery of the estate [Fig. 9]. The “temple” and other buildings were characterized by triangular, square, or octagonal plans, and situated with [[view]]s of the river, the [[waterfall]]s, and the [[lake]]. Another architectural rendering by the Philadelphia furniture-maker and architect John Hare Otton depicts a fantastical, four-tiered garden pagoda [Fig. 10], which he designed for the estate c. 1839–1847. Visitors especially remarked on the exceptional beauty of Otton’s [[arbor]]s, although no drawings of them survive ([[#Smith|view text]]). Robert Toole has connected these little buildings to French developments in the use of built landmarks known as ''fabrique'', which the Livingstons may have experienced firsthand during their travels in France.<ref>Robert M. Toole, ''Landscape Gardens on the Hudson, a History: The Romantic Age, the Great Estates, & the Birth of American Landscape Architecture'' (Hensonville, N.Y.: Black Dome, 2010), 66–67, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AWUVHX5X/q/toole view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2177.jpg|thumb|Fig. 11, After Benson John Lossing, “The Katzbergs from Montgomery Place,” in ''The Hudson, From the Wilderness to the Sea'' (1866), p. 175.]]
Well into the 1860s, Montgomery Place continued to occupy a prominent place in the pantheon of American landscape design. <span id="Lossing_cite"></span>Descriptions and depictions of the estate circulated both within America, and internationally in publications like London’s ''Art-Journal'' in 1860 [Fig. 11] ([[#Lossing|view text]]). Following the death of Cora Barton in 1873, the estate passed to sister and brother Louise Livingston Hunt (1873–1914) and Carleton Hunt (1873–1921), who decided to scale back the cost and effort necessary for the maintenance of the estate.<ref> John Ross Delafield, “Montgomery Place,” ''New York History'' 20, no. 4 (1939): 461, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/XIF87UA8/q/montgomery%20place view on Zotero].</ref> They demolished the grand [[conservatory]] and elaborate flower [[bed]]s that formed the centerpiece of Louise and Cora’s garden, replacing them with “a simple but well-framed [[lawn]]” in the decades following the Civil War.<ref>Charles William Eliot, ''Charles Eliot: Landscape Architect'' (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co, 1902), 254 [1889], [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/B96IS3H4/q/eliot view on Zotero].</ref> The current condition of the gardens, [[lawn]]s, and [[greenhouse]] primarily reflect the additions and renovations of Violetta Delafield (1875–1949), who transformed the landscape of the estate c. 1920–1940 based on her preferences for the smaller garden rooms characteristic of the Arts and Crafts style. The Sleepy Hollow Restorations preservation society, known today as Historic Hudson Valley, acquired the estate from the Delafield family in 1986. In 2016 they sold it to Bard College, located on the neighboring Blithewood property.

—''Alexander Brey''

<hr>

==Texts==
*<div id="MontgomeryContract" ></div>Contract between Janet Montgomery and James McWilliam, c. 1804 (quoted in Johnson and Vetare)<ref>Now in the Livingston papers at the Manuscript Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library. As reproduced and transcribed in Johnson and Vetare, “[http://apps.hudsonvalley.org/american-arcadia/content/nursery2.html Agriculture: Nursery at Lower Red Hook],” [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GPU6PMHP/q/vetare view on Zotero].</ref> [[#MontgomeryContract_cite|Back up to History]]
:“Proposals
:“To take from four to ten acres of ground which shall be fenced and be Dunged every year as much as you shall require to give you your board and forty pounds a year—for the space of Seven years for taking the Charge of the Garden & [[Nursery]].—the Profits of the last to be divided—as well as the losses and labour. If However the profits for the three first years—shall not exceed your present wagers [''sic''] that is to say seventy two pounds then I agree to make up that sum up to you including the forty pounds first proposed—All the present stock to be thrown in to the General stock gratis but if at any time you should wish to leave me the same numbers of stock to be left me with out Charge—If you wish to quit ere the seven years are expired, you will have a right to one third of the Nursery to dispose of as you please.
:“If you remain the seven years you will have a right to one half of the Nursery—and to dispose of as you please With respect to purchasing the whole I would agree to lump[?] the purchase and give a fare [''sic''] bid—but to say I will purchase each shrub and tree as they are singly sold, I cannot agree to this and therefore you shall only give me the preference to purchase & if I do not agree you shall sell to any one you please to take from the Nursery what shrubs, flowers & trees I may want for my farm excepting the Apple trees which if I should want I will agree to pay for—”

*<div id="MontgomeryGeorge"></div>Janet Montgomery's account book, January 10, 1815, (quoted in Johnson and Vetare)<ref>Livingston papers, Manuscript Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library. As reproduced and transcribed in Johnson and Vetare, “[http://apps.hudsonvalley.org/american-arcadia/content/early-years1.html The Gardens: The Early Years],” [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GPU6PMHP/q/vetare view on Zotero].</ref> [[#MontgomeryGeorge_cite|Back up to History]]
:“Memorandum of an agreement Between Honnis George and Mrs. Janet Montgomery made the 10th day of January 1815 as follows Viz.t
:“1. The said George is to serve the said Mrs. Montgomery for one year to commence on the first day of March next as Gardener and Nurseryman and to attend to the collection and putting up the seeds properly for Sales.
:“2. The said J. Montgomery agrees to pay the said George for his said years services two hundred Dollars and to find him assistance when the same may be necessary. She is also to find him the Garden house to live in. Also sufficient fire wood, the privilege of keeping two pigs. She is also to keep a cow for him winter and summer.
:“3. The said George is to find himself in provision except vegetables which he has the right to take out of the Garden.
:“Witness our hands the day and year first before written.
:“Witness present
:“John Cox Jr. John George
:“Janet Montgomery”

*<div id="JDS"></div>J. D. S., February 8, 1840, “A Visit to Montgomery-Place” (''New-York Mirror'' 17, no. 33: 260–61)<ref>J.D.S., “A Visit to Montgomery-Place,” ''New-York Mirror, A Weekly Journal of Literature and the Fine Arts'' 17, no. 33 (February 8, 1840): 260–61, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5ANBQRC6/q/j.d.s. view on Zotero].</ref> [[#JDS_cite|Back up to History]]
:“The approach to the mansion of Mrs. L. is by a road, studded on either side with a row of forest-trees standing in sentinel array, as a guard of honour come out to welcome the expected guest. This [[avenue]] opens by a wicker-gate to a broad area of mingled forest, garden, and sunny [[park]]: the view expanding and widening, until it is crowned and lost in the far-off glories of the river, the champaign country beyond, and the noble Cattskills [''sic''], springing away and burying their heads in the clouds. Numberless bridle-paths run off from the carriage road; serpentining in mazy pleasure—now approaching, now receding, until, diving down some little ravines, they disappeared from the sight. The garden, which salutes you as you emerge from the deep shade of the grove, was now mourning the loss of its summer, holiday garb and showed only here and there a lingering flower, the lone companions of a bright and laughing company. The purpling fruits of summer had been gathered; autumn had touched the [[parterre]], and shaken its rich and variegated honours to the ground; and even the sculptured gardener seemed to hang his head in sorrow, and mutter between his marble lips, ‘Othello's occupation's gone.’ To be sure, we could commission the imagination to perform the office of nature. We could bid her summon back from their decay the flowers, tint them with the never-ending hues of summer, hang them in ripe and nodding beauty along the winding [[walk]], and relieve the flush and circling richness of the expanded flower, with the folded or half-opened bud. Yet this is but a tantalizing occupation. The magic pleasure, the exquisite and liquid delight which thrills us when nature herself bids the desolate stalk to bloom, adorns the naked stem with green leaves, and fills the flowering cup with the breath of perfume—these imagination cannot supply. Yet why deplore their loss the same autumnal spirit which spreads a pall over the glad beauty of the garden, covers with richest mantle the forest. The leaves of the oak and maple had been touched with the frosty influence, and were here and there borne from their withered stems and whirled upon the ground, and as we sauntered along the winding path, rustled to our tread with that gentle, melancholy stir which subdues, not saddens the mind, and fits it for a serene communion with the sobered grandeur of the season.
:“My companion was one of the few who possess that instinctive delicacy which shrinks from forcing an unseasonable gaiety upon those who, like myself, feel the influence of the dying year. Woman best knows to adapt herself to the varying mood of man, and interprets more readily than our sex the changing language of the seasons. In summer we love to see the light, graceful form of the girl, floating in a playful motion among flowers and green things; now stopping to pluck a breathing gem, and now, while you are admiring her heightened glow and beauty, breaking away and sending upon the scented breeze her innocent, free-hearted laugh. But in autumn the vivacity and glee which charmed us erewhile, seems almost to reproach us, and comes like the dying tone of a harp string snapped by too rude a hand. It may be an unmanly sensibility, but I cannot endure to hear in the [[wood]]s of autumn the ''loud voice'', awakened by hilarity, or sent out to find an echo in the answering hills and trees. When green foliage clothes the boughs, and the voices of birds are merry among the tops of the trees, then send abroad the many-tones dong and peal. But when the stir of the wind is like a complaining melody among the stricken leaves, let the hushed tone make no discord upon the great forest-harp of nature.
:“So thought my ''cicerone'' as she moved along, pointing out to my notice, in a low, subdued voice, the impressive beauties which met us. The grounds, which retreat to the north, are irregular, and endlessly varied. Sometimes they slope off by a regular descent, and again drop suddenly down; forming a dell in which, one might easily imagine, the winds strewed their couches at night, and soothed themselves to rest with the musical murmur of a little stream, which led its silver thread at the bottom. Descending farther along the edge of this ravine, we crossed a [[Rustic style|rustic]] [[bridge]] thrown over the brook, which here escaping from its narrow channel, defied the nimble foot of the pedestrian to leap it. A lengthening [[View/Vista|vista]], formed by the branches of the linden, intertwining and bending over your head an [[arch]], the thousand hues of their taper leaves peeping out from between the lattices, tempted you away from the water, eddying and sporting among the rocks of its bed. Mounting by a narrow path, by dint of climbing and catching to the underbrush which lined its sides, we were warned of our close vicinity to a [[Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall|waterfall]], which a few steps forward revealed to us, dashing down a perpendicular edge, and hurrying away its chafed and foaming water to an expanded bay, into whose unruffled bosom it soon buried itself and was soothed to quiet. I have sometimes thought that to [[Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall|cascades]] nature has given a greater and more unending variety than to any other feature of her creation. Everything else has its cognate, its counterpart. Every landscape has in it ''something'', which looks familiar and common, if not absolutely vulgar. But in the dash of water as it tumbles down and finds an echo on either shore, there is a freshness which is ever renovating, and which breaks upon you with an inspiration that verges upon ecstasy. I have seen many a [[waterfall]], from the ‘[[Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall|cataract]] of Niagara’ to the humble rapid; but I have never found one to which I was indifferent, which possessed the same charm, or stirred within me kindred emotions.
:“''That'' over which we were now hanging had its own features, its guardian divinity to preside over its influences. Shall I describe it? I could only sketch a few obvious traits; who will attempt to paint the emotions which are evoked, the thousand ''undefined thoughts'' which spring and live in its roar, but flee forever as we depart? I could speak of the stream, plunging like a bison over a precipice, recovering from its leap, and shaking the rocks as it bounded away; of the evergreens, which seemed to love their dangerous [[eminence]], advancing to the very brink of the shelf, and contrasting their bright hues with the milky foam into which the dusky-coloured water had been fretted; of the creeping plants, which hung their festoons over the face of the jagged rock, and fringed with living green the otherwise naked bank; -but who shall delineate the rush of memory from its secret, viewless depths, the tide of retrospection, the gush of feeling,
::‘When thoughts on thoughts, a countless throng, Came chasing countless thoughts along?’
:“when the fountains of the mind are broken up, and its waters mingle and blend in richest confusion? Words are sometimes impotent; never more so than when employed to give an idea of reverie. After lingering sometime in silent admiration and thought, we bent our way backward along the shore of the river; delaying a little to hear the dash of the wave upon the rocks, and anon stopping upon some gentle ascent to mark the hectic beauty of the leaves, brightening under the hand of decay.”

*<div id="DowningArboretum"></div>Downing, A. J., December 31, 1846, letter to Thomas Barton (quoted in Haley 1988: 33)<ref>Haley 1988, 33, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/SSZXJFSC/q/haley view on Zotero]</ref> [[#DowningArboretum_cite|Back up to History]]
:“Highland Gardens
:“Newburgh Dec 31: 1846
:“Dear Sir
:“You will observe that I have taken the “days of grace” which in your letter you kindly allowed me for a reply. In truth I have had so many matters of business forced upon me lately that I have had less leisure for my correspondence than usual.
:“I enclose the list with the height and prices of all that we can furnish good specimens of in the spring. If you are ready to plant more I would advise you at some time during the winter to look through the nurseries of Landreth & Fulton below Philadelphia. I understand they have some fine and rare ornamental trees.
:“I beg you to present my kind regards to Mrs. Barton & say that I not only sent Major Davezac two large plants of the Night-smelling jasmine but also two plants of the “Torreya taxifolia” a new & beautiful evergreen tree—in habit between our Hemlock & the Yew—which has been discovered in Florida where it grows 50 ft. high. I believe there have been no specimens before these sent to the Continent of Europe. I also forwarded through my London publishers a copy of the Horticulturist up to this month—all of which I trust will reach Major Davezac safely.
:“I am delighted to learn that you are about to add to the great charms of Montgomery Place by the formation of an [[arboretum]]. How few persons there are yet in this country who know anything of the individual beauty of even our own forest trees! I wish you success in so laudable an undertaking.
:“Mrs. Downing desires to join me in remembrances to Mrs. Barton & yourself & I remain
:“Dear Sir your most obt Servant
:“A.J. Downing”

*<div id="DowningEditorial"></div>[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], October 1847, describing Montgomery Place, country home of Mrs. Edward (Louise) Livingston, Dutchess County, NY (1847: 154–160)<ref>A. J. Downing, "A Visit to Montgomery Place," ''Horticulturist'' 2, no. 4 (October 1847), 154–160, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/XUWRREQS view on Zotero].</ref> [[#DowningEditorial_cite|Back up to History]]
[[File:0357.jpg|thumb|Fig. 12, Alexander Jackson Davis, "Montgomery Place," in A. J. Downing, ed., ''Horticulturist'' 2, no. 4 (October 1847): pl. opp. p. 153.]]
:“About four hundred acres comprise the estate called Montgomery Place, a very large part of which is devoted to [[pleasure ground]]s and ornamental purposes. The every varied surface affords the finest scope for the numerous roads, [[drive]]s and [[walk]]s, with which it abounds. Even its natural boundaries are admirable. On the west is the Hudson, broken by islands into an outline unusually varied and [[picturesque]]. On the north, it is separated from [[Blithewood]], the adjoining [[seat]], by a wooded valley, in the depths of which runs a broad stream, rich in [[waterfall]]s. On the south is a rich oak [[wood]], in the centre of which is a private [[drive]]. On the east it touches the post road. Here is the entrance [[gate]], and from it leads a long and stately [[avenue]] of trees, like the approach to an old French chateau. Halfway up its length, the lines of planted trees give place to a tall [[wood]], and this again is succeeded by the [[lawn]], which opens in all its stately dignity, with increased effect, after the deeper shadows of this vestibule-like [[wood]]. . . .
:"Without going into any details of the interior, we may call attention to the unique effect of the ''[[pavilion]]'', thirty feet wide, which forms the north wing of this house. It opens from the library and drawing-room by low windows. Its ribbed roof is supported by a tasteful series of [[column]]s and [[arch|arches]], in the style of an Italian [[arcade]]. As it is on the north side of the dwelling, its position is always cool in summer; and this coolness is still farther increased by the abundant shade of tall old trees, whose heads cast a pleasant gloom, while their tall trunks allow the eye to feast on the rich landscape spread around it. . . . [Fig. 12]
:“THE MORNING [[WALK]].
[[File: 0358.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 13, Anonymous, "Rustic Seat," Montgomery Place, in A. J. Downing, ed., ''Horticulturist'' 2, no. 4 (October 1847): 157, fig. 26.]]
:“Leaving the [[terrace]] on the western front, the steps of the visitor, exploring Montgomery Place, are naturally directed towards the river bank. A path on the left of the broad [[lawn]] leads one to the fanciful [[rustic style|rustic]]-gabled [[seat]], among a growth of locusts at the bottom of the [[slope]]. Here commences a long [[walk]], which is the favorite morning ramble of guests. . . . Half-way along this morning ramble, a [[rustic style|rustic]] [[seat]], placed on a bold little plateau, at the base of a large tree, eighty feet above the water and fenced with a [[rustic style|rustic]] barrier, invites you to linger and gaze at the fascinating river landscape here presented. . . .
:“A little farther on, we reach a flight of rocky steps, leading up to the [[border]] of the [[lawn]]. At the top of these is a [[rustic style|rustic]] [[seat]] with a thatched canopy, curiously built round the trunk of an aged pine. . . . [Fig. 13]
:“THE [[wilderness|WILDERNESS]].
:“Leaving the morning [[walk]], we enter at once into 'The [[Wilderness]].' This is a large and long wooded valley. . . . It is covered with the native growth of trees, thick, dark, and shadowy, so that once plunged in its recesses, you can easily imagine yourself in the depths of an old forest, far away from the haunts of civilization. . . .
:“But the [[Wilderness]] is by no means savage in the aspect of its beauty; on the contrary, here as elsewhere in this demesne, are evidences, in every improvement, of a fine appreciation of the natural charms of the locality. The whole of this richly wooded valley is threaded with [[walk]]s, ingeniously and naturally conducted so as to penetrate to all the most interesting points; while a great variety of [[rustic style|rustic]] [[seat]]s, formed beneath the threes, in deep secluded [[thicket]]s , by the side of the swift rushing stream, or on some inviting [[eminence]], enables one fully to enjoy them. . . .
:“THE [[cataract|CATARACT]].
:“But the stranger who enters the depths of this dusky [[wood]] by this route, is not long inclined to remain here. His imagination is excited by the not very distant sound of [[waterfall]]s.
::'Above, below, aerial murmurs swell,
::From hanging [[wood]], brown heath and bushy dell;
::A thousand gushing rells that shun the light,
::Stealing like music on the ear of night.'
:“He takes another path, passes by an airy looking [[rustic style|rustic]] [[bridge]], and plunging for a moment into the [[thicket]], emerges again in full view of the first [[cataract]]. Coming from the solemn depths of the [[woods]], he is astonished at the noise and volume of the stream, which here rushes in wild foam and confusion over the rocky fall, forty feet in depth. Ascending a flight of steps made in the precipitous banks of the stream, we have another [[view]], which is scarcely less spirited and [[picturesque]].
:"This [[waterfall]], beautiful at all seasons, would alone be considered a sufficient attraction to give notoriety to a rural locality in most country neighborhoods. But as if nature had intended to lavish her gifts here, she has, in the course of this valley, given two other [[cataract]]s. These are all striking enough to be worthy of the pencil of the artist, and they make this valley a feast of wonders to the lovers of the [[picturesque]]. . . .
[[File:0359.jpg|thumb|Fig. 14, Anonymous, "The Lake," Montgomery Place, in A. J. Downing, ed., ''Horticulturist'' 2, no. 4 (October 1847): 158, fig. 27.]]
:“THE [[lake|LAKE]]
:“. . . . The peninsula, on the north of the [[lake]], is carpeted with the dry leaves of the thick cedars that cover it, and form so umbrageous a resting place that the sky over it seems absolutely dusky at noon day. On its northern bank is a rude sofa, formed entirely of stone. Here you linger again, to wonder afresh at the novelty and beauty of the ''second [[cascade]]''. The stream here emerges from a dark [[thicket]], falls about twenty feet, and then rushes away on the side of the peninsula opposite the [[lake]]. . . . [Fig. 14]
[[File:0394.jpg|thumb|Fig. 15, Anonymous, "The Conservatory," Montgomery Place, in A. J. Downing, ed., ''The Horticulturist'' 2, no. 4 (October 1847): 159, fig. 28.]]
:“Winding along the sides of the valley, and stretching for a good distance across its broadest part, all the while so deeply immersed however, in its umbrageous shelter, as scarcely to see the sun, or indeed to feel very certain of our whereabouts, we emerge in the neighborhood of the [[conservatory|CONSERVATORY]].
:“This a large, isolated, glazed structure, designed by MR. CATHERWOOD, to add to the scenic effect of the [[pleasure ground|pleasure grounds]]. On its northern side are, in summer, arranged the more delicate [[greenhouse|green-house]] plants; and in front are groups of large Oranges, Lemons, Citrons, Cape Jasmines, Eugenias, etc., in tubs—plants remarkable for their size and beauty. Passing under neat and tasteful archways of wirework, covered with rare climbers, we enter what is properly [Fig. 15]
:“THE [[flower garden|FLOWER GARDEN]].
:“How different a scene from the deep sequestered shadows of the [[Wilderness]]! Here all is gay and smiling. Bright [[parterre]]s of brilliant flowers bask in the full daylight, and rich masses of colour seem to revel in the sunshine. The [[walk]]s are fancifully laid out, so as to form a tasteful whole; the [[bed]]s are surrounded by low [[edging]]s of turf or box, and the whole looks like some rich oriental pattern of carpet or embroidery. In the centre of the garden stands a large vase of the Warwick pattern; others occupy the centres of [[parterre]]s in the midst of its two main divisions, and at either end is a fanciful light [[summerhouse|summer-house]], or [[pavilion]], of Moresque character. The whole garden is surrounded and shut out from the [[lawn]], by a belt of [[shrubbery]], and above and behind this, rises, like a noble framework, the background of trees of the [[lawn]] and the [[Wilderness]]. If there is any prettier [[flower garden]] scene than this ''ensemble'' in the country, we have not yet had the good fortune to behold it. . . .
:“THE [[Drive|DRIVE]]
:“On the southern boundary is an oak [[wood]] of about fifty acres. It is totally different in character from the [[Wilderness]] on the north, and is a nearly level or slightly undulating surface, well covered with fine Oak, Chestnut, and other timber trees. Though it is laid out the [[Drive|DRIVE]]; a sylvan route as agreeable for exercise in the carriage, or on horseback, as the '[[Wilderness]],' or the 'Morning [[Walk]],' is for a ramble on foot. . . .
:“Though Montgomery Place itself is old, yet a spirit ever new directs the improvements carried on within it. Among those more worthy of note, we gladly mention an ''[[arboretum]]'', just commenced on a fine site in the [[pleasure ground]]s, set apart and thoroughly prepared for the purpose. Here a scientific arrangement of all the most beautiful hardy trees and shrubs, will interest the student, who looks upon the vegetable kingdom with a more curious eye than the ordinary observer."

*Downing, A. J., 1849, describing someone that Johnson and Vetare convincingly identify as Cora Barton, “On Feminine Taste in Rural Affairs,” (''Horticulturist'' 3, no. 10: 454)<ref>A. J. Downing, “On Feminine Taste in Rural Affairs,” ''Horticulturist'' 3, no. 10 (1849): 454, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GUR87EHE/q/feminine view on Zotero]. For the identification of this unnamed woman as Cora, see Johnson and Vetare, "[http://apps.hudsonvalley.org/american-arcadia/content/friend-muse2.html Cora Livingston Barton: Downing's Friend and Muse]," [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GPU6PMHP/q/vetare view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Almost all the really enthusiastic and energetic lady gardeners that we have the pleasure of knowing, belong to the wealthiest class in this country. We have a neighbor on the Hudson, for instance, whose [[Pleasure ground/Pleasure garden|pleasure-grounds]] cover many acres, whose [[flower garden]] is a miracle of beauty, and who keeps six gardeners at work all the season. But there is never a tree transplanted that she does not see that its roots are carefully handled; not a [[walk]] laid out that she does not mark its curves; not a [[parterre]] arranged that she does not direct its colors and groupings, and even assist in planting it. No matter what guests enjoy her hospitality, several hours every day are thus spent in out-of-door employment and from the zeal and enthusiasm with which she always talks of every thing relating to her country life, we do not doubt that she is far more rationally happy now, than when she received the homage of a circle of admirers at one of the most brilliant of foreign courts.”

*Downing, A.J., 1848, letter to Cora Barton about a propagating pit at Montgomery Place (quoted in Haley 1988: 34–36)<ref>Haley 1988, 34–36, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/SSZXJFSC/q/haley view on Zotero]</ref>
:“Highland Garden
:“June 17, 1848
:“I am delighted, My dear Madam, to learn by your very obliging note that the little basket of plants pleased you. I assure you that I take as lively an interest in Montgomery Place and feel as proud of it as belonging to this part of the world as I do of the Hudson itself.
:“Mrs. Livingston and yourself are very kind to send us again this—one of the most agreeable of the invitations of the season—we accept it with great pleasure—and some time in the latter part of July or end of August—whenever it shall be quite convenient and agreeable to you we shall hope to enjoy your kind hospitality again. I wish also very much to see the improvements—and Mr. Bartons [''sic''] [[Arboretum]]. I think that I have imagination enough—being able to carry ten or twenty years ''future growth'' in my mind when seeing a plant only 1 ft. high—better than most persons—to be able to comprehend & enjoy it.
:“In the meantime we trust to some impromptu visit from you. I shall find it therefore quite impossible to give any sketch or plan of the ‘[[hermitage]]’ until you have seen it!
:“I should be very glad to aid you in the plan of your pit—but perhaps shall need more definite details. What you describe is rather a small [[greenhouse]] than a pit.
:“My neighbor in Westchester, Mr. Ludlow, constructed last season a pit—with double sashes—6 inches apart—the topmost one a few inches only above the surface of the ground, which, without any fire heat, kept Camelias, Roses & all the hardier green house plants well through the winter.
:“A cold pit like this is usually made only 6 ft wide, 5 or 6 inches above ground in front, & 9 or 10 inches at the back.
[[File:1674.jpg|thumb|Fig. 16, A. J. Downing, ''Sketch of a "Propagating Pit" (or greenhouse) at Montgomery Place'', June 17, 1848.]]
:“What, I imagine, you require, is a sort of ''propagating pit''—and I would recommend one the form of which you will easily understand by the section which I send you on the next page. [Fig. 16]
:“This is a sort of cheap span-roof building part of which is ''glass'' & the other part, viz the roof towards the north ''shingled''. Under this roof, which is just high enough to allow a person to walk upright, is the [[walk]]. The roof is supported by a line of posts, ''a'', which rest on the back wall of the pit or stage. This gives a stage rather wider than the glass & there is no loss in the walk space occupied, as in most cases. The front of the building should be about a foot above ground, & the roof should rise high enough to allow of space for the back [[walk]]. In this country I do not find it of the least importance what the ''angle'' is for a house of this kind—there is so much sun & light.
:“If you have a bark[?]-pit, the flue may be put under the walk. If you have a stage it might run under the stage & be out of sight and out of the way altogether. The furnace may be quite outside in a little pit 3 or 4 ft square, at one end & a little below the level of the house, besides the back walk it would be well to have 2 little paths running cross-wise—to allow of reaching every part of the stage or pit, thus. A house like this, twenty five feet long & built so that the pit or stage could be 8 ft wide ought to be quite large enough for your purposes & may be constructed very cheaply. I suppose wood on your own place is the cheapest fuel—otherwise , I should recommend a small air-tight coal stove with the ''polmaise'' mode of heating—very cheap & simple, requiring no flue, & the stove might be put at one end of the [[walk]]. Do not hesitate to ask any explanations if I am not clear in my meaning—or if you do not like this plan I will suggest another. I shall always be most happy to be of the slightest service in your improvements.
:“Mrs. Downing begs to be most kindly remembered to all at Montgomery Place. Say to Mr. Barton that I shall be very glad to see him here at any time, & believe me, my dear Madam, truly your Obt.
:“A.J. Downing”

*<div id="Ehlers"></div>Ehlers, Hans J., 1852, ''Defence Against Abuse and Slander with Some Strictures on Mr. Downing’s Book on Landscape Gardening'' (quoted in Haley 1988: 23)<ref>Haley 1988, 23, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/SSZXJFSC/q/haley view on Zotero] </ref> [[#Ehlers_cite|Back up to History]]
:“In the spring of 1849, he [H. J. Ehlers] was engaged by Mr. T. Barton, of Montgomery Place, Dutchess County, to design and superintend the laying out of the grounds belonging to his country [[seat]]. An attempt had been made to do this by a person who had been recommended to Mr. Barton by Mr. Downing. The attempt had proved a complete failure. The work of two years had to be undone and begun anew. After the work was completed; Mr. Barton expressed himself satisfied with it. But although I charged him less than I considered my services worth, he has refused and still continues to refuse to pay more than about one half of my charge [about $100].”

*<div id="Smith"></div>Smith, John Jay, 1857, “Visits to Country Places. —No. 6. Around New York” (''Horticulturist'' 7: 22)<ref>John Jay Smith, “Visits to Country Places.—No. 6. Around New York,” ''Horticulturist'' 7 (1857): 22, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PZYJ3SE8/q/around%20new%20york view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Smith_cite|Back up to History]]
:“Montgomery Place, the [[seat]] of Mrs. Edward Livingston, and occupied by herself and her children, Mr. and Mrs. T. P. Barton, was originally the residence of General Montgomery. It therefore has age and trees consequently of more antiquity than are usually seen. Its specialty now is the [[Arboretum]], the most successful effort yet made among us, and though it has been executed at considerable cost of time, labor, and money, yet we cannot but regret that Mr. Barton has not allowed himself greater space for the future development of his various specimens, which, in process of time, must be seriously injured by their too close proximity. Nevertheless, great credit is due for this first effort.
:“In the other planting, the trees have become old stagers, and much that has been done by man represents the [[plantation]]s of nature, and very beautiful and valuable they are. Combined with these, amid [[avenue]]s, and shady [[walk]]s, and a [[drive]] of many miles on the property, is an extensive [[flower garden|flower-garden]], the especial pet of Mrs. Barton, who has here shown effects which have not before been exhibited in this country. Her masses of roses and other flowers are particularly attractive. The [[arbor]]s, overgrown with Aristolochia sipho, the Dutchman’s pipe, exceed anything of the kind we have ever seen. These were designed by Mr. Otton, a wood carver and architectural decorator, of Philadelphia, whose merits are not sufficiently known.
:“The noble stream and [[Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall|cascades]] dividing Annandale and Montgomery Place, have already been described as well as words can depict what is indescribable. In short, Montgomery Place is all that a country-[[seat]] need, and, in our climate, can be.”

*Mead, Peter B., 1861, “A Day’s Ride” (''Horticulturist'' 16: 416)<ref>Peter Mead, “A Day’s Ride,” ''Horticulturalist'' 16 (1861): 416, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZZJLR7IH/q/mead view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Then we came to a pretty [[Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall|waterfall]] and a little [[lake]] of irregular outline, surrounded chiefly with evergreens, the deciduous trees having been mostly cut out. Passing down a narrow, well-wooded foot path, with occasional glimpses of water, we at last reached the foot of the dell, and came in full sight of the [[cascade]]s, the water leaping joyously over and around the rocks, all foaming with gladness, and each drop seeming a little elfin sprite. If not grand, the scene was very beautiful. The little river is here crossed by a pretty [[rustic style|rustic]] [[bridge]], with a [[pavilion]] in the middle, commanding a fine view of the [[cascade]]s and a reach of the Hudson in the opposite direction. The place was cool and refreshing; tired and sweltering with the heat, we all sat down for a moment’s rest and enjoyment. We love water, especially water in motion, with an inexpressible fondness; and as we passed on, we paused for a moment at the end of the [[bridge]] to take a last look at the [[cascade]]s, and then went on our way repeating Tennyson’s noble line,
::‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever.’
:“Toiling up the hill, we found ourselves, almost without knowing it, on Montgomery Place, the residence of Mrs. Barton. This has been so often described, that it seems almost unnecessary to saw a word about it. Its fame is known every where. It is, no doubt, one of the most finished places in the country. It has age; the trees and shrubs have developed all their grand proportions, and impress one with a feeling of reverence. The grouping is well done, and worthy of study. There are many individual specimens of great beauty and interest. The [[lawn]] is extensive and well kept. The [[View/Vista|views]] are possessed of much grandeur, but might be improved, were it not almost a sacrilege to fell such noble trees. The [[walk]]s and [[drive]]s are well made and admirably kept. The Pinetum, though not as large as we could wish, is a very interesting feature. At the [[conservatory]] we found Alexander, and ''locum tenens'' [substitute owner] of the place. Alexander was born and brought up here. He is very polite and attentive, and takes a good deal of pride, as well he may, in pointing out objects of interest. The conservatory is a ridge and furrow house of large dimensions, and was filled with Fuchsias, Gloxinias, Achimenes, Hanging Baskets, and variegated leafed plants of great variety. All were well grown, and the house was gay with flowers. The flower garden is a fine piece of work, but the arrangement of the bedding plants a little faulty. The plants themselves, however, were mostly in good condition, and the whole garden clean and tidy. Perhaps the finest trees on Montgomery Place are the Elms; but we must not particularize; we have no time for that now. A person should hardly visit Montgomery Place unless he can spend a day there, and repeat his visit often: a mere glance at so many grand things only serves to bewilder one. But this was all we could do, and so we passed along to ‘Messina,’ the home of Mr. Aspinwall.”

*<div id="Lossing"></div>Lossing, Benson J., 1860, “The Hudson, from the Wilderness to the Sea” (''The Art-Journal'' 6, [London]: 304)<ref>Benson John Lossing, “The Hudson, from the Wilderness to the Sea,” ''The Art-Journal'' 6 (1860): 304, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TMLDLPGB/q/the%20hudson view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Lossing_cite|Back up to History]]
:“The wife of Montgomery was a sister of Chancellor Livingston. With ample means and good taste at command, she built this mansion, and there spent fifty years of widowhood, childless, but cheerful. The mansion and its 400 acres passed into the possession of her brother Edward, and there, as we have observed, his family now reside. Of all the fine estates along this portion of the Hudson, this is said to be the most perfect in its beauty and arrangements. [[Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall|Waterfalls]], [[picturesque]] [[bridge]]s, romantic glens, groves, a magnificent [[park]], one of the beautiful of the ornamental gardens in this country, and views of the river and mountains, unsurpassed, render Montgomery Place a retreat to be coveted, even by the most favoured of fortune.”

*<div id="Henderson"></div>Henderson, Peter, 1869, “Notices of New and Interesting Bedding and Other Plants Tested in 1868” (''American Horticultural Annual'': 112)<ref>Peter Henderson, “Notices of New and Interesting Bedding and Other Plants Tested in 1868,” in ''American Horticultural Annual'' (New York: Orange Judd Co., 1869), 112 [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/CB96UV3T/q/bedding view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Henderson_cite|Back up to History]]
:“Achyranthes Verschaffeltii, var. Gilsoni.—The great fault with the original species was the dull crimson shade, inferior to Coleus and other plants of dark foliage; but in the variety Gilsoni, the color of the leaves is a carmine rather than a crimson, with the stems of a deep shade of pink, giving to the plant a bright and lively appearance, far surpassing the old variety; it is also of dwarfer and denser growth, and is an improvement so decided that it will, without doubt, throw the original one out of cultivation. We grew them side by side during the past summer, and the superiority of this was apparent to all who saw them. As I write, (14th October), it is one of the most attractive plants in our grounds. The merit of originating this valuable plant is due to Alexander Gilson, gardener to Mrs. Cora L. Barton, Barryton, N.Y.”

*Kennedy, Alexander, March 27, 1897, letter to the editor in “The Roll of Honor” (''American Gardening'' 18, no. 118: 227)<ref>Patrick O’Mara, “The Roll of Honor,” ''American Gardening'' 18, no. 118 (March 27, 1897): 227, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MX7T7DPW view on Zotero].</ref>
:“In regard to Aschyranthus Gilsonii, would may say that the raiser of it was Alexander Gilson, a colored man and well worthy to bear the title of gardener. I was a neighbor of his and knew him well. It was about the year 1872 that he raised the Aschyranthus. He was then the gardener for Mme. Livingstone, and afterward for her successor, Mrs. Barton, on what was called “the Montgomery place,” once the country residence of General Montgomery, from which it took its name. It is located in the town of Red Hook, Dutchess county, N.Y.”

*Lown, Frank B., March 27, 1897, letter to the editor in “The Roll of Honor” (''American Gardening'' 18, no. 118: 227)<ref>O’Mara 1897, 227, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MX7T7DPW view on Zotero].</ref>
:“I am particularly interested in one name in your 'Roll of Honor,' [of outstanding plants] and that is Aschyranthus Gilsonii, which you say was raised by a colored gardener. When I was a child I lived in Barrytown … and I well remember Alexander Gilson, who was then the gardener on what was known as the ‘Barton place,’ a couple of miles north of where we lived. He was a colored man, but he very justly earned and received the cordial liking and respect of the entire community. He was an accomplished gardener, and died but only a few years ago, and I am rejoiced to know that now the name of old ‘Alexander’—for no one knew him as aught else— has been perpetuated by the plant referred to in your speech.”

<hr>

==Images==
<span id="roundabout_img"></span>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">
File:2176.JPG|Alexander Thompson, ''Map of the Town of Rhinebeck in the County of Dutchess'' [detail], 1797–1798.
File:2178.JPG|John Cox Jr., ''Map of a Farm in the Town of Red Hook, the Property of Mrs. Janet Montgomery'', October 1802.
File:2175.jpg|Louise-Jules-Frédéric Villeneuve and Victor Adam (lithographers), after Jacques Gerard Milbert, ''Lower Falls—Near the Residence of Mrs. Montgomery,'' 1828–29.
File:0852.jpg|Alexander Jackson Davis, “The Conservatory,” Montgomery Place, c. 1839.
File:0843.jpg|Alexander Jackson Davis, ''Montgomery Place'', n.d.
File:1841.jpg|John Hare Otton, ''Design for a Garden Pagoda at Montgomery Place'', 1839–47.
File:0842.jpg|Alexander Jackson Davis, ''View from Montgomery Place'', c. 1847.
File:0844.jpg|Alexander Jackson Davis, ''Montgomery Place—Shore Seat'', c. 1847.
File:0357.jpg|Alexander Jackson Davis, “Montgomery Place,” in A. J. Downing, ed., ''Horticulturist'' 2, no. 4 (October 1847): pl. opp. p. 153.
File: 0358.jpg|Anonymous, “Rustic Seat,” Montgomery Place, in A. J. Downing, ed., ''Horticulturist'' 2, no. 4 (October 1847): 157, fig. 26.
File:0359.jpg|Anonymous, “The Lake,” Montgomery Place, in A. J. Downing, ed., ''Horticulturist'' 2, no. 4 (October 1847): 158, fig. 27.
File:0394.jpg|Anonymous, “The Conservatory,” Montgomery Place, in A. J. Downing, ed., ''Horticulturist'' 2, no. 4 (October 1847): 159, fig. 28.
File:1674.jpg|A. J. Downing, ''Sketch of a “Propagating Pit” (or greenhouse) at Montgomery Place'', June 17, 1848.
File:2179.JPG|Hans Jacob Ehlers, ''Map of the Montgomery Place Arboretum'', c. 1849.
File:0853.jpg|Alexander Jackson Davis, ''Octagonal Garden Structure for Montgomery Place'', c. 1850.
File:0855.jpg|Alexander Jackson Davis, ''Garden Arch at Montgomery Place'', c. 1850.
File:2177.jpg|After Benson John Lossing, “The Katzbergs from Montgomery Place,” in ''The Hudson, From the Wilderness to the Sea'' (1866), p. 175.
File:0854.jpg|Alexander Jackson Davis, ''Shore Seat for Montgomery Place'', 1870–79.
File:0846.jpg|Alexander Jackson Davis, ''From Montgomery Pl. Looking Up River'', 1803–1892.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Map==
{{#display_map:
42.014605, -73.918963
| service=google
| enablefullscreen=yes
}}

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://apps.hudsonvalley.org/american-arcadia/index.html Kathleen Eagen Johnson and Margaret L. Vetare, ''Montgomery Place: An American Arcadia'']

[https://www.bard.edu/montgomeryplace/ Bard College: The Montgomery Place Campus]
<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category: Places]]

Hyde Park (on the Hudson River, NY)

2019-12-30T19:02:37Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

Located on the banks of the Hudson River seventy-five miles north of New York City, '''Hyde Park''' gained international renown in the early 19th century for the unsurpassed beauty of its gardens and scenic location. In addition to offering dramatic views of the Hudson Highlands and Catskill Mountains, the estate boasted grounds laid out with sophisticated knowledge of botany and landscape design.

==Overview==
'''Alternate Names:''' Currently known as Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1764–1935<br/>
'''Site Owner:''' Peter Fauconnier (1705–1746); Magdalene Fauconnier Valleau (1746–1764); Suzanne (Valleau) and John Bard (1764–1799); Samuel Bard (1799–1821); William Bard (1821–1828); [[David Hosack]] (1828–1835); Dorothea (Astor) and Walter S. Langdon (1840–1852); Walter Langdon, Jr. (1852–1895); Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt (1895–1938); National Park Service (1940 to present)<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Martin Euclid Thompson (1786–1877; architect), [[André Parmentier]] (1780–1830; landscape designer)<br/>
'''Location:''' Hyde Park, NY<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>

<hr>

==History==
[[File:2046.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives, ''Hyde Park, Hudson River'', c. 1838–56.]]
In 1704 four men petitioned the Governor of New York, Sir Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury (1661–1723), for a grant of land along the east side of the Hudson River in Dutchess County. Among them was Cornbury’s secretary, the French Huguenot Peter (Pierre) Fauconnier (1659–1746), who received a 3,600-acre tract of valuable river-front property, that he named Hyde Park in his patron’s honor.<ref>Abraham Ernest Helffenstein, ''Pierre Fauconnier and His Descendants: With Some Account of the Allied Valleaux'' (Philadelphia: Press of S. H. Burbank & Company, 1911), 17, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BCAXR4J4 view on Zotero].</ref> The undeveloped property descended through Fauconnier’s family until 1764 when it was inherited by his granddaughter, Suzanne Valleau (1720–1784), and her husband, the surgeon John Bard (1715–1799), himself the descendant of Huguenot immigrants. Dr. Bard initially contemplated developing Hyde Park as a country [[seat]] and settling there after retiring from his medical practice in New York City. He received advice on “laying out your grounds” and “planning a [[pleasure ground]]” from his son, [[Samuel Bard]], a medical student in Edinburgh who was well versed in contemporary British landscape design.<ref>John McVickar, ''A Domestic Narrative of the Life of Samuel Bard, M.D., LL. D.'' (New York: A. Paul, 1822), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8NP6WKE8 view on Zotero]</ref> In a letter of April 1, 1764, the younger Bard urged his father to be guided by nature, allowing <span id="Bard_1764_cite"></span> the selection and positioning of plants to be dictated by the natural conditions of terrain and atmosphere (the moisture or dryness of the soil, the fall of sun or shade, the exposure to wind). In addition, ornamental landscape features should contrast with one another, and either be experienced unexpectedly while following serpentine [[walk]]s (“so that by the surprise, the pleasure may be increased”) or as focal points at the end of long [[vista]]s. When viewed from the house, these features should “appear as links of the same chain, contribut[ing] to the beauties of the whole” ([[#Bard_1764|view text]]).<ref>For the suggestion that Samuel Bard derived his views on landscape aesthetics from the writings of William Hogarth or William Shenstone, see Patricia M. O’Donnell, Charles A. Birnbaum, and Cynthia Zaitzevsky, ''Cultural Landscape Report for Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site'', Volume I: Site History, Existing Conditions, and Analysis (Boston: U.S. Department of the Interior. National Park Service, 1992), 13, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K6W3KBMH view on Zotero].</ref>

Persistent financial difficulties prevented John Bard from pursuing the ambitious plans outlined by his son. Instead, he focused on the agricultural value of the property, establishing a farm and an orchard of several hundred apple trees.<ref>Robert M. Toole, “Wilderness to Landscape Garden: The Early Development of Hyde Park,” ''Hudson Valley Regional Review'' 8 (September 1991): 4–5, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WVTD2C7F view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Advertisement_cite"></span>In 1768 he attempted to sell Hyde Park, advertising it as a good source of timber, arable fields, and convenient water transport. Of three river landings, the best was “a large flat rock, which forms a natural wharf” capable of accommodating “the largest Albany sloop” ([[#Advertisement|view text]]). Known as Bard Rock, it was located near the farm at the north end of the property. Although Bard ultimately decided against selling Hyde Park, over the next three decades financial necessity required piecemeal sales of nearly half of the original 3,600 acres. He built mills along the Crum Elbow Creek and in 1772 erected a modest residence, the “Red House,” close to his farm complex.<ref>O’Donnell, Birnbaum, and Zaitzevsky 1992, 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K6W3KBMH view on Zotero]. For a drawing of the Red House inscribed “Built 1772 by John Bard,” see Toole 1991, 6, Fig. 5, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WVTD2C7F view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2054.jpg|thumb|Fig. 2, Anonymous after an unknown artist, ''Dr. Samuel Bard’s Residence. Hyde Park'', 1871, watercolor copy of a drawing of c. 1800–23.]]
A few years before his death in 1799, John Bard transferred the Hyde Park property to his son, who settled there in the spring of 1798.<ref>Helffenstein 1911, 89, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BCAXR4J4 view on Zotero].</ref> [[Samuel Bard]] maintained the working farm developed by his father while also carrying out many of the ideas for an ornamental [[pleasure ground]] in the [[natural style]] that he had described thirty years earlier. Taking full advantage of the property’s dramatic topography, [[Samuel Bard|Bard]] erected a house south of the farm complex on a “natural [[terrace]]”—a broad ridge at the summit of a steep, wooded slope rising 300 feet above the river [Fig. 2].<ref>For a letter of February 13, 1799, indicating completion of the house in that month, see O’Donnell, Birnbaum, and Zaitzevsky 1992, 17, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K6W3KBMH view on Zotero].</ref> Although the house itself was relatively modest, the [[view]] from its west front encompassed a stunning 180-degree panorama of the Catskill Mountains to the north and the Hudson Highlands to the south. <span id="Prince_cite"></span>In February 1799, “anxious . . . to have the ground about his house in order,” Bard turned his attention to the surrounding landscape, requesting honeysuckle and the latest catalog from the Prince Nursery in Flushing, presumably in connection with the garden he was laying out near the house ([[#Prince|view text]]).<ref>The quotation is from J.[?] Bard to William Bard, n.d. (c. February 25, 1799) in O’Donnell, Birnbaum, and Zaitzevsky 1992, 207, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K6W3KBMH view on Zotero].</ref> On the west front he created an extensive [[lawn]] overlooking the Hudson River that became one of Hyde Park’s distinguishing features. He reportedly solicited the assistance of the Philadelphia agriculturist <span id="Peters_cite"></span>[[Richard Peters]] in procuring enough grass seed to sow two acres, so that he might “bring the ground round about his house into a greensward” ([[#Peters|view text]]).<ref>For the association with Peters, see John Brett Langstaff, ''Doctor Bard of Hyde Park: The Famous Physician of Revolutionary Times, the Man Who Saved Washington’s Life'' (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1942), 207, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/X4BCENGC view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2026_detail.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 3, William Wade, Residence of “Late Dr. Hossack [''sic''] Now Mr. Langdon,” detail from ''Panorama of the Hudson River from New York to Waterford'' (1847).]]
Bard also planted specimen trees, among them a Gingko that has survived into the twenty-first century as one of the oldest examples in North America.<ref>O’Donnell, Birnbaum, and Zaitzevsky 1992, 20, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K6W3KBMH view on Zotero].</ref> He treated the extensive ridge on either side of his house as a [[park]], retaining many of the native trees and culling others to create scenic overlooks. While staying at Hyde Park in 1832, the artist Thomas Kelah Wharton described the effect: “The front [[lawn]] occupies the whole level plateau on the top of the ridge, and splendid old trees are left standing at intervals with [[seat]]s scattered here and there from which you can survey at leisure and in the shade, the exquisite beauty of the river scenery below” [Fig. 1].<ref>Entry for July 10, 1832, Thomas Kelah Wharton, MS. Diary, 1830–1834, The New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/RKEVM776 view on Zotero]. For a drawing of 1806 attributed to John R. Murray showing the Bard family seated on the terrace, gazing out over the Hudson, with a picket fence delineating the edge of the escarpment, see O’Donnell, Birnbaum, and Zaitzevsky 1992, 14, 15, Fig. 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K6W3KBMH view on Zotero].</ref> The “celebrated belt of forest trees that extends along the whole [ridge] line,” appears clearly in a map of 1847 [Fig. 3].<ref>William Wilson, “Notice of the Gardens of Albany, and of Dr. Hosack’s Estate, Hyde Park,” ''New-York Farmer and Horticultural Repository'' 2, no. 6 (June 1829): 148–49, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AE5QXQZP view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="fish_cite"></span>Crum Elbow Creek ran through the property and [[Samuel Bard|Bard]] seems to have diverted the water in places to create fish [[pond]]s, which he intended to stock with carp and tench imported specially from England ([[#fish|view text]]). He also erected a [[greenhouse]], where he further developed his expertise in botany by experimenting with the cultivation of “beautiful and rare plants,” many of them obtained through botanical exchange with correspondents in Europe.<ref>McVickar 1822, 207–10, 236–37, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8NP6WKE8 view on Zotero].</ref> [[Samuel Bard|Bard’s]] [[greenhouse]], according to his son-in-law, John McVickar, <span id="McVickar_conservatory_cite"></span>was “the first, in that northern climate, which substituted, with success, the heat of fermentation for the more expensive and dangerous one of combustion” ([[#McVickar_conservatory |view text]]).

[[Samuel Bard|Samuel Bard’s]] son William gradually assumed responsibility for the day-to-day management of Hyde Park, which he inherited on his father’s death in 1823. Five years later, he sold the principal section of the estate (by then reduced to about 700 acres) to [[Samuel Bard|Dr. Bard’s]] professional partner and close friend [[David Hosack]], who was intimately familiar with Hyde Park and immediately began to use his considerable fortune to carry out an ambitious plan for further development of what became America’s premier example of the [[natural style|natural, or modern style]] of landscape.<ref>For details contrasting Hyde Park’s landscape during the ownership of the Bards (1763–1821) and Hosack (1828–1835), see John W. Hammond, Margie Coffin Brown, and Brona Keenan, ''Cultural Landscape Report for the Vanderbilt Mansion Formal Gardens'' (Boston, MA: National Park Service, 2011), 20, 23, Figs. 1.1, 1.2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/EX4RRKAM view on Zotero]; Toole 1991, 10, Fig. 7 and 10, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WVTD2C7F view on Zotero]; and O’Donnell, Birnbaum, and Zaitzevsky, 1992, 21, 42, 47, Figs. 9, 17, 21, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K6W3KBMH view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Stuart_workmen_cite"></span> A visitor in September 1829 observed “a great number of workmen . . . employed by him in extensive improvements upon the grounds, and the enlargement of his mansion-house” ([[#Stuart_workmen|view text]]). Designed by the architect Martin Euclid Thompson (1786–1877) the additions to the house included wings on the north and south sides, a [[piazza]] on the west front providing a vantage point for viewing the Hudson River, and a [[piazza]] on the east front opening onto an extensive park-like [[lawn]] that replaced [[Samuel Bard]]’s garden. Martin also designed several outbuildings, including a stable, coach house, and two entrance gate lodges, all described as executed in “a chaste style of Grecian simplicity.”<ref>Quotation is from James Thacher, “An Excursion on the Hudson. Letter II” ''The New England Farmer, and Horticultural Journal'' 9, no. 20 (December 3, 1830): 156–57, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/283TSTEV view on Zotero].</ref> [[David Hosack|Hosack]] took great delight in shepherding visitors around his property, and the north gate lodge, distinguished by [[portico|porticos]] supported by Greek Doric [[column]]s, seems to have functioned as a guest house with lodging rooms in the side wings.<ref>Thacher 1830, 156, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/283TSTEV view on Zotero]. For examples of Hosack’s hospitality in accommodating visitors, see Anonymous, “A Letter from a Tourist to the Editor of the American Farmer,” ''American Farmer'' 11 (July 31, 1829): 153, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/I2Q54T2I view on Zotero]; Thomas Hamilton, ''Men and Manners in America'', 2 vols. (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and T. Cadell), 79, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/87CZTQJF view on Zotero]]; Wharton 1832, ff. 137–152, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/RKEVM776 view on Zotero]; Harriet Martineau, ''Retrospect of Western Travel'', 2 vols. (London: Saunders and Otley, 1838), 75, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/KEG83GHS view on Zotero]. For a list of known visitors to Hyde Park during Hosack’s ownership, see O’Donnell, Birnbaum, and Zaitzevsky 1992, 363, Appendix D, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K6W3KBMH view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2039.jpg|thumb|Fig. 4, Unknown, ''River [Lake?] Scene with Gazebo [David Hosack Estate?]'' (from Hosack Album), n.d.]]
<span id="Parmentier_cite"></span>According to [[Andrew Jackson Downing]], [[David Hosack|Hosack]] commissioned the Belgian nurseryman and landscape architect [[André Parmentier]] to redesign the grounds ([[#Parmentier|view text]]). [[André Parmentier|Parmentier]] died in November 1830, just eighteen months after work began at Hyde Park, but his design allowed [[David Hosack|Hosack]] to implement many of the [[picturesque]] ideals [[Samuel Bard]] had described seventy years earlier in his letter from Edinburgh to his father. By means of a network of [[walk]]s and [[drive]]s laid out in relation to the natural terrain, Parmentier created a series of compelling [[vista]]s, with occasional [[seat]]s and neoclassical [[pavilion]]s positioned strategically to serve both as ornaments and as vantage points [Fig. 4]. Hosack replaced the straight road that had led from Hyde Park Landing (at the southernmost point of the estate) to the house half a mile north, creating instead a meandering [[drive]] that followed the course of Crum Elbow Creek until it reached an “elegant wooden [[bridge]], and several artificial [[cascade]]s,” then deviated to the west, taking in successive views of a memorial bust in a glade, a [[pavilion]], the gardens, [[greenhouse]], and finally a long [[vista]] to the house itself.<ref>For a detailed discussion of the scenic paths and roads laid out by Parmentier and Hosack, see O’Donnell, Birnbaum, and Zaitzevsky 1992, 37–39, 46–47, 54–55, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K6W3KBMH view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Venerable_cite"></span> Visitors noted with approval the “almost endless variety of venerable forest trees” clustered in groups along the ridge and dotted throughout the undulating ground that sloped down to the water ([[#Venerable|view text]]). One visitor observed, “some of the oaks are a century in age, and all are large and so grouped and intermingled over the [[lawn]] as to present at every step the most fantastic [[view]]s that can attract the pencil of the artist” [Fig. 5].<ref>Thacher 1830, 156, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/283TSTEV view on Zotero].</ref> [[David Hosack|Hosack]] stocked this [[park]]-like area with deer, featuring spotted fawns imported from Long Island.<ref>Wharton 1832, f. 146, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/RKEVM776 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2042.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 5, Asher Brown Durand, ''The Chestnut Oak on the Hosack Estate, Hyde Park, New York'', 1838.]]
Like [[Samuel Bard]], [[David Hosack|Hosack]] was a distinguished botanist, and founder of the [[Elgin Botanic Garden]] in New York City. At Hyde Park, he erected a new [[greenhouse]] (consisting of a central building with two side wings, measuring 110 feet across) to house his extensive collection of exotic plants, which were “under the care of Mr. Hobbs, an English gardener.”<ref>Thacher 1830, 156, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/283TSTEV view on Zotero]; Alexander Gordon, “Notices of Some of the Principal Nurseries and Private Gardens in the United States of America, Made during a Tour through the Country, in the Summer of 1831,” ''The Gardener’s Magazine, and Register of Rural & Domestic Improvement'' 8, no. 38 (June 1832): 282, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2TVP4JIX view on Zotero]; Charles Mason Hovey, “Notes on Gardens and Nurseries,” ''Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs'' 5, no. 2 (February 1839): 60, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/EQ6ZIWR4 view on Zotero].</ref> Among the rare shrubs and plants he cultivated were ''Magnolia grandiflora'' from the southern United States, ''Strelitzia'' (Bird of Paradise, a native of South Africa), ''Vachellia farnesiana'' (Needle Bush, indigenous to Mexico and Central America), ''Ficus elastica'' (Indian rubber, native to India, China, and Southeast Asia), and a large collection of pines.<ref>Thacher 1830, 156, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/283TSTEV view on Zotero].</ref> Other exotic plants, such as Mexican Tiger flower (''Tigridia tygridifolia'') and Fringe Tree (''Chionanthus''), grew in the broad flower beds lining the path from the mansion to the [[greenhouse]].<ref>Thomas Kelah Wharton, MS. Diary, 1830–1834, ff. 144–45, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/RKEVM776 view on Zotero].</ref> [[David Hosack|Hosack]] also kept bees in the [[greenhouse]], nurturing a “family of bees without stings” from Mexico, given to him by his former student, Dr. Samuel Mitchill (1764–1831). In 1830 [[David Hosack|Hosack]] commissioned the Massachusetts physician James Thacher, author of ''The American Orchardist'' (1822), to build a thirty-foot long, two-tier [[beehive]] on the grounds.<ref>Thacher 1830, 156, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/283TSTEV view on Zotero]. See also James Thacher, ''The American Orchardist; Or, A Practical Treatise on the Culture and Management of Apple and Other Fruit Trees . . . Compiled from the Latest and Most Approved Authorities, and Adapted to the Use of American Farmers'' (Boston: Joseph W. Ingraham, 1822), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/6CK7XAFB view on Zotero].</ref> [[David Hosack|Hosack]] continued [[Samuel Bard]]’s successful cultivation of fruit, particularly melons, which were renowned for their size and flavor.<ref>Anonymous 1829, 153, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/I2Q54T2I view on Zotero]; McVickar 1822, 209, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8NP6WKE8 view on Zotero].</ref> The gardens were under the capable supervision of the English landscape and ornamental gardener [[Edward Sayers]], author of ''The American Flower Garden Companion'' (1838) and ''The American Fruit Garden Companion'' (1839).<ref>Patrick Shirreff, ''A Tour through North America; Together with a Comprehensive View of the Canadas and United States'' (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1835), 31, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/D3CCVMV2 view on Zotero]; Edward Sayers, “Notes and Observations on Gardens and Nurseries in the Vicinity of Newark, N.J., New York, Hartford, and Boston, made during a visit between the 5th and 20th of July, 1837;— with some Remarks on the state of Horticulture and Agriculture,” ''Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs'' 3, no. 9 (September 1837): 327, 329, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/EBGJZVTR view on Zotero]; O’Donnell, Birnbaum, and Zaitzevsky 1992, 33,[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K6W3KBMH view on Zotero]. See also Edward Sayers, ''The American Flower Garden Companion, Adapted to the Northern States'' (Boston: Joseph Breck and Company, 1838), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/GHTFN8B2 view on Zotero] and ''The American Fruit Garden Companion: Being a Practical Treatise on the Propagation and Culture of Fruit, Adapted to the Northern and Middle States'' (Boston: Weeks, Jordan and Company, 1839), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/9CNVM4NK view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2096.jpg|thumb|Fig. 6, Johann Hermann Carmiencke, ''Hyde Park'', 1856.]]
Following [[David Hosack]]’s sudden death from a stroke in 1835, his heirs broke up the estate into smaller parcels and auctioned off the large collection of exotic [[hothouse]] plants. John Jacob Astor purchased the main section of 540 acres and gave it to his daughter and son-in-law, Dorothea and Walter S. Langdon. Five years later, a fire destroyed the mansion and the Langdons built a new residence on the same site [Fig. 6].<ref>O’Donnell, Birnbaum, and Zaitzevsky 1992, 55, 63–64, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K6W3KBMH view on Zotero].</ref> Like his parents, the Langdons’ heir, Walter Langdon Jr. lived at Hyde Park only intermittently, yet he invested considerable capital in making improvements to the estate. He bought back land in order to consolidate the property as it had been in [[David Hosack]]’s time. He moved the garden away from the house, to a hillside overlooking Crum Elbow Creek, laying it out in terraced geometric [[bed]]s and enclosing it with a red brick wall. He built additional [[greenhouse]]s as well as a gardener’s cottage and tool house.<ref>Hammond, Brown, and Keenan 2011, 24–29, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/EX4RRKAM view on Zotero]; O’Donnell, Birnbaum, and Zaitzevsky 1992, 64–88, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K6W3KBMH view on Zotero].</ref> Further changes were carried out by Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt, who purchased the estate in 1895. The basic structure of the property remained essentially as [[Samuel Bard]] had laid it out a century earlier.<ref>Hammond, Brown, and Keenan 2011, 30–108, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/EX4RRKAM view on Zotero]; O’Donnell, Birnbaum, and Zaitzevsky 1992, 88–182, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K6W3KBMH view on Zotero]; Charles W. Snell, ''Vanderbilt Mansion, National Historic Site, New York'', Historical Handbook Series, 32 (Washington, DC: National Park Service, 1960), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZTBVBN7S view on Zotero].</ref> Hyde Park is now under the stewardship of the National Park Service.

—''Robyn Asleson''

<hr>

==Texts==
*<div id="Bard_1764"></div>[[Samuel Bard|Bard, Samuel]], April 1, 1764, letter from Edinburgh to John Bard (McVickar 1822: 57–58)<ref name="McVickar">McVickar 1822, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8NP6WKE8 view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Bard_1764_cite|back up to History]]
:“I heartily wish I could be with you at laying out your grounds, as I imagine I could be of some assistance, although I may find it impossible to convey my notions upon that subject in writing. From what I have as yet seen, I find those the most beautiful where nature is suffered to be our guide. The principal things to be observed in planning a [[pleasure ground]], seem to me, to be the situation of the ground, and the storms and winds the country is most liable to. By the first, I mean, to distribute my plants according to the soil they most delight in; to place such as flourish most in a warm exposure and dry soil, upon the sunny side of a hill; while such as delight in the shade and moist ground, should be placed in the vallies. By this single precaution, one of the greatest beauties of a garden is obtained, which consists in the health and vigour of the plants which compose it. By considering well the predominant winds and storms of the country, we are directed where to plant our large trees, so that they shall be at once an ornament, and afford a useful shelter to the smaller and more delicate plants. Next I think straight lines should be particularly avoided except where they serve to lead the eye to some distant and beautiful object—serpentine [[walk]]s are much more agreeable. Another object deserving of attention seems to be, to place the most beautiful and striking objects, such as water, if possible, a handsome [[greenhouse|green-house]], a [[grove]] of flowering shrubs, or a remarkably fine tree, in such situations, that from the house they may almost all be seen; but to a person walking, they should be artfully concealed until he suddenly, and unexpectedly, comes upon them; so that by the surprise, the pleasure may be increased: and if possible, I would contrive them so that they should contrast each other, which again greatly increases their beauty. The last thing I should mention, which, indeed, is not the least worthy of notice, is, to throw the [[flower garden]], [[kitchen garden|kitchen]], and fruit garden, and if possible, the whole farm, into one, so that they may appear as links of the same chain, and may mutually contribute to the beauties of the whole. If you could send me an accurate plan of the situation of your ground, describing particularly the hollows, risings, and the opportunities you have of bringing water into it, the spot where you intend your house, and the situation of your [[orchard]], I would consult some of my friends here about a proper plan, and I believe I know some who would assist us, and as I cannot obtain your gardener before November, if you sent the plan immediately, I shall be able to return it by him.”

*<div id="Advertisement"></div>Bard, John, May 12, 1768, advertisement offering sale of Hyde Park (Langstaff 1942: 101)<ref name="Langstaff">Langstaff 1942, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/X4BCENGC view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Advertisement_cite|back up to History]]
:“Advertisement: —To be sold by the subscriber, living in New-York, either all together, or in distinct farms, a tract of land in the county of Dutchess, and province of New-York, called Hyde Park, or Paulin’s Purchase . . . containing 3600 acres.
:“The tract in general is filled with exceeding good timber . . . and abounds in rich swamps; great part of the upland exceeding good for grains or grass, and has on it some valuable improvements: . . . A LARGE WELL IMPROVED FARM, with a good house, a large new barn, a young [[orchard]] of between 5 or 600 apple trees, mostly grafted fruit, and in bearing order; between 30 and 50 acres of rich [[meadow]] ground, fit for the scythe; and about 150 acres of upland cleared and in tilling order.
:“There is belonging to the said tract, three good-landing-places (particularly one on the above farm) where the largest Albany sloop can lay close to a large flat rock, which forms a natural wharf.”

*<div id="Peters"></div>Bard, J.[?], c. February 25, 1799, letter from Hyde Park to William Bard (1778–1853) in Philadelphia (O’Donnell et al. 1992: 18)<ref name="O’Donnell">O’Donnell, Birnbaum, and Zaitzevsky 1992, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K6W3KBMH view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Peters_cite|back up to History]]
:“Your papa [[Samuel Bard|[Samuel Bard]]] begs you will inquire if any (spear?) grasses or blue grass seed, or the seed of any other grasses fit to bring the ground round about his house into a greensward is to be had in Philadelphia and if so to purchase for him as much as will sow two acres, and send it to me by the stage that I may receive it by the boats. Do my dear William be attentive to this, as you know how anxious Father is to have the ground about his house in order.”

*<div id="Prince"></div>[[Samuel Bard|Bard, Samuel]], February 27, 1799, letter from Hyde Park to Sally Bard in New York (Langstaff 1942: 200)<ref name="Langstaff"></ref> [[#Prince_cite|back up to History]]
:“Today for the first time I walk as far as my barnyard—looked at my pigs, my cattle and my workmen & proposed to Caesar to begin our hot beds. . . .
:“I beg you or [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]] will write to Mr. Prince at Flushing for twelve good roots of the sweet scented monthly Honeysuckle to be sent immediately to you at [[David Hosack|Doctor Hosack’s]] so that you may send them by the first boat of which you shall have notice hence. Your letter is to be sent to the house formerly Gains book store Hanover Square [New York] where get for me one of Princes last catalogues & send to me with the plants— by no means neglect this immediately, we do not know how soon the river will open.”

*<div id="Fish"></div>[[Samuel Bard|Bard, Samuel]], August 27, 1800, letter to Robert Troup (Langstaff 1942: 208)<ref name="Langstaff"></ref> [[#Fish_cite|back up to History]]
:“When you write to Mr. King [Rufus King (1755–1827), U.S. Minister to the Court of St. James]— tell him I take the liberty to hint to him that if when he returns [from England] he could contrive to bring with him some carp and tench to stock our fish [[pond]]s, I think he would do a very acceptable service to our Country. . . . It would be no difficult matter to accomplish by having some small fish of each kind inclosed in large glass baloons in the manner the Gold and Silver fish are brought from China.”

*[[Samuel Bard|Bard, Samuel]], December 25, 1820, letter from Hyde Park to his son (McVickar 1822: 236–237)<ref name="McVickar"></ref>
:“I walk, ride, and amuse myself, out of doors with my [[greenhouse|green-house]], and in doors, with my little transparent orrery; to which I am contemplating some additions and familiar illustrations.
:“My [[greenhouse|green-house]] and flower-stands afford me considerable amusement. The plants flourish exceedingly: I spent two hours among them yesterday, and shall do so occasionally this winter. . . . Every plant, from the royal orange and myrtle to the humble crocus, in fragrance, grace, and beauty, perform their part to admiration: and although they excite no passion of fear or mirth, of love or alarm, yet they do better,—they calm all my passions, sooth disappointment, and even mitigate the feelings of sorrow.”

*[[Samuel Bard|Bard, Samuel]]l, n.d. [c. 1820], letter to an unknown correspondent (McVickar 1822: 237)<ref name="McVickar"></ref>
:“I . . . now begin to enjoy the spring by riding on horseback, and amusing myself in my garden; but I do both with caution. When it is fair over head, but damp under foot, I ride my poney into the garden to give directions, and to see my plants bursting in to life, in which I take great delight.
:“I have several beautiful and rare plants coming forward; and I watch their progress with an interest which, by many people, would be thought trifling in a man of four score: but I appease my conscience by the innocency of the pursuit, and my inability for such as are more active.”

*<div id=” McVickar_conservatory “></div>McVickar, John, 1822, describing [[Samuel Bard]]’s gardening at Hyde Park (1822: 207–210)<ref name="McVickar"></ref> [[#McVickar_conservatory _cite|back up to History]]
:“Increasing years rendering the care of his large establishment too great a burthen, he transferred the management of it to his son . . . disburthening him of many cares, and leaving him free to his favourite employments in the [[greenhouse|green house]] and garden.
:“To the favourite occupations just mentioned [[Samuel Bard|Dr. Bard]] now devoted himself with an ardour which made them seem rather a change of labour, than a respite from it. In the flowers and fruits of the garden he became a learned and skilful horticulturist,—conversed, read, and wrote, upon the subject,—laid exactions on all his friends who could aid him in obtaining what was rare, beautiful, or excellent, in its kind, —drew from England its smaller fruits,—the larger ones from France, melons from Italy, and vines from Madeira,—managing them all with a varied yet experimental skill, which baffled the comprehension of minds of slower perception. These plans, though novel, were, in general, judicious; being the result of much reading, and long experience, and above all, of an imagination trained to what Bacon terms ‘tentative experiments.’
:“In the construction of a [[conservatory]] he displayed much of this talent, it being the first, in that northern climate, which substituted, with success, the heat of fermentation for the more expensive and dangerous one of combustion. In this, during the severity of the winter, he would often pass the greater part of the day, engaged in his usual occupations of reading and writing, or his favourite amusement of chess; and welcoming his friends who called upon him, to use his own sportive language, to the 'little tropical region of his own creation'.”

*[[David Hosack|Hosack, David]], January 1, 1829, to Dr. James Thacher (O’Donnell et al. 1992: 29)<ref name="O’Donnell"></ref>
:“I have lately purchased a farm of 700 acres on the Hudson . . . where I propose to pass my summers—my winters will be spent in town and my time devoted to the college and to my practice as far as I can render it in consultation . . . agriculture and horticulture will now occupy the residue of my life in which I follow your example—I hope you will gratify me by a visit in the summer when we will attend to the georgics as well as to medicine.”

[[File:0845.jpg|thumb|Fig. 7, [[Alexander Jackson Davis]], View of water with islands (Hyde Park), n.d.]]
*Wilson, William, June 1829, description of Hyde Park (''New-York Farmer'' 2: 148–49)<ref>William Wilson, “Notice of the Gardens of Albany, and of Dr. Hosack’s Estate, Hyde Park,” ''New-York Farmer and Horticultural Repository'' 2, no. 6 (June 1829): 148–49, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AE5QXQZP view on Zotero].</ref>
:“In a late tour up the North River as far as Albany, I had the pleasure of spending one day, the 19th inst. in visiting several of the gardens in the vicinity of that city. . . . Their general appearance exhibits an interesting state of Horticultural improvement. . . .
:“At Hyde Park, a little more than half way between this city [New York] and Albany, I stopped to see the estate lately purchased there by [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]]. It contains six or seven hundred acres of ground, and extends on one side more than a mile in length, on the eastern shore of the North River. The natural scenery along the whole line, to the distance of about a quarter of a mile from the verge of the river, is highly [[picturesque]]; and in no direction can the eye be turned through this romantic situation, without the mind’s being impressed with the strongest emotions of reverence of the sublime power and wisdom of the great Creator. On the highest summit of the bank, terminating nearly a quarter of a mile from the water’s edge, to a height of several hundred feet above its level, is seen the celebrated belt of forest trees that extends along the whole line: between this belt and the river, the ground is broken with many knowls, open glades, and ravines, which are lined down to the water’s edge with trees. The more open compartments too, are enlivened by the interspersion of [[clump]]s and single trees. [Fig. 7]
:“About half a mile above Hyde Park landing, (which is upon the southern extremity of [[David Hosack|the Dr’s.]] estate,) stands the Mansion House, not far from the brink of the descending grounds towards the river. In every direction to the east, north and south of the mansion, the ground spreads out in one wide open highly elevated and extensive plain, which at a considerable distance easterly from the house, gently descends to a gentle hollow, through which a fine mill stream, skirted with trees winds its way gradually around towards the south westerly points of the estate, where it empties into the North River near the landing. [[David Hosack|The Doctor]] intends making a carriage road from the landing in a direction nearly parallel with the course of the stream, to a distance of about a quarter of a mile, where it will turn to the left and pass in an inclined direction through part of the [[Park]] and [[lawn]] towards the mansion, affording in its course a [[view]] of the [[pleasure ground]], [[greenhouse|green house]] and [[hothouse|hot houses]] & c. which are to be located to the south of the dwelling. The stables, and the office houses & c. are all on the north of the mansion. The main approach is to be brought from the public road that passes a little to the east of the mill-stream . . . which in its passage over the stream, will afford a fine opportunity for having exhibited an interesting display of architectural beauty, of which [[David Hosack|the Doctor]] will no doubt avail himself, as well as of every other ornamental improvement, of which this most interesting place is so extremely susceptible.”

[[File:2031.jpg|thumb|Fig. 8, Johann Hermann Carmiencke, ''Hyde Park'', 1856.]]
*<div id="Venerable"></div>Anonymous, July 31, 1829, “A letter from a Tourist to the Editor of the American Farmer” (''American Farmer'' 11: 153)<ref>Anonymous 1829, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/I2Q54T2I view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Venerable_cite|back up to History]]
:“With a view to examine some of the farms and country [[seat]]s upon the banks of the Hudson, I spent a day at Hyde Park, and was delighted, not only with the charms of nature, but also with the refinements of society, and the spirit of hospitality, prevailing among the inhabitants of this rich and beautiful region. The scenery will sustain a comparison with the finest specimens of English landscape. I passed a bright afternoon in rambling over the grounds, which belonged to the late [[Samuel Bard|Doctor Bard]], and have recently been purchased by [[David Hosack|Dr Hosack]] of New York. They comprise a tract of 700 acres, bounded on the west by “The noble North,” and extending back a mile or more into the fertile county of Dutchess. From the beautiful [[lawn]] in front of the mansion and the neighboring cottage, the [[view]] reaches on one hand to the blue summits of the Catskills, and on the other to the Highlands, in the vicinity of West Point. The Hudson, with its green and rural shores, is visible for the distance of twenty miles. An almost endless variety of venerable forest trees give shade and beauty to the landscape, through which hurries a copious stream, headlong and noisy as the Arno itself, filling the hanging gardens and [[grove]]s on its [[border]]s with murmurs. [Fig. 8] On the sunny declivity, sloping to this rivulet, I saw . . . carts of water-melons, some of them weighing forty pounds each. Fruits and flowers of all kinds are rich and abundant. The [[wood]]s are vocal with the song of birds, and the squirrel frequently crossed my winding and tangled pathway. In many places, copious and pure [[fountain]]s gush from the bank of the river, affording a plentiful supply of the best water. The present enterprising proprietor of this farm has but just commenced his system of improvements. With his wealth and taste, he will doubtless render it still more than it is now, a terrestrial paradise.
:“Not far from the splendid grounds of [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], is the residence of Dr Allen [Benjamin Allen (1772–1836)], the celebrity of whose classical institution has spread throughout the country and attracted students from distant states. His stately mansion is situated in the midst of a [[lawn]] of eighty acres, intersected by [[avenue]]s and winding [[walk]]s bordered with ornamental trees. From the window of the library the eye ranges down the banks of the Hudson for a distance of twenty-five or thirty miles, and reposes upon the [[picturesque]] scenery on the opposite shore. Here are [[porch]]es and halls of science, consecrated as the Paecile [river in Italy], and shades deep and classical as the [[grove]]s of Academus, and waters brighter than Ilissus. . . . His hours of relaxation from study are frequently employed in walking through the fields with his pupils, conversing familiarly on what they have read, and at the same time enjoying the beauties of nature. . . .
:“The next morning we went to breakfast with one of the doctor’s neighbors and friends, the wealthy proprietor of 300 acres, who contented with his success in trade, has had the wisdom to beat his anchors into plough shares, and to retire from the bustle of the city to a rural and romantic retreat at Hyde Park. He has embarked with enthusiasm in agricultural and horticultural pursuits, and his farm, his gardens, and his ornamental grounds are in excellent order, evincing skill and taste in his new profession. The whole atmosphere is charged with the fragrance of flowers, and the perfume of 'new-mown hay.' In rambling along winding pathways, by the side of gurgling brooks . . . I here forgot for a time the dejected spirit and morbid feelings of an invalid.”

*Thacher, James, November, 1830, “An Excursion on the Hudson. Letter I” (''New England Farmer'' 9: 148–49)<ref>James Thacher, “An Excursion on the Hudson. Letter I,” ''The New England Farmer, and Horticultural Journal'' 9, no. 19 (November 26, 1830): 148–49, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VPTGX2EQ view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Hyde Park, is on the east side, six miles above Poughkeepsie, and divides the distance pretty equally from New York to Albany. This pleasant village received its name from Dr John Bard’s country residence, now in the possession of Dr [[David Hosack]], and this is the extent of my present excursion. Landing at the dock on the premises, we were met by the Doctor’s carriage and conveyed up a circuitous road about half a mile to the mansion. The approach is truly enchanting, the house a palace, the landscape a rural paradise, the respectable occupants distinguished for the kindest hospitality. Hyde Park estate was the country residence of Dr John Bard, and it was the scene of his latter days. After him his son Dr [[Samuel Bard]] erected a splendid house and made considerable improvements, while his son in law, Rev. Mr McNickler [McVickar], erected a beautiful dwelling in the finest style of an English cottage.
:“From both these elegant [[seat]]s the eye sweeps over the noble Hudson, which is nearly a mile in width, speckled at all times with the white spreading canvas, or the more formidable Fulton steamers. A richer [[prospect]] is not to be found, a more varied and fascinating [[view]] of [[picturesque]] scenery is scarcely to be imagined. The present proprietor, Dr. [[David Hosack]], has since the year 1794, been distinguished for assiduity and devotion to the practical duties of his profession, and fulfilling the office of teacher in various branches of medical science in the city of New York. . . . [[David Hosack|Dr Hosack]] sustained the office of president of the New York Historical Society for several years, and in May, 1824, was elected president of the New York Horticultural Society. He was the founder and proprietor of the [[Elgin Botanic Garden]] in 1801, the first and best in the United States, which has been purchased by the Legislature of that State for the purpose of completing a system of medical instruction. Although this eminent physician and philosopher has exchanged his professional labors during the summer months for the delightful scenes of rural and pastoral life, yet he retains a high sense of the importance of medical science, and the public is still to be benefited by his literary labors. He is well qualified as a practical agriculturist and horticulturist, having devoted much attention to the nature of soils and the principles of vegetable life when lecturing on botany and georgics. From the spirit displayed during the short period of 18 months in his system of improvements, it may be predicted that as an agriculturist, he will become no less eminent than in medical erudition.”

*Thacher, James, December 1830, “An Excursion on the Hudson. Letter II” (''New England Farmer'' 9: 156–57)<ref>Thacher 1830, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VPTGX2EQ view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The mansion house at Hyde Park is elevated about 200 feet above the surface of the river. With its two wings it presents a noble front of 136 feet, and is two stories above the basement. The centre or principal building, has a [[piazza]] on both fronts: the west front is open to the Hudson, and the east looks over a spacious, beautiful [[lawn]] towards the turnpike from New York to Albany. . . . The south wing contains a rich and well selected library, consisting of 4 or 5000 vols. Purchased at the expense of $20,000. Here is to be found a collection of works in every branch of literature. In no private library is there a more complete collection of European and American periodical Journals; scarcely a production of merit of this description, but may be found in this collection, and the number is constantly increasing. The Dr has also in his hall and gallery, a valuable collection of paintings, by the first artists both ancient and modern. At a proper distance north from the house, is situated the coach house and stable, built of stone in a chaste style of Grecian simplicity, and is 61 feet in front by 40 deep. At an equal distance south, is to be seen the [[greenhouse|green house]] and [[hothouse|hot house]], a spacious edifice constructed with great architectural taste and elegance, and well calculated for the preservation of the most tender exotics that require protection in our climate. It is composed of a centre and two wings, extending 110 feet in front and front 17 to 20 feet deep. One apartment is appropriated to a large collection of pines. Among the rich display of rare shrubs and plants, are the magnolia grandiflora, the spendid strelitzia, the fragrant farnesiana, and a beautiful tree of the Ficus elastica or Indian rubber, about 8 feet high, 5 years old. Contiguous to the [[greenhouse|green house]] is an extensive ornamental garden, in which is arranged in fine style, a beautiful variety of trees, shrubs and flowers; among which stands that glory of the forest, the magnolia glauca, bearing large white flowers, perfuming the atmosphere with a delightful fragrance. The forest trees which surround the domicile are identically the natives which are found in our forest; some of the oaks are a century in age, and all are large and so grouped and intermingled over the [[lawn]] as to present at every step the most fantastic [[view]]s that can attract the pencil of the artist. From the [[piazza]], and from the bank on the west side of the house we have a charming [[view]], extending to the opposite side of the river, of the blue summits of the Catskill mountains, and many gentlemen’s [[seat]]s, and cultivated farms. Whether indeed we direct the eye across the river, or glance over its surface north or south, we have a variegated landscape embracing the borders of the noble Hudson, from 20 to 40 miles in extent. . . . From the house, gravelled [[walk]]s diverge and extend in opposite directions nearly half a mile, exhibiting a diversified scenery of hills and dales, now descending a sloping declivity on the verge of a precipice, again ascending to a commanding plain, opening a scene of unrivalled beauty. At the termination of these romantic [[walk]]s fanciful [[pavilion]]s are erected, where visitors may contemplate a captivating display of nature’s magnificence in these regions of wonder. From the turnpike road there are two [[gate]]s of entrance into the premises, about half a mile from each other, and a porter’s lodge is connected with each [[gate]]. The north lodge is 19 by 31 feet, with a [[portico]] projecting over the north and south fronts, each supported by 4 Grecian Doric [[column]]s. Two wings project from the sides, which serve as lodging rooms. This little building has been much and deservedly admired for its architectural beauty. The entrance [[gate]] is finished in a very neat and imposing style of architecture. Mr Thompson of New York, is the skilful architect employed in the construction of these buildings. The south lodge, connected with a neat gateway, with the improvements of the surrounding grounds, present a very [[picturesque]] appearance. This is the most commanding point from which to view advantageously the mansion, [[greenhouse|green house]], stable, and out houses, which appear at considerable distance from each other in the extensive [[lawn]]. This [[avenue]] to the mansion is over a stone [[bridge]], crossing a rapid stream preciptated from the milldams above, and falls in a [[cascade]] below. The winding of the road, the varied surface of the ground, the [[bridge]], and the falling of the water, continually vary the [[prospect]] and render it a never tiring scene.
:''Agriculture''.—Hyde Park estate consists of a tract of about 800 acres of excellent land, bordering on the Hudson one mile and half, and extending one mile back from the river; the turnpike from New York to Albany passing through the premises. The farm comprises every variety of soil and aspect, and has not been exhausted by cultivation. It is well wooded and supplied with numerous unceasing springs of pure water. A creek also meanders through the farm, furnishing [[waterfall|falls]] well calculated for manufactories and mill [[seat]]s, and being dammed at proper places, forms excellent pickerel and trout [[pond]]s. The 500 acres under culture yield large crops of hay and grain, and the soil is adapted to the production of every article of luxury and convenience which man can desire. [[David Hosack|Dr Hosack]] commences his labors with characteristic ardor, and evinces a fine taste for agricultural pursuits. His improvements are not only in the buildings he has erected, and the establishments of the [[pleasure ground]]s, but in the more solid operations of the farm, as levelling hills and precipices, opening roads and [[avenue]]s, erecting [[bridge]]s and turning water courses. Many acres of rugged, hilly land hitherto deemed almost inaccessible to the plough or not worth the labor, have this season been subdued, the stones worked into [[wall]] and the soil sowed with rye.
:''Stock''.— . . . In front of this house, on the lower bank of the river, he has a [[deer park|park stocked with deer]]. . . .
:[[Beehive|''Apiary'']].—During my visit at Hyde Park, by request of [[David Hosack|Dr H.]] I superintended the construction of an [[beehive|apiary]] upon my improved plan. The house is 30 feet long and two tiers in height and will contain nearly 40 hives, and this affords the greatest facility for taking the honey without destroying the bees. The close house secures the hives from the ravages of the Bee-moth and from the weather, and may be opened occasionally for ventilation. . . . [[David Hosack|Dr H.]] is now in possession of a family of bees without stings which were sent to Dr Mitchell from Mexico. He keeps them in his [[greenhouse|green house]] that they may enjoy an atmosphere similar in temperature to that in their native climate. There is on the stream belonging to [[David Hosack|Dr H.]] the workshop of Mr Hale, the ingenious inventor of the patent rotary pump. . . . [[David Hosack|Dr H.]] has two of them in operation, at his [[greenhouse|green house]] and bathing room.
:“I met at Hyde Park, Mr. Bennet [William James Bennett (1787–1844)], an English gentleman, and an eminent landscape painter, who has been for some time engaged in taking landscape [[view]]s of some interesting objects. Had Basil Hall been so fortunate as to have visited Hyde Park, the grand display and the generous hospitality which he would have experienced, could not fail of reminding him of some of the noble [[seat]]s in his own country, and of correcting his unjust prejudice against ours.
:“I was rejoiced while at Hyde Park to have an interview with an old friend and associate in the revolutionary army, General M. L.[Morgan Lewis (1754–1844)]. . . . General L[ewis]. is one of the very few survivors of his military brethren, who possesses the means of sumptuous living and domestic enjoyments. His magnificent mansion is located on the banks of the Hudson, 4 miles above Hyde Park. The front towards the river is ornamented with a colonnade, a spacious and lofty [[piazza]] walled on three sides with Venetian blinds. From this there is a fine [[view]] of the Catskill mountains, in all their variety and magnificence, and an extensive landscape of variegated scenery peculiar to these regions. Here resides, during the summer months, the venerable patriarch.”

*[[Frances Milton Trollope|Trollope, Frances Milton]], 1832, recalling her travels through New York in 1831 (1832: 2:206)<ref>Frances Milton Trollope ''Domestic Manners of the Americans'', 2nd ed., 2 vols. (London: Wittaker, Treacher & Co., 1932), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/T5RXDF7G/q/trollope view on Zotero].</ref>
:“About thirty miles further [from West Point] is Hyde Park, the magnificent [[seat]] of [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]]; here the misty summit of the distant Kaatskill begins to form the outline of the landscape; it is hardly possible to imagine any thing more beautiful than this place. We passed a day there with great enjoyment.

*Gordon, Alexander, 1832, “Notices of Some of the Principal Nurseries and Private Gardens in the United States of America” (''Gardener’s Magazine'' 8: 282)<ref>Gordon 1832, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2TVP4JIX view on Zotero].</ref>
:“There is an immense number of gentlemen’s [[seat]]s situated on the banks of this beautiful river [the Hudson]; but, as it respects gardening, every thing about them is on a confined scale . . . ; and although the remains of the possessions of the old aristocracy were visible, yet the ancient manor houses were falling to decay; the trees of the [[park]]s and [[pleasure ground]]s were all neglected; and rank grass and weeds covered the [[walk]]s &c.
:“''Hyde Park, on the Hudson.''—As exception to this forlorn state of former greatness, or rather former extent, I can, with the greatest propriety, mention the splendid mansion and [[seat]] of Dr. [[David Hosack]], a gentleman well known in the literary and scientific world (the Sir Joseph Banks of America). The doctor has lately retired from business and the city, to this delightful spot, Hyde Park. Our Hyde Park, on this side the water, can bear no comparison with its namesake on the other side of the Atlantic; its natural capacity for improvement has been taken advantage of in a very judicious manner; every circumstance has been laid hold of, and acted upon, which could tend to beautify or adorn it. The [[park]] is extensive; the rides numerous; and the variety of delightful distant views, embracing every kind of scenery, surpasses any thing I have ever seen in that or in any other country. I had the pleasure of riding round the whole with its most amiable owner, than whom a more condescending and affable gentleman is not in existence. The [[pleasure ground]]s are laid out on just principles, and in a most judicious manner; there is an excellent range of [[hothouse|hot-houses]], with a collection of rare plants; remarkable for their variety, their cleanliness and their handsome growth. The whole of this department is under the care of Mr. Hobbs, an English gardener, who well understands his business; and it was most gratifying to me to find [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]] so justly appreciating his merits. The farm buildings have been recently erected; and their construction and arrangement deserve the strongest praise; but in fact, every thing connected with Hyde Park is performed in a manner unparalleled in America; at least, as far as my observations extended.

*Pintard, John, April 14 and June 9, 1832, letters to his daughter, Eliza Noel Pintard Davidson (1940 4:39, 63)<ref>John Pintard, ''Letters from John Pintard to His Daughter Eliza Noel Pintard Davidson, 1816–1833'', ed. Dorothy C. Barck, Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the Year 1940, 4 vols. (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1940), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QNFB2I5C view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Philip [Hone] lives in the genteelest style of any man in our city, not excepting [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], who I believe latterly has restricted his hospitality to strangers very much. Before he married the rich widow [of] H.A. Coster, with whom he got $300,000, [[David Hosack|Hosack]] maintained a character for general hospitality to strangers, esp. literary, for wh. I have him great credit. I was then very intimate with him, but not since the decease of Govr. Clinton have I had the slightest intercourse, no longer being serviceable to him. So the world changes. So wealth shows the natural disposition. He cultivates at great expense with great taste a [[Ferme ornée|''Ferme ornee'']] at Hyde Park in Duchess Co. on the Hudson formerly [[Samuel Bard|Dr. Bards]], of several hundred acres on wh. He has lavished great sums that can never be replaced to his Heirs. . . .
:“[[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]] has gone for the summer to his [[Ferme ornée]] at Hyde park.”

[[File:2036.jpg|thumb|Fig. 9, Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''View of David Hosack Estate, Hyde Park, New York, from the East'', c. 1832.]]
[[File:2035.jpg|thumb|Fig. 10, Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''View of the David Hosack Estate, Hyde Park, New York, from the South'', c. 1832.]]
*Wharton, Thomas Kelah, July 1832, MS. diary entries describing a three-week stay at Hyde Park<ref>Wharton, MS. Diary, 1830–34, ff. 137–52, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/RKEVM776 view on Zotero].</ref>
:“July 9th, 1832. The curtain [of mist and rain] lifted as we passed thro’ the Highlands. . . . The [[wood]]s and grassy slopes, green [[lawn]]s and bright yellow wheat fields on either hand warmed into a richer glow with the freshening moisture of the morning. . . . At half past one P.M. I went on shore at Hyde Park Landing, found a baggage waggon to take up my trunk and cloak to [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack’s]], and then followed on foot thro’ the [[Park]] [[gate]] close by the Landing. The Mansion itself was half a mile further on the brow of a bold [[eminence]] full 100 feet above the river. The ascent is gradual by broad winding [[walk]]s, shaded by the richest foliage with gleams of the Hudson sparkling among the leaves—and beautiful [[lawn]]s, with trees grouped in fine taste—a range of [[greenhouse|green houses]] and exquisite flower [[bed]]s crown the ascent and sweep around a general [[clump]] of forest trees leading quite up to the house which presents a noble front to the [[Park]]. . . . . After examining the Picture Gallery and the noble library occupying a whole story in one of the wings of the building, [[David Hosack|the Doctor]] took me over the grounds and pointed out their chief beauties. No expense has been spared in embellishing this splendid domain, which contains 800 acres of richly diversified surface—every feature of which has been made to contribute to the ornamental effect of the whole and to heighten the magnificence of the River scenery which it commands. The two facades of the building, one fronting the river, the other towards the [[Park]] shew a fine spread of enriched Italian, flanked by large well proportioned wings. The whole designed and executed by Martin E. Thompson in his best manner—another very tasteful edifice stands at the north end of the grounds called the “cottage” with its own separate gardens and ornamental improvements. The north and south Lodges form elegant entrances to the estate. [[Pavilion]]s occupy prominent knolls. The [[lawn]]s, [[parterre]]s, [[walk]]s, and broad winding carriage [[drive]]s are all kept in the highest order, and nothing can exceed the beauty of the forest groups and [[clump]]s of ornamental trees and shrubs which are disposed with the utmost skill over the whole place. . . . The afternoon having turned out wet and unpleasant the rest of the day was spent in examining several valuable works &c. &c. my drawings, too, were brought out and handed round, and the Doctor said he wished me to make him several sketches to be engraved on stone to illustrate a Quarto which he is engaged upon descriptive of his place. . . . [Figs. 9 and 10]
[[File:2037.jpg|thumb|Fig. 11, Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''Grove of Poplars with a Memorial Bust, David Hosack Estate, Hyde Park, New York'', c. 1832.]]
: [July 10] “Heavy rains, with a pleasant interval at noon which I spent in rambling over the grounds. In the afternoon the sun broke thro’ suddenly and the clouds rolled away from the distant Catskills, revealing to me for the first time their grand, shadowy outlines. Thin silvery mists still crept around their base giving additional majesty to the peaks above—the whole forming a background to the glorious scene of the Hudson from the north boundary of the estate. After sunset the deep [[grove]]s of oak and chesnut between the front [[lawn]] and the river sparkled with fire flies innumerable. These [[wood]]s extend from the bottom of the ridge to the water’s edge. The intervening slope is abrupt but well grassed over and is used as an [[deer park|enclosure for deer]]. The front [[lawn]] occupies the whole level plateau on the top of the ridge, and splendid old trees are left standing at intervals with [[seat]]s scattered here and there from which you can survey at leisure and in the shade, the exquisite beauty of the river scenery below. A little further on a handsome Grecian [[Pavilion]], roofed with a dome, occupies a raised spot near the main [[walk]], and just in advance of the ridge a grassy knoll covered with tall poplars offers a pretty contrast to the heavier foliage—it is ornamented with a bust on a suitable pedestal, and is called, (in imitation of Rousseau) L’Isle des Peupliers. . . . [Fig. 11]
[[File:2030.jpg|thumb|Fig. 12, Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''Bridge over Crumelbow Creek, David Hosack Estate, Hyde Park, New York'', c. 1832.]]
: [July 11] “Spent the day chiefly amongst the Doctor’s books—it is a large and valuable collection. . . .
: [July 12] “The thick vapours have fled—a fine breeze cools the air—distant showers and great tracts of sunshine give the spectre forms of the Catskills a grand and diversified effect. In the morning I made a sketch of the [[Pavilion]] on a mass of rock which projects into the river at the far north end of the estate, and of the pretty ornamental [[bridge]] over Crumelbow Creek. [Fig. 12] This stream skirts the eastern portion “the [[park]] and is made to heighten its beauty—in one place its clear waters are gathered into a natural [[basin]] and spanned by the [[bridge]] in question forming with the mossy bank, and patches of grey rock a very sweet composition. In the afternoon commenced a large view of the scene looking up the Hudson. . . .
[[File:2032.jpg|thumb|Fig. 13, Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''Greenhouse, David Hosack Estate, Hyde Park, New York'', c. 1832.]]
: [July 14] “[[David Hosack|The Doctor]] drove with me over the whole estate, and showed me his farming operations which he is conducting in one part of it. Rest of the day drawing. . . .
: [July 15] “The Episcopal church is small but pretty—it stands at a short distance from the north Lodge, and the church [[yard]] is embowered with the foliage of tall locusts. . . . The gardener furnished dessert today with fine Citron melons, fully ripe, and [[David Hosack|the Doctor’s]] Pinery gives proof of the superior flavour of the Pine apple when taken ripe from the plant. The flower [[bed]]s around the [[conservatory|conservatories]] are perfectly splendid. There are some things I never saw before—the Mexican Tiger flower (Tigridia tygridifolia) and a fine specimen of the Indian rubber tree. Amongst the larger [[shrubbery]] the 'Fringe Tree' is singularly luxuriant and monumental.
[[File:2033.jpg|thumb|Fig. 14, Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''View of the David Hosack Estate at Hyde Park, New York, from Western Bank of the Hudson River'', c. 1832.]]
: [July 16] “Finished tinting a drawing of the [[greenhouse|‘greenhouses’]] and commenced one of the East Front of the House. [Fig. 13]
: [July 17] “After breakfast I crossed the Hudson at the horse boat Ferry, and made a sketch of the river Front and grounds from the high bank opposite. I then rambled far away off into the country, and climbed some rough, woody precipices which gave me fine [[view]]s over Dutchess County. I noticed among the shady [[walk]]s today that beautiful little bird the Bohemian Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus or Ampelis garrulus Linne) a well drawn figure of it is given in Charles Lucien Bonaparte’s elegant work on those specimens of American Ornithology not given by [Alexander] Wilson—both works are in the Library. . . . [Fig. 14]
: [July 19] “A little before sunset, as Emily Hosack and another lady & myself were standing on the [[walk]] overlooking the [[deer park]], and admiring a pair of spotted fawns which [[David Hosack|the Doctor]] has lately received from Long Island, a sudden and heavy rain gathered among the mountains, and came rolling towards us so swiftly as to cut off our retreat to the house, so we took shelter in the [[Pavilion]] close by, but we were not detained there long, the sun broke out again in 20 minutes and painted upon the black, turbid vapors the most perfect and brilliant rainbow I ever beheld.
: [July 20] “Sitting with the Doctor on the [[Piazza]] after twilight I had a long conversation with him on my prospects in New York in which he kindly interests himself, and suggests plans for my advantage.
: [July 21] “Early in the morning these beautiful grounds seemed flushed with new charms as the mist rolled away from the Catskills and the sun lighted them with clear a[e]rial tints, like mother of pearl. The trees, [[lawn]]s, and [[parterre]]s borrowed additional brilliancy from the fresh dew, and the new mown grass smelt sweet and spicy in the still morning air. I have today completed the last of five Quarto sized drawings for the Doctor with which he is highly pleased—they are the best I can do and tinted with great care. . . .
: [July 22] “The air is wonderfully pure, and the mountain peaks unusually clear and beautiful. The mountain house [Catskill Mountain House hotel] and its [[piazza]] is perfectly distinct thro’ an excellent telescope that stands in the Hall—it is 30 miles off and to the naked eye appears like a white spot near the summit of the most easterly mountain. [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]] will not allow a gun to be fired in or near his [[pleasure ground]]s and it is surprising what multitudes of beautiful birds, squirrels and other graceful little creatures glance about among the [[walk]]s and trees—and so fearless, too, as if conscious of protection. . . .
: [July 24] “As I am spending the time until breakfast in the Library I will try to give a little idea of it. It occupies one story of the South wing—is 38 by 23 feet and lighted by 5 handsome windows. There are two elegant black veined marble mantles with grates for anthracite coal, and the carpet, rugs, sofa, chairs & c. are in accordance with the sumptuous style of the rest of the house. Four stands contain large Portfolios of Engravings, maps &c. and in the centre is a large mahogany reading Table, with 18 capacious drawers, and covered with useful articles for study & bronze ink stands & candlesticks of elegant patterns, large atlasses, and in the centre a convex Lens 7 ½ inches in diamter, on a neat mahogany stand, to aid in reading the finer types. . . . The Books are arranged in large Mahogany cases along the walls, handsomely bound, and consist of from 4 to 5000 volumes purchased at a cost of Twenty Thousand dollars. They have been collected with great care so that they comprise some of the most valuable works in every department of literature and science. . . . The collection of European and American 'periodical literature' is, I am told, more complete than in any other private library in the country. . . .
: [July 25] “After a thunderstorm the morning became very fine and it occurred to me that I might not have a better opportunity to visit the residence of a gentleman with whom I became acquainted a few evenings ago—which is prettily situated near the river about a mile south of the village. . . . As Mr Allen was from home I merely stayed to make a rapid sketch of the Hudson looking South from the grounds—the Highlands in the distance and the buildings of Poughkeepsie peeping over the foliage in the middle of the [[view]]. . . . I commenced another drawing for [[David Hosack|the Doctor]] on the completion of which I propose taking leave of my kind and friendly entertainers at Hyde Park.
: [July 26] “Today we have a sky without a cloud. I have now finished seven drawings for [[David Hosack|the Doctor]] and have just washed in the first tints of a large picture. . . . I may remark that the work in which he [[David Hosack|[David Hosack]]] is now engaged will be illustrated by the drawings I have made him, while the originals, he tells me, will be enclosed in a Portfolio and placed in the drawing room Centre Table for the frequent inspection of his family and guests.
: [July 28] “[[David Hosack|[Dr. Hosack]]] commenced an examination of the picture, with which he and his brother (who just then stepped in) were delighted, and suggested that it would make a valuable addition to the “gallery” and that it would prove very attractive if engraved. It is 23 ½ inches x 16 in and embraces all that splendid range of scenery northward from this Estate to the Catskills. They think I Have been particularly successful with the sky which is nearly finished and is by far the boldest effort I have yet attempted. . . . I observe in the library several books of travels presented to [[David Hosack|the Doctor]] by Sir Joseph Banks, and many others by their respective authors, including names of great celebrity in England, among the rest 'Roscoe' of Liverpool, whose 'Discourses’ are in the collection presented by himself. . . .
: [July 30] “I have been busy all day with my picture, partly in the open air with the actual scene before me, and partly in my large, well lighted apartment. It is now nearly finished, and I think looks very well. I intend to present it to the Doctor as I have at length made up my mind to leave in the 'Champlain' tomorrow if the weather prove favorable.
: [July 31] “The bright sun soon purged away the mists from the Catskills and while the grass was still wet I took a farewell stroll among the splendid embellishments of the gardens. Lemon Trees, loaded with fine fruit, the tall India Rubber, the althea frutex covered with flowers, and the glossy Magnolia exhaling the sweetest perfume. A thousand other beauties, too, belonging more strictly to this latitude. I sat down in a [[Pavilion]] and having Witherspoon in my hand, as I may not ever meet with the work again I extracted the following brief view of regeneration. . . . The gig drove up to the door, my baggage was brought down. The parting moment came, and very soon the delightful scenes of Hyde Park lay behind me.”

*Hamilton, Thomas, 1833, describing a visit to Hyde Park in December 1830 (1833: 1:73, 79–82)<ref>Hamilton 1833, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/87CZTQJF view on Zotero].</ref>
:“I determined to give variety to the tisue of my life by accepting the very kind and pressing invitation of [[David Hosack|Dr Hosack]], to visit him at his country-[[seat]] on the banks of the Hudson. . . .
:“Though the drive from the landing-place led through a prettily variegated country, I was not much in the humour to admire scenery, and looked, I fear, with more indifference on the improvements past and projected, to which the Doctor directed my attention, than would have been consistent with politeness in a warmer and more comfortable auditor. . . .
:“The following morning . . . I was glad to accept the invitation of my worthy host, to examine his demesne, which was really very beautiful and extensive. Nothing could be finer than the situation of the house. It stands upon a lofty [[terrace]] overhanging the Hudson, whose noble stream lends richness and grandeur to the whole extent of the foreground of the landscape. Above, its waters are seen to approach from a country finely variegated, but unmarked by any peculiar boldness of feature. Below, it is lost among a range of rocky and wooded [[eminence]]s of highly [[picturesque]] outline. In one direction alone, however, is the [[prospect]] very extensive; and in that, (the north-west) the Catskill Mountains, sending their bald and rugged summits far up into the sky, form a glorious framework for the picture.
:“We drove through a finely undulating country, in which the glories of the ancient forest have been replaced by bare fields, intersected by hideous zigzag [[fence]]s. God meant it to be beautiful when he gave such noble varieties of hill and plain, [[wood]] and water; but man seemed determined it should be otherwise. No beauty which the axe could remove was suffered to remain. . . .
:“Such changes are not optional, but imperative. The progress of population necessarily involves them, and they must be regarded only as the process by which the [[wilderness]] is brought to minister to the wants and enjoyments of civilized man. . . . It is only the state of transition which is unpleasant to behold; the particular stage of advancement in which the wild grandeur of nature has disappeared, and the charm of cultivation has not yet replaced it.”

*Hamilton, Thomas, 1833, recalling a visit to Hyde Park in June 1831 (1833: 2:289–90)<ref>Hamilton 1833, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8EVSFK7P view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Having passed a pleasant day at West Point, I proceeded to [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack’s]], about thirty miles distant. I had before visited Hyde Park in the depth of winter, I now beheld its fine scenery adorned by the richest luxuriance of verdure. Poet or painter could desire nothing more beautiful. There are several villas in the neighbourhood tenanted by very agreeable families, and had it been necessary to eat lotus in the United States, I should certainly have selected Hyde Park as the scene of my repast. But I had determined on returning to England in the course of the summer, and was therefore anxious to proceed on my journey. On the third day, I bade farewell to my kind friends—for so I trust they will permit me to call them—and again embarked on the Hudson.”

*<div id="Stuart_workmen"></div>Stuart, James, 1833, recalling trips up the Hudson River in August 1828 and September 1829 and later in July 1830 (1833: 1:37, 433, 469–70, and 547–51)<ref name="Stuart">James Stuart, ''Three Years in North America'', 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Robert Cadell, 1833), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/T5KNJ8PW view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Stuart_workmen_cite|back up to History]]
: [August 1828] “. . . the noble [[terrace]] of Hyde Park. . . .
: [September 1829] “I had been some time engaged in conversation with [[David Hosack|Dr Hosack]], to whom my only introduction was in the steam-boat by Dr. Mitchell of New York, the well-known translator of Cuvier, to whom I had been presented five minutes previously. . . .
:“The drive from Poughkeepsie to Hyde Park and to Rhinebeck passes through a rich undulating country, the ground on the banks of the river commanding as pleasing [[view]]s as can be imagined. There is a greater number of country [[seat]]s than I have seen anywhere away from the great towns upon this line of country. . . .
:“[[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack’s]] [[terrace]] is the finest that I have seen on the river, and possesses [[view]]s, ending with the Catskill mountains in the distance, that can hardly be surpassed. A great number of workmen are at present employed by him in extensive improvements upon the grounds, and the enlargement of his mansion-house.”
: [July 1830] “I left Mr Anderson’s house for two or three days in the beginning of July to pay a visit, which I had long projected, to [[David Hosack|Dr Hosack]], at his magnificent [[seat]] on the Hudson, where I was most kindly received by himself and his amiable family. He lives very much in the same style as an English country gentleman of it, can bestow. His mansion-house is large, elegant, and well-furnished; but it is not my object to describe a place laid out and embellished as a fine residence and fine grounds in England are, or to tell the readers of these pages of the size of [[David Hosack|Dr Hosack’s]] rooms, of his eating or drawing-rooms, his excellent library, his billiard room, or his [[conservatory]], of his porter’s lodges, his [[temple]]s, his [[bridge]]s, his garden, and the other ''et ceteras'' of this truly delightful domain which he has adorned, and was, at the time when I was there, adorning with great taste and skill, and without much regard to cost. The splendid [[terrace]] over the most beautiful of all beautiful rivers, admired the more the oftener seen, renders Hyde Park, as I think, the most enviable of all the desirable situations on the river. [[David Hosack|Dr Hosack]] has now retired from practice as the first physician in New York. His activity is, however, unabated. He takes great delight in superintending his numerous workmen, and the management of his place and farm. He has 800 acres adjoining to his house, all, I believe, in his own occupation, and is taking great pains to obtain the finest breeds of cattle and sheep. . . . His [[park]] contains [[deer park|deer]] and a few Cachmere goats, which are particularly handsome. In short, this is quite a show place, in the English sense of the word, which every foreigner should see on its own account,—on account of the great beauty of the natural [[terrace]] above the river, and the charming and varied [[view]]s from it,—as well as on account of the art with which the original features of the scene are advantageously displayed. . . .
:“I observed that [[David Hosack|Dr Hosack]], in speaking to his workmen, never addressed them by their Christian name alone, but always in this way: ‘Mr Thomas, be so good as do this,’ or ‘Mr Charles, be so good as do that.’ It would not be easy for an Englishman of great fortune to form his mouth so as to give his orders to his servants in similar terms; but the more equal diffusion of wealth, and greater equality of condition, which prevail in this country, put the sort of submission of inferiors to superiors, to which we in Britain are accustomed, quite out of the question in the free part of the United States, and undoubtedly render the mass of the people far more comfortable, contented, and happy. . . .
:“[[David Hosack|Dr Hosack’s]] grounds are so very charming, and the [[view]]s from them so [[picturesque]] and striking, that I cannot help wishing that Captain Hall had seen Hyde Park [[Terrace]] before he declared 'North America to be the most [[picturesque|unpicturesque]] country to be found anywhere.”

*[[J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon|Loudon, J. C. (John Claudius)]], 1835, summarizing recent descriptions of Hyde Park by British writers (1835: 401)<ref>John Claudius Loudon, ''An Encyclopædia of Gardening . . .'', new ed. (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1835), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/FZR3QITP view on Zotero].</ref>
:“SUBJECT 1. ''Gardening in North America, as an Art of Design and Taste''.
:“1474. ''Hyde Park, on the Hudson'', according to a recent writer in the ''Gardener’s Magazine'', Mr. Gordon, is the first in point of [[landscape gardening|landscape-gardening]] in America. Its proprietor, Dr. [[David Hosack]], is a botanist, and a man of taste. The natural capacity of this [[seat]] for improvement has been taken advantage of in a very judicious manner; and every circumstance has been laid hold of, and acted upon, which could tend to beautify or adorn it. The mansion is splendid and convenient. The [[park]] extensive, the rides numerous and the variety of delightful distant [[view]]s embrace every kind of scenery. The [[pleasure ground|pleasure-grounds]] are laid out on just principles, and in a most judicious manner; and there is an excellent range of [[hothouse|hot-houses]], with a collection of rare plants, remarkable for their variety, cleanliness, and handsome growth. . . . [[Frances Trollope|Mrs. Trollope]], speaking of this villa, says ‘Hyde Park is the magnificent [[seat]] of [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]]: here the misty summit of the distant Kaatskill begins to form the outline of the landscape; and it is hardly possible to imagine a more beautiful place. . . .’ Mr. Stuart speaks in raptures of ’the [[view]] over the most beautiful of all beautiful rivers, from the magnificent [[terrace]] in the front of [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack’s]] house, situated in the most enviable of the desirable situations on the river.’ Hyde Park, he says, ‘is quite a show place, in the English sense of the word.’”

*Shirreff, Patrick, 1835, description of a visit to Hyde Park during the spring of 1833 (1835: 29–31)<ref>Shirreff 1835, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/D3CCVMV2 view on Zotero]</ref>
:“Hyde Park, the [[seat]] of [[David Hosack|Doctor Hosack]], is the most celebrated In America, and which Mr Stuart describes as being 'embellished as a fine residence and fine grounds in England.' The house is situated some hundreds of feet above the level of, and at a considerable distance from the Hudson, the intervening grounds being finely undulating. In front of the house there is a road, leading from the landing-place on the river, along a small stream, over which there is an elegant wooden [[bridge]], and several artificial [[cascade]]s have been formed in its channel. The house is composed of wood, as well as the offices and lodges, painted white, and are very neat of their kind. The [[conservatory]] had been dismantled a few days before our arrival, by placing the plants in the open air; the collection seemed extensive and well kept. The [[flower garden]] is small, the [[walk]]s limited, and both destitute of beauty. I am aware that most of the evergreens which impart loveliness to the residences in Britain cannot withstand the rigours of an American winter, but this circumstance is no excuse for the nakedness of Hyde Park [[walk]]s, the aid of many native plants having been disregarded. The matchless beauties of the situation have not only been frequently neglected; but destroyed by stiff, formal, naked [[walk]]s, and the erection of [[temple]]s resembling meat-safes, without a climbing plant, which the country produces in endless variety, to hide their deformity, and harmonize them with the surrounding scene. In short, while I greatly admired the situation of Hyde Park, I do not recollect having seen a celebrated place where nature had done so much, and man so little, to render beautiful. The embellishments at Hyde Park, contrasted with those met with every day in Britain, place American [[landscape gardening|landscape-gardening]] immeasurably behind, if it can be said to exist.

:“The progress of a people in refinement and taste, manifested in a combination of nature and art, is commonly the work of time, and the decoration of grounds an unproductive investment of capital. Thus the residences of England having descended for ages in the same line, without the power of possessors changing their destination, may be said to represent the accumulated savings, labours, and tastes of many generations. In America the country has not been long possessed by the present owners, and property does not necessarily descend in the same line; and if to these causes be added the high price of labour, and the scarcity of capital, the state of the residences will be sufficiently accounted for. [[David Hosack|Dr Hosack]] has great merit in what he has accomplished, but it is mockery to compare his grounds, in point of embellishments, with the fine places in Britain, which have originated from circumstances which America is not likely soon to experience. . . .
:“Hyde Park is also celebrated for its agriculture, which I found under the charge of a gentleman from Fifeshire, Scotland, a person on excellent terms with himself. The farm offices, which are extensive, would be considered good in most situations, and were the best I saw in America. There was a young hawthorn [[hedge]], well kept, and in a thriving state.”

*Hunt, Freeman, 1836, ''Letters About the Hudson River'' (1836: 159–61)<ref>Freeman Hunt, ''Letters About the Hudson River: And Its Vicinity. Written In 1835 & 1836. By a Citizen of New York'' (New York: F. Hunt & Co., 1836), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4AV48HU4 view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The ride to Hyde Park, about six miles north of Poughkeepsie, is very pleasant. The elegant mansions, the extended plains, and the highly cultivated grounds you pass, render the route really delightful. The village or town of Hyde Park, derived its name from the place owned by the late [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]]. [[Samuel Bard|Dr. Bard]], the original proprietor, gave it that name; and when the town of Clinton was divided into three separate villages, this town assumed the name of Hyde Park. The mansion and grounds of the late [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], occupy a space of about seven hundred acres. It is a princely place, extending a mile from the village north, and about the same distance from the river east. The mansion is built on an extensive plain, and surrounded by trees and [[shrubbery]] of every variety. The grounds along the Albany river road, on either side, are shaded with large locust trees. A retired spot of the grounds of this great estate is occupied with a neat little Episcopal chapel, and the mansion of the rector. This was given to the society by [[Samuel Bard|Dr. Bard]]. Its location is quite rural. . . . Judge Pendleton, Hamilton Wilkes, Thos. Williams, and E. Holbrook, Esqrs;, have all beautiful mansions, and highly cultivated grounds. [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack’s]] place is to be sold, and will probably be divided into lots, and furnish ample space for a dozen mansions as summer residences for our New York city gentry. The New York and Albany boats land at Hyde Park, about half a mile from the village. . . . In 1830, [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]] concluded to retire from practice, and with that view purchased the elegant estate of his patron, [[Samuel Bard|Dr. Bard]], at Hyde Park, on the banks of the Hudson, where he resided from May to November, engaged in cultivating his farm, and improving and beautifying his [[pleasure ground]]s, and extensive [[botanic garden|botanical garden]]. His extensive and practical knowledge as a florist, connected with wealth and a refined taste, has rendered his garden second to none in the union.”

*Murray, Charles Augustus, 1836, describing his travels through New York (1830: 2: 46–47)<ref>Charles Augustus Murray, ''Travels in North America during the Years 1834, 1835, & 1836'', 2 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1839), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QRU529EU view on Zotero.]</ref>
:“I soon came to the lodge of a country-seat, which has been celebrated by almost every British traveller in America, Hyde Park, the residence of the late venerable and hospitable [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]]. I had never found an opportunity of delivering my letters of introduction to him during my former stay in New York. . . . Of course his widow received no company, so I resolved to ride through the grounds and see the [[prospect]] from them, merely leaving my card, accompanied by an apology for the liberty I had taken.
:“The ground between the road and the house is very bold and undulating, and affords the means of making a pretty small lake, round which the approach winds its course. The house is spacious and comfortable without any pretensions to architectural beauty. . . . She [the daughter-in-law- of Dr. Hosack] invited me into the house and very kindly offered to show me the 'lions’: among the principal of which, indoors, was the library, a most comfortable apartment, containing some tolerable pictures of the Italian and Flemish schools. I soon followed my fair conductress to the other side of the house, where might be seen a picture more glorious than ever mortal pencil designed. Below us flowed the Hudson, studded with white-sailed sloops as far as the eye could reach . . . ; the opposite bank, which slopes gently from the river, is variegated with farms, villages, and [[wood]]s, appearing as though they had been grouped by the hand of taste rather than that of industry; while on the north-west side the [[prospect]] is bounded by the dark and lofty outline of the Catskill range.”

*[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], January 1837, “Notices on the State of Progress of Horticulture in the United States” (''Magazine of Horticulture'' 3: 5, 8)<ref>Andrew Jackson Downing, “Notices on the State and Progress of Horticulture in the United States,” ''Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs'' 3, no. 1 (January 1837):1–10, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/HPNHTESI view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The most distinguished amateur and patron of gardening, in every sense of the word, in this state [New York], was the late [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]]. Hyde Park, on the Hudson, the [[seat]] of this gentleman, has been probably the best specimen of highly improved residence in the United States. Situated on the margin of the river, with one of the noblest of [[prospect]]s, smooth gravelled [[drive]]s and [[walk]]s leading to every desirable point of sight, over an estate of eight hundred acres—the [[park]] large, well wooded, and instersected by a fine stream—a handsome and well filled range of [[hothouse]]s, extensive [[shrubbery|shrubberies]], and a separate and very complete [[kitchen garden]], the whole in the highest order—all rendered it a first-rate residence. [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack’s]] acquaintance abroad enabled him to introduce many new fruits and plants, and some of our most celebrated native fruits were placed in the hands of horticulturists in Europe through his means. . . .
:“The finest single example of [[landscape gardening]], in the [[modern style]], is at [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack’s]] [[seat]], Hyde Park, and the best specimens of the [[ancient style|ancient]] or [[geometric style]] may probably be met with in the neighborhood of Philadelphia.”

*[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], March 1837, “Notes on Some of the Nurseries and Private Gardens in the Neighborhood of New York and Philadelphia” (''Magazine of Horticulture'' 3: 211)<ref>Andrew Jackson Downing, “Notes on Some of the Nurseries and Private Gardens in the Neighborhood of New York and Philadelphia, Visited in the Early Part of the Month of March, 1837,” ''Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs'', 3, no. 6 (June 1837):201–13, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/32HMSJRW view on Zotero].</ref>
:“It is a melancholy scene to the American horticulturist to see the few beautiful private residences and [[nursery|nurseries]] of which our country can boast, one by one, purchased by individuals or companies, to be cut up into building lots, or otherwise destroyed, by rail roads running directly through them. [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack’s]], at Hyde Park, N.Y., the best specimens of gardening in this country, was the first; [[Henry Pratt|Mr. Pratt’s]], [[Lemon Hill|Laurel [Lemon] Hill]], but little inferior in its style, next; and now one of the oldest [[nursery|nurseries]][[Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery|[Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery]]], founded by one of the best naturalists this country ever produced, is to follow, though not the same, a similar fate.”

*[[Harriet Martineau|Martineau, Harriet]], 1837, recounting her travels through America (1837: 2:53–54)<ref>Harriet Martineau, ''Society in America'', 2 vols. (London: Saunders and Otley, 1837), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/FB797JQZ view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The prettiest amateur farm I saw was that of the late [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], at Hyde Park, on the Hudson. [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]] had spared no pains to improve his stock, and his methods of farming, as well as the beauty of his [[pleasure ground|pleasure-grounds]]. . . . As for his [[pleasure ground|pleasure-grounds]], little was left for the hand of art to do. The natural [[terrace]] above the river, green, sweeping, and undulating, is surpassingly beautiful. [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]]’s good taste led him to leave it alone, and to spend his pains on the gardens and [[conservatory]] behind. Of all the beautiful country-[[seat]]s on the Hudson, none can, I think, equal Hyde Park; though many bear a more imposing appearance from the river.”

[[File:2047.jpg|thumb|Fig. 15, Johann Hermann Carmiencke, ''Landscape, Hyde Park, New York'', 1859.]]
*[[Harriet Martineau|Martineau, Harriet]], 1838, recounting her visit to Hyde Park (1838: 1:74–77)<ref>Martineau 1838, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/KEG83GHS view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The aspect of Hyde Park from the river had disappointed me, after all I had heard of it. It looks little more than a white house upon a ridge. I was therefore doubly delighted when I found what this ridge really was. It is a natural [[terrace]], over-hanging one of the sweetest reaches of the river; and, though broad and straight at the top, not square and formal, like an artificial embankment, but undulating, sloping, and sweeping, between the ridge and the river, and dropped with trees; the whole carpeted with turf, tempting grown people, who happen to have the spirits of children, to run up and down the slopes, and play hide-and-seek in the hollows. Whatever we might be talking of as we paced the [[terrace]], I felt a perpetual inclination to start off for play. Yet, when the ladies and our selves actually did something like it, threading the little [[thicket]]s, and rounding every promontory, even to the farthest, (which they call Cape Horn) I felt that the possession of such a place ought to make a man devout, if any of the gifts of Providence can do so. To hold in one’s hand that which melts all strangers’ hearts is to be a steward in a very serious sense of the term. Most liberally did [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]] dispense the means of enjoyment he possessed. Hospitality is inseparably connected with his name in the minds of all who ever heard it: and it was hospitality of the heartiest and most gladsome kind. [Fig. 15]
:“[[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]] had a good library,—I believe, one of the best private libraries in the country; some good pictures, and botanical and mineralogical cabinets of value. Among the ornaments of his house, I observed some biscuits and vases once belonging to Louis XVI., purchased by [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack ]]from a gentleman who had them committed to his keeping during the troubles of the first French Revolution.
:“In the afternoon, [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]] drove me in his gig round his estate, which lies on both sides of the high road; the farm on one side, and the [[pleasure ground]]s on the other. The [[conservatory]] is remarkable for America; and the [[flower garden|flower-garden]] all that it can be made under present circumstances, but the neighbouring country people have no idea of a gentleman’s pleasure in his garden, and of respecting it. On occasions of wedding and other festivities, the villagers come up into the Hyde Park grounds to enjoy themselves; and persons, who would not dream of any other mode of theft, pull up rare plants, as they would wild flowers in the [[wood]]s, and carry them away. [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]] would frequently see some flower that he had brought with much pains from Europe flourishing in some garden of the village below. As soon as he explained the nature of the case, the plant would be restored with all zeal and care: but the lessons were so frequent and provoking as greatly to moderate his horticultural enthusiasm. We passed through the poultry-yard, where the congregation of fowls exceeded in number and bustle any that I had ever seen. We drove round his [[kitchen garden|kitchen-garden]] too, where he had taken pains to grow every kind of vegetable which will flourish in that climate. Then crossing the road, after paying our respects to his dairy of fine cows, we drove through the [[orchard]], and round Cape Horn, and refreshed ourselves with the sweet river views on our way home. There we sat in the [[pavilion]], and he told me much of De Witt Clinton, and showed me his own life of Clinton, a copy of which he said should await me on me return to New York.”

*[[Sayers, Edward]], July 1837, “Notes and Observations on Gardens and Nurseries” (''Magazine of Horticulture'' 3: 327, 329)<ref>Edward Sayers, “Notes and Observations on Gardens and Nurseries in the Vicinity of Newark, N.J., New York, Hartford, and Boston, made during a visit between the 5th and 20th of July, 1837;— with some Remarks on the state of Horticulture and Agriculture,” ''Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs'' 3, no. 9 (September 1837): 321–29, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/EBGJZVTR view on Zotero].</ref>
:“It is much to be regretted that collections of medicinal plants, which can be easily obtained, are not more generally cultivated, particularly by the faculty. It is with pleasing recollections that I often bring to mind the oft repeated phrase of my late employer, [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], or Hyde Park, . . . ‘apply simples and herb tea, such as wormwood, horehound, &c.' The doctor, a short time prior to his death, seemed very desirous to have a portion of ground at Hyde Park appropriated to medicinal plants, and would no doubt have excelled in the best collection, had he been spared to collect them. . . .
: [Editor’s note] “It is some years since he [Sayers] has been in the vicinity of Boston, at which time he had management of one of the finest situations that was to be found at that time. He was afterwards employed by the late [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], at Hyde Park, since which time he has been laying out gardens and [[pleasure ground]]s in the vicinity of New York and Newark, N.J.”

*[[C. M. (Charles Mason) Hovey|Hovey, C. M. (Charles Mason)]], February 1839, on the gardener at Hyde Park (''Magazine of Horticulture'' 5: 60)<ref>Charles Mason Hovey, “Notes on Gardens and Nurseries,” ''Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs'' 5, no. 2 (February 1839): 59–65, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/EQ6ZIWR4 view on Zotero.]</ref>
:“''Roswell L. Colt, Esq''., is, we understand, fitting up a fine demesne at Patterson, N.J. The services of Mr. Hobbs, the intelligent and capable gardener of the late [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], have been secured by Mr. Colt, and we believe no pains will be spared to render the whole a very complete residence.”

[[File:1926.jpg|thumb|Fig. 16, Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''Euterpe Knoll Hyde Park N. York'', September 11, 1839.]]
*Wharton, Thomas Kelah, 1839, description of his drawing ''Euterpe Knoll, Hyde Park'' (O’Donnell, et al. 1992: 44)<ref>O’Donnell, Birnbaum, and Zaitzevsky 1992,[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K6W3KBMH view on Zotero].</ref>
:“This noble river [[view]] from the curving [[walk]] along the ridge on the grounds of the late Dr. [[David Hosack|D. H. Hosack]]—leading from the principal mansion to the 'cottage' at the north end of the estate—the spot chosen is just where the [[walk]] emerges from the shadow of lofty trees which border it for some distance from the house—here it winds over a high grassy hill—with a mate just opposite crowned with a tasteful 'vase' of colossal proportions; and dedicated to the goddess of ‘Lyric Poesy’—another [[walk]] turns off to the left and steals down the hill by the [[wood|woodside]], then plunges into a deep shady dell, crosses a [[bridge]] and finally conducts you across a wide open glade to a '[[pavilion]]' occupying a broad table of granite projected out into the river and tufted with cedars and rich lichens—far away to the north, soar the peaks of the Catskills. . . . The mountains are the engrossing features of this superb scene, only a section of which is embraced in the [[view]]. [Fig. 16]
:“Crystal Cove. . . . A retired little nook at the southern extremity of [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack’s]] estate . . . approached by thick shadowy [[wood]]s all at once opened upon a pebbly curve of shore.” [Fig. 17]

[[File:2038.jpg|thumb|Fig. 17, Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''Crystal Cove, Hyde Park. New York'', September 11, 1839.]]
*Anonymous, 1839, description of Hyde Park from the ferry (1839: 28–29)<ref>Anonymous, ''The North American Tourist'' (New York: A. T. Goodrich, 1839), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SDBVE8CV view on Zotero].</ref>
:“There are several neat, tidy-looking villas or country [[seat]]s adorning the river’s bank in the vicinity of the landing, and at intervals along for several miles, as we approach or recede from the landing; . . . .
:“We are now passing the rough ''castellated front of Hyde Park''. . . . The [[avenue]] leading past this strikingly beautiful series of farms, and the residences of the affluent and tasteful owners, is not in sight of the steamboat passengers only in part; but a more superb line of road, for the same distances, does not exist in this State, considering the auxiliaries that come into view before the travelers; the fine [[avenue]] and its ornamental forest trees of the maple, locust, & c. and the unrivalled back ground of the landscape, the elevated and cultivated and woody slopes of the west [[border]]s of the Hudson, that from their proximity and the easy angle of inclination, have a most graceful appearance in contrast with the more distant towering back ground of the blue range of the Catskills, in the north-west.
:“Eighty miles from New York, at the mouth of Crum Elbow Creek, on the east shore, is the landing-place of Hyde Park, and a few rods north, we see the splendidly-arranged house and grounds of the late [[David Hosack]], of New York, and purchased by him of Wm. Bard, Esq. the son of the late Dr. [[Samuel Bard]], one of the founders of New-York Hospital—the extent of the land purchased by [[David Hosack|Dr. H.]] amounted in all to about eight hundred acres, and the original cost to him, including his subsequent improvements, was $100,000. He had the grounds laid out in the most tasteful, attractive style, with gravel [[walk]]s following the windings and undulations along the verge of the natural [[terrace]], overlooking the Hudson river directly beneath, and the deep, abrupt, grassy and wooded [[lawn]] for a mile or two, and ending in a small circular [[temple]] on the rocky margin of the Hudson. The waters of the Crum Elbow Creek run through the grounds, and are so disposed as to add to the beauty and value of the property. Since the death of the late proprietor [[David Hosack|Dr. H.]] the very extensive collection of [[hothouse|hot-house]] plants has been disposed of at auction.”

*Willis, Nathaniel Parker, 1840, description of the Hudson River at Hyde Park (1840: 1:47)<ref>Nathaniel Parker Willis, ''American Scenery; Or, Land, Lake, and River: Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature'', 2 vols. (London: George Vertue, 1840), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/T5CMW67U view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The Hudson at Hyde Park is a broad, tranquil, and noble river, of about the same character as the Bosphorus above Roumeli-bissar, or the Dardanelles at Abydos. The shores are cultivated to the water’s edge and lean up in graceful rather than bold elevations; the [[eminence]]s around are crested with the villas of the wealthy inhabitants of the metropolis at the river’s mouth; [[summer house|summer-houses]], [[belvedere|belvidere]]s, and water-steps, give an air of enjoyment and refreshment to the banks, and, without any thing like the degree of the [[picturesque]] which makes the river so remarkable thirty or forty miles below, it is, perhaps a more tempting character of scenery to build and live among.”

*Anonymous, May 27, 1843, description of Hyde Park (1843: 91)<ref>“The Architects and Architecture of New York,” ''Brother Jonathan'' 4, no. 4 (May 27, 1843): 91–92, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/RXU6PWKC view on Zotero].</ref>
:“''Hyde Park'', the [[seat]] of the late [[David Hosack|''Dr. Hosack'']], situated on the bank of the Hudson, is a splendid specimen of [[landscape gardening]].”

[[File:0355.jpg|thumb|Fig. 18, Anonymous, “View in the Grounds at Hyde Park,” in [[A. J. Downing]], ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'', 4th ed. (1849), pl. opp. 45, fig. 1.]]
*[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], 1841, describing the residence of [[David Hosack]] (1841: 22, 372–73, 385)<ref>Andrew Jackson Downing, ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America . . .'' (New York and London: Wiley & Putnam, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/PGUEKHNG view on Zotero].</ref><div id="Parmentier"></div> [[#Parmentier_cite|back up to History]]
:“Hyde Park, on the Hudson, the seat of the late [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], has been justly celebrated as one of the finest specimens of the [[modern style]] of [[Landscape Gardening]] in America. Nature has indeed, done much for this place, as the grounds are finely varied, beautifully watered by a lively stream, and the [[view]]s from the neighbourhood of the house itself, including as they do the noble Hudson, and the superb wooded valley which stretches away until bounded at the horizon by the distant summits of the blue Cattskills, are unrivalled in [[picturesque]] beauty. But the efforts of art are not unworthy so rare a locality; and while the native [[wood]]s, and beautifully undulating grounds are preserved in their original state, the [[pleasure ground|pleasure-grounds]], roads, [[walk]]s, [[drive]]s, and new [[plantation]]s, have been laid out in so tasteful a manner as to heighten the charms of nature. Large and costly [[hothouse|hot-houses]] were erected and elegant entrance lodges at two points on the estate, a fine [[bridge]] over the stream, and numerous [[pavilion]]s and [[seat]]s commanding extensive [[prospect]]s; in short, nothing was spared to render this [[seat]] one of the finest in America. The [[park]], which at one time contained some fine deer, afforded a delightful [[drive]] within itself, as the whole estate numbered about seven hundred acres. The plans for laying out the grounds were furnished by [[André Parmentier|Parmentier]], and architects from New York were employed in designing and erecting the buildings. Since the death of [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], the place has lost something of the high keeping which it formerly evinced, but we still consider it one of the most instructive [[seat]]s in this country. . . . [Fig. 18]
:“Some noble specimens of the common Three-thorned Acacia, may be seen upon the [[lawn]] at Hyde Park, the fine [[seat]] of the late [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]]. . . .
:“There are two methods of grouping shrubs upon [[lawn]]s which may separately be considered, in combination with 'beautiful' and with [[picturesque|''picturesque'']] scenery.

[[File:0396.jpg|thumb|Fig. 19, Anonymous, “A circular pavilion,” in [[A. J. Downing]], ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'', 4th ed. (1849), 456, fig. 81.]]
:“In the first case, where the character of the scene, of the [[plantation]]s of trees, etc., is that of polished beauty, the belts of shrubs may be arranged similar to herbaceous flowering plants, in arabesque [[bed]]s, along the [[walk]]s. . . . In this case, the shrubs alone, arranged with relation to their height, may occupy the [[bed]]s, or if preferred, shrubs and flowers may be intermingled. Those who have seen the [[shrubbery]] at Hyde Park; the residence of the late [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], which [[border]]s the [[walk]] leading from the mansion, to the [[hothouse|hot-houses]], will be able to recall a fine example of this mode of mingling woody and herbacious plants. The belts or [[border]]s occupied by the [[shrubbery]] and [[flower garden|flower-garden]] there, are perhaps from 25 to 35 feet in width, completely filled with a collection of shrubs and herbaceous plants; the smallest of the latter being quite near the [[walk]]; these succeeded by taller species receding from the front of the [[border]], then follow shrubs of moderate size, advancing in height until the background of the whole is a rich mass of tall shrubs and trees of moderate size. The effect of this belt on so large a scale, in high keeping, is remarkably striking and elegant. . . .
:“The [[temple]] and the [[pavilion]], are highly finished forms of covered [[seat]]s, which are occasionally introduced in splendid places, where classic architecture prevails. There is a circular [[pavilion]] of this kind at the termination of one of the [[walk]]s at [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack’s]] residence, Hyde Park.” [Fig. 19]

<hr>

==Images==
<span id="roundabout_img"></span>
<gallery widths="170px” heights="170px” perrow="7">

Image:2039.jpg|Unknown, ''River [Lake?] Scene with Gazebo [David Hosack Estate?]'' (from Hosack Album), n.d.

Image:0845.jpg|[[Alexander Jackson Davis]], View of water with islands (Hyde Park), n.d.

Image:2027.jpg|[[Alexander Jackson Davis]], ''Residence of Dr. David Hosack, Hyde Park, New York'', c. 1830.

Image:2030.jpg|Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''Bridge over Crumelbow Creek, David Hosack Estate, Hyde Park, New York'', c. 1832.

Image:2032.jpg|Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''Greenhouse, David Hosack Estate, Hyde Park, New York'', c. 1832.

Image:2034.jpg|Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''View of David Hosack Estate, Hyde Park, New York, with a Sundial'', c. 1832.

Image:2035.jpg|Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''View of the David Hosack Estate, Hyde Park, New York, from the South'', c. 1832.

Image:2036.jpg|Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''View of David Hosack Estate, Hyde Park, New York, from the East'', c. 1832.

Image:2033.jpg|Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''View of the David Hosack Estate at Hyde Park, New York, from Western Bank of the Hudson River'', c. 1832.

Image:2037.jpg|Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''Grove of Poplars with a Memorial Bust, David Hosack Estate, Hyde Park, New York'', c. 1832.

Image:2042.jpg|Asher Brown Durand, ''The Chestnut Oak on the Hosack Estate, Hyde Park, New York'', 1838.

Image:2046.jpg|Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives, ''Hyde Park, Hudson River'', c. 1838–56.

Image:1926.jpg|Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''Euterpe Knoll, Hyde Park'', September 11, 1839.

Image:2038.jpg|Thomas Kelah Wharton, ''Crystal Cove, Hyde Park. New York'', September 11, 1839.

Image:2028.jpg|W. H. Bartlett, “View from Hyde Park (Hudson River),” in Nathaniel Parker Willis, ''American Scenery'' (1840), vol 1., pl. 23.

Image:2026.jpg|William Wade, Residence of “Late Dr. Hossack [''sic''] Now Mr. Langdon,” detail from ''Panorama of the Hudson River from New York to Waterford'' (1847).

Image:0355.jpg|Anonymous, “View in the Grounds at Hyde Park,” in [[A. J. Downing]], ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'', 4th ed. (1849), pl. opp. 45, fig. 1.

Image:0396.jpg|Anonymous, “A circular pavilion,” in [[A. J. Downing]], ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'', 4th ed. (1849), 456, fig. 81.

Image:2031.jpg|Johann Hermann Carmiencke, ''Hyde Park'', 1856.

Image:2096.jpg|Johann Hermann Carmiencke, ''Hyde Park'', 1856.

Image:2047.jpg|Johann Hermann Carmiencke, ''Landscape, Hyde Park, New York'', 1859.

Image:2054.jpg|Anonymous after an unknown artist, ''Dr. Samuel Bard’s Residence. Hyde Park'', 1871, watercolor copy of a drawing of c. 1800–23.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Map==
{{#display_map:
41.796111, -73.941944
| service=google
| enablefullscreen=yes
}}

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/hh/32/hh32toc.htm Vanderbilt Mansion, National Park Service]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Harmony Grove

2019-12-30T19:01:24Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

'''Harmony Grove''', an estate in London Grove Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, was the site of a [[botanic garden]] established by the self-taught botanist John Jackson (1748–1821) in the mid 1770s and preserved by successive generations of his family, several of whom shared an interest in botany.

==Overview==
'''Alternate Names:''' West Grove<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1725 until after 1916<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Isaac Jackson (1665–1750); William Jackson (1705–1785); John Jackson (1748–1821); William Jackson (1789–1864); Isaac Jackson (1829–1868); Everard Conard (1814–1893)<br/>
'''Location:''' London Grove Township, Chester County, PA<br/>
'''Condition:'''

<hr>

==History==
[[File:2065_detail.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, T. J. Kennedy, ''Map of Chester Co., Pennsylvania'' [detail], 1860.]]
Shortly after emigrating from Ireland to Pennsylvania, Quakers Ann (1677–1732) and Isaac (1665–1750) Jackson purchased 400 acres of wilderness property 45 miles southwest of Philadelphia, where they settled in 1725. Bounded by hills in a fertile limestone valley, the property possessed many natural advantages, including two sources of water: a natural spring on a hillside and a stream that fed into a branch of White Clay Creek. The Jacksons worked as weavers and also developed a farm that became known as Harmony Grove. Their third son, William Jackson (1705–1785), inherited the property in 1750 and built a stone house there in 1775. His will divided the property between his two younger sons, giving 100 acres of the western part of the estate to William (1746–1834) and 300 acres on the east, including the house and spring, to John (1748–1821).<ref>Halliday Jackson, ed., ''Proceedings of the Sesqui-Centennial Gathering of the Descendants of Isaac and Ann Jackson: At Harmony Grove, Chester Co., Pa., Eighth Month, Twenty-Fifth, 1875: Together with the Family Genealogy'' (Philadelphia: Committee for the Jackson Family, 1878), 7–8, 24–26, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/7A2I2J39 view on Zotero].</ref>

Before he inherited the land at Harmony Grove, John Jackson had already established a [[botanic garden]], having laid it out around the time of the Revolution on an acre and a half of level ground backing up to hills to the north and west of the house.<span id="Chester_cite"></span> He created [[grove]]s and [[arcade]]s of trees, including maple, sycamore, honey locust, mahogany, sweet gum, gingko, holly, and various nut trees.<ref>Jackson 1878, 48–51, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/7A2I2J39 view on Zotero]; Ella Kent Barnard, “An Old Botanic Garden,” ''Journal of the Friends Historical Society'' 13 (1916): 18–19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NMQI6KQ6 view on Zotero].</ref> Other features of the garden design are suggested by the poem “Harmony Grove,” written in 1875 by Sarah W. Peterson, which mentions “the great box-bush,” “the broad [[walk]],” and “cloistral [[avenues]] of pines and firs.”<ref>Jackson 1878, 60, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/7A2I2J39 view on Zotero].</ref> Jackson erected a stone [[greenhouse]] in the garden with a “quaint spring house” and dairy attached to it, and an upstairs room for drying and storing seeds ([[#Chester|view text]]). An account published in 1878 noted that water from the spring flowed underground through the spring house and dairy and “collected in a square [[pond]], which, with its diminutive outlet, furnished localities suited to the culture of aquatic plants.”<ref>Jackson 1878, 8, 11, 61, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/7A2I2J39 view on Zotero].</ref> The garden survived the Revolutionary War, and in a letter of 1789 to his friend [[Humphry Marshall]], <span id="1789_cite"></span>Jackson reflected “I hope the public peace will add fresh life and vigour to every useful science that may tend to adorn and enrich our country: the propagation of plants being one, and much my delight” ([[#1789|view text]]).

Cultivation of the [[botanic garden]] provided a pleasurable leisure-time activity for Jackson over the course of several decades. His surviving correspondence documents some of the botanical exchanges and purchases through which he acquired trees, shrubs, plants, and seeds for the garden.<ref>For Jackson’s correspondence in the Jackson-Conard Family Papers at Swarthmore, [http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/friends/ead/5217jaco.xml view website]. See also Jackson 1878, 7–8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/7A2I2J39 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Darlington_cite"></span> Among Jackson’s suppliers was [[Humphry Marshall]], whose neighboring [[Humphry Marshall’s Botanic Garden|botanic garden]] reportedly provided the model for Harmony Grove ([[#Darlington|view text]]).<ref>William Darlington, ''Memorials of John Bartram and Humphry Marshall: With Notices of Their Botanical Contemporaries'' (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1849), 22, 549–50, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TKNVQG76 view on Zotero]; Burnet Landreth, “Historical Notice of Other Early Agricultural Societies,” ''Agriculture of Pennsylvania: Containing Reports of the State Board of Agriculture . . . for 1885 in Agriculture of Pennsylvania: Containing Reports of the State Board of Agriculture . . . for 1885'' (Harrisburg: Edwin K. Meyers, 1886), 9: 148, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5H69BSXR view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Village_cite"></span>A writer for a local newspaper claimed in 1822 that Jackson’s [[botanic garden]], “stocked with a multitude of indigenous and foreign fruits and flowers” including orange and lemon trees, “has a greater variety of rare trees, plants, fruits and flowers than the celebrated garden of [[Humphry Marshall]] ever had” ([[#Village|view text]]). Jackson’s interest in botany led him to create several albums and lists of plant materials, preserved at Swarthmore College, two albums containing specimens of dried and pressed plants and wild flowers from Harmony Grove assembled between 1810 and 1819 (University of Delaware), and an herbarium (West Chester State University). The plants, many identified by common English as well as Latin names (some with labels written by Jackson’s friend William Darlington), include barberry, wood anemone, dogwood, aster, columbine, Solomon seal, watercress, and delphinium.<ref>The records of the Special Collections Department of the University of Delaware indicate that Jackson gave one of the albums to another amateur botanist, the Philadelphia surgeon and physician Dr. Francis Alison (1751–1813). For more information on Jackson’s albums at the University of Delaware, [http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/findaids/html/mss0093_0016.html view website]. For the herbarium, see Robert R. Gutowski, “Humphry Marshall’s Botanic Garden: Living Collections 1773–1813” (master’s thesis, University of Delaware, 1988), 148, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/FEKTNCPT view on Zotero]. For Alison, see Anonymous, “Chester County Cabinet of Natural Science,” ''Register of Pennsylvania'' 1 (May 10, 1828): 303, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4JXNRSNZ view on Zotero].</ref>

Harmony Grove’s fame lured many visitors. As a writer observed in 1822, “There are few who have not seen and admired or heard of and wished to see, the garden of JOHN JACKSON.”<ref>“Deaths,” ''The Village Record'' (January 16, 1822), posted by J. D. Thomas, [http://www.accessible-archives.com/2012/12/the-pennsylvania-genealogical-catalogue-1822/#ixzz3r66Db4dt ''Pennsylvania Genealogical Catalogue''].</ref> Jackson went out of his way to accommodate these guests. <span id="Desk_cite"></span> Thomas Peirce’s verses on the garden, composed in 1813, describe a secluded [[grove]] in which visitors found [[seat]]s and a flower-bordered [[bower]] equipped with a desk, pen, ink, and paper “For such as choose to write/ Some brief encomiums on the place,” signing their “ditties” with names and dates ([[#Desk|view text]]).<ref>Jackson 1878, 13, 50, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/7A2I2J39 view on Zotero].</ref> Jackson also attached cards to the aloe trees in his garden with witty verses intended to dissuade visitors from scratching their names into the smooth leaves. Jackson’s descendants preserved the cards, one of which read: “Ye beaux and belles, I pray, forbear,/ My pretty leaves to scratch and tear;/ You little think the pain I feel/ From puncture of your polished steel.”<ref>For this and other examples, see Jackson 1878, 45, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/7A2I2J39 view on Zotero].</ref> Beginning in 1805 the house at Harmony Grove served as headquarters of the Farmers Library of Londongrove, with John Jackson serving as its secretary.<ref>John Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope, ''History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches'' (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881), 310, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/G8FI9HPZ view on Zotero].</ref> One young neighbor, Ezra Michener (1804–1887,) began his botanical education there in 1810 under Jackson’s tutelage, later recalling: “I generally found the librarian in his delightful garden. Seeing that I was interested in plants and flowers, he took pleasure in leading me around to see them, and in simple terms explained them to my understanding. <span id="Michener_cite"></span> In the library room it was the same; the windows had their blooming plants, the table was loaded with mineral and other specimens” ([[#Michener|view text]]).

[[File:2067_detail.jpg|thumb|Fig. 2, Edward Yeager after J. S. Bowen, ''Map of Chester County, Pennsylvania'', 1847, detail.]]
Jackson had just begun to devote himself to the garden full time, having turned over management of the Harmony Grove farm to his son William (1789–1864) when he came of age in 1810.<ref>“Deaths,” January 16, 1822; Futhey and Cope 1881, 611, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/G8FI9HPZ view on Zotero].</ref> Sharing his father’s interest in natural history, William maintained the [[botanic garden]] after inheriting the property in 1821.<ref>Anonymous, May 10, 1828: 303, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4JXNRSNZ view on Zotero]. For the mineralogical activities of John and William Jackson, see Isaac Lea, “An Account of the Minerals at Present Known to Exist in the Vicinity of Philadelphia,” ''Register of Pennsylvania'' 2 (July 1828): 18–23, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/6FH7KQEA view on Zotero]; George W. Carpenter, “Mineralogical Notices,” ''Register of Pennsylvania'' 2 (August 1828): 84–88, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/UZ7M7VM6 view on Zotero].</ref> Twenty-eight years later William Darlington reported that the “highly interesting collection of plants” at Harmony Grove “is preserved in good condition.”<ref>Darlington 1849, 22, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TKNVQG76 view on Zotero].</ref> It was reportedly William who planted evergreens and deciduous trees on the hill on the north side of the garden, creating a [[grove]] that was described as “flourishing” in 1878.<ref>Jackson 1878, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/7A2I2J39 view on Zotero].</ref> A visitor in 1916 observed enormous cedar, yew, larch, and cypress, among other species.<ref>Barnard 1916, 18–19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NMQI6KQ6 view on Zotero].</ref> A map of 1847 indicates that William Jackson or another member of his family also operated an agricultural implement factory at Harmony Grove [Fig. 2].

[[File:2071.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 3, Caskey, “The Dingee & Conard Co. Rose Grower,” 1881, in J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope, ''The History of Chester County'' (1881), plate opp. p. 338.]]
William’s son Isaac (1829–1868) continued the family tradition of engagement in botany and horticulture. He had inherited his uncle William’s 100 acres of property on the western part of the estate in 1834. When he came of age in 1850, he established Harmony Grove Nurseries on thirty acres of that property, taking over the stock of the nurseryman Thomas M. Harvey. A Chester County map of 1860 bears a cluster of inscriptions (“Botanical Gardens,” “I. Jackson,” I. Jackson & Co.” and “Harmony Grove Botanical Garden & Nursery”) indicating the location of the commercial enterprise. Farther to the west, the three inscriptions reading “W. Jackson” indicate the location of the private [[botanic garden]] laid out by John Jackson, which then belonged to Isaac’s father William Jackson [Fig. 1]. Isaac Jackson’s partner in the nursery and garden business was his sister Elizabeth’s husband, Charles Dingee (1825–1912), who had earlier served as a horticultural apprentice to the noted nurseryman Edward Jessup of York, Pennsylvania.<ref>Thomas Meehan, “Catalogues & c.,” ''Illustrated Annual Register of Rural Affairs'' 1 (April 1, 1859): 60, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BH5JSQHG view on Zotero]; J. J. Thomas, “Nurseries in the United States: Supplements to Last Year’s Lists,” ''Illustrated Annual Register of Rural Affairs and Cultivator Almanac, for the Year 1858'' 1 (1858): 319, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/454F7NFD view on Zotero].</ref> Two properties owned by Dingee appear on the 1860 map to the south of the Harmony Grove Botanic Garden & Nursery. In 1864 Isaac Jackson inherited the Harmony Grove property from his father, which was sold a few years later to Everard Conard (1814–1893), the husband of Isaac’s sister Mary. Following Isaac’s death in 1868, Charles Dingee entered into a partnership with Alfred Fellenberg Conard (1835–1906), a former employee of Thomas M. Harvey [Fig. 3].<ref>“Obituary: Charles Dingee,” ''National Nurseryman'' 21 (January 1913): 24, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/9XNRV48T view on Zotero]; “Death of a Pioneer Mail Order Advertiser,” ''Agricultural Advertising'' 16 (January 1907): 66,[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/XJ6IRN2P view on Zotero].</ref> The Harmony Grove Nursery of Dingee & Conard Co. became world famous for innovative propagation of roses and for pioneering the mail order plant business in America.<ref>“Obituary: Charles Dingee,” January 1913: 24, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/9XNRV48T view on Zotero]; “The Late Charles Dingee,” ''Gardening'' 21 (January 1, 1913): 122, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/B544V9JD view on Zotero].</ref> Inscriptions on a Chester County map of 1873 indicate the location of “The Dingee & Conard [[Greenhouse|Green Houses]] just to the south of Everard Conard’s property, no longer identified as including [[botanic garden]]s.

The Conard family retained ownership of the Harmony Grove estate into the late 19th century, preventing development of the property but also allowing dense foliage to overtake the garden. In 1878 it was reported that whereas very little of the [[flower garden]] remained, “many noble trees still attest his [John Jackson’s] care and skill.”<ref>Jackson 1878, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/7A2I2J39 view on Zotero].</ref> In 1885 the seedsman Burnet Landreth (1842–1928) noted that John Jackson’s “plantings, in part, still stand as his monument.”<ref>Landreth 1886, 9: 148, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5H69BSXR view on Zotero].</ref> By 1916 the [[greenhouse]] and spring house were reduced to a few moss-covered walls. The trees had “become too crowded for perfect development, and have more the appearance of forest trees, while the shrubbery and lesser plants and vines, now growing wild, give just a hint of what a tropical jungle might be.” Despite this, of the three important early [[botanic garden]]s in Pennsylvania—the [[Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery]], [[Humphry Marshall|Humphry Marshall's]] garden at Marshallton, and the garden at Harmony Grove—the latter was judged to be in “the best state of preservation.”<ref>Barnard 1916, 16–18, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NMQI6KQ6 view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Robyn Asleson''

<hr>

==Texts==
*<div id="1789"></div>Jackson, John, March 30, 1789, letter to [[Humphry Marshall]] (Darlington 1849: 549–50)<ref name="Darlington">Darlington 1849, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TKNVQG76 view on Zotero]; Gutowski 1988, 97, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/FEKTNCPT view on Zotero].</ref> [[#1789_cite|back up to History]]

:“I herewith send thy brush by the bearer, Caleb Harland, being the first opportunity. Mind not the cost until I see thee. I have this request to make, if thou pleases; to save me some seed of the ''Geranium'', when ripe: also if thou couldst procure me a set or two of ''Rosemary'', I should accept it as a favour, having lost mine the hard winter, and not got any since. Perhaps some slips set in the ground in season, would take root, and be safely moved towards fall.

:“I hope the public peace will add fresh life and vigour to every useful science that may tend to adorn and enrich our country: the propagation of plants being one, and much my delight. I take every help that I receive this way as a kindness.”

*<div id="Desk"></div>Thomas Peirce, May 14, 1813, poem about Harmony Grove (Jackson 1878: 48–51)<ref name="Jackson">Jackson 1878, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/7A2I2J39 view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Desk_cite|back up to History]]

:“Where London Grove attracts the eye
:“With hills aspiring to the sky,
::“And [[meadow|meads]] forever green,
:“Prolific fields, luxuriant [[wood]]s,
:“Enameled [[lawn]]s and lucid floods,
::“Is found this lovely scene . . . .
:“In front of this [mansion] is widely spread,
:“With easy [[slope]] a fertile [[meadow|mead]]
::“Fair to the mid-day beam,
:“Which Flora’s showy robe bedecks,
:“And blushing flowers incline their necks
::“To sip the lucid stream.
:“A stream which now in surly mood
:“Foams o'er the rocks in yonder [[wood]]
::“Where hills abruptly rise;
:“Now with a gentle current moves,
:“Gives music to the neighboring [[grove]]s,
::“And mirror to the skies.
:“Close on the left an [[orchard]] stands,
:“Where fruits from this and foreign lands,
::“Delicious sweets unfold . . . .
:“Near on the right a garden lies,
:“Basking beneath auspicious skies . . . .
:“There stately trees on high aspire,
:“Intent from Sol’s meridian fire
::“To shield the plants below;
:“Here others ope romantic glades,
:“Or wreathe their arms to form [[arcade]]s
::“In many a circling row.
:“When drawn from far by beauties rare,
:“The sons of science here repair
::“These velvet [[walk]]s to tread . . . .
:“When Taurus lends his genial power
:“To waken every vital flower
::“On Flora’s roseate [[bed]],
:“Here, roused from long-enjoyed repose,
:“A thousand plants their sweets disclose
::“A thousand beauties spread.
:“Culled from each region of the globe,
:“Where Flora’s variegated robe
::“Is spread to mortal view . . . .
:“A ceaseless [[fountain|fount]], in [[prospect]] clear,
:“Collects its healthy water here,
::“To form a mimic [[lake]] . . . .
:“Not far from this a spacious [[bower]],
:“Enclosed with many a fragrant flower,
::“Adorns a lonely [[grove]] . . . .
:“A breeze which unremitted springs
:“From western climes on roseate wings,
::“The inmost [[seat]]s assails,
:“Waves high in air the fragrant plumes,
:“With which the [[bower]] profusely blooms,
::“And scents the passing gales.
:“In this, still ready at command,
:“A desk, pen, ink and paper stand
::“For such as choose to write
:“Some brief encomiums on the place,
:“Its use, convenience, order, grace
::“That yields the most delight.
:“Short extracts here confus'dly lie
:“Names, dates, and ditties, catch the eye,
::“In uncouth manner penn'd;
:“A pithy phrase, a sentence strong,
:“A ''billet doux'', a mournful song,
::“A farewell to a friend.
:“An aged sire with ceaseless care
:“This paradise of all that’s rare
::“With gentle scepter sways;
:“This order with just taste he plans,
:“And labors with assiduous hands,
::“Each infant plant he raise.”

*Baldwin, William, August 14, 1818, letter from Philadelphia to William Darlington (Darlington 1843: 278)<ref name="Darlington_1843">William Baldwin, ''Reliquiae Baldwinianae: Selections from the Correspondence of the Late William Baldwin with Occasional Notes, and a Short Biographical Memoir'', ed. William Darlington (Philadelphia: Kimber and Sharpless, 1843), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/XZCT2UNV view on Zotero].</ref>

: “A few days ago I had an interesting visit from JOHN JACKSON. I am pretty certain he has, in his collection, some new plants. I will propose a scheme. Inform me, by letter, when you can spare the time, and I will (in my turn,) take you in my gig. . . to see this worthy old lover of Nature. Do strain a point, and let us go soon,—as he speaks of one fine plant which will soon be out of flower.”

*Baldwin, William, September 3, 1818, letter from Wilmington, Delaware to William Darlington (Darlington 1843: 280)<ref name="Darlington_1843"></ref>

: “I have now for certain the ''Scirpus tenuis'', of Muhl. As well as the ''capillaris'',—both from JOHN JACKSON'S herbarium.”

*Baldwin, William, September 17, 1818, to William Darlington (Darlington 1843: 281)<ref name="Darlington_1843"></ref>

:“My interview with [Zaccheus] COLLINS was as interesting as it was pleasing. . . . On presenting for his examination our ''Jacksonia'', he had no hesitation in considering it a new genus—if an American plant: but, in his usual cautious manner, recommended omitting the publication of it until the ripe seed-vessel could be obtained; lest, possibly, it might be something exotic.”

:: [William Darlington’s note:“The ''traditional'' history of this plant was, that it had been obtained, by the late [[Humphry Marshall|HUMPHREY [''sic''] MARSHALL]], from the mountains of ''Tennessee''; and, supposing it to be a ''new genus'', Dr. B. and myself had proposed to dedicate it to our estimable friend, JOHN JACKSON. But the characteristic caution of our friend COLLINS saved us from making a great blunder: for, on examining the plant in a more perfect state, I ascertained it to be the ''Saxifraga crassifolia, L.'']

*Baldwin, William, March 14, 1819, letter to William Darlington (Darlington 1843: 305)<ref name="Darlington_1843"></ref>

:“Yesterday I called upon S.W. CONRAD,—principally to urge his publishing MUHLENBERG'S Flora. . . . I must request you to relieve me a little in this business, by persuading some of our friends to take copies: such as JOHN JACKSON.”

*<div id="Village"></div>''Village Record'' newspaper (West Chester, PA), January 16, 1822, biographical account of John Jackson<ref>“Deaths,” January 16, 1822, [http://www.accessible-archives.com/2012/12/the-pennsylvania-genealogical-catalogue-1822/#ixzz3r66Db4dt ''Pennsylvania Genealogical Catalogue''].</ref> [[#Village_cite|back up to History]]

:“JOHN JACKSON, whose death was published in the last Record, was a native of Londongrove and was born where he died; his father was also born and died on the same plantation. His great grandfather was one of the earliest settlers in that neighborhood. There is something very pleasant in the idea, as it shows the general course of happiness and contentment that must have prevailed, to see the son succeeding to the father, generation after generation to the same farm; in eating the fruits planted by a father’s hand; In planting fruits with the expectation that they shall be enjoyed by our children, many tender and pleasing recollections and anticipations arise. The object of this notice was one who never courted the public gaze; nor was he ambitious of public business or honor; not that he thought it improper. He held in respect those who preferred public service, but his genius led him another way. A self taught botanist, he took delight in cultivating in his leisure hours a garden, which he stocked with a multitude of indigenous and foreign fruits and flowers. The taste grew with his years, and there are few who have not seen and admired or heard of and wished to see, the garden of JOHN JACKSON. At this time it has a greater variety of rare trees, plants, fruits and flowers than the celebrated garden of [[Humphry Marshall]] ever had. The orange and lemon trees are now bending with their golden honors; and as if in pride, yet blossoming for more. He was always an industrious man & in his latter years spent most of his time in his garden.”

*<div id="Chester"></div>Anonymous, May 10, 1828, account of the botanical and horticultural activities of John and William Jackson, “Chester County Cabinet of Natural Science” (''Register of Pennsylvania'' 1: 303)<ref>Anonymous, May 10, 1828, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4JXNRSNZ view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Chester_cite|back up to History]]

:“The next garden in botanical importance [after [[Humphry Marshall’s Botanic Garden]]] is that founded by the late John Jackson, in the township of London-Grove. Mr. Jackson was a member of the Society of Friends: he was an excellent gardener, and a highly respectable botanist. He was born in London-Grove, the 9th of November, 1748, and died in the same township, the 20th of December, 1821. The garden was commenced in the year 1776 or 1777: it contains about an acre and a half of ground, and is located in a lime-stone valley of extraordinary beauty and fertility. A small [[greenhouse|green-house]] is attached to the place: a spring yielding an abundant supply of water, takes its rise near the centre of the garden, and affords an opportunity for the growth of aquatic plants, and some others, which delight in a humid soil. The place presents a numerous collection of foreign and indigenous plants of much interest to the student of botany. Mr. Jackson. . . also paid attention to mineralogy. His son, William Jackson, the present proprietor of the garden, inherits his father’s love for natural science, and employs himself in making gradual improvements in the establishment.

*<div id="Darlington"></div>Darlington, William, 1849, description of the botanical activities of John and William Jackson (1849: 22, 549–50)<ref name="Darlington"></ref> [[#Darlington_cite|back up to History]]

:“The laudable example of [[Humphry Marshall|HUMPHRY MARSHALL]] was not without its influence in the community where he resided. His friend and neighbour, the late estimable JOHN JACKSON, was endowed with a similar taste for the beauties of nature; and, in the year 1777, commenced a highly interesting collection of plants, at his residence in Londongrove, which is still preserved in good condition, by his son WILLIAM JACKSON, Esq . . . .

:“JOHN JACKSON, of Londongrove Township, Chester County, was one of the very few contemporaries of [[Humphry Marshall|HUMPHRY MARSHALL]], who sympathized cordially with his pursuits. He commenced a garden soon after that at Marshallton was established, and made a valuable collection of rare and ornamental plants; which is still preserved in good condition by his son, WILLIAM JACKSON, Esq. JOHN JACKSON, was a very successful cultivator of curious plants, a respectable botanist, and one of the most gentle and amiable men.”

*William J. Lewis, August 6, 1875, recalling visit of c. 1814–21 to his uncle’s estate, Harmony Grove (Jackson 1878: 16)<ref name="Jackson"></ref>

:“I recollect well my great uncles, John and William Jackson. The former took me, a little boy, through his grand garden, and showed me the beautiful flowers and trees gathered from every quarter of the globe. It was at that time, in regard to size and variety of plants, the second if not the first, on the American Continent.

*Mary W. Palmer, August 18, 1875, recalling visit of c. 1840 to her mothers’ childhood home, Harmony Grove (Jackson 1878: 17)<ref name="Jackson"></ref>

:“It must be thirty-five years since I last saw the dear old home . . . . The scent of the box in the early morning as we entered the garden, the music of the birds, the deep shade of the beautiful trees, the cool spring in the [[greenhouse|green-house]], and the rare and lovely plants that in Summer used to be set around the [[pond]]—everything comes back to me.”

*<div id="Michener"></div>Michener, Ezra, 1893, recalling visits to the [[botanic garden|botanical garden]] and library at Harmony Grove in 1811 (1893: 8–10)<ref>Ezra Michener, ''Autographical Notes from the Life and Letters of Ezra Michener, M.D.'' (Philadelphia: Friends Book Association, 1893, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/HCA76UJM view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Michener_cite|back up to History]]

:“It was at this critical period of my life that the Farmers' Library, of London Grove, was opened at the house of John Jackson, the botanist and florist. My father became a stockholder, and it naturally devolved upon me to obtain and return books.

:“Here I found an ample variety of most excellent reading, and, what was of scarcely less value to me, I generally found the librarian in his delightful garden. Seeing that I was interested in plants and flowers, he took pleasure in leading me around to see them, and in simple terms explained them to my understanding. In the library room it was the same; the windows had their blooming plants, the table was loaded with mineral and other specimens, while on the floor stood an electrical machine, and a Hand Jennie for roving and spinning cotton. The use of these the owner was ever ready to exhibit and explain. He was always ready, too, to advise and assist me in the choice of books. To me it seemed enchanted ground. Among the first books I read were Mungo Park’s Fables, Cook’s Voyage Around the World, and Darwin’s Botanic Garden . . . .

:“My innate fondness for plants and flowers was fostered and intensified by my frequent visits to Harmony Grove, but I did not find botanical books; indeed, there does not seem to have been any book on the subject for beginners, either written by an American, or printed in America for several years after. The library furnished Rees’s New Cyclopaedia in ninety-two half volumes, quarto. This work afforded a rich store of botanical knowledge. The genera were alphabetical with the known species following, but I could seldom stumble on the description of the plant before me; when I did so, I wrote down the botanical and common names until I had a respectable list. I also made a list of the scientific terms as they came under notice, with definitions. In this way I unconsciously begun a botanical dictionary for future study, a method of juvenile authorship, which I have practiced more or less during life.”

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:2067.jpg|Edward Yeager after J.S. Bowen, ''Map of Chester County, Pennsylvania'', 1847.

Image:2065.jpg|T. J. Kennedy, ''Map of Chester Co., Pennsylvania'' [sheet 4 of 4], 1860.

Image:2071.jpg|Caskey, “The Dingee & Conard Co. Rose Grower,” 1881, in J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope, ''The History of Chester County, Pennsylvania'' (1881), plate opp. p. 338.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Map==
{{#display_map:
39.821667, -75.826667
|service=google
|enablefullscreen=yes
}}

==Other Resources==
[http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/friends/ead/5217jaco.xml Jackson-Conard Family Papers, 1748–1910, Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College]

[http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/findaids/html/mss0093_0016.html John Jackson albums of specimens of dried flowers and plants, ca. 1810–1819, University of Delaware Library]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Elgin Botanic Garden

2019-12-30T18:59:47Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

The '''Elgin Botanic Garden''', established in 1801 in New York City by Dr. [[David Hosack]] (1769–1835), was a systematic arrangement of plants for scientific and pedagogical purposes. It served as a garden for teaching botany and materia medica at both the medical school of Columbia College and the College of Physicians and Surgeons. It was located in the area that is now midtown Manhattan.

==Overview==
'''Alternate Names:''' Botanic Garden of the State of New York<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1801–1811<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' [[David Hosack]] (1769–1835); The State of New York; The College of Physicians and Surgeons; Columbia College<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Andrew Gentle (gardener); Frederick Pursh (gardener, 1774–1820); Michael Dennison (seedsman)<br/>
'''Location:''': New York, NY<br/>
'''Condition:''' demolished<br/>

<hr>

==History==
[[File:0050.jpg|thumb|Fig. 1, Hugh Reinagle, ''Elgin Garden on Fifth Avenue'', c. 1812.]]
While serving as professor of botany at Columbia College, Samuel Latham Mitchill proposed the development of a [[botanic garden]] in New York City to be administered either by the College or by New York’s Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Manufactures. As Mitchill explained in a report to the Society in 1794, a garden comprised of indigenous and imported plants <span id="Mitchill_cite"></span>would be “one of the genteelest and most beautiful of public improvements,” while also providing essential aid in the teaching of botany and the conducting of agricultural experiments ([[#Mitchill|view text]]).<ref>Significantly, when David Hosack later quoted Mitchill, he altered his words to emphasize the garden’s practicality, changing Mitchill’s phrase “genteelest and most beautiful” to “most useful and most important”; see David Hosack, ''A Statement of Facts Relative to the Establishment and Progress of the Elgin Botanic Garden: And the Subsequent Disposal of the Same to the State of New-York'' (New York: C. S. Van Winkle, 1811), 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/H4VR8FK5 view on Zotero].</ref> Mitchill’s proposal reflects his medical education at the University of Edinburgh, where [[botanic garden]]s served as essential adjuncts to courses in botany and materia medica.<ref>Christine Chapman Robbins, ''David Hosack: Citizen of New York'' (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1964), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CQCQ247B51 view on Zotero].</ref> Although nothing came of his plan, the idea was revived by his successor, [[David Hosack]], another Edinburgh-educated physician, who was appointed professor of botany at Columbia in May 1795, and professor of materia medica two years later. In November 1797 [[David Hosack|Hosack]] informed the trustees of Columbia College that even his “large and very extensive collection of coloured [botanical] engravings” fell short of the pedagogic utility that a [[botanic garden]] would provide. <span id="1797_cite"></span>He therefore requested that “the professorship of botany and materia medica be endowed with a certain annual salary to defray the necessary expenses of a small garden, in which the professor may cultivate, under his immediate notice, such plants as furnish the most valuable medicines, and are most necessary for medical instruction” ([[#1797|view text]]). Despite agreeing with [[David Hosack|Hosack]] in principle, the trustees provided no funds. He next directed his request to the state legislature, but his letter of February 1800 requesting an annual stipend of £300 met with equally disappointing results.<ref>Hosack 1811, 7–10, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/H4VR8FK5 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1136.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 2, John Trumbull, ''Dr. Hosack’s Green houses'', Elgin Botanic Garden, June 1806.]]
Finally, in 1801, [[David Hosack|Hosack]] resolved to take the matter into his own hands, personally financing the purchase of twenty acres of land in the countryside to the north of the city, between what is now 47th and 51st Streets and Fifth and Sixth Avenues (an area that now includes Rockefeller Center) [Fig. 1].<ref>Hosack 1811, 10, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/H4VR8FK5 view on Zotero].</ref> Columbia College was then located four miles to the south in lower Manhattan, a distance that limited the garden’s practicality from the outset. In other respects, however, the situation was ideal. <span id="variegated_cite"></span>Hosack noted that “the view from the most elevated part, is variegated and extensive, and the soil itself of that diversified nature, as to be particularly well adapted to the cultivation of a great variety of vegetable productions” ([[#variegated|view text]]). He named the garden “Elgin” after his father’s birthplace in Scotland. Soon after purchasing the property, he wrote to “friends in Europe and in the East and West Indies [asking] for their plants.”<ref>David Hosack, letter of July 25, 1803, to Dr. Thomas Parke, Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection, Boston Public Library, quoted in Robbins 1964, 65, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/H4VR8FK5 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Parke_cite"></span>In July 1803, while his collection was “yet small,” he made a similar request of the Philadelphia physician Thomas Parke, asking for his help in obtaining duplicate specimens of “rare and valuable plants” owned by their mutual friend [[William Hamilton]], as well as medicinal plants and a catalog from the [[Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery]] ([[#Parke|view text]]). Dr. Parke had already provided [[David Hosack|Hosack]] with plans of the elaborate [[greenhouse]] with flanking [[hothouse]]s that [[William Hamilton|Hamilton]] built ten years earlier at [[The Woodlands]].<ref>Timothy Preston Long, “The Woodlands: A ‘Matchless Place’” (master’s thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1991), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JQS7HETZ view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Elegance_cite"></span>[[David Hosack|Hosack]] adopted roughly the same design and dimensions for the Elgin [[greenhouse]] complex, which he described as “constructed with great architectural taste and elegance” ([[#Elegance|view text]]). After completing the central block in 1803, [[David Hosack|Hosack]] added the [[hothouse]]s in 1806 and 1807. The artist John Trumbull documented the buildings in a drawing made in June 1806 [Fig. 2], probably as a study for the background of his portrait of [[David Hosack|Hosack]], presently known only through a related engraving [Fig. 3].
[[File:2052.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 3, Charles Heath after Thomas Sully and John Trumbull, ''David Hosack, M.D., F.R.S.'', c. 1816.]]

<span id="Sketch_cite"></span>[[David Hosack|Hosack]] reportedly had “in cultivation at the commencement of 1805, nearly fifteen hundred American plants, besides a considerable number of rare and valuable exotics” ([[#Sketch|view text]]). <span id="Indies_cite"></span>The following year, when he published the first catalog of the garden, the number of plants had grown to nearly 2,000 species, with the “the greater part of [the twenty acres] . . . now in cultivation” ([[#Indies|view text]]). <span id="Jefferson_cite"></span> While continuing to collect plants with the aid of well-connected friends such as [[Thomas Jefferson]] ([[#Jefferson|view text]]), Hosack turned his attention to laying out the grounds, ensuring that they were not only “arranged and planted agreeably to the most approved stile of ornamental gardening,” but also according to scientific taxonomies and the conditions of climate and terrain best suited to each plant.<ref>David Hosack, ''Description of the Elgin Garden, The Property of David Hosack, M.D.'' (New York: The author, 1810), 1–4, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8HF2852Z view on Zotero].</ref> By 1810 when he published his ''Description of the Elgin Garden'', [[David Hosack|Hosack]] had carried out the plan outlined in his 1806 ''Catalogue'' of encircling the garden with a “belt of forest trees and shrubs, native and exotic.” This “judiciously chequered and mingled” collection was comprised of “the oak, the plane, the elm, the sugar maple, the locust, the horse chesnut, the mountain ash, the basket willow, and various species of poplar.” In front of these trees a “similarly varied collection” of native and foreign shrubs was laid out in the form of an amphitheatre, “which, winding with the [[walk]]s, presents at every step something new and engaging.” On the opposite side of the garden, “the eye reposes on the green [[lawn]] which is occasionally intercepted with groups of trees and shrubs happily adapted to its varied surface.” [[Walk]]s on either side of the garden led to compartments of plants laid out according to their scientific order, and beyond them lay a nursery of fruit trees, a [[pond]] “devoted to the varieties of nymphoea, pontederia and other aquatics,” and native plants, such as rhododendron, magnolias, and willows, which favored the moist ground adjacent to the [[pond]]. At higher elevations, rocky outcroppings were planted with “varied species of pine, juniper, yew, and hemlock.” In the vicinity of the [[greenhouse]] and [[hothouse]]s were shrubs arranged in [[clump]]s and [[border]]s containing flowering plants. <span id="Description_cite"></span>Throughout the garden, every tree, shrub, and plant bore a label with its botanic name “for the instruction of the student.” The entire garden was enclosed by a stone [[wall]], seven feet high and two and-a-half feet thick ([[#Description|view text]]).<ref>Hosack 1810, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8HF2852Z view on Zotero]; cf. David Hosack, ''A Catalogue of Plants Contained in the Botanic Garden at Elgin: In the Vicinity of New York, Established in 1801'' (New York: T. & J. Swords, 1806), 4, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZFGHH3VJ view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2060.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 4, William Satchwell Leney after James Inderwick, “The Canada Thistle,” in David Hosack, “Botanical description of the Canada Thistle or Cnicus Arvensis,” ''American Medical and Philosophical Register'' 1 (October 1810): facing p. 212.]]
Following his appointment in 1808 as professor of natural history at New York’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, Samuel Latham Mitchill conducted open-air classes at the Elgin Botanic Garden. An unidentified student who made multiple visits to the garden in 1810 reported that Mitchell was assisted by “two promising young botanists”: James Inderwick (c. 1788–1815), a Columbia graduate who had stayed on to take anatomy and chemistry classes at the medical school in 1808–9, and [[David Hosack|Hosack’s]] nephew, Caspar Wistar Eddy (1790–1828), who in 1807, while still a medical student at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, had created an herbarium and published a catalogue, ''Plantae Plandomenses'', documenting plants indigenous to Mitchill’s 230-acre Long Island estate.<ref>Caspar Wistar Eddy, “Plantae Plandomenses, or a Catalogue of the Plants Growing Spontaneously in the Neighbourhood of Plandome, the Country Residence of Samuel L. Mitchill,” ''Medical Repository'' 5, no. 2 (August–October 1807): 123–31, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/3QEBP63M view on Zotero]; ''Catalogue of the Alumni, Officers and Fellows of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the City of New York'' (New York: Baker & Godwin, 1859), 22, 27, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/FK359GQN view on Zotero]; ''Catalogue of Columbia College, in the City of New-York; Embracing the Names of Its Trustees, Officers, and Graduates'' (New York: Columbia College, 1844), 37, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/MJAWNGN9 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Correspondent_cite"></span>According to the student, Eddy was responsible for “demonstrating the marks peculiar to the species,” while Inderwick “expound[ed] the characters which distinguish the genus” ([[#Correspondent|view text]]). <span id="Eddy_lecture_cite"></span>After receiving his M.D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1811, Eddy himself began conducting lectures on botany at the Elgin Botanic Garden in May 1812 ([[#Eddy_lecture|view text]]).
[[File:2061.jpg|thumb|Fig. 5, John Eatton Le Conte, “Viola,” in ''Observations on the genera Viola. Utricularia and Gratiola'', c. 1824.]]

<span id="American_Botany_cite"></span>Inderwick was involved in [[David Hosack|Hosack's]] plan to scientifically document the plants at Elgin in “AMERICAN BOTANY, or a ‘Flora of the United States,’” a publication [[David Hosack|Hosack]] intended to publish, he announced in 1811, as soon as he had secured the garden’s permanent maintenance ([[#American_Botany|view text]]). Modeled on John Edward Smith’s monumental ''English Botany'' (36 vols., 1790–1814), [[David Hosack|Hosack’s]] flora was to include drawings by Inderwick, whom he had already employed to illustrate articles published in the ''American Medical and Philosophical Register'', the journal that he and the New York physician John Wakefield Francis (1789–1861) edited jointly from 1810 to 1814.<ref>Francis noted that his article was illustrated by “the ingenious Mr. Inderwick, a student of medicine of this city,” and Hosack wrote, “To my friend, Mr. Inderwick, I am indebted for the very beautiful drawing from which this engraving has been made.” See John W. Francis, “Case of Enteritis, Accompanied with a Preter-natural Formation of the Ileum,” ''American Medical and Philosophical Register'' 1 (July 1810): 39; see also 41, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/M2PEX3DF view on Zotero], and David Hosack, “Observations on Croup: Communicated in a Letter to Alire R. Delile, M.D. Physician in Paris,” ''American Medical and Philosophical Register'' 2 (July 1811): 43; see also 40, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/H2P2PHVF view on Zotero]. Other drawings by Inderwick were published in David Hosack, “Case of Aneurism of the Femoral Artery: Communicated in a Letter to John Abernethy,” ''American Medical and Philosophical Register'' 3 (July 1812): 48, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/X558G67M view on Zotero], and John W. Francis, ''Cases of Morbid Anatomy: Read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of New-York, on the Eighth of June, 1815'' (New York: Van Winkle and Wiley, 1815), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/P8VK9XAT view on Zotero].</ref> Although most of Inderwick’s drawings for the journal represented anatomical subjects, his illustration of the Canada Thistle (''Cnicus Arvensis'') [Fig. 4] for an article [[David Hosack|Hosack]] published in October 1810 indicates the kind of images he might have produced for [[David Hosack|Hosack’s]] ''American Botany,'' had that project ever advanced beyond the planning stage.<ref>The drawing accompanied a letter to Samuel Latham Mitchill in which Hosack wrote, “The following description of the plant by Mr. Curtis [in the ''Flora Londinensis''] so perfectly corresponds with that with which our country is infested, that with the aid of the annexed drawing of the plant, made by my friend Mr. J. Inderwick, from the specimen you sent me, it will readily be recognised by the farmer into whose fields it may intrude itself.” See David Hosack, “Botanical description of the Canada Thistle or Cnicus Arvensis . . . Communicated in a letter to the Hon. S. L. Mitchill, M.D.,” ''American Medical and Philosophical Register'' 1 (October 1810): 211–12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/HQ7HQ2WG view on Zotero]. Inderwick was house surgeon at the New York Hospital for one year from February 1812 until February 1813. Stephen Decatur appointed him acting surgeon of the ''Argus'' on May 8, 1813. He died when his ship was lost at sea in 1815. See James Inderwick, ''Cruise of the U.S. Brig Argus in 1813: Journal of Surgeon James Inderwick'', ed. Victor H. Palsits (New York: New York Public Library, 1917), 3–4, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/F4K563GR view on Zotero]; William S. Dudley, ''The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History'', 2 vols. (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 1992), 2: 219–22, 275–76, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WFEDBVFC view on Zotero].</ref> According to [[David Hosack|Hosack]], additional drawings for ''American Botany'' would be provided by another Columbia graduate, John Eatton Le Conte (1784–1860), who was probably then working on the catalogue of plants indigenous to New York City that he would publish (with a dedication to [[David Hosack|Hosack]]) in the ''American Medical and Philosophical Register'' in October 1811.<ref>John Eatton Le Conte, “Catalogue Plantarum Quas Sponte Crescentes in Insula Noveboraco, Observavit Johannes Le Conte, Eq.: Sub Forma Epistolae Ad D. Hosack, M.D. Missae,” ''American Medical and Philosophical Register'' 2 (1811): 134–41, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/6CWDCT9M view on Zotero]. See also John Eatton Le Conte, “Observations on the Febrile Diseases of Savannah; in a Letter to Dr. Hosack, from John Le Conte, Esq., Woodmanston, December 18, 1809,” ''American Medical and Philosophical Register'' 4 (1814): 388–90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AUZ3BNPD view on Zotero].</ref> Le Conte collected many plants for the garden while visiting his family’s plantation, Woodmanston, in Georgia, and he went on to a distinguished natural history career, producing botanical illustrations that justify [[David Hosack|Hosack’s]] early endorsement [Fig. 5].<ref>Frederick Pursh, ''Flora Americae Septentrionalis; Or, a Systematic Arrangement and Description of the Plants of North America'', 2 vols. (London: White, Cochrane, & Co., 1814), 1:xiv, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/KVNMM4KM view on Zotero]. For Le Conte’s drawings, see: Viola Brainerd Baird, “The Violet Water-Colors of Major John Eatton LeConte,” ''American Midland Naturalist'', 20 (1938), 245–47, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/HF8KNX8V view on Zotero]; Calhoun, John V., “John Abbot’s ‘Lost’ Drawings for John E. Le Conte in the American Philosophical Society Library,” ''Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society'', 60 (2006): 211–17, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5AFNFICJ view on Zotero].</ref>

The laboring figures represented in an oil painting of about 1810 hint at the numerous farmers and gardeners [[David Hosack|Hosack]] employed over many years to cultivate, plant, and maintain the Elgin garden.<ref>For an overview of expenses recorded in Hosack’s memorandum book of 1803–1809, see Robbins 1964, 64, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CQCQ247B view on Zotero].</ref> [Fig. 6] The Scottish nursery- and seedsman [[Andrew Gentle]] claimed to have “commenced operations for Dr. Hosack, in New-York, by laying out his grounds” in 1805, and he remained at the garden for the next few years.<ref>Andrew Gentle, ''Every Man His Own Gardener; Or, a Plain Treatise on the Cultivation of Every Requisite Vegetable in the Kitchen Garden, Alphabetically Arranged. With Directions for the Green & Hothouse, Vineyard, Nursery, &c. Being the Result of Thirty-Five Years’ Practical Experience in This Climate. Intended Principally for the Inexperienced Horticulturist'' (New York: The author, 1841), iii–iv, [https://www.zotero.org/groups//items/itemKey/X7253QTQ view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="MMahon_cite"></span>In 1809, on the recommendation of [[Bernard M’Mahon]] ([[#MMahon|view text]]), [[David Hosack|Hosack]] hired as gardener the German botanist Frederick Pursh, who had previously visited “the houses of the Botanick garden at New York” on October 3, 1807, while passing through the city on his way to Philadelphia.<ref>Frederick Pursh, ''Journal of a Botanical Excursion in the Northeastern Parts of the States of Pennsylvania and New York: During the Year 1807'' (Philadelphia: Brinckloe & Marot, 1869), 87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/HSKRK5R7 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Pursh_cite"></span>According to [[David Hosack|Hosack]], Pursh made “very numerous contributions . . . during the period he had charge” of the garden, but by the close of 1810 he had been replaced by Michael Dennison, an English seedsman recommended by Lee and Kennedy, a well-known firm of nurserymen in Hammersmith, London ([[#Pursh|view text]]). Although [[David Hosack|Hosack]] expected Pursh to continue his association with Elgin in the capacity of “a very industrious and skilful botanist to collect from different parts of the union such plants as have not yet been assembled at the [[Botanic Garden]],” Pursh left America for England toward the end of 1811.
[[File:1986.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 6, Anonymous, ''Elgin Botanic Garden'', c. 1810.]]

The high cost of maintaining the Elgin Botanic Garden soon swamped [[David Hosack|David Hosack's]] financial resources. He had expected public support to be forthcoming once the garden’s utility had been demonstrated, but his efforts to secure loans from the New York state legislature in 1805 and 1806 came to nothing, <span id="Lewis_cite"></span>despite the governor’s support ([[#Lewis|view text]]).<ref>Hosack 1811, 12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CQCQ247B view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Stokes_cite"></span> Moreover, the market in fruits, vegetables, medicinal herbs, and hothouse plants—operated at the garden by [[Andrew Gentle]] ([[#Stokes|view text]])—failed to raise sufficient funds to offset the high cost of labor. In 1808 [[David Hosack|Hosack]] concluded that selling the garden was the only means of preserving it. Following considerable delay, the New York state legislature agreed to the purchase on January 3, 1811, with the provision that responsibility for the garden’s management would be delegated to the College of Physicians and Surgeons.<ref>Robbins 1964, 79–84, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CQCQ247B view on Zotero].</ref> The College lacked funds to maintain the garden, however, and it soon fell into disrepair. On a visit in August 1813 Hosack, who continued to collect seeds and plant materials for the garden, was distressed to find that the [[greenhouse]] plants had not been set outdoors during the summer, that many of them were missing, that the [[shrubbery]] in front of the [[greenhouse]] was choked with sunflowers, and that vegetation had overtaken the [[walk]]s.<ref>Hosack’s report to the Trustees of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, August 30, 1813, quoted in Robbins 1964, 96, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CQCQ247B view on Zotero]. For Hosack’s continued involvement in the garden, see, for example, David Hosack, “Report on Botany and Vegetable Physiology,” ''American Monthly Magazine and Critical Review'' 1 (May 1817): 47, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/MWBS8AMP view on Zotero].</ref>

The garden’s condition continued to decline following the transfer of ownership to Columbia College in 1814. Two years later, Hosack complained to one of the College’s trustees that the gardener, Michael Dennison, was “removing everything valuable from the collection.”<ref>David Hosack to Clement C. Moore, October 16, 1816, quoted in Robbins 1964, 98; see also 97 for Dennison’s letter of the previous month, informing the College of Physicians and Surgeons of repairs and horticultural care required at the garden, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CQCQ247B view on Zotero].</ref> From early 1817 to 1823 [[Andrew Gentle]] returned to Elgin, granted a year-to-year lease free of charge in exchange for maintaining the [[greenhouse]] and grounds. In May 1819 the [[greenhouse]] plants along with “ornamental trees” and shrubs were transferred to the New York Hospital. Despite several attempts by [[David Hosack|Hosack]] to transfer care of the garden to an institution that could provide more attentive oversight, Columbia preferred to retain control, renting the property to a variety of tenants, including the seedsman David Barnett from 1825 to 1835.<ref>Addison Brown, ''The Elgin Botanic Garden, Its Later History and Relation to Columbia College'' (Lancaster, PA: New Era Printing Company, 1908), 15–19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/UDZZ2SS2 view on Zotero]; Robbins 1964, 97–98, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CQCQ247B view on Zotero].</ref> The rapid growth of New York City meant that by the late 1850s the garden was situated well within the urban hub, rather than on its outskirts. The value of the property had risen accordingly, from several thousand dollars to tens of millions. Columbia ultimately divided the land into numerous lots, which it sold or leased at high prices, generating the financial capital that allowed the college to expand into a world-class university.<ref>Brown 1908, 19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/UDZZ2SS2 view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Robyn Asleson''

<hr>

==Texts==
*<div id="Mitchill"></div>Mitchill, Samuel Latham, 1794, report to the Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Manufactures in the State of New York (1792: xxxix–xlv)<ref>“Introduction,” ''Transactions of the Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Manufactures, Instituted in the State of New York'' 1 (1794), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WSF4MDPU view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Mitchill_cite|back up to History]]

:“The establishment of a Garden is nearly connected with the Professorship of Botany under the College, and the Lectures on that branch must be always very lame and defective without one. . . . A [[botanic garden|Botanic Garden]] is not only one of the genteelest and most beautiful [Hosack changed to: most useful and most important] of public improvements; but it also comprises within a small compass the History of the Vegetable Species of our own Country; and by the introduction of Exotics, makes us acquainted with the plants of the most distant parts of the earth. Likewise, by facilitating experiments upon plants at this time, when a true Theory of Nutrition and Manures is such an interesting desideratum, a [[botanic garden|Botanic Garden]] may be considered as one of the means of affording substantial help to the labours of the Agricultural Society, and be conducive to the improvement of modern husbandry. When these things are duly considered, it can scarcely be doubted, that a [[botanic garden|Botanic Garden]], under the direction of the Society, or of the College, with a view to further the agricultural interest, will be set on foot and supported by legislative provision; to the end that young minds be early imbued with proper ideas on this important subject.”

*<div id="1797"></div> [[David Hosack|Hosack, David]], November 1797, memorial presented to the President and Members of the Board of Trustees of Columbia College (1811: 7–8)<ref name="Hosack_Statement">Hosack 1811, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/H4VR8FK5 view on Zotero].</ref> [[#1797_cite|back up to History]]

:“It has been to me a source of great regret that the want of a [[botanic garden|''Botanical Garden'']], and an extensive Botanical Library, have prevented that advancement in the interests of the institution which might reasonably have been expected.

:“ . . . To this end, I have purchased for the use of my pupils such of the most esteemed authors as are most essential in teaching the principles of Botany; and at a considerable expense I have been enabled to procure a large and very extensive collection of coloured engravings; but the difficulty of teaching any branch of natural philosophy, and of philosophy, and of rendering it interesting to the pupil, without a view and examination of the objects of which it treats, will readily be perceived: it will also occur to you that books, or engravings, however valuable and necessary, are of themselves insufficient for the purposes of regular instruction in medicine.

:“The obvious and only effectual remedy would be the establishment of a [[botanic garden|Botanical Garden]]: this would invite a spirit of inquiry. The indigenous plants of our country would be investigated, and ultimately would promise important benefits, both to agriculture and medicine. . . . I beg leave to suggest . . . that the professorship of botany and material medica be endowed with a certain annual salary, sufficient to defray the necessary expenses of a small garden, in which the professor may cultivate, under his immediate notice, such plants as furnish the most valuable medicines, and are most necessary for medical instruction.”

*Michaux, François André, 1802, ''Travels to the West of the Alleghany Mountains'' (1802: 14)<ref>François André Michaux, ''Travels to the West of the Alleghany Mountains in the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessea, and back to Charleston, by the Upper Carolines . . . Undertaken, in the Year 1802'', 2nd ed. (London: B. Crosby & Co. and J. F. Hughes, 1805), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/69576KK5 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“During my stay at New York I frequently had an opportunity of seeing [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], who was held in the highest reputation as a professor of botany. He was at that time employed in establishing a [[botanic garden|botanical garden]], where he intended giving a regular course of lectures. This garden is a few miles from the town: the spot of ground is well adapted, especially for plants that require a peculiar aspect of situation.”

*<div id="Parke"></div>[[David Hosack|Hosack, David]], July 25, 1803, letter to Dr. Thomas Parke, regarding the [[greenhouse]]s at Elgin and [[The Woodlands]] (quoted in Long 1991: 144)<ref>MS letter in Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection, Boston Public Library, quoted in Timothy Preston Long, “The Woodlands: A ‘Matchless Place’” (master’s thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1991), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JQS7HETZ view on Zotero] and Robbins 1964, 65, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CQCQ247B view on Zotero].</ref>[[#Parke_cite|back up to History]]

:“I duly received the plans of [[William Hamilton|Mr. Hamiltons]] [[greenhouse|green]] and [[hothouse|hot houses]]. My [[greenhouse]] [exclusive of the hothouses] is now finishing—it will not differ very individually from [[William Hamilton|Mr. Hamiltons]]. It is 62 feet long 23 deep—and 20 high in the clear. . . . I shall heat it by flues, they will run under the stays so they will not be seen—my [[walk]]s will be spacious . . . [[hothouse|hot houses]] are for next summer’s operation. My collection of plants is yet small. I have written to my friends in Europe and in the East and West Indies for their plants. I will also collect the native productions of North and South America. What medical plants can [[William Bartram|Mr. Bartram]] supply—request him to send me a catalogue. . . . I hope [[William Hamilton]] will have duplicates of rare and valuable plants—I will supply him anything I possess.”

*[[David Hosack|Hosack, David]], autumn 1806, preface to ''A Catalogue of Plants Contained in the Botanic Garden at Elgin'' (1806: 3–7)<ref>Hosack 1806, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZFGHH3VJ view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The establishment of a [[botanic garden|Botanic Garden]] in the United States, as a repository of native plants, and as subservient to medicine, agriculture, and the arts, is doubtless an object of great importance. . . .

:“In the year 1801 I purchased, of the Corporation of the city of New-York, twenty acres of ground; the greater part of which is now in cultivation. Since that time, a [[Conservatory]], for the more hardy [[greenhouse|green-house]] plants, has been built; in addition to which, two [[hothouse|Hot-Houses]] are now erecting for the preservation of those plants which require a greater degree of heat.

:“The grounds will be arranged in a manner the best adapted to the different kinds of plants, and the whole enclosed by a belt of forest trees and shrubs, native and exotic.

:“A primary object of attention in this establishment will be to collect and cultivate the native plants of this country, especially such as possess medicinal properties, or are otherwise useful. . . .

:“I must acknowledge the obligations I am under to many gentlemen who have already befriended this establishment, especially to my most esteemed instructor and friend Dr. James Edward Smith, the President of the Linnaean Society of London; to Professor [Martin] Vahl, and Mr. [Niels] Hoffman Bang, of Copenhagen; to Professor [René Louiche] Desfontaines and [André] Thouin, of the [[botanic garden|Botanic Garden]] of Paris; to Mr. Alderman [George] Hibbert, and Dr. [John Coakley] Lettsom of London; Mr. [Richard Anthony] Salisbury, proprietor of the [[botanic garden|Botanic Garden]] of Brompton; Dr. [Giovanni Valentino Mattia] Fabroni, Director of the Royal Museum at Florence; and Mr. ''Andrew Michaux'', author of the ''Flora Boreali Americana'', &c. &c. From these gentlemen I have received many valuable plants, seeds, and botanical works, accompanied with the most polite offers of their further contributions to this institution.”

*<div id="Lewis"></div>Lewis, Morgan, governor of New York, January 28, 1806 (Hosack 1811: 12)<ref name="Hosack_Statement"></ref> [[#Lewis_cite|back up to History]]

:“Application was made to the legislature at their last session, by a gentleman of the city of New-York, for aid in the support of a [[botanic garden|Botanic Garden]], which he had recently established. At the request of some of the members, I, in the course of last summer, paid it two visits, and am so satisfied with the plan and arrangement, that I cannot but believe, if not permitted to languish, it will be productive of great general utility. The objects of the proprietor are, a collection of the indigenous, and the introduction of exotic plants, shrubs &c. and by an intercourse with similar establishments, which are arising in the eastern and southern states, to insure the useful and ornamental products of southern to northern, and of northern to southern climes. In the article of grasses, I was pleased to see a collection of one hundred and fifty different kinds. A portion of ground is allotted to agricultural experiments, which cannot but be beneficial to an agricultural people. When it is considered that this branch of natural history embraces all the individuals of the vegetable which afford subsistence to the animal world, compose a large portion of the medicines used in the practice of physic, and mam of the ingredients essential to the useful arts, its utility and importance is not to be questioned. But in a country young as ours, the experimental sciences cannot be expected to arrive at any degree of excellence without the patronage and bounty of government; for individual fortune is not adequate to the task.”

*<div id="Jefferson"></div>[[David Hosack|Hosack, David]], September 10, 1806, letter to [[Thomas Jefferson]]<ref>David Hosack to Thomas Jefferson, Septmber 10, 1806, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-4259 Founders Online, National Archives].</ref> [[#Jefferson_cite|back up to History]]

:“Knowing your attachment to science and the interest you feel on the progress of it in the united states, I take the liberty of enclosing to you a Catalogue of plants [in the Elgin Botanic Garden] which I have been enabled to collect as the beginning of a [[botanic garden|Botanic garden]]—

:“you will readily perceive that my intention in this little publication is merely to announce the nature of the Institution and to facilitate my correspondence with Botanists as they will hereby know what plants will be accepteble to me and what they may expect in return—in two or three years when my collection may be more extensive I propose to publish it in a different shape arranging the plants under different heads viz Medicinal—Poisonous—those useful in the arts—in agriculture &c with notes relative to their use and culture accompanied with engravings of such as may be either entirely new or are not well figured in books—

:“I feel much interested in the result of the enquiries instituted by you relative to the Missouri—Black River &c. In Natural History much is also to be expected from exploring the territory in the course of Red River—that latitude is always rich in vegetable productions—if it should be contemplated to explore that or any other part of our country, there is now a gentleman in this state who might be induced to undertake it and whose talents abundantly qualify him for an employment of this sort, the person I refer to is Mr [André] Michaux the editor of the Flora Boreali America—he being at present in New York I take the liberty of mentioning his name to you—under your auspices Sir establishments of this nature may be encouraged:—it has occurred to me that much also might be done in exploring the native productions of the united states if the Government were to appropriate to every [[botanic garden|Botanic garden]] a small sum—for the express purpose of employing a suitable person to investigate the vegetable productions growing in its neighbourhood—an annual appropriation of this sort allotted to the [[botanic garden|Botanic garden]]s of Boston—New York—Virginia and South Carolina would in a short time be productive of great good—

:“Another object which will claim much of my attention will be to naturalize as far as possible to our climates the productions of the southern states and of the tropics—I believe much may be done upon this subject—four years since I planted some cotton seed, late in the spring—it grows to the usual size to which it attains in the southern states and ripened its seed before October—Those seeds were planted and succeeded equally well the second year—John Stevens Esq of Hoboken New Jersey has also succeeded in the same experiment and at this time has a considerable quantity of cotton ripening its seed, the growth from seeds raised by him the last year, it is also to be remarked that this summer has been unusually cool—I conceive it therefore not improbable that Virginia and Maryland if not Pennsylvania and New york—might cultivate this plant to advantage—the short staple doubtless would succeed—

:“If . . . the gentlemen who are at present on their travels to the Missouri, discover any new or useful plants I should be very happy in obtaining a small quantity of the seeds they may procure.”

*<div id="Stokes"></div>[[Andrew Gentle|Gentle, Andrew]], June 4, 1807, Notice concerning the Elgin Botanic Garden, published in the ''New York Commercial Advertiser'' (Stokes 1926: 5:1460–61)<ref>Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, ''The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498–1909'', 6 vols. (New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1926), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VBTRZVAB view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Stokes_cite|back up to History]]

:“As it was the original design in forming this establishment to render it not only useful as a source of instruction to the students of medicine but beneficial to the public by the cultivation of those plants useful in diseases, by the introduction of foreign grasses, and by the cultivation of the best vegetables for the table; our citizens are now informed that they can be supplied with medicinal Herbs and Plants, and a large assortment of [[greenhouse|green]] and [[Hot House]] Plants etc.”

*[[Samuel Bard|Bard, Samuel]], November 14, 1809, address delivered to the Medical Society of Dutchess County (Hosack 1811: 30)<ref name="Hosack_Statement"></ref>

:“Convinced as I am of the great and general importance of correct medical instruction, and anxious that our schools should be fostered by necessary patronage, I cannot but regret the failure of the proposal made last year in our legislature, for the purchase of [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack’s]] [[botanic garden]]. It would be too tedious at present to point out how much medicine may be benefitted, how greatly the arts may be enriched, and hor many of the comforts, the pleasures, and even the necessaries of life may be improved by such an institution. . . .

:“By the purchase of the [[botanic garden]], a national ornament and most useful establishment, already brought to a great degree of perfection, will be preserved: by which our medicine, our agriculture and our arts, the elegancies, and the conveniences of life will necessarily be improved.”

*<div id="MMachonlecture"></div>[[Bernard M’Mahon|M’Mahon, Bernard]] to [[Thomas Jefferson]], December 24, 1809 (Jefferson 2005: 2:89–91)<ref name="Jefferson_2005">Thomas Jefferson, ''The Papers of Thomas Jefferson'', ed. J. Jefferson Looney, Retirement Series, 4 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005), 2: 89–91, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/XWVFP69T view on Zotero].</ref> [[#MMahon_cite|back up to History]]

:“On Governor Lewis’s departure from here, for the seat of his Government, he requested me to employ Mr Frederick Pursh, on his return from a collecting excurtion he was then about to undertake for Doctor Barton, to describe and make drawings of such of his collection as would appear to be new plants, and that himself would return to Philadelphia in the month of May following. About the first of the ensuing Novr Mr Pursh returned, took up his abode with me, began the work, progressed as far as he could without further explanation, in some cases, from Mr Lewis, and was detained by me, in expectation of Mr Lewis’s arriv[al] at my expence, without the least expectation of any future remuneration, from that time till April last; when n[ot] having received any reply to several letters I had wri[tten] from time to time, to Govr Lewis on the subject, nor being able to obtain any in[dication?] when he probably might be expected here; I thought it a folly to keep Pursh longer idle, and recommended him as Gardener to [[David Hosack|Doctor Hosack]] of New York, with whom he has since lived.

:“The original specimens are all in my hands, but Mr Pursh, had taken his drawings and descriptions with him, and will, no doubt, on the delivery of them expect a reasonable compensation for his trouble.”

*Newton, Joseph, Arthur Smith, John F. West, Timothy B. Crane, January 16, 1810, Estimate of the Buildings at the Elgin Botanic Garden (Hosack 1811: 45)<ref name="Hosack_Statement"></ref>

:“We, the subscribers, builders, and residents of the city of New-York, at the request of doctor [[David Hosack]], have valued the improvements on his land, near the four mile stone, called the [[botanic garden]], to wit: the hot [[bed]] frames, the [[conservatory]] or [[greenhouse|green house]], and its appendages, the dwelling house, the [[hot house]]s and their back buildings, the lodges, the gates and the [[fence]]s around the land, including the wells, at the sum of twenty-nine thousand three hundred dollars.”

*[[Andrew Gentle|Gentle, Andrew]], January 22, 1810, on the valuation of plants in the Elgin Botanic Garden (Hosack 1811: 53–54)<ref name="Hosack_Statement"></ref>

:“The sum of ''fourteen thousand three hundred and eighty dollars and fifty-nine cents'', is, I believe, to the best of my judgment, the value of your indigenous and exotic plants, tools, & c. at Elgin.”

*Hastings, John, Frederick Pursh, and John Brown, January 24, 1810, on the valuation of the plants in the Elgin Botanic Garden (Hosack 1811: 53)<ref name="Hosack_Statement"></ref>

:“We, the subscribers, in committee assembled, for the valuation of the plants, trees, and shrubs, including garden tools and utensils, necessary for the cultivation of the same, as appertaining to the [[greenhouse|green house]], [[hothouse|hot houses]], and grounds of the [[botanic garden]], at Elgin, after a very particular inventory and examination of the improvements, are unanimously agreed, that, to the best of our knowledge and ability, we consider them to be worth the sum of ''twelve thousand six hundred and thirty-five dollars and seventy-four and half cents''.
:::“John Hastings, Nursery-man, Brooklyn, L.I.
:::“Frederick Pursh, Botanist.
:::“John Brown, Nursery-man.”

[[File:2051.jpg|thumb|Fig. 7, William Satchwell Leney after Louis Simond, ''View of the botanic garden at Elgin in the vicinity of the City of New York'', ca. 1810.]]
*<div id="Description"></div>[[David Hosack|Hosack, David]], 1810, ''Description of the Elgin Garden'' (1810: 1–4)<ref>Hosack 1810, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8HF2852Z view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Description_cite|back up to History]]

:“ . . . The [[view]] from the most elevated part of Elgin-ground, is variegated and extensive. The East and North Rivers, with their vast amount of navigation, are plain in sight. Beyond these great thoroughfares of business, the fruitful fields of Long-Island, and the [[picturesque]] shores of New-Jersey, give beauty and interest to the [[prospect]]. . . .

: <div id="Elegance"></div>"The [[conservatory]] and [[hothouse|hot-houses]] present a front of one hundred and eighty feet. They are not only constructed with great architectural taste and elegance, but experience has also shown, they are well calculated for the preservation of the most tender exotics that require protection from the severity of our climate. The grounds are also arranged and planted agreeably to the most approved stile of ornamental gardening. The whole is surrounded by a belt of forest trees and shrubs judiciously chequered and mingled; and enclosed by a well constructed stone-[[wall]]. [Fig. 7] [[#Elegance_cite|back up to History]]

:“The interior is divided into various compartments, not only calculated for the instruction of the student in Botany, but subservient to agriculture, the arts, and to manufactures. A [[nursery]] is also begun, for the purpose of introducing into this country the choicest fruits of the table. Nor is the [[kitchen garden]] neglected in this establishment. An apartment is also devoted to experiments in the culture of those plants which may be advantageously introduced and naturalized to our soil and climate, that are at present annually imported from abroad. . . .

:“The forest trees and shrubs which surround the establishment, first claim [the visitor’s] attention. Here are beautifully distributed and combined the oak, the plane, the elm, the sugar maple, the locust, the horse chesnut, the mountain ash, the basket willow, and various species of poplar. In front of these, a similarly varied collection of shrubs, natives and foreign, compose an amphitheatre, which, winding with the [[walk]]s, presents at every step something new and engaging. On the other side the eye reposes on the green [[lawn]] which is occasionally intercepted with groups of trees and shrubs happily adapted to its varied surface.

:“In extending his [[walk]]s to the garden, on each side, he [the visitor] is equally gratified and instructed by the numerous plants which are here associated in scientific order, for the information of the student in Botany or Medicine. Here the Turkey rhubarb, Carolina pink-root, the poppy and the foxglove, with many other plants of the Materia Medica, are seen in cultivation. . . .

:“As he proceeds he arrives at a [[nursery]] of the finest fruits, which the proprietor has been enabled to procure from various parts of the world, and from which the establishment will hereafter derive one of the principal means of its support.

:“The visitor next comes in view of a [[pond]] of water devoted to the varieties of nymphoea, pontederia and other aquatics which adorn its surface, while the adjacent grounds which are moist afford the proper and natural soil for a great variety of our most valuable native plants. The rhododendrons, magnolias, the kalmias, the willows, the stuartia; the candleberry myrtle; the cupressus disticha, and the sweet-smelling clethra alnifolia, here grow in rich luxuriance, and compose a beautiful picture in whatever direction they fall under his eye. . . .

:“Here a rocky and elevated spot attracts his attention, by the varied species of pine, juniper, yew, and hemlock, with which it is covered. There a solitary oak breaks the surface of the [[lawn]]; here a group of poplars; there the more splendid foliage of the different species of magnolia, intermixed with the fringe tree, the thorny aralia, and the snow drop halesia, call his willing notice.

:“Entering the [[greenhouse|green-house]], his eye is saluted with a rich and varied collection: the silver protea, the lemon, the orange, the oleander, the citron, the shaddock, the myrtle, the jasmine and the numerous and infinitely varied family of geranium, press upon his view, while the perfumes emitted from the fragrant daphne, heliotropium, and the coronilla no less attract his notice than do the splendid petals of the camellia japonica, the amaryllis, the cistus, erica and purple magnolia.

:“In the [[hothouse|hot-house]] he finds himself translated to the heat of the tropics. Here he observes the golden pine, the sugar cane, the cinnamon, the ginger, the splendid strelitzia, and ixora coccinea intermixed with the bread fruit, the coffee tree, the plantain, the arrow root, the sago, the avigato pear, the mimosa yielding the gum arabic, and the fragrant farnesiana. . . .

:“In front of the buildings are several beautiful [[clump]]s composed of the more delicate and valuable shrubs intermingled with a great variety of roses, kalmias and azaleas. Their [[border]]s are also successively enamelled with the crocus, the snow drop, the asphodel, the hyacinth, and the more splendid species of the iris.

:“Here also is ''viola tricolor'' . . . saluting the senses with its beautiful assemblage of colours but yielding in fragrance to its rival ''viola odorata'' which . . . also adds zest to this delicious banquet.”

*Anonymous, July 1810, description of the Elgin Botanic Garden (1811: 116–17)<ref>Anonymous, “Elgin Botanic Garden, New York,” ''American Medical and Philosophical Register'' 1 (1811), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/HQ7HQ2WG view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Among the number of those distinguished friends of science in Europe, who have manifested an ardent desire for the extension of useful knowledge in these states, may be justly esteemed Monsieur [André] THOUIN, the celebrated professor of Botany and Agriculture, at the ''Jardin des Plantes'' of Paris. . . . [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], the proprietor of the Elgin Botanic Garden, has repeatedly been favoured by him with a great variety of seeds, from the rarest and most valuable plants of the continent; and he is happy to add, that they have always been received in such a state of preservation, as scarcely in a single instance to have frustrated the liberal intentions of the donor. Indeed, many of the most valuable plants in his collection are the products of the seeds presented him by Monsieur THOUIN.

:“To the Hon. SAMUEL L. MITCHELL [''sic''], M.D. Professor of Natural History . . . in the College of Physicians, the proprietor of the [[botanic garden|Botanic Garden]] is also indebted for many valuable additions made to his collection of living plants, as well as for many specimens added to his Herbarium, collected by the same gentleman, during his residence at Washington, (as Senator of the United States,) and in the Western parts of the state of New-York, when on his late tour to the falls of Niagara. . . .”

*[[Hosack, David|David Hosack]], August 9, 1810, letter to Daniel Hale, the New York Secretary of State (quoted in Robbins 1964: 83)<ref>Robbins 1964, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CQCQ247B view on Zotero].</ref>

:“A work is preparing in which the native plants are to be painted and engraved for publication taken from those now growing in Elgin Botanic Garden. Artists are engaged and at this moment are at work under my direction. They are employed with the understanding they could complete the work they are now preparing.”

*Mr. B, October 3, 1810, describing his objections to the state purchase of Elgin Botanic Garden (''Columbian'' 287: n.p.)<ref>Quoted in part in Victoria Johnson, ''American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic'' (New York: Liveright, 2019), 229–30; B, “Botanic Garden: Letter from Mr. B to His Friends in Albany,” ''The Columbian,'' October 3, 1810, n.p., [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/7TQZT8DG view on Zotero].</ref>

:“As this spot has engrossed much of the public attention; and as its vast utility and splendor, and the immense fortune said to have been consumed in the embellishment of it have long been blazoned through the country, you may readily imagine that I expected to find something, if not rivalling, at least not inferior to, what you and I have witnessed in Europe. I was prepared to see a garden possessing all the various exotics of the celebrated ''Jardin national des plantes,'' and outstripping in the splendor of its disposition the ''Thulleries'', the ''Champs Elisees,'' the ''Bois-de-Boulogne,'' of France, and ''Hyde Park'' and ''Kensington,'' of England. My fancy pictured to me something very magnificent. I imagined an entrance of massive [[gate]]s, crowned with crouching lions; winding [[woods]] whose recesses were adorned with winged Mercuries, Cupids, Naiads and timid Fauns. I fancied [[grotto]]s, and knolls, and mossy caverns, and irriguous [[fountain]]s, and dolphins vomiting forth huge [[cascade]]s, and griffons, and chateaus. All that we find in Shenstone’s Leasows [''sic''], or the idyls of Virgil or Gesner, were marshalled before my mental speculation. Nor is it at all astonishing that my imagination should have been thus creative, when you reflect on the enormous value which has been set up on this garden by the appraisers appointed by law. ''One hundred and three thousand'' dollars, you know, is about four times as much as either ‘''Mousseux,''’ the splendid retreat of the duke of Orleans, or ‘''Le Petit Trianon''’, the once luxurious abode of Marie Antoinette, were sold for.

:“Thus I was musing, as we passed along what is called the middle or New Boston road, when Mr. W. suddenly roused me with ‘Here’s Elgin.’ I looked around me, but saw no Elgin, when my friend, pointing to the spot, reiterated with emphasis, ‘Here, this is Elgin.’ It is impossible for me, my dear friend, to describe to you my sensations, when assured that what I saw, was the ''[[Botanic Garden]]'', so much talked of last winter, and whose importance and splendor were the constant theme of encomium. My sensations were indescribable, tumbled as I was in a moment from the very acme of ardent expectation, into the Trophonian abyss of disappointment. I did not know whether to vent my execrations, or my laughter. There never was in the world, such a piece of downright imposture as this [[Botanic Garden]], or as it is dignifiedly called Elgin. Unless it were pointed out to a traveller, it would utterly escape his notice. Take away from it, the ‘[[Orangerie]]’ or [[Greenhouse]], which stands at the remote end of it, and it looks more like one of those large pasture-grounds near Albany, in which the western drovers refresh their cattle, after a sweaty march, than a [[Botanic Garden]]. It is a lot of twenty acres, with no other buildings on it but the [[Greenhouse|Green-house]] just mentioned, which has two small wings, and two other buildings of about twelve feet square, fancifully called porter’s lodges (because there are no porters in them) one of which is placed at each [[gate]]. There is a small [[Kitchen Garden|culinary garden]] on the western side, laid out in the common way in [[square]]s; and the rest of the grounds are in grass. No fruit whatever is to be found here; no large trees to furnish a retreat from the meridian sun; no little [[portico]]s; no knolls; nor in fine is there any thing which tends to embellish or diversify the grounds. Barring the [[Greenhouse|green-house]], which is like those generally found in private gardens, the ''tout-ensemble'' of this ''celebrated Elgin'', has, as already observed, the air of a common pasture-ground. It has none of those rural beauties which one would expect, and which Virgil so charmingly describes,

:“‘Hic latis otia fundis, Speluncae, vivique lacus, hic frigida Tempe Mugitusque bovum, molesque sub arbore somni.’

:“Thinking, however, that this spot, although totally devoid of every species of beauty and ornament, might still be well stocked with all the varieties of exotic and indigenous plants, ‘from the cedar of Lebanon down to the hyssop of the wall,’ we visited the interior of the [[Greenhouse|green-house]]. There we found orange and lemon trees, geraniums, two or three coffee and pine-apple plants, and all those little ''quelques choses'' which are usually to be seen in the gardens of private gentlemen, but nothing whatever of national importance.

:“Such, my friend, is what is absurdly called the [[Botanic Garden|''botanic'' garden]]. . . .”

*Mr. D., October 15, 1810, defending the state acquisition of Elgin Botanic Garden from the points raised in the letter of Mr. B, above (''Columbian'' 297: n.p.)<ref>Quoted in part in Johnson 2019, 230; D, “Botanic Garden: Answers of Mr. D. of Albany, to Mr. B.’s Letter, on the Botanic Garden,” ''The Columbian,'' October 15, 1810, n.p., [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/EWWDTGX6 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“During my visit to New-York I have also prevailed on our mutual friend, Mr. W. to accompany me to the [[Botanic Garden]]; and here again I must differ from you entirely. The reason for this difference arises from our having formed different systems as to what ought to constitute a [[Botanic Garden]]. My idea of an establishment of that kind is, that it ought to comprehend useful trees, shrubs and plants, domestic, naturalized and exotic, arranged in a proper state for use and preservation, and with a view to display their qualities, characters, properties and uses to the best advantage. [[Jet|Jet d’eaus]] [''sic''], artificial [[cascade]]s, purling streams, mossy caverns, [[portico]]s, knolls, [[grotto]]s, griffons and dolphins vomiting forth water, are foreign from the nature of a Botanic establishment; and however pleasant they may be at a gentleman’s country [[seat]], or in a [[pleasure garden]], yet surely nothing is more ridiculous than to require them in a scientific institution. I perceive, my friend, that your prolific imagination was teeming with the [[arbor]]s, and [[Summerhouse|summer-houses]], and mead and cakes, and ice creams, of our far-famed Columbia Gardens on the Hill of Albany; and that you were dreaming of the fire-works, rockets and vertical suns, and water bells, and other ingenious contrivances, of monsieur Delacroix; and that your fancy was even insensibly tinctured with the mossy [[seat]]s, umbrageous [[arbor]]s, and sunny banks of the celebrated garden of ''Petit Paphos''; or most assuredly you would not have faulted the poor [[Botanic Garden]] for not being an ornamental garden, or for not being laid out into elegant [[walk]]s like the ''Leasowes'' of ''Shenstone'', or the ''Twickenham'' of ''Pope''. I observe that you have drawn freely upon lord ''Orford''’s ideas of gardening, which, however just when properly applied, cease to be so when irrelevant. When I visited the garden, I did not exclaim in the language of reprobation, ‘Here is no reading-room like ''Cook''’s, no cabinet of natural history like ''Trowbridge''’s, no baths like ''M’Donald''’s, no museum like ''Scudder''’s, no water-works like ''Corre''’s, no fireworks like ''Delacroix''’s, no city library, no serpentine rivers, no chateaus, no steeples, no men in the moon.’ But I took a view of the grounds; I found them well laid out for the growth and preservation of the vegetables which occupied them, furnished with a great variety and assortment to the value of 12,000 dollars, and which the state is to receive gratuitously. I also observed [[Greenhouse|green-houses]] and [[Hothouse|hot-houses]] of great extent and expense, and extremely well calculated to protect them against cold and moisture. In short, I discovered the greatest collection of valuable vegetables which I ever witnessed; and whether there were knolls or [[grotto]]s, I did not indeed take the trouble to inquire; for which sin of omission I must most humbly crave your indulgence.”

*[[David Hosack|Hosack, David]], March 12, 1811, preface and addendum to ''Hortus Elginensis'' (''Hortus'' 1811: v–x, 66)<ref>David Hosack, ''Hortus Elginensis, or, A Catalogue of Plants, Indigenous and Exotic, Cultivated in the Elgin Botanic Garden, in the Vicinity of the City of New-York : Established in 1801''(New York : Printed by T. & J. Swords, 1811), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/FIEM4NZF view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The establishment of a [[botanic garden|Botanic Garden]] in the United States, as a repository of the native plants of this country, and as subservient to the purposes of medicine, agriculture, and the arts, is doubtless an object of great importance. Impressed with the advantages to be derived from an institution of this nature, I have anxiously endeavoured ever since my appointment to the professorship of Botany and Materia Medica in Columbia College, to accomplish its establishment. Disappointed, however, in my first applications to the legislature of this State, soliciting their assistance in so expensive and arduous an undertaking, I resolved to devote my own private funds to the prosecution of this object; trusting, that when the nature of the institution should be better, and more generally known, and its utility fully ascertained, it would receive the patronage and support of the public.

:<div id="variegated"></div>"Accordingly, in the year 1801, I purchased of the Corporation of the city of New-York, twenty acres of ground . . . distant from the city about three miles and an half. The [[view]] from the most elevated part, is variegated and extensive, and the soil itself of that diversified nature, as to be particularly well adapted to the cultivation of a great variety of vegetable productions. The greater part of the ground is at present in a state of promising cultivation, arranged in a manner the best adapted to the different kinds of vegetables, and planted agreeably to the most approved style of ornamental gardening. Since that time, an extensive conservatory, for the more hardy [[greenhouse|green house]] plants, and two spacious [[hothouse|hot houses]], for the preservation of those which require a greater degree of heat, the whole exhibiting a front of one hundred and eighty feet, have been erected, and which, experience has shown, are well calculated for the purpose for which they were designed. The whole establishment is surrounded by a belt of forest trees and shrubs, both native and exotic, and these again are enclosed by a stone [[wall]], two and an half feet in thickness, and seven feet in height. [[#variegated_cite|back up to History]]

:“As it has always been a primary object of attention to collect and cultivate in this establishment, the native plants of this country, especially such as are possessed of medicinal properties, or are otherwise useful, such gardeners as were practically acquainted with our indigenous productions, have been employed to procure them: how far this end has been attained, will be best seen by an examination of the Catalogue.

:“Although much has been done by the governments of Great-Britain, France, Spain, Sweden, and Germany, in the investigation of the vegetable productions of America: although much has been accomplished by the labours of [[Mark Catesby|[Mark] ''Catesby'']], [Pehr] ''Kalm'', [Friedrich Adam Julius von] ''Wangenheim'', [Johann David] ''Schoepf'', [Thomas] ''Walter'', and the ''Michaux'' [André and François André]; and by our countrymen [John] ''Clayton'', the ''Bartrams'' [[John Bartram|[John]] and [[William Bartram|William]]], [[Cadwallader Colden|[Cadwallader] ''Colden'']], [Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst] ''Muhlenberg'', [[Humphry Marshall|[Humphry] ''Marshall'']], [[Manasseh Cutler|[Manasseh] ''Cutler'']], and the learned Professor [Benjamin Smith] ''Barton'' of Pennsylvania, much yet remains to be done in this western part of the globe. The numerous articles of medicine which this country has already furnished; the variety of soils and climates which it comprehends, encourage the belief, that many more remain to be discovered, and that the Materia Medica may still be enriched by the addition of many indigenous plants, whose virtues yet remain undiscovered.

:“Another object of importance is, to afford to students of medicine, the means of acquiring a knowledge of the natural history of plants, and the principles of botanic arrangement; a science intimately connected with their profession, as it not only enables them to distinguish one plant from another, but frequently leads to an acquaintance with their medicinal virtues. For this purpose the grounds are divided into different compartments, calculated to exhibit the various plants according to their several properties: and these again are so arranged as to afford a practical illustration of the systems of botany at present most esteemed, viz. the sexual system of Linnaeus, and the natural orders of [Antoine Laurent de] ''Jussieu''.

:“Hitherto the [[botanic garden|botanical gardens]] of ''Edinburgh, Oxford, Cambridge, London, Paris, Copenhagen, Leyden, Upsal, Goettengen'', &c. have instructed the American youth in this department of medical education; and it is in some degree owing to those establishments that the universities and colleges of those places have become so celebrated, and have been resorted to by students of medicine from all parts of the world. . . .

: <div id="American_Botany"></div>"I avail myself of this occasion to observe, that as soon as measures may be taken by the Regents of the University for the permanent preservation of the [[botanic garden|Botanic Garden]], it is my intention immediately to commence the publication of AMERICAN BOTANY, or a ''Flora of the United States''. In this work it is my design to give a description of the plant, noticing its essential characters, synonyms, and place of growth, with observations on the uses to which it is applied in medicine, agriculture, or the arts; to be illustrated by a coloured engraving, in the same manner in which the plants of Great-Britain have been published by Dr. ''J''[ohn]. ''E''[dward]. ''Smith'', in his English Botany. Considerable progress has already been made in obtaining materials for this publication: many of the drawings will be executed by Mr. ''James Inderwick'', a young gentleman of great genius and taste, and others by ''John Le Conte'', Esq. whose acquaintance with botany and natural history in general will enable him to execute this part of the work with great fidelity. In Mr. [Frederick] ''Pursh'', whose name has already been mentioned, I shall have a very industrious and skilful botanist to collect from different parts of the union such plants as have not yet been assembled at the [[botanic garden|Botanic Garden]].” [[#American_Botany _cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Indies"></div>[[David Hosack|Hosack, David]], March 12, 1811, ''A Statement of Facts Relative to the Establishment and Progress of the Elgin Botanic Garden'' (1811: 7, 14–15)<ref name="Hosack_Statement"></ref> [[#Indies_cite|back up to History]]

:“Persuaded of the advantages to be derived from the institution of a [[botanic garden]], which could be made the repository of the native vegetable production of the country, and be calculated to naturalize such foreign plants are distinguished by their utility either in medicine, agriculture, or the arts, as well as for the purpose of affording the medical student an opportunity of practical instruction in this science, I, immediately after my appointment as professor [of botany and materia medica] in the college, endeavoured to accomplish its establishment. . . .

:“I still, however, did not abandon the hope of ultimately obtaining legislative aid, and therefore continued, as before, my exertions to increase the collection of plants which I had begun, and to extend the improvements for their preservation. Accordingly, in 1806, I obtained from various parts of Europe, as well as from the East and West-Indies, very important additions to my collection of plants, especially of those which are most valuable as articles of medicine. I also erected a second building for their preservation, and laid the foundation of a third, which was completed the following year. In the autumn of the same year, 1806, I published a ''Catalogue'' of the plants, both native and exotics, which had been already collected, amounting to nearly 2000 species. . . .

:“I had now erected, on the most improved plan, for the preservation of such plants as require protection from the severity of our climate three large and well constructed houses, exhibiting a front of one hundred and eighty feet. . . .The greater part of the ground was brought to a state of the highest cultivation, and divided into various compartments. . . .

:“The whole establishment was enclosed by a stone [[wall]], two and an half feet in breadth, and seven and an half feet high. . . . Add to all this . . . the additional costs for the continual increase in the number of plants, particularly of those imported from abroad, though in this respect I was liberally aided by the contributions of my friends, both in Europe and in the East and West-Indies.”

*<div id="Sketch"></div>Anonymous [[David Hosack|[David Hosack?]]], July 1811, “Sketch of the Elgin Botanic Garden in the Vicinity of New York,” (1812: 1–4)<ref>Anonymous, “Sketch of the Elgin Botanic Garden in the Vicinity of New York,” ''American Medical and Philosophical Register'' 2 (1812), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5EBVS4DZ view on Zotero]. Much of the article paraphrases Hosack’s ''Hortus Elginensis'' (1811), quoted above.</ref> [[#Sketch_cite|back up to History]]

:“This institution, the first of the kind established in the United States, is situated about three and a half miles from this city, on the middle road between Bloomingdale and Kingsbridge. . . .

:“Immediately after the purchase, the proprietor, at a very considerable expense, had the grounds cleared and put in a state of cultivation, arranged in a manner the best adapted to the different kinds of vegetables, and planted agreeably to the most approved stile of ornamental gardening. . . .

:“By the distinguished liberality of several scientific gentlemen in this country, there were in cultivation at the commencement of 1805 nearly fifteen hundred species of American plants, besides a considerable number of rare and valuable exotics. . . .

:“Recently the institution has been committed to the superintendence of the trustees of the college of physicians and surgeons of this city, to be by them kept in a state of preservation, and in a condition fit for all medical students as may resort thereto for the purpose of acquiring botanical science. It is confidently hoped, that as the improvements of this establishment for nearly ten years, while in the hands of a private individual, have far exceeded the expectations of the most sanguine, that its future progress will be proportionably great under its present governance.”

*<div id="Correspondent"></div>Anonymous [“A Correspondent”], c. October 1811, description of botany classes held at the Elgin Botanic Garden (1812: 154, 158–159)<ref>Anonymous [“A Correspondent”], “Cultivation of Natural History in the University College of New-York,” ''American Medical and Philosophical Register'' 2 (1812), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZT2AMZDS view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Correspondent_cite|back up to History]]

:“After he had finished the geological and mineralogical parts of his course, which he elucidated from his own select and ample cabinet of fossils, Professor Mitchill entered upon the vegetable kingdom. He discoursed day after day upon the anatomy and physiology of seeds, plants, and flowers; and when he had proceeded far enough at the college in town, he adjourned to meet his audience at the [[botanic garden|botanical garden]] of Elgin, about three miles in the country.

:“There, in the presence of his numerous auditors, he demonstrated the component parts of the flower, and developed the principles of the Linnaean system. . . .

:“During the discussion which took place on the history of the vegetable kingdom, Professor Mitchill made repeated visits, with his disciples, to the garden of Elgin, founded by [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], but now the property of the state. And, while he was occupied in the classification, description and discrimination of plants, it was observed, that the two promising young botanists, Dr. Caspar W. Eddy and Mr. James Inderwick, acted as his assistants; the former, in demonstrating the marks peculiar to the species, and the latter, in expounding the characters which distinguish the genus, in the presence of the numerous attendants whom the occasion had led to embark in this delightful study. The purchase of this valuable establishment is not less useful to natural science than honourable to public spirit. The college of physicians, who are curators in behalf of the regents, take every care that repairs are made to the [[conservatory]], [[hot house]] and [[fence]]s, and that the plants are well nursed and attended.”

*Anonymous, 1811, commenting on Hosack’s recent publications on the Elgin Botanic Garden (''The Medical and Physical Journal'' 26: 162–66)<ref>Anonymous, “Review of ''Hortus Elginensis'' and ''A Statement of Facts relative to the . . . Elgin Botanic Garden'',” ''The Medical and Physical Journal'' 26 (July 1811): 162–66, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8BUV9NIM view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Though the collection in the Elgin Garden is not so large as in some older establishments in Europe, it is respectable both for number and quality. Of the indigenous plants of America we notice 1215 species: among these upwards of 200 are employed in medicine. Of plants possessing medicinal properties this seems a great number, but many of them possibly derive their title from popular opinion only; but even this title, as founded on a species of experience, is not to be slighted. Some of them have an established reputation: cinchona, ipecacuanha, jalapium, & c. are instances. It is curious fact in the history of Medical Botany, that when Europe remained in utter darkness on this subject, the Mexicans had appropriated a considerable space of ground, near the capital, to the sole purpose of rearing the indigenous medicinal plants. . . .

:“No region of the earth seems more appropriate to the improvement of Botany, by the collecting and cultivating of plants, than that where the Elgin Garden is seated. Nearly midway between the northern and southern extremities of the vast American continent, and not more than 40 degrees to the north of the equator, it commands resources of incalculable extent; and the European Botanist will look to it for additions to his catalogue of the highest interest. The indigenous Botany of America possesses most important qualities, and to that, we trust, [[David Hosack|Prof. Hosack]], the projector, and indeed, the creator of this Garden, will particularly turn his attention. It can hardly be considered as an act of the imagination, so far does what has already been discovered countenance the most sanguine expectations, to conjecture, that in the unexplored wilderness of mountain, forest, and marsh, which composes so much of the western world, lie hidden plants of extraordinary forms and potent qualities.

:“From the scientific spirit and persevering industry of [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], every thing may be augured. Already has he projected an AMERICAN BOTANY, or a ''Flora of the United States'', to be illustrated with coloured Plates, similar to those in the ''English Botany'' of our ingenious countryman, Dr. [James Edward] Smith. Considerable progress, we are informed, has already been made in obtaining materials for this work; but we regret that its completion depends on a contingency—the permanent preservation of the Elgin Botanic Garden. In the madness of political contention, in the apathy with which governments contemplate the advance of science, in the illiberal finesse and the low juggling of party, we may look for the occasional destruction or suspension of every rational project; but we hope these accidents will not frustrate the enlarged and enlightened intention of [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], but rather induce him to extend his ''Flora'', and make the whole of the American continent his GARDEN.”

*<div id="Eddy_lecture"></div>Anonymous, April 1812, “Dr. Eddy’s Lectures on Botany” (''American Medical and Philosophical Register'' 2: 466–67)<ref>"Dr. Eddy’s Lectures on Botany,” ''American Medical and Philosophical Register'' 2 (1812), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/HVJCGAJP view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Eddy_lecture_cite|back up to History]]

:“Dr. C[aspar] W[istar] Eddy, of this city, has announced his intention of delivering a course of Lectures on Botany, to commence on the first Wednesday in May next. . . . During the whole course, the lecturer will avail himself of all the advantages calculated to render the instruction that may be given, a system of practical botany; and for this purpose, repeated visits will be made to the state [[botanic garden]]. . . . We shall only add, that a science in itself highly useful and agreeable, will possess additional claims to attetion, when unfolded in the able manner now proposed.”

*Spafford, Horatio Gates, 1813, describing the Elgin Botanic Garden (1813: 45–46)<ref>Horatio Gates Spafford, ''A Gazetteer of the State of New-York: Carefully Written from Original and Authentic Materials, Arranged on a New Plan, in Three Parts'' (Albany: H. C. Southwick, 1813), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/UDZZ2SS2 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“[[botanic garden|'''BOTANIC GARDEN'''.]] The Elgin Botanic Garden, in the city of New-York, the first institution of the kind in the United States, is now the property of the state. . . . Among the distinguished friends and patrons of science in this state, a common sentiment had long prevailed, friendly to the establishment of a [[botanic garden|Botanic Garden]]. Several unsuccessful attempts had been made to engage public aid for this purpose; and their having failed, while it detracts nothing from the reputation of the state, has ensured a better success to the institution, growing up under the zealous efforts of individual enterprize, which will ensure lasting fame to its principal founder. . . . In 1801, having failed in all attempts for public aid, the zeal and enterprize of [[David Hosack|Dr. Hosack]], determined him to attempt the establishment on his own account. Accordingly he purchased 20 acres of ground of the corporation of New-York. . . . The soil is diversified, and peculiarly well adapted to the cultivation of a great variety of plants. The whole was immediately enclosed by a stone [[wall]], and put in the best state for ornamental gardening; and a [[conservatory]] was erected for the preservation of the more hardy [[greenhouse|green-house]] plants. A primary object was to cultivate the native plants, possessing any valuable properties, found in this country; and in 1805, this establishment contained about 1500 valuable native plants, beside a considerable number of rare and valuable exotics. In 1806, it contained in successful cultivation, 150 different kinds of grasses, and important article to an agricultural people. . . . A portion of ground was set apart for agricultural experiments; and all the friends to experimental science and a diffusion of knowledge saw that the institution promised all that had been expected from it; and that the professor’s knowledge and genius were occupied on a congenial field. . . .

:“The [[view]] from the most elevated part of Elgin ground, is extensive and variegated. The aspect of the ground, is a gentle slope to the E. and S. The whole is enclosed by a well constructed stone [[wall]], lined all round by a belt of forest trees and shrubs. The [[conservatory]] and [[hothouse|hot-houses]] present a front of 180 feet. The various allotments of ground, are chosen with as much taste as good judgment for the varied culture;—and the rocky summit, the subsiding plain, and the little pool, have each their appropriate products. The herbarium, the [[kitchen garden]], the [[nursery]] of choice fruits from all quarters and climes, and the immense collection of botanical subjects elegantly arranged and labelled, display the industry, taste and skill of a master. A very extensive Botanical library belongs to the late proprietor, who is now a professor in the University, and delivers a summer course of lectures on Botany. . . . The garden is now committed to the superintendence of the college of Physicians and Surgeons, without any charge to the state.”

*Pursh, Frederick, 1814, describing Elgin Botanic Garden (1814: 2:xiv)<ref>Frederick Pursh, ''Flora Americae Septentrionalis; Or, a Systematic Arrangement and Description of the Plants of North America'', 2 vols. (London: White, Cochrane, & Co., 1814), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/KVNMM4KM view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“While I was engaged in arranging my materials for this publication, I was called upon to take the management of the [Elgin] Botanic Garden at New York, which had been originally established by the arduous zeal and exertions of Dr. [[David Hosack]], Professor of Botany, &c. as his private property, but has lately been bought by the Government of the State of New York for the public service. As this employment opened a further prospect to me of increasing my knowledge of the plants of that country, I willingly dropped the idea of my intended publication for that time, and in 1807 [''sic''; 1809] took charge of that establishment.

:“Here I again endeavoured to pay the utmost attention to the collection of American plants, as the establishment was principally intended for that purpose. In this I was supported by my numerous botanical connections and friends, among whom I must particularly mention John Le Conte, Esq. of Georgia, whose unremitting exertions added considerably to the collection, particularly of plants from the Southern States.

:“The additions to my former stock of materials for a Flora were now considerable, and in conjunction with Dr. [[David Hosack|D. Hosack]] I had engaged to publish a periodical work, with coloured plates, all taken from living plants, and if possible from native specimens, on a plan similar to that of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine; for which a great number of drawings were actually prepared. But . . . in 1810, took a voyage to the West Indies, . . . from which I returned in the autumn of 1811.

:“On my return to New York, I found things in a situation very unfavourable to the publication of scientific works, the public mind being then in agitation about a war in Great Britain. I therefore determined to take all my materials to England, where I conceived I should not only have the advantage of consulting the most celebrated collections and libraries, but also meet with that encouragement and support so necessary to works of science, and so generally bestowed upon them there.”

*[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], February 18, 1818, letter to [[David Hosack]] concerning seeds from the Jardin des Plantes in Paris (1944: 578)<ref>Thomas Jefferson, ''The Garden Book'', ed. Edwin M. Betts (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1944), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8ZA5VRP5 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“I received some time ago from M. Thouin, Director of the [[botanic garden|Botanical]] or King’s garden at Paris, a box containing an assortment of seeds, Non-American. . . . I have therefore this day sent the box to Richmond . . . to be forwarded to you for the use of the [[botanic garden|Botanical Garden]] of N. York. . . . I am happy in this disposition of it to fulfill the good intentions of the donor, and to make it useful to your institution.”

*Esqrier Frères & Cie., April 2, 1821, letter from Havre to [[Thomas Jefferson]] concerning seeds from the Jardin des Plantes in Paris<ref>Esqrier Brothers & Co. to Thomas Jefferson, April 2, 1821, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-1955 Founders Online, National Archives].</ref>

:“We have the honor of informing you that we have put on The American ship Cad[mus] . . . Capn. Wethlet [''sic''; Whitlock], a small Box of seeds, which is sent to you by the Managing Directors of the King’s Garden in Paris. . . .

:“We have sent this letter as well as some other ones for several people in the United States, to the address of [[David Hosack|Mister Hosack]], Director of the Botanical Garden of the State of New york.

:“Corresponding in this day for the Administrators of the King’s Museum and Garden, we are taking the liberty of offering you our Services, for your relationship with this administration, or for anything else that could be of interest to you in France.”

*Eyrien Frères & Cie., April 2, 1821, letter from Havre to James Madison concerning seeds from the Jardin des Plantes in Paris (Madison 2013: 2:292–93)<ref>James Madison, ''The Papers of James Madison'', ed. David B. Mattern et al. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013), 2:292–93, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8ADSTGUB view on Zotero]</ref>

:“The administrators of the King’s Garden at Paris have forwarded to us a package of seeds for you. We added it with some other packages for the same shipment and sent it all on board the American ship Cadmus, Capt. Whitlock, addressed to Mr. [[David Hosack|Hosack]], director of the Botanical Garden of the State of New York, from whom you will please request it.”

*[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], June 25, 1821, letter to Jonathan Thompson concerning seeds from the Jardin des Plantes in Paris<ref>Thomas Jefferson to Jonathan Thompson, June 25, 1821, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-2138 Founders Online, National Archives].</ref>

:“I am thankful to you for your notice of the 14th respecting a box of seeds—this comes from the king’s garden at Paris. they send me a box annually, depending on my applying it for the public benefit. I have generally had them delivered for a public garden at Philadelphia or to [[David Hosack|Dr Hosack]] for the Botanical garden of N. York. I am inclined to believe that he now recieves such an one from the same place. if he does not, be so good as to deliver it to him. but if of no use to him let it come to Richmond to the care of Capt Bernard Peyton, my correspondent there, and your note of any expence attending it will be immediately replaced either by him or myself.”

*[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], July 12, 1821, letter to [[David Hosack]] concerning seeds from the Jardin des Plantes in Paris<ref>Thomas Jefferson to David Hosack, July 12, 1821, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-2173 Founders Online, National Archives].</ref>

:“I recieved a letter lately from mr Thompson, Collector of New York, informing me of a box of seeds from the king’s gardens at Paris addressed to me. I rather suppose you recieve one annually from the same place for your botanical garden, but was not certain. I desired him therefore to present it to you if acceptable for your garden.”

*Spafford, Horatio Gates, 1824, describing the Elgin Botanic Garden (1824: 605)<ref>Horatio Gates Spafford, ''Gazetteer of the State of New York'' (Albany: B. D. Packard, 1824), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WW7MHEFG view on Zotero].</ref>

:“[[botanic garden|''Botanic Garden'']].—This is a very respectable establishment, situated on New-York Island, in the 9th Ward of the City, 4 miles N. of the City Hall. It was purchased by the State, in 1810, and is an appendage of the Colleges in New-York. It comprises 20 acres of ground, and embraces a great variety of indigenous, naturalized, and exotic vegetables. The situation is commanding, on the rising ground, which embraces a good variety of soil, aspect, and position, and Elgin [[Grove]] has as many visitants as the [[botanic garden|Botanic Garden]]s, chasing pleasure, or catching knowledge.”

<hr>

==Images==
<span id="roundabout_img"></span>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:1136.jpg|John Trumbull, ''Dr. Hosack’s Green houses'', Elgin Botanic Garden, June 1806.

Image:2051.jpg|William Satchwell Leney after Louis Simond, ''View of the botanic garden at Elgin in the vicinity of the City of New York'', c. 1810.

Image:2060.jpg|William Satchwell Leney after James Inderwick, “The Canada Thistle,” in David Hosack, “Botanical description of the Canada Thistle or Cnicus Arvensis,” ''American Medical and Philosophical Register'' 1 (October 1810): facing 212.

Image:1986.jpg|Anonymous, ''Elgin Botanic Garden'', c. 1810.

Image:0049.jpg|William Satchwell Leney after Hugh Reinagle, “View of the Botanic Garden of the State of New York,” in David Hosack, ''Hortus Elginensis'' (1811), frontispiece.

Image:0050.jpg|Hugh Reinagle, ''Elgin Garden on Fifth Avenue'', c. 1812.

Image:2052.jpg|Charles Heath after Thomas Sully (head copied from portrait of 1815) and John Trumbull (body and background after portrait painted ca. 1806–15 for Dr. John C. Lettsom, England), ''David Hosack, M.D., F.R.S.'', c. 1816.

Image:2061.jpg|John Eatton Le Conte, “Viola,” in ''Observations on the genera Viola. Utricularia and Gratiola'', c. 1824.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Map==
{{#display_map:
40.7586, -73.9788
| service=google
| enablefullscreen=yes
}}

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2009180531.html Library of Congress Authority File]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category: Places]]

Blithewood

2019-12-30T18:58:26Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

Situated on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River, '''Blithewood''' brought together some of the most famous architects and landscape gardeners of early nineteenth-century America under the patronage of Robert and Susan Gaston Donaldson. Between 1835 and 1853, American and European publications described, praised, and illustrated the farm, pleasure grounds, and ornamental gardens of the property. Plans and woodcut reproductions of the house, gardens, and outbuildings inspired patrons of rural estates and shaped the language of American picturesque landscapes.

==Overview==
'''Alternate Names:''' Mill Hill; Annandale; Annandale-on-Hudson; Blithe Wood; Blythe Wood; Blithwood; Blythewood<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1795 to present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Barent van Benthuysen (1725–1795?); John and Alida Livingston Armstrong (1795–1801); John and Mary Johnston Allen (1801–1810); John Cox Stevens and Maria Cambridge Livingston (1810–1833); John Church Cruger (1833–1835); Robert and Susan Gaston Donaldson (1835–1853); John and Margaret Johnston Bard (1853–1897); Saint Stephen’s College (1897–1899); Captain Andrew Christian and Frances Hunter Zabriskie (1899–1916); Frances Hunter Zabriskie (1916–1951); Bard College (1951 to present)<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Walter Elder (gardener), George Kidd (gardener), [[Andrew Jackson Downing]] (landscape gardener), [[Alexander Jackson Davis]] (architect), Hans Jacob Ehlers (landscape gardener)<br/>
'''Location:''' Dutchess County, NY<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/Md6EfdMf5352 View on Google Maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[File:1927.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, [[Alexander Jackson Davis]], ''Rustic Cottage at Blithewood'', 1836.]]
Between 1795 and 1836 the property that would come to be known as Blithewood exchanged hands several times. Several of its owners were connected by birth or by marriage to the Livingston and Armstrong families. In 1795, the soldier and politician John Armstrong (1758–1843) and his wife Alida Livingston Armstrong (1761–1822) purchased a 125-acre estate, which they named Mill Hill. The Armstrongs built a Federal-style house on the property and developed the land as a farm. John and Mary Johnston Allen bought the estate in 1801, which they called Annandale after the Scottish ancestral home of Mary’s family. In 1810, John Cox Stevens (1785–1857), best known as the founder of the New York Yacht Club, and his wife Maria Cambridge Livingston (1799–1865) acquired the property. Stevens was later credited with planting some of the most impressive trees on the estate. <span id="Praise_cite"></span>One 1856 article went so far as to call his trees “a successful instance of planting attaining perfection in the lifetime of a single individual” ([[#Praise|view text]]). In 1833, the lawyer John Church Cruger purchased Mill Hill and the adjacent peninsula, on which he built his own country [[seat]], known as Cruger’s Island. Two years later, in 1835, Cruger sold the southern part of his property to the banker Robert Donaldson (1800–1872) and his wife Susan Gaston (1808–1866), who renamed the estate Blithewood.

Upon purchasing the estate, Donaldson hired the architect [[Alexander Jackson Davis]] (1803–1892) to renovate the existing house as an ornamental cottage, and design a new gatehouse, later used as a gardener’s house. [[Alexander Jackson Davis|Davis]] and Donaldson collaborated closely on the design, and the two would go on to create other outbuildings for Blithewood including a spring house, an Egyptian revival toolhouse, assorted [[picturesque]] [[Seat|seats]], and a [[hermitage]].<ref>For the collaboration between Donaldson and Davis, see Jean Bradley Anderson, ''Carolinian on the Hudson: The Life of Robert Donaldson'' (Raleigh: Historic Preservation Foundation of North Carolina, 1996), 169.</ref> Their collaborations are well illustrated by [[Alexander Jackson Davis|Davis’s]] many surviving ink and watercolor preparatory drawings [Fig.1]. In 1841, [[Alexander Jackson Davis|Davis]] negotiated a joint purchase of the Sawkill Creek, which ran between Blithewood and its neighboring estate, Louise Livingston’s [[Montgomery Place]], to ensure that the southern border of his property would not be marred by “the countless vexations & annoyances of Factories.”<ref>For the negotiations between Donaldson, Livingston, and John C. Cruger, who owned the Sawkill property, see Anderson 1996, 173–75.</ref> That same year, Blithewood received lavish praise in the first edition of [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing’s]] ''Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'', a description which was quickly reprinted abroad in respected journals like [[J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon|John Claudius Loudon’s]] ''The Gardener's Magazine''.<ref>Anonymous, “Review of A. J. Downing, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening,” ''The Gardener’s Magazine and Register of Rural & Domestic Improvement'' 7 (1841): 422.</ref> <span id="MalteseVases_cite"></span>[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing]] described “delightful [[Walk|walks]] leading in easy curves to [[Rustic style|rustic]] [[Seat|seats]], [[summerhouse|summer houses]], etc. disposed in secluded spots, or to openings affording the most lovely [[Prospect|prospects]],” and “Maltese [[Vase/Urn|vases]]” that were “disposed in such a manner as to give a classic air to the grounds” ([[#MalteseVases|view text]]). The [[Rustic style|rustic]], [[picturesque]] aesthetic was complemented by the gothic-influenced “English cottage style” of Donaldson’s early additions.<ref>Reprinted in “Landscape Gardening,” ''The Cultivator: A Monthly Publication, Devoted to Agriculture'' 2, no. 3 (March 1845): 83.</ref>

[[File:2198.jpg|thumb|Fig. 2, Printed by Gavit & Co., Albany, NY, “Prince Albert”, in Luther Tucker, ed. ''Cultivator'' 2, n.s. (1845): pl. opp. p. 249.]]
A working farm on the property provided food for the estate and space for experimental animal husbandry. In 1845, the agricultural journal the ''Cultivator'' published a print of Donaldson’s short-horn bull Prince Albert, probably based on a drawing by [[Alexander Jackson Davis|Davis]] [Fig. 2].<ref>“Our Plate—Mr. Donaldson’s Farm,” ''The Cultivator: A Monthly Publication, Devoted to Agriculture'' 2, no. 8 (August 1845): 249. An earlier article published in the same journal also mentions Prince Albert. “The State Fair at Poughkeepsie,” ''The Cultivator: A Monthly Publication, Devoted to Agriculture'' 1, no. 10 (October 1844): 314. For an excerpt of the correspondence discussing this drawing, see Anderson 1996, 172.</ref> The bull looms over the new gardener’s cottage and hexagonal gatehouse at Blithewood, uniting the agricultural, horticultural, and social functions of the estate. In 1848, a cow named Kaatskill who had already gained celebrity in 1844, was depicted in the ''New England Farmer'' standing in front of a [[Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall|cascade]], which evokes the dramatic topography of the Sawkill Creek between Blithewood and [[Montgomery Place]].<ref>“Kaatskill, A Native Cow,” ''The New England Farmer'' 1, no. 1 (December 9, 1848): 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/V7C8TL6Q view on Zotero]. For Kaatskill’s 1844 prize at the New York State Agricultural Society exhibition in Poughkeepsie, see Franco̧is Guènon and John Stuart Skinner, ''[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t5bc4g38k A Treatise on Milch Cows, Whereby the Quality and Quantity of Milk Which Any Cow Will Give May Be Accurately Determined by Observing Natural Marks or External Indications Alone; the Length of Time She Will Continue to Give Milk, &c.]'', 20th ed. (New York: McElrath, 1853), 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/W6VV2US8 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1928.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 3, [[Alexander Jackson Davis]], “Map of Blithewood,” c. 1840s.]]
The Donaldsons began designing and planting an ornamental garden at Blithewood in 1844. <span id="Visitor_cite"></span>A visitor in 1845 described how the topography of the site required “terracing the eastern declivity of a hill” with “substantial stone [[Wall|walls]],” and went on to marvel at the “extensive [[conservatory]] and grape-house” and “rich profusion of flowers and [[shrubbery]]. . . .and various [[Labyrinth|labyrinthine]] [[Walk|walks]] and shady [[Bower|bowers]]” ([[#Visitor|view text]]). A year later, an article in the March 1846 edition of the ''American Agriculturist'' described a finished garden “in the [[geometric style]], [. . . .] concealed by [[Hedge|hedges]] and [[shrubbery]]. The upper plateau is devoted to fruits and flowers, and the [[Terrace/Slope|terraces]] are given up to vegetables. The [[Greenhouse|green-house]] and fruit houses, 90 feet long, are so arranged as to present a very handsome architectural appearance. Besides a great variety of foreign grapes, the fig, apricot, nectarine, plum, and peach, are grown in these houses as [[Espalier|espaliers]], and dwarf standards.” [[Alexander Jackson Davis|Davis’s]] undated watercolor plan of the property differentiates [[Wood/Woods|wooded areas]] from open [[Lawn|lawns]], and indicates several different types of [[Drive|drives]] and paths through the use of color and outlining [Fig. 3]. Labelled elements include a boathouse on the river, a [[Rustic style|rustic]] tent, a [[Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall|cataract]], a barn, a grass field, and two springs.

[[File:2199.jpg|thumb|Fig. 4, Anonymous, “Picture Window,” n.d.]]
The [[picturesque]] ideal that motivated Donaldson and his collaborators also prompted the inclusion of a unique architectural element in the picture gallery that was added to the main house in 1845. Amid the painted portraits and landscapes of the Donaldson art collection, visitors marveled at “the ''Landscape Window'', a novelty introduced by Mr. D., which quite took us by surprise. It is an oval plate glass, 3 by 4½ feet, inserted in the wall, and surrounded by rich mouldings, in imitation of a picture frame. <span id="PictureWindow_cite"></span>One feels that the natural beauties here revealed surpass even the glowing compositions [of the paintings that surround it]” ([[#PictureWindow|view text]]). This self-conscious presentation of the grounds, the Hudson, and the mountains beyond as if they were elements of a skillfully composed painting [Fig. 4] blurred the line between art and nature. At times the picturesque landscape appeared unkempt. <span id="Mow_cite"></span>[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing]] implied in 1847 that the [[Lawn|lawns]] at Blithewood were not “well kept” when he advised Donaldson to “mow regularly every fortnight” ([[#Mow|view text]]).

[[File:2201.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 5, F. Walsh, Water tower in the form of an Italian campanile, in P. Barry, ed. ''Horticulturalist'' 3, n.s. (January-December 1853): p. 129]]
Supported by Donaldson’s wealth, the gardeners at Blithewood were able to experiment with novel techniques and share their findings. One gardener in particular, named George Kidd, was especially prolific in this regard. <span id="GeorgeKidd_cite"></span>He submitted a letter about his success growing potted grapes in [[Greenhouse|greenhouses]] ([[#GeorgeKidd|view text]]) and another about [[Kitchen garden|kitchen gardens]] to the Horticulturist in 1848, both with a practical eye toward localizing garden theory and practice for the colder climate of the Hudson.<ref>Geo. Kidd, “A Hint on Kitchen Gardens,” ''Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste'' 3, no. 10 (April 1849): 471–472, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9G2UB2XS view on Zotero].</ref> Another one of his communications, published in 1849-1850, shared new techniques for cultivating roses.<ref>Geo. Kidd, “Domestic Notices: Budding Roses,” ''Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste'' 4, no. 5 (November 1849): 246, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/Z55KTVCE view on Zotero]. At some point after his employment at Blithewood, Kidd left New York for Columbus, Georgia, where he continued to contribute short articles on gardening techniques to publications. Geo. Kidd, “Editor’s Table: Dear Sir,” ''The Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste'' 7 (1857): 390, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZRTIIEAV view on Zotero]; Geo. Kidd, “The Scuppernong,” ''The Plantation'' 1, no. 12 (April 9, 1870): 180, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/SLRJNBDP view on Zotero]. It is not clear if he is the same George Kidd mentioned in relation to the London-based retirement charity known as the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution. G. Bond, “Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution,” ''The Gardener’s Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette'', no. 29 (July 21, 1855): 487, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/D8WFN6W7 view on Zotero].</ref> Donaldson himself helped spread the knowledge he gained transforming Blithewood. His short letter to the ''Horticulturist'', published in 1853, describes the design and hydraulic engineering of a forty-five-foot-tall “tower in the form of an Italian campanile” at Blithewood [Fig. 5]. <span id="Campanile_cite"></span>This disguised water tower, which was filled by the Sawkill Creek, supplied water for “irrigation, the cattle yard, stable, the garden, the house and [[Fountain|fountains]]” and served “also as a [[Belvedere/Prospect tower/Observatory|prospect tower]]” ([[#Campanile|view text]]).

[[File:1907.jpg|thumb|Fig. 6, Anonymous, “Implement in use at Blithewood for cleaning gravel roads,” in [[A. J. Downing]], ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'' (1849) p. 532, fig. 20.]]
Thanks to such articles, published in magazines like ''The Cultivator'' and the ''Magazine of Horticulture, Botany and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs'', mechanical and architectural prototypes employed at Blithewood were publicized in the American northeast and adapted for new sites and contexts. One 1845 article described a novel plow designed to cut [[picturesque]] [[Walk|walks]] exactly three-and-a-half feet wide ([[#Visitor|view text]]) [Fig. 6]. While the device was purportedly first used within the region at William B. Astor’s villa, gardeners learned of it in articles about Blithewood. <span id="Greenhouse_cite"></span>[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing]] published a view and plan of the [[greenhouse]] at Blithewood in an 1846 issue of the ''Horticulturist'' ([[#Greenhouse|view text]]) [<span id="Fig_12_cite"></span>[[#Fig_12|See Fig. 12]]]. <span id="Brighton_cite"></span>Two years later, Samuel Bigelow (1807–after 1898) relied on these descriptions and drawings when he designed and built a new [[greenhouse]] “upon the plan of one at Blithewood” at his estate in Brighton, Massachusetts ([[#Brighton|view text]]).<ref>This is the so-called Faneuil mansion, which Bigelow had purchased a decade earlier in 1839. John Perkins Cushing Winship, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ewHYJmrF3rYC&lpg=PA51&pg=PA51#v=onepage&q&f=true Historical Brighton: An Illustrated History of Brighton and Its Citizens]'', vol. 1 (Boston, MA: George A. Warren, 1899), 51, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/SU8RTWHW/q/historical%20brighton view on Zotero].</ref>

By 1848, Blithewood was so firmly established in the circles of American [[landscape gardening]] that writers could use it as a point of reference when describing less well-known estates.<ref>Horace William Shaler Cleveland, “Foreign Notices: Notes from Our Foreign Correspondent,” ''Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste'' 3, no. 5 (November 1848): 244, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FSXEG4M7 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Swede_cite"></span>It also gained international exposure thanks to publications like the 1853 ''Homes of the New World'' by Swedish writer Frederika Bremer (1801–1865), in which she recounted her visit to the estate with [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing]] in 1849 ([[#Swede|view text]]). During their explorations of the surrounding area, visitors like Bremer were astonished by a false ruin on John Church Cruger’s peninsula to the north of Blithewood, known as “Cruger’s folly,” which incorporated real fragments of Mayan sculpture.<ref>Cruger had funded an expedition to the Yucatan peninsula led by John Lloyd Stephens, the Special Ambassador to Central America, and Frederick Catherwood, a prominent artist and architect who designed the greenhouse at the neighboring Montgomery Place. In exchange for his sponsorship, Cruger received a group of Mayan stone sculptures discovered in the ruins at Kabah and Uxmal, which he installed in his folly sometime after 1842. In 1919, Cruger’s daughter Cornelia sold the authentic Mayan sculptures to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Herbert J. Spinden, “The Stephens Sculptures from Yucatan,” ''Natural History: The Journal of the American Museum'' 20, no. 4 (1920): 381, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RZE3ABJU view on Zotero].</ref>

[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing’s]] use of Blithewood as an exemplar of good taste in landscape gardening also unintentionally marked it as a target for his own critics. Most vocal among these was the German landscape gardener Hans Jacob Ehlers, who worked for a number of prominent garden patrons in the Hudson Valley. When Ehlers became embroiled in a dispute with Cora and Thomas Barton, owners of the neighboring [[Montgomery Place]], he attacked [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing’s]] credentials as an arbiter of taste by singling out his illustrations and descriptions of Blithewood. <span id="Ehlers_cite"></span>Ehlers criticized the design of the estate, asserting that trees surrounded the main house as if it were “a privy” the gardener sought to hide, that the [[Walk|walks]] resembled “ditches, hardly fit for cattle to walk in,” and, most importantly, that “there are at Blithwood [''sic''] no points ''accessible'' and ''decent'', from which a [[picturesque]] [[View/Vista|view]] can be obtained” ([[#Ehlers|view text]]). In Ehlers’s view, [[Alexander Jackson Davis|Davis’s]] illustration of the property [<span id="Fig_7_cite"></span>[[#Fig_7|See Fig. 7]]], selected by [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing]] as a frontispiece for his ''Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'', was a dishonest, composite image that combined multiple points of view into a composition more [[picturesque]] than any single [[View/Vista|vista]] on the property. Ehlers’s skeptical criticism of the estate and its depictions demonstrates how Blithewood became central to disputes about the veracity and taste of [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing’s]] didactic illustrations.

Donaldson sold Blithewood to John Bard in 1853, one year after [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing’s]] death, and moved to an 1820s Greek revival mansion at Barrytown known as Edgewater. John, the grandson of the famous physician [[Samuel Bard]] of [[Hyde Park (on the Hudson River, NY)|Hyde Park]], renamed the estate Annandale (or Annandale-on-Hudson), and within a decade of his purchase he made several major alterations to the property. In 1856, he donated part of the grounds to found an Episcopalian seminary named St. Stephen’s College. On the land that he retained, he constructed new “[[Conservatory|conservatories]] and forcing houses” and planned a much larger residence ([[#Praise|view text]]). In 1899, Captain Andrew C. and Frances Hunter Zabriskie bought the property, demolished the Donaldson house, and built a neoclassical mansion. Around the year 1903, the Zabriskies commissioned Francis Hoppin (1867–1941) to design a new Italianate garden called Blithewood in homage to Donaldson’s earlier [[picturesque]] estate. The property was acquired by Bard College in 1951.

—''Alexander Brey''

<hr>

==Texts==
<div id="Fig_7"></div>[[File:0350.jpg|thumb|Fig. 7, [[Alexander Jackson Davis]], “View in the Grounds at Blithewood,” in [[A. J. Downing]], ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America'' (1841), frontispiece.]]
*<div id="MalteseVases"></div>[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], 1841, describing the landscape at Blithewood (Downing 1841: 23)<ref>A. J. [Andrew Jackson] Downing, ''[https://archive.org/details/treatiseontheory41down/page/23 A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America; with a View to the Improvement of Country Residences. Comprising Historical Notices and General Principles of the Art, Directions for Laying out Grounds and Arranging Plantations, the Description and Cultivation of Hardy Trees, Decorative Accompaniments to the House and Grounds, the Formation of Pieces of Artificial Water, Flower Gardens, Etc.: With Remarks on Rural Architecture]'', 1st ed. (New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1841), 23, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QDVESTBX view on Zotero].</ref> [[#MalteseVases_cite|Back up to History]]
:“''Blithewood'', the [[seat]] of R. Donaldson, Esq. near Barrytown on the Hudson river, is one of the most tasteful villa residences in the Union. The [[lawn]] or [[park]], which commands a [[View/Vista|view]] of surpassing beauty, is studded with groups of fine forest trees, beneath which are delightful [[Walk|walks]] leading in easy curves to [[Rustic style|rustic]] [[Seat|seats]], [[Summerhouse|summer houses]], etc. disposed in secluded spots, or to openings affording the most lovely [[Prospect|prospects]] [Fig.7]. In various situations near the house and upon the [[lawn]], Maltese [[Vase/Urn|vases]] exquisitely sculptured in stone, are disposed in such a manner as to give a classic air to the grounds. The entrance lodge, built in the English cottage style, is exceedingly neat and appropriate, and the whole place may be considered quite a model of elegant arrangement; such indeed as may fairly come within the reach of numbers of our wealthy proprietors, did they possess the ''taste'', as well as the means, for this species of refined enjoyment.”

[[File:0381.jpg|thumb|Fig. 8, Anonymous, "The Cataract at Blithewood," in [[A. J. Downing]], ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'' 2nd ed. (1844), opp. p. 336. fig. 38.]]
*[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], 1844, description of Blithewood in the second edition of Downing’s ''Treatise'' (Downing 1844: 35–36)<ref>A. J. [Andrew Jackson] Downing, ''[https://archive.org/details/treatiseontheory00down_2/page/n49 A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America; with a View to the Improvement of Country Residences. Comprising Historical Notices and General Principles of the Art, Directions for Laying out Grounds and Arranging Plantations, the Description and Cultivation of Hardy Trees, Decorative Accompaniments to the House and Grounds, the Formation of Pieces of Artificial Water, Flower Gardens, Etc.: With Remarks on Rural Architecture]'', 2nd ed. (New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1844), 35, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/D4TQS59B view on Zotero].</ref>
:“''Blithewood'', the [[seat]] of R. Donaldson, Esq. near Barrytown on the Hudson river, is one of the most charming villa residences in the Union. The natural scenery here, is nowhere surpassed in its enchanting union of softness and dignity—the river being four miles wide, its placid bosom broken only by islands and gleaming sails, and the horizon grandly closing in with the tall blue summits of the distant Kaatskills. The smiling, gently varied [[lawn]] is studded with groups and masses of fine forest and ornamental trees, beneath which are [[Walk|walks]] leading in easy curves to [[Rustic style|rustic]] [[Seat|seats]], [[Summerhouse|summer houses]] placed in secluded spots, or to openings affording the most lovely [[Prospect|prospects]] [Fig. 7]. In various situations near the house and upon the [[lawn]], sculptured [[Vase/Urn|vases]] of Maltese stone are also disposed in such a manner as to give a refined and classic air to the grounds.
:“As a pendant to this graceful landscape, there is within the grounds scenery of an opposite character, equally wild and [[picturesque]]—a fine, bold stream, fringed with woody banks, and dashing over several rocky [[Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall|cascades]], thirty or forty feet in height, and falling, altogether, a hundred feet in half a mile [Fig. 8]. There are also, within the grounds, a pretty gardener’s lodge, in the rural cottage style, and a new entrance lodge by the [[Gate/Gateway|gate]], in the bracketted mode; in short, we can recall no pace of moderate extent, where nature, and tasteful art, are both so prodigal of beauty, and so harmonious in effect.”

*<div id="Visitor"></div>Anonymous, August 1845, “Our Plate—Mr. Donaldson’s Farm” (''Cultivator'' 2: 249)<ref>“Our Plate—Mr. Donaldson’s Farm” 1845, 249, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/HSXIR4RS view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Visitor_cite|Back up to History]]
:“Few places that we have ever seen exhibit such marked evidence of refined taste, and correct appreciations of rural beauty, as BLITHEWOOD. The spot itself is one possessing great natural attractions, and these have been heightened and improved to the greatest possible advantage. It is a promontory on the east bank of the Hudson, embracing the greatest variety of magnificent landscape scenery of any spot of the same extent within our knowledge. The river here is of unusual width, and there are several pretty islands nearly opposite, by which the force of the current is so broken that the water has the placid quietness of a sheltered [[lake]], and reflects with mirror-like vividness, every object on its banks, or floating on its surface. On the west side of the river, a little to the north-west, the Kaatskill group of mountains appear in all their majestic beauty, forming a grand, but varied and [[picturesque]] outline to the view for a considerable extent in that direction.
:“The mansion of Mr. Donaldson, constitutes the frontispiece to [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Mr. Downing’s]] elegant work on Landscape Gardening and Rural Architecture. Representations of several of the other buildings, as well as various sketches of the scenery at Blithewood are also given in [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Mr. Downing’s]] work, to which we would refer for a more particular description. The scenery in the background of our engraving, is copied from nature—the building on the right being the [[Gate/Gateway|gate]]-lodge, and the one on the left the gardener’s cottage—the farm-yard building buildings with a grove in the rear, showing between.
:“The credit of introducing to this country the Rural Gothic, or pointed style of architecture, belongs to Mr. Donaldson. The first specimen of this style was the gardener’s cottage above-mentioned, which, for its taste and simplicity, excels anything of the kind we have ever seen. Mr. Donaldson was also, we believe, the first to introduce what is called the Bracketted style, several pretty specimens of which are shown among his numerous buildings.
:“Mr. D.’s garden has been but lately laid out—the present being the first season that the principal portion of it has been appropriated to plants. To secure a favorable site, he has been under the necessity of [[Terrace|terracing]] the eastern declivity of a hill, and forming a soil somewhat artificially. The [[Terrace|terraces]] are formed in a beautiful manner, supported by the most substantial stone [[Wall|walls]]. An extensive [[conservatory]] and grape-house has just been erected, in the most tasteful style. A rich profusion of flowers and [[shrubbery]] adorn the garden, and various [[Labyrinth|labyrinthine]] [[Walk|walks]] and shady [[Bower|bowers]].
:“The soil of Mr. Donaldson’s farm has been much improved, and its productiveness vastly increased, since he came into possession of it, about nine years ago. His outside [[Fence|fences]] are mostly stone [[Wall|walls]], laid in the most systematic and durable manner. His wet grounds, of which there is a considerable portion, have been mostly under-drained, and latterly he has commenced subsoiling which promises to be of great benefit, particularly to the tenacious soil. A piece of oats on some of the under-drained land, is about the best we have seen this season. His barn is constructed on a convenient plan; his barnyard is well protected by sheds, and is well contrived for making and saving manure. His young cattle are not pastured by soiled. They are fed in the sheds and yard, mostly with mowed grass, and are allowed the run of a small shady lot. They are in good order, an appear healthy and thrifty.
:“We saw here a superior machine for cleaning [[Walk|walks]], invented by Mr. Donaldson. Its general form, is that of the frame of a wheel-barrow. Two bars of iron, representing the legs, reach down to the ground, and attached to the bottom of them is a transverse bar of steel, about two and a half inches wide, one edge of which is made sharp. Three or four inches of the lower end of the upright bars are also made sharp, in order to cut the sides of the [[walk]]. The handles are held by a man, and the machine is drawn by a horse. A space three-and-a-half feet wide is shaved at once, the man at the handles regulating the working of the implement so as effectually to cut up the weeds and grass. It is to be recommended for its simplicity and efficiency.”

*Anonymous, March 1846, “Farm and Villa of Mr. Donaldson” (''American Agriculturist'' 5, no. 3: 88–90)<ref>A. B. Allen, ed., “Farm and Villa of Mr. Donaldson,” American Agriculturist 5, no. 3 (March 1846): 88–90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RGGDSZCC view on Zotero].</ref>
:“FARM AND VILLA OF MR. DONALDSON.
:“WITHIN the past ten years, there has been quite a revolution in the Northern States with respect to country life; it is now rapidly assuming here the rank it has so long held in Great Britain, and in some parts of the Continent. In England, especially where the love of rural pleasures pervades all classes, the most affluent and noble of the land seem to consider their town houses as merely temporary accommodations during the whirl of the fashionable season, and the sitting of Parliament, after which they fondly return to their ancestral castles, where for many generations all that wealth, taste, and skill could contribute, have been accumulating to make their homes desirable. [. . . .]
:“Blithewood, the residence of Robert Donaldson, Esq. is situated in Dutchess County, on the Hudson river, about a hundred miles above this city. It was formerly the [[seat]] of General Armstrong, of Revolutionary memory, who was Secretary of War under Mr. Madison. [. . . .]
[[File:0385.jpg|thumb|Fig. 9, Anonymous, “Gate-Lodge,” in ''American Agriculturist'' 5, no.3 (March 1846): p. 88, fig. 24.]]
:“To visit Blithewood, we landed at Barrytown, two miles below, and in approaching it, the gatehouse or lodge [Fig. 9] was the first object tha[t] attracted our attention. It is a hexagonal brick building, stuccoed and colored in imitation of freestone; and strikingly placed on a [[Terrace/Slope|terrace]] in the midst of a group of forest trees, it is no less ornamental than useful. An excellent macademized road leads through the estate from the lodge to the mansion.
[[File:1887.jpg|thumb|Fig. 10, Anonymous, “Gardener's House” in A. B. Allen, ''American Agriculturist'' 5, no. 3, (March 1846): p. 88, fig. 25.]]
:“Soon after entering the [[Gate/Gateway|gate]], we lose sight of all boundary [[Wall|walls]] and [[Fence|fences]], and pass the gardener’s house [Fig. 10]. This is in the Cottage Gothic style, and with its pointed and projecting gables, and miniature [[porch]], covered with honeysuckles and Boussault roses, it has a very neat and pretty appearance.
:“Approaching the house, the road winds among white pines, through which may be seen the graceful [[Terrace/Slope|slopes]] of the grounds, and the noble masses of [[Wood/Woods|wood]]. The [[View/Vista|view]] which is disclosed, as you sweep round to the river front, assures you that nature has been lavish of her beauties here. Our readers will get a very good idea of the [[View/Vista|view]] presented at this point by looking at the frontispiece to Downing’s Landscape Gardening and Rural Architecture.
:“The Kaatskill mountains, on the opposite side of the river, reach a height of nearly 4,000 feet, and the range may be seen for fifty miles, clothed in the enchanting hues that distance ever lends to bold mountain scenery. The unusual width of the river here—the [[Wood/Woods|wooded]] isles—the promontories, with their quiet bays—the spires of the neighboring villages—the Mountain House—all combine to form a landscape of extraordinary attraction. The scenery along the Sawkill, which forms the southern boundary of this place, reminds one of Trenton Falls. The stream descends in [[Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall|cascades]] and rapids, 150 feet in a quarter of a mile. A [[lake]] has been formed about half way up its course, through the estate, the placid waters of which contrast finely with the rushing [[Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall|cataracts]].
:“By an overshot water wheel which could be made ornamental, and a simple hydraulic machine, a portion of the water of this stream might be forced up to the adjoining height, and thence conducted to the house, garden, stables, and cattle yard; it might also be made to irrigate the grass land, and to form fish [[Pond|ponds]], and ''[[Jet|jets d’eau]]''.
:“The dwelling house is 160 feet above the river. It is a low, but most commodious structure, embosomed in trees, stuccoed and colored in imitation of freestone, with a deep [[Veranda|verandah]] on three sides, and a boldly projecting and richly bracketted roof; and whatever may have been its original plan, it has been so enlarged and transformed by its present owner, as to present a most inviting aspect. The interior is very tastefully arranged, but on this we cannot enlarge, and confine ourselves to a description of the picture room—an apartment on the river side of the house, 16 by 32 feet, of a high pitch, and receiving its strongest light through an ornamented sash in the ceiling. In this choice, though limited collection, there are the Picnic Party in Epping Forest, by C. R. Leslie; a Landscape, by John Both; the Billet Doux, by Terburg; the Lute Lesson, by Gaspar Netcher; a most lovely Madonna and Child, supposed to be by Luini; the Physician and Invalid, by the elder Palamedes; the Benevolent Family, a highly finished painting, by a Flemish Master; together with some portraits by Leslie, and some carefully made copies of well known pictures. But more striking than all these is the ''Landscape Window'', a novelty introduced by Mr. D., which quite took us by surprise. It is an oval plate glass, 3 by 4½ feet, inserted in the wall, and surrounded by rich mouldings, in imitation of a picture frame. One feels that the natural beauties here revealed surpass even the glowing compositions.
[[File:0380.jpg|thumb|Fig. 11, Anonymous, “Ravine Walk” in A. B. Allen, ed. ''The American Agriculturist'' 5, no. 3, (March 1846): p. 89, fig. 26.]]
:“[[Walk|Walks]] lead away in the most alluring manner, for two miles, through the varying scenes of this place, along which [[Rustic style|rustic]] [[Seat|seats]] and [[Pavilion|pavilions]] are placed, at the best points of [[View/Vista|view]]. We give a view of one of them on the Sawkill [Fig. 11].
:“The spring house, which is in course of erection, on the verge of the spacious [[lawn]], will be very ornamental. The water flows through a water lily, into a sculptured shell, from the scolloped [''sic''] lip of which it falls as from a dripping tazza.
:“The garden, which is in the [[geometric style]], though near the house, is concealed by [[Hedge|hedges]] and [[shrubbery]]. The upper plateau is devoted to fruits and flowers, and the [[Terrace/Slope|terraces]] are given up to vegetables. The [[Greenhouse|green-house]] and fruit houses, 90 feet long, are so arranged as to present a very handsome architectural appearance. Besides a great variety of foreign grapes, the fig, apricot, nectarine, plum, and peach, are grown in these houses as [[Espalier|espaliers]], and dwarf standards.
:“''The Farm''.—This comprises 125 acres. The soil varies from a sandy to a clayey loam. Parts of the outer lots, where the subsoil was so adhesive as to retain the surface soil, have been subdrained with the small stones gathered from the surface. These lots can now be worked at the earliest opening of spring; and though forming a very superior soil for grass; they yet yield very heavy crops of small grain. As an evidence of this, although the season of ‘45 was very unfavorable to oats, we here saw a lot which turned out 50 bushels to the acre. Since acquiring possession of this place, ten years since, Mr. D. has doubled the crops; and though he has occasionally used alluvial mud (''limed'') from the Sawkill, as a topdressing, and also plaster and ashes, and applied guano and poudrette to the hoed crops, with satisfactory results; yet his main reliance for keeping up the fertility of his place, has been the barnyard. To this place all weeds, fallen leaves, butts of cornstalks, and offal of the farm are gathered, and through these the wash of the barnyard leaches. We think Mr. D. has gone through unnecessary trouble and expense in plowing in manure on the [[Terrace/Slope|slopes]] and banks to get them into grass, instead of pasturing South-down sheep, which might easily be done in hurdles. The growth of the sheep would in a single season defray the expense of the arrangement, and the sod would be left by them, topdressed and fertilized in the simplest and most efficient manner. We have often seen flocks of sheep pastured for this purpose on the [[Lawn|lawns]] and finest estates in England.
:“The farm-buildings are judiciously placed near the centre of the land, and well constructed for sheltering the cattle and saving the manure. The boundary [[Wall|walls]] are well laid, and the expense and unsightliness of [[Fence|cross-fences]] have been greatly avoided by soiling most of the cattle. [. . . .]
:“We could say much more of Blithewood; but should any of our readers chance to visit it, they will feel how inadequate words are to convey an idea of its varied scenes, some of which are worthy of the pencil of Ruysdael or Claude.
:“''Stucco''.—We thought the Stucco used by Mr. D. in his buildings a superior kind, and copied his recipe for making it. Take pure beach sand, and add as much Thomaston lime as it will take up, then sufficient hydraulic cement to make it set, say about one-fifth of the whole mixture of sand and lime. To prevent cement attracting moisture, put a strip of sheet lead or zinc as wide as the foundation of the building over it, then lay up the [[Wall|walls]]. The [[Wall|walls]] should be hollow, as they are stronger than solid [[Wall|walls]], and they save nearly one-third of the brick. The finishing plaster can then be laid on inside without the expense of furrowing out and lathing, as hollow [[Wall|walls]] are always dry. The stucco is also more lasting and not likely to peel. The stucco can be painted a handsome fawn color by dissolving burnt ochre in ''sweet'' milk.
:“We saw here a most useful labor-saving machine, first introduced at Mr. William B. Astor’s villa, for cleaning gravel [[Walk|walks]]. With this, a man, a boy, and a horse, may do the work of twenty men. We here annex an engraving of it. It is very simple in its construction, and costs about $10.
:“Mr. Downing has kindly permitted us to make casts of the illustrations above, from the cuts executed for his “Landscape Gardening and Rural Architecture,” a work which we cannot too highly and too often recommend to the public.”

<div id="Fig_12"></div>[[File:1000.jpg|thumb|Fig. 12, Anonymous, "View of the Vinery at Blithewood," in [[A. J. Downing]], ed., ''Horticulturist'' 1, no. 2 (August 1846): pl. opp. p. 58.]]
*<div id="Greenhouse"></div>[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], August 1846, “The New Vinery at Blithewood” (''Horticulturist'' 1, no. 2: 58)<ref>Andrew Jackson Downing, “The New Vinery at Blithewood,” ''Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste'' 1, no. 2 (August 1846): 57–58, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GR63XMQE view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Greenhouse_cite|Back up to History]]
:“The New Vinery at Blithewood, erected about eighteen months ago, we have had engraved as the frontispiece embellishment of the present number.
:“The glass structures in general use, both in this country and in England, it must be candidly confessed, are rather ugly and unsightly objects. They have frequently either the common-place glazed-shed appearance of a market gardener’s rude [[Greenhouse|green-house]], or the clumsy and heavy air imparted to them by some architect or builder, whose knowledge of the matter in hand is, at best, crude and imperfect.
:“The building which we now present our readers a view, [Fig. 12], strikes us as a happy exception to these remarks. To much simplicity of detail and excellent arrangement for its purpose, it adds a chaste and becoming architectural character, which gives it an air of elegance and finish in every way worthy of a handsome country [[seat]].
:“With regard to the exterior, we think the proportions excellent. The slope of the roof, about 40°, is one of the best for this climate. There is a particularly light yet firm and pleasing effect in the structure of the rafters, and especially the upright glass in front. The chaste ornaments, which terminate the rafters at the eave and ridge lines, joined to the very tastefully decorated gables, strike us as producing a very elegan[t] and harmonious effect—greatly superior to anything of the kind we have yet seen attempted.
:“The length of this vinery is about 100 feet. Every one familiar with long uniform ranges of glass, is aware of a stiffness and monotony of effect in the exterior, which is by no means agreeable. In the present case, this is entirely avoided by a projecting compartment in the centre of the range. This central compartment is used as a [[Greenhouse|green-house]] for choice plants. In it is placed the principal door, and supposing this portion of the range, which is comparatively a small one, filled with summer blooming plants, such as the new Fuchsias, Gloxinias, Achimenes, &c., which are so gay and bright from May to December, we hardly know a more beautiful vestibule to a vinery range, filled with luxuriant and prolific grapes.*
:“We should remark here that this range of glass is intended to be used as a cold vinery—that is, the grapes are to be grown without artificial heat. The perfection to which this mode of growing the Muscat of Alexandria, Black Hamburgh, &c., was carried in the old vinery at Blithewood, so well satisfied its proprietor, that he erected the present house for the same general plan of culture. Our sun in this latitude is at all times bright and powerful enough to mature the foreign grape perfectly, with the simple aid of glass and the power which it gives us of controlling the changes of the atmosphere, thus guarding against the too violent fluctuations to which we are often subject. The position of this vinery at Blithewood is remarkably good. It stands on the north boundary of the fruit garden, with a southern aspect, and is backed by a thick [[copse]] of [[Wood/Woods|wood]]; hence the rear of the building is never seen by the visitor, while the front appears to the best advantage. In a situation exposed on all sides, by doubling the rafters, forming a span roof, and pursuing the same general style, a very beautiful and perfect structure would be obtained for any purpose.
:“The ground plan, fig. 18, we believe almost sufficiently explains itself. The height of the roof, and the clear width of the vinery itself, are each about 15 feet. The width between the rafters, from centre to centre, is four feet. Underneath the stage in the [[Greenhouse|green house]], is a large cistern for the supply of the cold range with water. At the back of the range are a potting shed, and a fruit and seed room. The vines are planted in the usual mode—one beneath each rafter.
:“Most of our readers are already familiar, through the published views in our ''Landscape Gardening'', with Blithewood, one of the most beautiful of American [[Seat|country seats]], the residence of Robert Donaldson, Esq., situated on the east bank of the Hudson, about 100 miles from New-York. The present structure bears the same marks of superior taste and refinement in landscape embellishment and building, that we have before so gladly admired and commended in this demesne.”
:“*Or to those who care little for a [[Greenhouse|green-house]], this compartment might be used for forcing an early crop of grapes.”

*<div id="GeorgeKidd"></div>Kidd, George, November 1848, “Culture of Foreign Grapes in [[Pot|Pots]]” (''Horticulturist'' 3, no. 5: 212–215)<ref>Geo. Kidd, “Culture of Foreign Grapes in Pots,” ''Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste'' 3, no. 5 (November 1848): 212–15, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GV9HBRZJ view on Zotero].</ref> [[#GeorgeKidd_cite|Back up to History]]
:“As you solicit communications from horticulturists, I avail myself of a few moments of leisure, to offer some remarks on the culture of grapes in [[Pot|pots]].
:“The article from the Gardeners’ Chronicle, reprinted in the September number of the Horticulturist, though able, is unsuited in its detail to this climate. Your humble servant, having been educated in the same school with the writer of the article in the Gardener’s Chronicle, in giving his own practice, will not be found to differ in principle, but merely to ''Americanize'' the practice. . . .
:“Mr. Donaldson, the proprietor of Blithewood, has been among the earliest and most successful cultivators of the grape under glass on the Hudson river. The [[border]] of his first grape-house, (which I understand was signally successful,) consisted entirely of leaf mould, or decayed vegetable matter. This house, however, has given place to a beautiful range; an engraving of which, together with the plan, is given in Vol. 1, No. 2, of the Horticulturist [<span id="Fig_12_cite"></span>[[#Fig_12|See Fig. 12]]]. When I commenced the management of these houses, I anticipated difficulty in ripening such grapes as the Muscat of Alexandria, Flame-coloured tokay, Black Morocco, &c., being 100 miles north of New-York, but strange to say they have all ripened two weeks earlier than most of the houses on the Hudson. I can only account for this from the houses being protected at the north by a thick belt of [[Wood/Woods|woods]], also from their being ''placed in a hollow or valley''. Another good effect of this latter position, is that the glare of the glass roof is kept out of sight.”

*<div id="Mow"></div>[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], April 24, 1847, letter to Robert Donaldson concerning the [[lawn]] at Blithewood (Anderson 1996: 180)<ref>As quoted in Anderson 1996, 180, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZTREYLL7 view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Mow_cite|Back up to History]]
:“Do you know I have always felt that you do not sufficiently appreciate the beautiful shape and aspect of the Blithewood [[lawn]]. It and the unrivalled [[View/Vista|view]] are to my poor eye its crowning glories. Nothing therefore would give your place so much perfection and completeness as a very highly kept [[lawn]]. If I were you I should have a horse roller going after every shower & would mow regularly every fortnight. Try it one season & see if the beauty of the effect is not worth all the flowers in the world! There is a general opinion I know that a fine [[lawn]] is impossible in this country—but it is only an excuse for avoiding the small labour & expense attending it. Your neighbour Mrs. H. W. Livingston of the Upper Manor has proved this even upon her high & dry situation.”

*<div id="Brighton"></div>Anonymous, July 20, 1848, “Residence of S. Bigelow, Esq., Brighton, July 20th” (''Magazine of Horticulture'' 14, 359–360)<ref>C. M. Hovey, ed., “Notes on Gardens and Nurseries. Residence of S. Bigelow, Esq., Brighton, July 20th,” ''Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs'' 14 (August 1848): 359–60, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZZKAPLH6 view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Brighton_cite|Back up to History]]
:“The principal feature of the garden is a new and substantial [[greenhouse]] completed last year, upon the plan of one at Blithewood, on the North river, and it makes a very handsome structure, in excellent keeping, with a Gothic cottage or villa, but not harmonizing with the Grecian or Italian style. It is one hundred feet long, and divided into three compartments, the centre, twenty feet wide, being the [[greenhouse]], and the two wings, forty feet each, the graperies.”

*[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], July 1848, “Hints to Rural Improvers” (''Horticulturist'' 3, no. 1: 12)<ref>Andrew Jackson Downing, “Hints to Rural Improvers,” ''Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste'' 3, no. 1 (n.d.): 12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KNXCW77T view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Among these places, those which enjoy the highest reputation, are ''Montgomery Place'', the [[seat]] of Mrs. Edw’d Livingston, Blithewood, the [[seat]] of R. Donaldson, Esq., and [[Hyde Park (on the Hudson River, NY)|Hyde Park]], the [[seat]] of W. Langdon, Esq. The first is remarkable for its extent, for the wonderful variety of scenery—[[Wood/Woods|wood]], water, and [[gardenesque]]—which it embraces, and for the excellent keeping of the grounds. The second is a fine illustration of great natural beauty—a mingling of the graceful and grand in scenery,—admirably treated and heightened by art. [[Hyde Park (on the Hudson River, NY)|Hyde Park]] is almost too well known to need more than a passing notice. It is a noble site, greatly enhanced in interest lately, by the erection of a fine new mansion.”

*<div id="Swede"></div>Bremer, Frederika, October 11, 1849, letter describing a visit to Blithewood, (Bremer 1853: 36–8)<ref>Frederika Bremer, ''[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015011827402 The Homes of the New World; Impressions of America]'', trans. Mary Howitt, vol. 1 (London: Arthur Hall, Virtue, & Co., 1853), 36–38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZQ339LHQ view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Swede_cite|Back up to History]]
:“After a sail of about three hours we reached Blithewood, the beautiful [[seat]] of the D.’s, whither we were invited to a great breakfast. . . .
:“. . . When, however, in the evening, I came forth into the open air, and, accompanied by the silent [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Mr. Downing]], wandered quietly beside the glorious calm river, and contemplated the masses of light and soft velvet-like shadow, which lay on the majestic Katskill mountains, behind which the sun sank in cloudless splendour; then did the heart expand itself and breathe freely in that sublime and glorious landscape; then did I drink from the mountain-springs; then did I live for the first time that day. . . .
:“The following day. . . . In the afternoon I visited two or three beautiful places in the neighbourhood. On one of these, a point projecting into the river, has a ruin been built, in which ar placed various figures and fragments of [[Wall|walls]] and [[Column/Pillar|columns]], which have been brought from the remarkable ruins lately discovered in Central America or Mexico. The countenances and the head-dresses resembled greatly those of Egyptian statues: I was struck in particular with a sphynx-like countenance, and a head similar to that of a priest of Isis. This ruin and its ornaments in the midst of a wild, romantic, rocky, and [[Wood/Woods|wooded]] promontory, was a design in the best taste.
:“In the evening we left this beautiful Blithewood, its handsome mistress and our friendly entertainers.”

*Elder, Walter, 1849, description of the gardener’s cottage at Blithewood (Elder 1849, 227)<ref>Walter Elder, ''[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t5x644q25 The Cottage Garden of America]'' (Philadelphia, PA: Moss & Brother, 1849), 227, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NNC7BTFT view on Zotero].</ref>
:“While in the service of Robert Donaldson Esq., we were the first to occupy that neat cottage, so widely known as the ‘gardener’s house at Blithewood,’ and so favourably noticed in [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing’s]] book on [[landscape gardening]]. There was an eighth of an acre of excellent ground attached to it; enclosed with a close board [[fence]], and stocked with choice fruit trees, as a garden for us; and a good well and windlass for our private use, and also a neat hog pen. The cottage had three rooms, on the first floor, and two rooms above, and a fine cellar; the two upper rooms were then occupied by the pious and philanthropic Miss Isabella Donaldson, sister to our employer, as a Sunday School. All the youths of the neighbourhood assembled there on Sunday afternoons, and we were an assistant teacher.”

*<div id="Ehlers"></div>Ehlers, Hans Jacob, April 1, 1852, letter to Thomas Barton of [[Montgomery Place]] disputing the taste and credibility of [[Andrew Jackson Downing|A. J. Downing]] (Ehlers 1852: 7–12)<ref>Hans Jacob Ehlers, ''Defence against Abuse and Slander, with Some Strictures on Mr. Downing’s Book on Landscape Gardening'' (New York. NY: Wm. C. Bryant & Co., 1852), 7–12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NX8GA9BT view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Ehlers_cite|Back up to History]]
:“On the first page of the last edition of his work on [[landscape gardening]], is a picture of Blithwood [''sic''], the residence of Mr. Donaldson. This, I presume, is given to us as a specimen of the excellent taste of the author in [[landscape gardening]]. In examining this picture, a little experience will enable the observer to judge of the distance at which the picture was taken by the draughtsman. The minute manner in which the smallest particulars of the building are copied, make it evident that the distance could not have been more than twenty yards. You, sir, are acquainted with the original of this picture. You know the place called Blithwood; you can bear me witness when I assert that the mansion at Blithwood is no part of the landscape, for it is concealed by the trees which surround it. If the visitor at Blithwood wishes to obtain a [[View/Vista|view]] of the mansion, he must push his way through the mass of trees which conceal it, until he arrives within some twenty yards of the house itself. It is then visible, and he may, if he pleases, take a sketch of it. But what has such an object to do with the landscape, treated, as it has been, by the person who laid out the grounds, as if it were a privy, rather than the mansion of the proprietor, of which, the landscape which surrounds it, should be an ornamental adjunct.
:“Are we to regard such an arrangement as a specimen of excellent taste in [[landscape gardening]]? If we are, be pleased to show us where we are to look for this excellent taste? But we have not yet done with this picture of Blithwood. In the background of it are seen the Catskill mountains, and in the middle, the river with islands, &c. Now it happens that these objects are not visible from the point whence the dwelling house is taken. The draughtsman first drew the house with some of the trees around it, and was then compelled to alter his position, so as to get a [[View/Vista|view]] of the mountains, river, &c. But notwithstanding the different objects in the picture, in reality, represent [[View/Vista|views]] from different points, we have them all put down in the picture as if seen from one point. The picture is, therefore, an untrue one; it is false to nature. It may, indeed, furnish the clown the same sort of amusement which a piece of parti-colored calico, or a piece of speckled paper would a baby, but neither a landscape gardener, nor an amateur of the art, can look upon the scenery of Blithwood, as represented in that picture, as calculated to impress the mind with the charms of nature.
:“Let it not be said that these are mere assertions, for the proof of them is near at hand. You are a witness to their truth, and every man of sound sense and reason, may be the same.
:“There is another consideration which may not be without interest. It cannot be a matter of indifference to the landscape gardener, or the amateur of the art (it is for the latter class that [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Mr. Downing’s]] book is designed) from what point an object appears picturesque, or is shown to advantage. Blithwood might be very [[picturesque]] when seen from the moon, from the coal-shed, or from another little cabinet near the house. But the points of view ought at least to be accessible and decent. For, to what purpose is all the beauty created by the landscape gardener, if it can only be seen from points in the [[lawn]] or adjoining cornfields, where the observer is not permitted to tread, or must be sought near a coal-shed or cabinet-places which can only be approached with disgust? Now, the two or three points, from which the picture of Blithwood is taken, are not indeed situated in the moon, but they are near the places mentioned above. In truth, there are at Blithwood no points accessible and decent, from which a [[picturesque]] [[View/Vista|view]] can be obtained.
:“The sense of sight is the medium by which the mind becomes acquainted with the [[picturesque]] and all the forms of beauty in the material world. This sense of sight and an unbiassed judgment, are all that is needed. The objects to be seen are there—yonder is Blithwood, ten miles north of Barrytown, on the banks of the Hudson under the open vault of Heaven. It is easy of access, and he, who is seeking for the truth, may see all that has been described, and more—he will see walks resembling ditches, hardly fit for cattle to walk in, and other things in equally good taste. [. . . .]
:“I have made Blithwood alone the subject of my strictures, in my comments upon the taste of Mr. D. as a landscape gardener. It may, therefore, be supposed that I consider it the worst of all the places which are lauded in the works of Mr. D. Let me not be misunderstood. This is not the case; I have other reasons for the choice of Blithwood.
:“I am well aware that when the [[Seat|country seat]] of a gentleman is thus made the subject of remark, he may feel hurt and think that his feelings should have been spared. My excuse for the choice of Blithwood is this: In defending myself I was necessarily compelled to make a choice between many places, and should have considered myself inexcusable had I not made the choice with the view of causing as little pain as possible. In order to do this, I was compelled to look not so much to the ''place'', as to the ''owner'' of it, for I had to take into consideration the ability of the latter to bear a little mortification. Who would put a heavy load on the back of an individual, whose strength was not known, while one is at hand whose powers of endurance were well ascertained?
:“I selected Blithwood for the following reasons: A few years ago I was engaged in laying out the grounds of a gentleman in the neighborhood of Blithwood. It was found necessary to drain the grounds by blind ditching. The owner of the estate chose to have the work done by his farmer. The result was that the work was insufficiently executed, the ditches having been made too shallow. I remonstrated against it from the beginning but in vain; no one would listen to me. In the following spring the insufficiency of the drainage was discovered when too late. Much labor and many trees were therefore lost. Although the facts of the case were universally known to the people living in the neighborhood, Mr. Donaldson nevertheless attributed the failure to me, and reported about that I did not know anything about draining and planting. He was contradicted by a gentleman, but still insisted upon the correctness of his statement. It is possible that Mr. Donaldson may have been ignorant of the facts above stated, but how could he dare to make such assertions without proof?
:“One such act indicated the possession of a degree of carelessness which will enable him to bear a little depreciation of his vaunted [[Seat|country-seat]].
:“Some ten years since I introduced upon the estate of a gentleman in the neighborhood of Blithwood a machine for clearing [[Walk|walks]] and roads. A year afterwards Mr. Donaldson, having examined the machine, caused one to be made by the same blacksmith who made the former one after my drawing, and under my direction. The machine has been known and used in Europe many years. But strange enough we had at the time in [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Mr. Downing’s]] works, and since then in his book on [[Landscape gardening|Landscape-Gardening]], an article on this same machine, in which [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Mr. Downing]] states that is was “invented by the ingenious Mr. Donaldson of Blithwood.” Although Mr. Donaldson has not yet invented gunpowder, we must not be surprised if we somewhere meet with the assertion that he has at last succeeded in inventing it. [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Mr. Downing]] may have been ignorant of the above mentioned facts, but how does he know that the machine was invented by the ingenious Mr. Donaldson? Above all, how could the latter bear this undeserved praise—a burden to an honest man heavier than undeserved blame. If he can support this with ease, need we fear that a little truth-telling respecting Blithwood will bear heavy on him?”

*<div id="Campanile"></div>Donaldson, Robert, 1853, “Importance of Water in Gardening” (''Horticulturist'' 8: 128–130)<ref>Robert Donaldson, “Importance of Water in Gardening,” ''Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste'' 8 (1853): 128–30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/HXRD5UJ5 view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Campanile_cite|Back up to History]]
:“At a distance of 2,100 feet from the dwelling and gardens, there is a hill 60 feet high, adjoining one of the [[Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall|cataracts]] of the Sawkill—a stream which bounds the ornamental grounds. Upon this hill, which is level with the site of the house, I have erected a tower in the form of an Italian campanile, (see accompanying sketch,) which contains the reservoir, and serves also as a [[Belvedere/Prospect tower/Observatory|prospect tower]]. The head of water below the [[Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall|cataract]] is sufficient for driving hydraulic rams or forcing pumps to fill the reservoir to the top, 100 feet high and 300 feet distant.
:“To avoid interruption by frost in the use of an overshot water wheel and pump, I adopted two hydraulic rams (in case one should stop,) for constant use, which are covered up, and operate incessantly. The supply by rams is sufficient for all purposes but [[Fountain|fountains]] and [[Jet|jets d’eau]], which will require a forcing pump to be used in the summer. The water tower is 18 feet square and 45 feet high, placed upon a [[Terrace/Slope|terrace] for beauty and to gain elevation. Within this is a reservoir 7 feet square and 34 feet high, constructed in the strongest manner, of oak timber, and bolted with 1-inch iron, and planked and lined with lead,—resisting at the bottom a pressure of about 85,000 pounds. I was induced to accumulate the water in this expensive manner, to obtain great pressure in the pipes to prevent the gathering of sediment and air—to supply baths and water closets in the house, and [[Jet|jets d’eau]] and [[Fountain|fountains]] in the garden and grounds.
:“From the bottom the water is conducted by 2-inch iron pipes, 3 ½ feet below the sod, and lateral pipes of lead, varying in size, to supply hydrants for root culture, irrigation, the cattle yard, stable the garden, the house and [[Fountain|fountains]]. The water tower occupies a conspicuous position and is highly ornamental. The results are so satisfactory and beneficial, that I should recommend similar improvements wherever they can be made.”

*<div id="Praise"></div>Smith, John Jay, 1856, “Visits to Country Places, No. 5” (''Horticulturist'' 11: 547)<ref>John Jay Smith, “Visits to Country Places, No. 5,” ''Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste'' 6 (1856): 547, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NBHG337Q view on Zotero].</ref> [[#Praise_cite|Back up to History]]
:“''Annandale'', some twenty miles above, and near Barrytown, was commemorated by [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing]] as Blithewood, then the seat of R. Donaldson, Esq., in his Landscape Gardening, with a lover’s praises. It is now the property of John Bard, Esq., who has changed its name to Annandale. Numerous improvements have been made by Mr. Bard and Mrs. Bard since they came into possession, and many others are in progress which must render it a very perfect example of all that is desirable in a [[Seat|country-seat]]. The river is four miles wide here, with islands interspersed,* and a full view of the Catskill Mountains on the opposite side, with their ever-varying shadows, sunshine, and clouds. Fine groups, and masses of trees and [[shrubbery]], beautiful [[Fountain|fountains]], [[Walk|walks]], [[Drive|drives]], and, to this, hospitality and open-handed charity added, we give to Annandale the meed of extraordinary attraction and beauty.
:“The great water tower here, supplied from the noble brook between Mr. Bard’s and [[Montgomery Place]], is admirably contrived.
:“Perhaps one of the most agreeable features at Annandale, is the great interest which the amiable proprietors take in the moral improvement of the neighborhood. With a noble and praiseworthy liberality, they have, we understand, established at their own expenditure, large and successful schools and churches, both upon the estate and at the neighboring village, where the whole expense of the erection of the buildings, the salaries of the clergymen and teachers, are defrayed from their private purse.
:“It is, we believe, the intention of Mr. Bard to erect a mansion of a size and dignity commensurate with the beauty of the place. Many persons with his ample means, would perhaps have done this at once, but he, with a forbearance beyond all praise, preferred to render unto God before rendering unto Caesar.
:“Annandale was planted by John C. Stevens, Esq., Admiral of the New York Yacht Club, who is still living; though is trees look old, he is not so, thus showing a successful instance of planting attaining perfection in the lifetime of a single individual. John C. Cruger bought it of Mr. Stevens.
:“Mr. Bard is erecting fine [[Conservatory|conservatories]] and forcing houses; he already possesses a stove, and other arrangements, for winter use. A new dwelling in every respect worthy this fine property of nearly two hundred acres, is to be constructed the ensuing season.
:“It was here that we remarked the fine groups of artistic Milan tables and chairs noticed on page 412.
:“*Upon the extreme point of one (Cruger’s Island), is a fine group of ruins brought from Palenque by the late John L. Stevens, and remarkably striking in their effect.”

<hr>

==Images==
<span id="roundabout_img"></span>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">
File:1927.jpg|[[Alexander Jackson Davis]], ''Rustic Cottage at Blithewood'', 1836.
File:0956.jpg|[[Alexander Jackson Davis]], Canopied pavilion at Blithewood, 1836.
File:0850.jpg|[[Alexander Jackson Davis]], ''View in Grounds at Blithewood, Seat of Robt. Donaldson'', 1840.
File:0849.jpg|[[Alexander Jackson Davis]], ''View in Grounds at Blithewood, Seat of Robt. Donaldson, Dutchess Co. Hud.[son] riv[er]. N.Y.'', 1840.
File:0955.jpg|[[Alexander Jackson Davis]], ''View N. W. at Blithewood'', c. 1841.
File:0381.jpg|[[A. J. Downing]], ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'', 2nd ed. (1844), opp. p. 336. fig. 38.
File:2198.jpg|Printed by Gavit & Co., Albany, NY, “Prince Albert”, in Luther Tucker, ed. ''Cultivator'' 2, n.s. (1845): pl. opp. p. 249.
File:0385.jpg|Anonymous, “Gate-Lodge” in A. B. Allen, ed. ''The American Agriculturist'' 5, no. 3, (March 1846): p. 88, fig. 24.
File:0380.jpg|Anonymous, “Ravine Walk” in A. B. Allen, ed. ''The American Agriculturist'' 5, no. 3, (March 1846): p. 89, fig. 26.
File:1887.jpg|Anonymous, “Gardener's House” in A. B. Allen, ed. ''The American Agriculturist'' 5, no. 3, (March 1846): p. 88, fig. 25.
File:1000.jpg|Anonymous, "View of the Vinery at Blithewood," in A. J. Downing, ed., ''Horticulturist'' 1, no. 2 (August 1846): pl. opp. p. 58.
File:0848.jpg|[[Alexander Jackson Davis]], “Bank-Side Walk,” Blithewood, 1849.
File:0847.jpg|[[Alexander Jackson Davis]], Three figures going up a hill to a gazebo at Blithewood, n.d. (c. 1849)
File:1907.jpg|Anonymous, “Implement in use at Blithewood for cleaning gravel roads,” in A. J. Downing, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1849) p. 532, fig. 20.
File:0350.jpg|[[Alexander Jackson Davis]], “View in the Grounds at Blithewood,” in [[A. J. Downing]], ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'' (1849), frontispiece.
File:1928.jpg|[[Alexander Jackson Davis]], ''Map of Blithewood'', c. 1840s.
File:1842.jpg|George Harvey, ''A Morning Rainbow, A Composition on the Grounds of R. Donaldson, Esq.'', 1840–50.
File:2201.jpg|F. Walsh, Water tower in the form of an Italian campanile, in P. Barry, ed. ''Horticulturalist'' 3, n.s. (January-December 1853): p. 129
File:2199.jpg|Anonymous, “Picture Window,” n.d.
File:0851.jpg|[[Alexander Jackson Davis]], Blithewood looking towards Montgomery Place, n.d.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Map==
{{#display_map:
42.020816, -73.916989
| service=google
| enablefullscreen=yes
}}

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[https://www.bard.edu/arboretum/gardens/blithewood/ Bard College: Blithewood Garden]

[https://omekalib.bard.edu/exhibits/show/blithewoodgarden/past Blithewood Garden: Remember the Past]

[https://www.gardenconservancy.org/preservation/preservation-portfolio/blithewood-garden The Garden Conservancy: Blithewood Garden]
<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category: Places]]

Berkeley Springs

2019-12-30T18:57:32Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

'''Berkeley Springs''', a resort area in present-day Morgan County, West Virginia, has been well known for its mineral springs since the precolonial period. The Virginia Assembly established the town of Bath (later renamed Berkeley Springs) in 1776, and the town’s trustees soon commissioned the construction of public [[bath|bathhouse]]s in the town [[square]]. It has remained a prominent public spa and leisure destination since the time of its founding.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Warm Springs; Medicinal Springs; Frederick Springs; Bath<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' precolonial to present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Sixth Lord Fairfax (1719–1776); Trustees of Bath (1776–1925); West Virginia Commissioner of Public Institutions (1925–1970); West Virginia Department of Natural Resources (1970 to present) <br/>
'''Associated People:''' James Rumsey (builder), Charles Varlé (designer) <br/>
'''Location:''' Morgan County, WV <br/>
'''Condition:''' extant; altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/XvbGG9SPYmJAdJWS9 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
Berkeley Springs is located 1,710 feet above sea level in a valley on the eastern edge of Warm Springs Ridge less than a mile east of the Potomac River in present-day Morgan County, West Virginia.<ref>David L. Taylor, “Town of Bath Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2009), 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero].</ref> The alleged medicinal properties of the area’s mineral springs drew people to both consume and bathe in the waters, and attracted various Native American peoples to visit the area long before European colonists began using the springs regularly around 1740.<ref>James E. Harding, “Berkeley Springs State Park,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1976), 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2229.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, John Warner, ''A survey of the northern neck of Virginia, being the lands belonging to the Rt. Honourable Thomas Lord Fairfax Baron Cameron…as surveyed according to order in the years 1736 & 1737,'' ca. 1747 [detail]. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, Washington, DC.]]
During the colonial period, the springs lay within the Northern Neck Proprietary, a territory of more than five million acres between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers that belonged to Thomas, Baron Cameron, sixth Lord Fairfax (1693–1781).<ref>Lord Fairfax inherited one-sixth of the Northern Neck Proprietary upon the death of his maternal grandmother in the spring of 1710. He inherited the remaining five-sixths of the proprietary from his mother, Katherine Culpeper Fairfax, in May 1719. She had inherited the land from her father, Thomas Culpeper, second baron Culpeper of Thoresway, who had served as governor of Virginia from 1677–1683. See Warren R. Hofstra, “Thomas Fairfax, sixth baron Fairfax of Cameron (1693–1781)," ''Dictionary of Virginia Biography'', Library of Virginia, 2016, http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Fairfax_Thomas_baron_Fairfax_of_Cameron. </ref> Since this time, the springs have been known by many names, including Warm Springs, the appellation used in an early survey map of the Northern Neck [Fig. 1].<ref>This is not to be confused with the town Warm Springs located in Bath County, Virginia, which has also attracted visitors since the colonial period. For more on the history of Warm Springs, Virginia, see Carl Bridenbaugh, “Baths and Watering Places of Colonial America,” ''The William and Mary Quarterly'' 3, no. 2 (April 1946): 163, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FDI9CBAU view on Zotero].</ref> By the mid-1740s, white settlers had reportedly begun to erect makeshift accommodations in the area.<ref>Harding 1976, 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Fairfax_cite"></span>As early as June 1747, Fairfax proposed a town and promised to “give all Encouragement to invite People to inhabit and Settle there" ([[#Fairfax|view text]]). <span id="Washington_1748_cite"></span>A young [[George Washington]], serving as an assistant on a surveying trip for Lord Fairfax, recorded in his diary his first visit to the “Fam’d Warm Springs” in March 1748, suggesting the site’s familiarity to Virginia colonists by this early date ([[#Washington_1748|view text]]).

Although a town was not officially established at Berkeley Springs for another thirty years, the waters continued to attract visitors of different backgrounds and social classes who sought a cure for ailments such as rheumatism or who simply desired rest and relaxation.<ref>Bridenbaugh 1946, 161, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FDI9CBAU view on Zotero].</ref> Moravian missionaries Joseph Spangenberg and Matthew Reutz stopped at Berkeley Springs in 1748 and enjoyed the proximity of the site’s warm and cold springs, noting that “being in the one, you can reach into the other."<ref>Quoted in William J. Hinke and Charles E. Kemper, “Moravian Diaries of Travels through Virginia (Continued),” ''The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' 11, no. 3 (January 1904): 238, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H64SNKMH view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Thomas_cite"></span>Dr. Thomas Walker of Albemarle County recorded his encounter in 1750 with “Six Invalids” and found the springs to be “very clear and warmer than New milk” ([[#Thomas|view text]]). When [[George Washington|Washington]] returned to Berkeley Springs in August 1761 to seek relief from rheumatic fever, he found more than two hundred people “of both sexes…full of all manner of diseases & Complaints.” This number is surprising given how difficult it was to reach the springs during this period; [[George Washington|Washington]] found the terrain to be quite rugged and struggled to pass a road blocked by fallen trees. After completing the arduous trip, bathers often had to construct their own rudimentary shelters. <span id="Washington_1761_cite"></span>[[George Washington|Washington]] was grateful to have secured a tent to pitch, writing that otherwise he “would have been in a most miserable situation” ([[#Washington_1761|view text]]). <span id="Washington_1769_cite"></span> By August 1769, the amenities at the springs had apparently improved enough for [[George Washington|Washington]] to bring his wife and stepdaughter with him in a desperate bid to treat the latter’s seizures ([[#Washington_1769|view text]]).<ref>According to Jeanne Mozier and Betty Lou Harmison, Washington was able to stay in houses during his visits to Warm Springs in the late 1760s, including a house that belonged to his friend James Mercer. ''Berkeley Springs'', Images of America (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2011), 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Fithian_cite"></span>Philip Vickers Fithian (1747–1776), a diarist and Presbyterian minister, stopped in 1775 to drink the waters while on a missionary tour of the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontier. He reported approximately four hundred people at Berkeley Springs—about half of whom he estimated to be ill. The other half were there presumably to enjoy what had evolved into a site of leisure with various evening entertainments, including a ball, card games, and, to his dismay, “promiscuous Company” engaged in “Amusements in all Shapes” ([[#Fithian|view text]]).

The influx of summer visitors prompted the Virginia General Assembly to improve the site and formally establish a town at the springs. A 1776 act called for “the laying off of fifty acres of land in lots and streets” in the hopes of “encouraging the purchasers thereof to build convenient houses for accommodating numbers of infirm person, who frequent those springs yearly for the recovery of their health.”<ref>Harding 1976, 5–6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> The town, which the Assembly named Bath after the spa in Somerset, England, was to be comprised of one-quarter acre lots laid out by appointed trustees. Proceeds from the sale of the lots at public auction were to be paid by the trustees to Lord Fairfax, and purchasers were required to build houses “twelve feet square at least” on their new parcels within a year. <span id="Assembly_cite"></span>The springs—save for one, which remained under the private ownership of Lord Fairfax—were to “be vested in the said trustees in trust, to and for the public use and benefit” ([[#Assembly|view text]]).<ref>Taylor 2009, 55, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Mozier and Harmison 2011, 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Washington_1777_cite"></span>The August 1777 sale attracted several prominent individuals from Maryland and Virginia, including [[George Washington|Washington]], to purchase lots in Bath ([[#Washington_1777|view text]]).<ref>Washington purchased two lots located on the southeast corner of Fairfax and Mercer streets, two blocks from the springs, for the cost of 100 pounds and 15 shillings. Other early Bath landholders included Horatio Gates, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Charles Mynn Thruston, and Fielding Lewis, among others. Taylor 2009, 56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Harding 1976, 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:0462.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 2, Samuel Vaughan, ''Warm or Berkley Springs, in Virginia'', from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June–September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.]]
<span id="Vaughan_cite"></span>Bath’s streets took the form of a gridded plan arranged just below a large [[square]], as recorded by [[Samuel Vaughan]] in his diary in 1787 [Fig. 2] ([[#Vaughan|view text]]). In another sketch of Berkeley Springs, [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] observed the formation of islands surrounded by the warm spring’s flows, as well as the arrangement of the public [[bath]]s, noting a separate “[[Bath]] for Poor People [g]” [Fig. 3]. Separate [[bath]]s for men and women constructed in the [[square]] in 1786 were likely the work of James Rumsey (c. 1743–1792), an inventor, builder, and “jack-of-all-trades” who had opened a general store and boarding house in town in 1782.<ref>Harding 1976, 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view in Zotero]; and Mabel Henshaw Gardiner and Ann Henshaw Gardiner, ''Chronicles of Old Berkeley: A Narrative History of a Virginia County from Its Beginnings to 1926'' (Durham, NC: The Seeman Press, 1938), 222, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view in Zotero]. The early bathhouses at Berkeley Springs were likely constructed by Rumsey, but this is not certain. See Taylor 2009, 57, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view in Zotero].</ref> The so-called Roman Baths, which are still extant, are in a two-story brick building with a hipped roof that contains ten individual [[bath]] stalls built initially for use by men. Each stall is accessible by a private entrance from the long hallway that runs along the length of the first floor. On the building’s east elevation, a row of ten openings provides ventilation to each stall. The other extant eighteenth-century building, the old [[bathhouse]] or shower [[bath]], was initially constructed for women. The building, a one-story brick building with a hipped roof, is smaller.<ref> Taylor 2009, 56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Harding 1976, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Vaughan_cite"></span>[[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]]'s textual description of Bath notes a flurry of building activity in the town’s early years, including 164 houses constructed over a four-year period, a playhouse, a Methodist church, and several taverns with [[piazza]]s that were among “the best calculated for America of any [he had] seen”([[#Vaughan|view text]]).
[[File:0461.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 3, Samuel Vaughan, Plan of Bath (Berkeley Springs), VA [detail], 1787, from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June-September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.]]

Berkeley Springs continued to prosper as a resort until about 1805 when a fever plagued the summer guest population, reducing the number of seasonal visitors by more than half for the next several years. The relative inaccessibility of Berkeley Springs compared to other springs in the region also contributed to its decline. In 1809 Charles Varlé proposed a redesign to improve Bath’s [[public garden]]. His drawing indicated, among other features, a [[canal]] with a foot [[bridge]] [A], a [[basin]] with a [[jet d’eau]] in the center [B & C], a reservoir or [[fountain]] “covered with a vine treliage in a form of a dome or copula” [E], an additional [[bath]] [F], a sunken [[bowling green]] [H] within a [[parterre]], a two-sided [[sundial]] [I] located near the [[basin]] and [[bowling green]], and two [[labyrinth]]s “contrived so as to be different in their issues and windings” [K] [Fig. 4]. Colonel Robert Bailey (1773–1827), an infamous gambler and entrepreneur, also made a concerted effort to revitalize the resort’s reputation. <span id="Bailey_cite"></span>In an 1813 advertisement he promoted the quality of the springs’ waters, [[bath]]s, [[walk]]s, and lodging, and personally guaranteed that visitors who stayed in his guesthouse would be well satisfied ([[#Bailey|view text]]).
[[File:0460.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 4, Charles Varlé, ''Project for the Improvement of the Square and the Town of Bath'' [detail], c. 1809. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, DC.]]

[[File:1781.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 5, Sophie Madeleine du Pont, Octagonal Bath at Warm Springs (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.15).]]
Visitors to Berkeley Springs during the first half of the nineteenth century celebrated the quality of the springs but sometimes found the town’s infrastructure and amenities wanting. <span id="Paulding_cite"></span>In 1816 James Kirke Paulding (1778–1860) declared “the spring which supplies the ladies’ [[bath]] is one of the finest I have ever seen” ([[#Paulding|view text]]). <span id="Hayden_cite"></span> By 1831, Dr. H. H. Hayden wrote of his disappointment in the “appearance of dilapidation and ruins” that characterized most of Bath’s buildings, although he praised the springs and “the fine and spacious [[bath]]s attached to them” ([[#Hayden|view text]]). <span id="Kercheval_cite"></span>The author and Virginia historian Samuel Kercheval (1767–1845) took a more favorable view in 1833, celebrating the well-known seasonal appeal of Berkeley Springs as a destination for “recreation and pleasure” ([[#Kercheval|view text]]). Sophie du Pont, who visited the springs in 1837, on the other hand, found “nothing very pretty about [Bath], except its situation, in an undulating valley,” but commended the large octagonal [[bathhouse]] [Fig. 5], as “one of the most curious & beautiful objects I have seen, the water is pure & translucent to an almost dazzling degree.” <span id="duPont_cite"></span>She bathed in a smaller [[bathhouse]] comprising four small stalls, including one with a spout [Fig. 6], which she tried at her doctor’s behest ([[#duPont|view text]]).
[[File:1782.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 6, Sophie Madeleine du Pont, ''Spout bath at Warm Springs'' (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.17).]]

[[File:2219.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 7, David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', sheet music cover, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.]] [[File:2220.jpg|thumb|left|David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', notated music, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.]]
The town’s fortunes improved with the extension in 1842 of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad into Sir John’s Run, located just to the west of Bath, making Berkeley Springs the only major resort in the state accessible by rail at that time. But, in a devastating blow to the recent revitalization efforts, an 1844 fire destroyed most of the eighteenth-century buildings. Colonel John Strother (1792–1862), who had operated boardinghouses in town before the fire, built the Berkeley Springs Hotel (also known by the names Pavilion Hotel and Strother’s Hotel), which was completed in 1848 at the southern end of the [[park]]. It was the largest building at the resort and could accommodate four hundred guests.<ref> Harding 1976, 6–7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero]; Taylor 2009, 58, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Mozier and Harmison 2011, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Moorman_cite"></span>Dr. John J. Moorman wrote in 1854 that the u-shaped hotel was situated next to a [[grove]] and that the courtyard was “tastefully ornamented with trees, flowers, and [[shrubbery]]” ([[#Moorman|view text]]). Strother’s son David H. Strother (1816–1888), an artist, included in his 1851 sheet music cover for “A Day at Berkeley Springs” (an instrumental “descriptive piece” composed by Erneste Szemelňyi) a depiction of the hotel at the left as well as the public [[pavilion]] and [[fountain]] at the center [Fig. 7]. The hotel remained a popular accommodation and entertainment venue—known for hosting lively balls and concerts—until it was destroyed by fire in March 1898.<ref>Harding 1976, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

Although Berkeley Spring’s popularity ebbed and flowed over time—as transportation developments made the town more accessible to tourists at the same time that fires and other challenges (not least the U.S. Civil War) caused significant setbacks—it has remained open to the public since its founding in 1776. West Virginia’s Department of Natural Resources has overseen the public [[square]] and [[bathhouse]]s, which operate as Berkeley Springs State Park, since 1970.

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
*<div id="Fairfax"></div>Lord Fairfax, June 1, 1747, in a letter to an unknown recipient (possibly Warner Washington) describing his plans for land near Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Conway 1892: 246–47)<ref> Moncure Daniel Conway, ''Barons of the Potomack and the Rappahannock'' (New York: The Grolier Club, 1892), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TAG2KD5N view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Having been informed that several Persons who go to drink and bath in the Medicinal Springs near the Mountains of Cape Capon and River Potomack, within my Proprietary, do not unnecessarily bark and cut down Timber Trees on the waste and ungranted Lands near the said Springs and the Mountain adjacent, more than useful for the erecting and building the Houses and Cottages required to shelter them, I desire You will in my Name use your best Endeavors to prevent such waste of Timber. . . .

:You may assure the Gentlemen and Others that if the Waters continue to be useful in relieving the Sick I shall cause the Lands around the Springs to be surveyd, and Number of convenient Lots laid off for a Town, also give all Encouragement to invite People to inhabit and Settle there.” [[#Fairfax_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1748"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], March 18, 1748, in a diary entry describing a visit to Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref> Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-01-02-0001-0002-0008 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“We Travell’d up about 35 Miles to Thomas Barwicks on Potomack where we found the River so excessively high by Reason of the Great Rains that had fallen up about the Allegany Mountains as they told us which was then bringing down the melted Snow & that it would not be fordable for severall Days it was then above Six foot Higher than usual & was Rising. We agreed to stay till Monday. We this day call’d to see the Fam’d Warm Springs. We camped out in the field this Night.” [[#Washington_1748_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Thomas"></div>Walker, Thomas, July 9, 1750, in a diary entry describing a visit to Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in McAllister 1911: 172)<ref> J. T. McAllister, “Early Settlers in Greenbrier County. Extracts from the Journal of Dr. Thomas Walker,” ''The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' 19, no. 2 (April 1911), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DZVZ67R4 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“July 9th, we went to the Hot Springs and found Six Invalids there. The Spring Water is very clear and warmer than New milk and there is a Spring of cold Water within 20 feet of the Warm one.” [[#Thomas_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1761"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], August 26–30, 1761, in a letter to Charles Green describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref>Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-07-02-0039 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“To begin then—We arrivd here yesterday, and our Journey (as you may imagine) was not of the most agreable sort, through such Weather & such Roads as we had to encounter; these last for 20 or 25 Miles from hence are almost impassable for Carriages; not so much from the Mountainous Country (but this in fact is very rugged) as from Trees that have fallen across the Road, and renderd the ways intolerable.

:We found of both sexes about 2⟨5⟩0 People at this place, full of all manner of diseases & Complaints; some of which are much benefitted, while others find no relief from the Water’s—two or three Doctors are here, but whether attending as Physicians or to Drink of the Waters I know not—It is thought the Springs will soon begin to loose there Virtues, and the Weather get too cold for People, not well provided, to remain here—They are situated very badly on the East side of a steep Mountain, and Inclosed by Hills on all Sides, so that the Afternoon’s Sun is hid by 4 Oclock and the Fogs hang over us till 9 or 10 wch occasion’s great Damps and the Mornings and Evenings to be cool.

:The Place I am told, and indeed have found it so already, is supplyed with Provisions of all kinds—good Beef & venison, fine Veal, Lamb, Fowls &ca may be bought at almost any time; but Lodgings can be had on no Terms but building for them, and I am of opinion that numbers get more hurt by there manner of lying, than the Waters can do them good—had we not succeeded in getting a Tent & marquee from Winchester we shoud have been in a most miserable situation here.

:In regard to myself I must beg leave to say, that I was much overcome with the fatigue of the Ride & Weather together—however I think my Fevers are a good deal abated, altho my Pains grow rather worse, & my sleep equally disturbd; what effect the Waters may have upon me I cant say at present, but I expect Nothing from the Air—this certainly must be unwholesome—I purpose to stay here a fortnight & longer if benefitted.” [[#Washington_1761_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1769"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], August 18, 1769, in a letter to John Armstrong describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref>Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-08-02-0164 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“About a fortnight ago I came to this place with Mrs Washington and her daughter, the latter of whom being troubled with a complaint, which the efficacy of these Waters it is thought might remove, we resolvd to try them, but have found little benefit as yet from the experiment; what a Week or two more may do, we know not, & therefore are inclind to put them to the Test. it was with much pleasure however I hear by Mr Clingan that you stand in no need of assistance from these Springs which I find are applied to in all cases, altho. there be a moral certainty of their hurting in some—Many poor, miserable objects are now attending here, which I hope will receive the desired benefit, as I dare say they are deprivd of the means of obtaining any other relief, from their Indigent Circumstances.” [[#Washington_1769_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Fithian"></div>Fithian, Philip Vickers, August 31–September 1, 1775, in diary entries describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (Fithian 1934: 123–26)<ref>Philip Vickers Fithian, ''Philip Vickers Fithian: Journal, 1775–1776. Written on the Virginia-Pennsylvania Frontier and in the Army Around New York'', eds. Robert Greenhalgh Albion and Leonidas Dodson (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1934), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/47NU5BKR view on Zotero].</ref>

:“August 31

:Warm Spring by 4 Evening. . . . Cloudy sloppy Day. . . .

:Huge Stone tumbled from the Mountain directly to the Drinking-Spring. . . .

:I took Lodging at Mrs. Baker’s. Mr. Miller, an aged Rheumatic Invalid taken ill in the [[Bath]].

:Fryday Sept: 1

:Drank early & freely of the Waters. About four Hundred now present. Near one Half of these visibly indisposed. Many in sore Distress. . . . Tickets going about for a Ball this Evening. . . .

:Evening

:In one Part of the little bush Village a splendid Ball—At some Distance, & within hearing, a Methodist Preacher was haranguing the People. Frequent Writings on the Plates, &c—In our dining Room Companies at Cards. . . . I walked out among the Bushes here also was—Amusements in all Shapes, & in high Degrees, are constantly taking Place among so promiscuous Company. The Observation, when on the Spot, to see it in real Life. I can picture it out but sadly, is curious & improving.” [[#Fithian_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Assembly"></div>General Assembly of Virginia, October 1776, in an Act establishing the town of Bath at Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Gardiner and Gardiner 1938: 50–51)<ref> Gardiner and Gardiner 1938, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Whereas it hath been represented to this General Assembly, that the laying off of fifty acres of land in lots and streets for a town at the Warm Springs in the county of Berkeley, will be of great utility by encouraging the purchasers thereof to build convenient houses for accommodating numbers of infirm persons, who frequent those springs yearly for the recovery of their health: Be it enacted,. . . That fifty acres of land adjoining the said springs, being a part of a larger tract of land, the property of the Right Thomas Lord Fairfax, or other person or persons holding the same by a grant or conveyance of him, be and is hereby vested in Bryan Fairfax, Thomas Bryan Martin, Warner Washington, the Reverend Charles Mynn Thurston, Robert Rutherford, Alexander White, Philip Pendleton, Samuel Washington, William Ellzey, Van Searingen, Thomas Hite, James N. Edmundson, James Nourse, Gentlemen, trustees, to be by them, or any seven of them, laid out into lots of one quarter of an acre each with convenient streets, which shall be and the same is hereby established a town, by the name of Bath. . . . The said lots to be sold at public auction. . . . The purchasers building a dwelling house twelve feet square at least…trustees to pay the money from the sale to Thomas Lord Fairfax.

:''And be it further enacted'', That all the said Warm Springs except one large and convenient spring suitable for a bath, shall be vested in the said trustees in trust, to and for the public use and benefit and for no other purpose whatsoever.” [[#Assembly_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1777"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], October 27, 1777, in a letter to Samuel Washington describing his purchase of land at Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref>Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-12-02-0030 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“I am very glad Colo. Lewis purchased a Lott or two for me at the Warm Springs, as it was always my Intention to become a Proprietor there if a Town should be laid off at that place. Two Lotts is not more than I wish’d to possess, but if he is altogether disappointed, and cannot be otherwise supplied, I will, under those circumstances, part with one of mine—of this you will inform him; and I shall not only depend upon, but thank, & pay you chearfully, for the Improvements which are necessarily erected for the saving of the Lotts. As I do not know what Sort of Buildings the Act of Assembly requires to save the Lotts, I can give no directions about them; but, if I hold both Lotts which I had rather do I would reserve the best spott for a tolerable convenient dwelling House to be built hereafter. and, if a House which may (hereafter) serve for a Kitchen, together with a Stable, would be sufficient to save the Lotts, they might be so placed as to appear uniform & clever, when the whole are finished, and in that case, content myself with building for the present no more than the Kitchen and Stable.” [[#Washington_1777_cite|back up to History]]

*Anonymous, June 19, 1784, notice in a Richmond, VA, newspaper describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Gardiner and Gardiner 1938: 53)<ref> Gardiner and Gardiner 1938, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“In Berkeley County five [[bathhouse|bathing houses]], with adjacent dressing rooms, are already completed; an assembly room and theatre are also constructed for the innocent and rational amusement of the polite who may assemble there.

:The American Company of Comedians, it is expected, will open there, under the direction of Mr. Ryan, on the 15th of July, and to continue till the 1st of September. It is supposed they will prove so acceptable to the Bathers as to encourage the proprietor to renew his visits yearly.”

*[[George Washington|Washington, George]], September 6, 1784, in a diary entry describing his plans for his property at Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref> Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-04-02-0001-0001-0006 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“Having obtained a Plan of this Town (Bath) and ascertained the situation of my lots therein, which I examined; it appears that the disposition of a dwelling House; Kitchen & Stable cannot be more advantageously placed than they are marked in the copy I have taken from the plan of the Town; to which I refer for recollection, of my design; & Mr. Rumsey being willing to undertake those Buildings, I have agreed with him to have them finished by the 10th. of next July. The dwelling House is to be 36 feet by 24, with a gallery of 7 feet on each side of the House, the whole fronts. Under the House is to be a Cellar half the size of it, walled with Stone, and the whole underpined. On the first floor are to be 3 rooms; one of them 24 by 20 feet, with a chimney at the end (middle thereof)—the other two to be 12 by 16 feet with corner chimneys. On the upper Floor there are to be two rooms of equal sizes, with fire places; the Stair case to go up in the Gallery—galleries above also. The Kitchen and Stable are to be of the same size—18 by 22; the first with a stone Chimney and good floor above. The Stable is to be sunk in the ground, so as that the floor above it on the North, or side next the dwelling House, shall be level with the Yard—to have a partition therein—the West part of which to be for a Carriage, Harness, and Saddles—the East for Hay or Grain—all three of the Houses to be shingled with [ ]”

*<div id="Vaughan"></div> [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan, Samuel]], July 14, 1787, in a diary entry describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (Vaughan: 32, 34–35)<ref>Samuel Vaughan, Samuel Vaughan Diary, 1787–1796, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NIGWMHCK view in Zotero].</ref>

:“The warm [[Bath]]s, as on the otherside [sic], are situated on the lower side of a [[square]] on the East Mountain, & opposite to the principal Street. The Town consists of three long parallel streets & eight at right Angles. There is at present 172 houses, of which 164 have been built within the last four years, a play house well constructed, an Assembly & tea room, a house for the poor[,] a Methodist Church building & Mr. Wolley of Liverpool having bought a Double large framed house, hath this spring built adjoining these to a dining room 54 by 24, five bard rooms adjoining & a drawing room 18 by 24 over which an Assembly room 72 feet by 24 & 14 feet high, & a tea room 33 feet by 25, with [[piazza]]s on both side [of] the houses all completely framed & well filled, which is to be called the Bell Inn. There are several other taverns three of them good framed houses of 2 stories, with [[piazza]]s & [[seat]]s round to both stories & on both sides & the best calculated for America of any I have seen. The town is situated in a vale & partly on the side of the East & west Mountain, the Lots differing in Elevation. At the South end of the town on the west hill there is a range of Rocks & a mile above there is a remarkable cold [?] spring. The warm springs flow in great abundance from the base of the western mountain, forming three romantick Islands, & when all accumilated [sic] forms a large body of water which runs diagonally through the town. The hills on each side with beautiful hanging [[wood|woods]], renders the whole truly [[picturesque]], romantick and original; the climate is temperate, provisions cheap & plenty, except [[green]]s which are scarce. A charming retreat in hot or unhealthy weather, tho too much used for disipation [sic] & gambling, The water is pure & light, without any apparent medical quality, tho found in many cases beneficial. To try their effect & for 3 days drink 3 quarts each day & that only, it causes a swimming [sic] in my head, want quickly of an opening quality by urine & I thought it created an appetite; it is scarcely so warm as milk from the Cow & said to be 57 degrees Fahrenheit thermal. There were 4 Methodist preachers (two for health,) services 3 times on Sunday & once or twice on week days, which are well attended by the lower sort to the neglect on week days of their businesses & families. There was 14 or 15 stores & like many well furnished with goods, for which I should think there was little encouragement; when I left it there was not above 30 persons of note arrived, but it was early in the Season.” [[#Vaughan_cite|back up to History]]

*[[Benjamin Henry Latrobe|Latrobe, Benjamin Henry]], July 1796, in a journal entry about discussing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV), with [[George Washington]] at [[Mount Vernon]] (Latrobe 1905: 54–55)<ref>Benjamin Henry Latrobe, ''The Journal of Latrobe: The Notes and Sketches of an Architect, Naturalist and Traveler in the United States from 1796 to 1820'' (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1905), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/N49VTQS8 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Having inquired after the family I had left, the conversation turned upon Bath, to which they were going. He said he had known the place when there was scarce a house upon it fit to step in, that the accommodations were, he believed, very good at present. He thought the best thing a family, regularly and constantly visiting Bath, could do would be to build a house for their separate accommodation, the expense of which might be two hundred pounds. He has himself a house there which he supposed must be going to ruin. Independent of his public situation, the increased dissipation and frequency of visitors would be an objection to his visiting it again, unless the health of himself or family should render it necessary. At first that was the motive, he said, that induced people to encounter the badness of the roads and the inconvenience of the lodgings, but at present few, he believed, in comparison of the whole number, had health in view. Even those whose object it was, were interrupted in their quiet by the dissipation of the rest. This, he observed, must naturally be the case in every large collection of men whose minds were not occupied by pressing business or personal interest. In these and many more observations of the same kind there was no moroseness nor anything that appeared as if the rapidly increasing immorality of the citizens particularly impressed him at the time he made them. They seemed the well-expressed remarks of a man who has seen and knows the world.”

*<div id="Bailey"></div>Bailey, Robert, June 26, 1813, in a promotion in the Winchester Gazette for Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (Bailey 1813: 3)<ref>Robert Bailey, “Bath Berkeley Springs,” ''Winchester Gazette'' (June 26, 1813), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZKR7U28H view on Zotero]. </ref>

:“Those Ladies and Gentlemen, of Winchester in particular, and the state in general, wishing to visit Bath Berkeley Springs in Virginia, (near Martinsburg,) being the Theatre of America for three months of the year (June, July, August, and even September,) are respectfully informed that the Waters are in their strongest state and in the greatest purity; the [[Bath]]s and [[Walk]]s in the best order, and every attention paid by the subscriber, to render full satisfaction. . . . [T]he public may depend on having the best accommodation—clean beds and bedding, with comfortable rooms; choice liquors, wines, &c. which have been carefully collected; and the tables will be decorated in the first style.

:The subscriber having several houses at Berkeley Springs, he will make the table to suit parties, or have a general table as the Guests may think proper.

:The subscriber has a Drawing Room furnished for the Ladies, a Piano Forte, Maps of different kinds, reading room, &c—a grand Band of Music for balls, once or twice a week as the company may thing [sic] proper. The very best servants are selected for attendance, and every attention paid. . . ." [[#Bailey_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Paulding"></div>Paulding, James Kirke, 1816, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1817: 2:227, 235–36)<ref>James Kirke Paulding, ''Letters from the South'', 2 vols. (New York: James Eastburn, 1817), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H5XVF9WE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“As it is prevailing opinion among your fellow-citizens, that there is nothing refined to the south of Schuylkill, and no watering-place worth visiting except Long-Branch, I will try and set you right in this matter. The truth is, these springs are as gay, as fashionable, and far more delightfully situated than any I have ever visited. In all the constituents of a fashionable watering-place, Berkeley maintains a most respectable rank, inasmuch as it affords as great a variety of character, as many gay equipages, and gay people, and almost as great a lack of variety of amusement, as Ballston or Long-Branch. . . .

:. . . we staid nearly a week at Berkeley. There is a fine drawing-room here, in which the ladies meet to chat, or work, and play at chess, or devise some pleasant excursion. Every night or two there is a ball, in a very splendid room appropriated to that purpose; and in afternoons it is pleasant to stroll backwards and forwards along the brook that skirts the [[green]] in front of the springs, that gush out from the foot of the mountain. There is a [[pavilion]] built over the spring, which is used for drinking, and two [[bathhouse|bath-houses]] —one for either sex. The spring which supplies the ladies’ [[bath]] is one of the finest I have ever seen. It bursts from a fissure in the rock in the form of a cone, much larger than the crown of a hat, and, together with the others, forms a fine stream, in some places six or eight yards wide. This place was formerly the property of the family of Fairfax, once lords of a great portion of the tract of country called the Great Northern Neck of Virginia, situated between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. One of these potent chieftains vested the springs and a little tract around in trustees, to be chosen from time to time, for the use of all comers for ever. People using the [[bath]]s pay a small sum, which is appropriated by the trustees to keeping up the repairs of the place, and other objects of utility and ornament.” [[#Paulding_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Hayden"></div>Hayden, Dr. H. H., 1829, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1831: 102–03)<ref>H. H. Hayden, “Notices of the Geology of the Country near Bedford Springs in Pennsylvania, and the Bath or Berkeley spring in Virginia, with remarks upon those waters,” ''The American Journal of Science and Arts'' 19, no. 1 (January 1831), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/7T5WQA6A view on Zotero].</ref>

:“On my return from Bedford springs, I passed by the way of Pigeon-cove Valley, across the narrow part of Maryland into Virginia, to Bath or Berkeley springs, so called, being in what was but recently Berkeley county. These springs issues from the food and on the east side of an abrupt and elevated ridge, running in a north east direction, about five miles, to the Potomac River, where it terminates, opposite the town of Hancock, Maryland. Little can be said in favor of the village of Bath, since, with the exception of a few buildings, it presents the appearance of dilapidation and ruins. The accommodations for visitors are, however, tolerable, at least for such as are not fastidious. The springs, which are principally magnesian and justly celebrated, especially for the chronic affections, and also the fine and spacious [[bath]]s attached to them, constitute the principal inducement that attracts persons to this place. Indeed, such is their celebrity, that they are, annually, during the months of July and August, frequented, (and that too in no inconsiderable numbers,) by persons of the highest respectability.” [[#Paulding_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Kercheval"></div>Kercheval, Samuel, 1833, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1833: 473)<ref>Samuel Kercheval, ''The History of the Valley of Virginia'' (Winchester, VA: Samuel H. Davis, 1833), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/IRHEDX6N view on Zotero].</ref>

:“This is doubtless the most ancient watering place in the valley. Tradition relates that those springs were known to the Indians as possessing valuable medicinal properties, and were much frequented by them. They were anciently called the ‘Berkeley Warm Springs,’ and have always kept their character for their medical virtues. They are much resorted to not only for their value as medicinal waters, but as a place (in the season) of recreation and pleasure. Bath has become a considerable village, is the seat of justice in Morgan county, and has several stores and fine boarding houses. It is too publicly known to require further notice in this work.” [[#Kercheval_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="duPont"></div>Du Pont, Sophie Madeleine, July 21, 1837, in a letter to Clementina Smith describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Low and Hinsley 1987: 173, 176, 177, 179)<ref>Betty-Bright Low and Jacqueline Hinsley, ''Sophie du Pont, A Young Lady in America: Sketches, Diaries, & Letters, 1823–1833'' (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/U2EJBX3K view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Warm Springs. . . . The most abundant of these gushes from the earth in the middle of a large octagonal [[basin]] of mason work covered with a wooden building having an opening at the top, & four neat & comfortable rooms on as many sides for the accommodation of bathing. This [[bath]] is thirty eight feet in diameter; & the temperature of water 96 degrees—It is one of the most curious & beautiful objects I have seen, the water is pure & translucent to an almost dazzling degree, & rises in ceaseless flow, accompanied by showers of bright gleaming air bubbles. . . .

:The settlement of the springs, consisting of two large brick hotels with long [[piazza]]s in front, & several rows of brick or log cabins, has nothing very pretty about it, except its situation, in an undulating valley completely embosomed in the mountains. Altho’ there is so little company here that we had our choice of rooms anywhere, we preferred a cabin, to be nearer the spring; & we could not have made a better choice….

:Our domicile consists of two rooms communicating, in which we have every thing we want to make us comfortable, & a very attentive & obliging maid to bring us our meals & all we wish for – The front door (from my room) opens towards the roads, & on a path which leads up to the hotel! The door of Elizas room leads out into a green sloping [[meadow]], planted with trees, in the centre of which are the warm springs….

:There are several other springs of the same kind in the [[meadow]]—round one a platform is built with benches, under shady trees, for those who drink the water, which notwithstanding its odour of half spoiled eggs & its warmth, is not very nauseous to the taste—Another [[bathhouse|bath house]] contains four small [[bath]]s, into one of which a spout is arranged for the benefit of those who are recommended to take douches. I have tried this at Dr Horner’s request & think it of service to me, as well as the bathing." [[#duPont_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Moorman"></div>Moorman, Dr. John J., 1854, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1854: 264–65)<ref>John J. Moorman, ''The Virginia Springs: Comprising an Account of All the Principal Mineral Springs of Virginia, with Remarks on the Nature and Medical Applicability of Each'', 2nd ed. (Richmond: J. W. Randolph, 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/4PSBVGF3 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The ''gentlemen’s'' [[bathhouse|bath house]], a substantial brick building, contains ten large bathing rooms. The [[bath]]s are of cement, 12 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 4 ½ deep, filled from a reservoir by a four inch pipe, and containing about 1600 gallons each. In addition to this, and for the use of the gentlemen, there is a swimming [[bath]], 60 feet long by 20 wide, and 5 feet deep, containing 50,000 gallons. The superstructure is handsome and tasteful, 82 feet long, and contains 14 dressing rooms. The luxury of disporting in this ample and exhilarating pool can only by appreciated by those who have indulged in it.

:The ''ladies’'' bath house is an elegant structure on the opposite side of the [[grove]], 90 feet long, which contains in addition to 9 private [[bath]]s, a plunge [[bath]] 30 feet long by 16 feet wide, 4 ½ feet deep, and floored with white marble. There is also an establishment for shower spout and artificial warm [[bath]]s. The bathing area is surrounded by a beautiful [[grove]] several acres in extent and handsomely improved.

:The Hotel accommodations are extensive and well gotten up.

:Strother’s, the principal hotel at the place, is a large, elegant and well conducted establishment, adjoining the [[grove]], and will comfortably accommodate about 400 persons. It is built upon three sides of a quadrangle 168 feet front by 198, the front building being four stories high, the wings respectively being two and three stories. The court-yard is tastefully ornamented with trees, flowers, and [[shrubbery]]. Altogether it constitutes one of the most extensive and comfortable establishments to be found at any of our places of fashionable resort.” [[#Moorman_cite|back up to History]]

*R.J., 1854, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1854: 264–65)<ref>R. J. “Rambling Sketches: Berkeley Springs: Historical and Social,” ''The Southern Literary Messenger'' (December 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/89ZRZSN5 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The swimming [[bath]] is for pure recreation and cleanliness, a delightful place. It is fifty or sixty feet long, about forty feet broad, and as clear as crystal. The depth is about five feet—the bottom smooth cement. It is the finest bath I have ever seen, though doubtless there are many larger. You reach the [[bath]]s through the [[grove]], which is a pleasant [[promenade]]. It extends nearly to the top of the mountain. . . . For simple recreation, no place could be more agreeable; and the man who visits Berkeley and the White Sulphur and Saratoga, and returns in preference to either of the latter, is a hopeless case.”

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="5">

Image:2218.jpg|John Warner, ''A survey of the northern neck of Virginia, being the lands belonging to the Rt. Honourable Thomas Lord Fairfax Baron Cameron…as surveyed according to order in the years 1736 & 1737,'' ca. 1747. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, DC.

File:0462.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, ''Warm or Berkley Springs, in Virginia'', from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June–September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.

Image:0461.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, Plan of Bath (Berkeley Springs), VA [detail], 1787, from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June-September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.

Image:0460.jpg|Charles Varlé, ''Project for the Improvement of the Square and the Town of Bath'' [detail], c. 1809. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, DC.

Image:1781.jpg|Sophie Madeleine du Pont, Octagonal Bath at Warm Springs (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.15)

Image:1782.jpg|Sophie Madeleine du Pont, ''Spout bath at Warm Springs'' (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.17)

Image:2219.jpg|David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', sheet music cover, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.

Image:2220.jpg|David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', notated music, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80051018.html Library of Congress Authority File]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Belfield

2019-12-30T18:54:29Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

'''Belfield''' was the country retreat of the artist, naturalist, inventor, and museum impresario [[Charles Willson Peale]]. Peale transformed the 104 acres that composed the original site into a ''[[ferme ornée]]'', blending ornamental gardens with a working farm.

==Overview==
'''Alternate Names:''' Farm Persevere<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1800–1826<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Charles Willson Peale (1800–1826); William Logan Fisher (1826); Sarah Fisher Wister and descendents (1826–1984); La Salle University (1984 to present)<ref>For a complete history of the site, both before and after Charles Willson Peale′s ownership, see James A. Butler, ''Charles Willson Peale’s “Belfield”: A History of a National Historic Landmark, 1684–1984'' (Philadelphia: La Salle University Art Museum, 2009), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FX5AKK9P view on Zotero].</ref><br/>
'''Location:''' Germantown, PA<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/S3q56LAng6G2 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[File:0560.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, [[Charles Willson Peale]], Ground plot of Belfield, 1810.]]
When [[Charles Willson Peale]] retired in 1810 to his country retreat outside Philadelphia, he did not relinquish his interests in art or science. Between 1810 and 1821 he worked to bend the natural world around Belfield—104 acres of meadow, [[orchard]]s, streams, and mature trees—according to aesthetic and scientific principles [Fig. 1]. He saw it, in some ways, as a continuation of his efforts at the Philadelphia Museum, writing to [[Thomas Jefferson]], “Your garden must be a Museum to you.”<ref>Charles Willson Peale to Thomas Jefferson, March 2, 1812, quoted in Charles Coleman Sellers, ''Charles Willson Peale'' (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1969), 366, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PWCSA5AD/q/sellers view on Zotero].</ref> At Belfield, much like at his museum, Peale worked to integrate his aesthetic sensibility and scientific acumen, this time in the creation of a landscape that evoked the traditions of 18th-century [[picturesque]] gardening, while also highlighting 19th-century scientific achievements in agriculture.<ref>Kateryna A. Rudnytzky, “The Union of Landscape and Art: Peale’s Garden at Belfield” (Honor’s Essay, La Salle University, 1986), 8–10, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/KJK46QBZ view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:0044.jpg|thumb|Fig. 2, [[Charles Willson Peale]], ''View of the Garden at Belfield'', 1816.]]
Like many landscape designers and gardeners of the early republic, Peale’s taste was informed by the work of English landscape theorists, who advocated a more [[natural style]].<ref>Therese O’Malley, “Belfield in American Garden History,” in ''New Perspectives on Charles Willson Peale'', ed. Lillian B. Miller and David C. Ward (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991), 268–69, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/94GWR76E/q/o'malley view on Zotero].</ref> Although Belfield was more rigidly plotted near the house, with tidy flower [[bed]]s and boxwood [[hedge]]s, it followed a less formal arrangement further out, featuring serpentine, shrub-lined [[walk]]s, a manmade [[grotto]] topped by a [[greenhouse]], a [[fountain]], an [[obelisk]], a [[Chinese manner|Chinese]] [[summerhouse]], and other structures nestled into the landscape [Fig. 2]. In the letters and paintings describing his country retreat, Peale often highlighted these monuments, which were influenced by European garden design but were typically adapted to express an American character.<ref>O’Malley 1991, 272–73, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/94GWR76E/q/o'malley view on Zotero].</ref> In a letter dated August 2, 1813, for instance, Peale described a domed garden [[temple]], built by his son Franklin, which featured a hexagonal base with six pillars.<ref>Charles Willson Peale to Angelica Peale Robinson, August 2, 1813, Peale-Sellers Papers, [https://search.amphilsoc.org/collections/view?docId=ead/Mss.B.P31-ead.xml Peale-Sellers Papers, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia].</ref> Although such a [[temple]] would not have been out of place in a European landscape garden, Peale gave it a wholly American tenor by crowning it with a portrait bust of [[George Washington]]. A similar structure was Peale’s Pedestal of Memorable Events: an [[obelisk]] on which he inscribed dates of significance to the history of North America, beginning with its initial discovery and ending with the battle of New Orleans.<ref>O’Malley 1991, 272–73, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/94GWR76E/q/o'malley view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1957.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 3, [[Charles Willson Peale]], ''Belfield Farm'', c. 1816.]]
[[File:1958.jpg|thumb|Fig. 4, [[Charles Willson Peale]], ''Cabbage Patch, The Gardens of Belfield, Pennsylvania'', c. 1815–16.]]
Belfield was not just a decorative landscape but a ''[[ferme ornée]]''—an ornamental farm—that was intended to be functional as well as beautiful.<ref>O’Malley 1991, 269, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/94GWR76E/q/o'malley view on Zotero], and David C. Ward, “Charles Willson Peale’s Farm Belfield: Enlightened Agriculture in the Early Republic,” in ''New Perspectives on Charles Willson Peale'', ed. Lillian B. Miller and David C. Ward (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991), 284, 292–93, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/HH8H7CN5/q/ward view on Zotero].</ref> Alongside his creation of serpentine [[path]]s and installation of monuments and decorative structures, Peale engaged in a prodigious effort to transform the site into a working farm; indeed, he had originally named it “Farm Persevere” before changing its name to Belfield [Figs. 3, 4]. To this end, Peale’s country retreat also featured barns, stables, a springhouse, and a mill. Using his knowledge of botany and mechanical sciences, Peale endeavored to make manifest [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson’s]] idealized view of the United States as a country of yeoman farmers. He cultivated wheat, oats, rye, corn, and fruit at Belfield, working to create more efficient and productive methods of farming through the incorporation of machinery in the planting and processing of crops, as well as new methods of crop rotation. His correspondence with [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] and his reading of such key agricultural texts as ''Maison Rustique'' and [[Bernard M'Mahon|Bernard M’Mahon’s]] ''American Gardener'' shaped his approach to agriculture. Yet, as David C. Ward points out, the enterprise was not entirely successful: Peale’s note-keeping lagged after 1814, suggesting a growing frustration or lack of interest in the endeavor.<ref>Ward 1991, 292–93, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/HH8H7CN5/q/ward view on Zotero].</ref> After falling seriously ill in September 1821—an illness that killed his wife, Hannah—Peale moved back to Philadelphia, where he remained following his convalescence. He sold Belfield in January 1826 to William Logan Fisher.<ref>Sellers 1969, 400–1, 425, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PWCSA5AD/q/sellers view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2168.jpg|thumb|Fig. 6, [[Charles Willson Peale]], ''The Artist in His Museum'', 1822.]]
In the ten years [[Charles Willson Peale]] lived at Belfield, the country retreat may be understood as a self-conscious expression of his character as much as that portrayed in any of his painted self-portraits. In justifying the detailed account of his garden in his autobiography, Peale wrote: “As the object of this work is to make the portrait of the man, it is proper to give all his fripperies and follies, more properly, as all these things were made of wood and paint, which could only last a few years.”<ref>Horace Wells Sellers’s transcript of Charles Willson Peale, ''Autobiography'', 392–93, [https://search.amphilsoc.org/collections/view?docId=ead/Mss.B.P31-ead.xml Peale-Sellers Papers, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia].</ref> Recognizing Belfield as an important statement of his worldview, Peale recorded its ephemeral details in his letters, sketches, and paintings. In many ways, the statement that Peale made about his full-length self-portrait, ''The Artist in His Museum'' [Fig. 6], is also appropriate to the creation of Belfield: “I think it important that I should not only make it a lasting monument of my art . . . but also that the Design should be expressive that I bring forth into public view, the beauties of Nature and Art. . . .”<ref>Charles Willson Peale to Rembrandt Peale, July 23, 1822, [https://search.amphilsoc.org/collections/view?docId=ead/Mss.B.P31-ead.xml Peale-Sellers Papers, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia].</ref>

—''Therese O’Malley''

<hr>

==Texts==
* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], 1810, describing Belfield (quoted in Miller and Ward 1991: 54, fig. 87)<ref name="Miller and Ward_1991">Lillian B.Miller and David C. Ward, eds., ''New Perspectives on Charles Willson Peale'' (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press for the Smithsonian Institution, 1991), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/PU8TV8SD view on Zotero].</ref>
:"In this [[view]] imagine that you see a beautiful [[Meadow]] on the right. The Tennants House seems to terminate the lane, from thence it turns up a Gentle declivity to the Mansian, of which you see the Top of a Red roof on the left over the hill. formerly a road went over this hill at the dotted lines. . . . The Common water course is on the edge of the [[Meadow]] on the right and the doted [sic] line is a ditch to which I have a flood-gate to let water on the [[Meadow]] at Pleasure.” [Fig. 1]

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], July 22, 1810, describing Belfield (Miller et al., eds., 1991: 3:51, 54–55)<ref name="Miller et al., eds.,_1991">Lillian B. Miller et al., eds., ''The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family'', vol. 3, ''The Belfield Years, 1810–1820'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/IZAKPCBG view on Zotero].</ref>
:"I am often pleased with the solemn [[grove]]s skirting [[meadow]]s in majestic silence and cool appearance. . . .
:"I have marked the ends of some Joice between the windows, from these I intend to make a [[piazza|Piazer]] extending round the south End. at the X is a fine spring runing out of a Rock—at this I shall make a spring House & perhaps a Mill."

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], July 29, 1810, describing Belfield (Miller et al., eds., 1991: 3:53)<ref name="Miller et al., eds.,_1991"/>
:"This ground [[plot]] is made by recollection, but I think it near anough [sic] the truth to give you a more precise Idea of the place & the other Sketches which I intend to annex to my letters.” [Fig. 2]

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], July 29, 1810, in a letter to his son, Rembrandt Peale, describing Belfield (Miller et al., eds., 1991: 3:55)<ref name="Miller et al., eds.,_1991"/>
:"This [[View]] is taken at a point [from] the Tennants house a small distance, by which you see the Roof of the Mantion over the Garden [[fence]] which are of boards on a Stone [[Wall]]."

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], July 29, 1810, in a letter to his son, Rembrandt Peale, describing Belfield (Miller et al., eds., 1991: 3:55–56)<ref name="Miller et al., eds.,_1991"/>
:"The Barn and one of the Barracks on the West, the Coach-House near the Center, Springhouse on the East side and the [[bathhouse|Bath House]] below it. There is 4 large Popplers (Tulip Tree) which crosses the Road, and the Lumbardy Poppler a row of them on your right hand. Just above the [[bathhouse|bath-House]] is a small fish [[pond]] with about 200 Catfish which I brought from the falls of [[Schuylkill River|Schulkill]]. . . .
:"& beneath rose bushes, [along the stone wall] you may discover a long Roof which has shelves for [[beehive|Bee hives]] conveniently situated to get their food from the flowers of the Garden."

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], July 29, 1810, in a letter to his son, Rembrandt Peale, describing Belfield (Miller et al., eds., 1991: 3:56)<ref name="Miller et al., eds.,_1991"/>
:"In this view the stone steps at the End of the house is seen, which lead to the [[yard]] in front of the Garden, the Garden pails are on a stone [[wall]] on which grows Creepers now in full bloom they are a fine crimosen [sic] bell flowers in Clusters and an abundance of humming birds are daily sucking the honey. Green Gages, Damsons & quinces are along this [[wall]].”

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], August 2, 1813, in a letter to his daughter, Angelica Peale Robinson, describing Belfield (Miller et al., eds., 1991: 3:202)<ref name="Miller et al., eds.,_1991"/>
:"We are now beginning to ornament about the House Our Garden is much admired, Franklin is shewing his taste in neat workmanship. He has built an Elligant [[summerhouse|Summer House]] on that commanding spot which you may remember being pointed out to you. It is a hexicon base with 6 well turned Pillars supporting a circular Top & dome on which is placed a bust of Genl. Washington, it would have been more appopriate [sic] to have had 13 pillars, but I did not want so large a building, and it was work enough for Franklin to turn those 6 pillars which he was able to execute will [with] the layth in the mill."

* Peale, Rubens, September 27, 1813, in a letter to Sybilla Miriam Peale Summers, describing Belfield (Miller et al., eds., 1991: 3:206)<ref name="Miller et al., eds.,_1991"/>
:"Franklin has finished the [[Fountain]], it is a very handsome thing and gives very general pleasure. the [[jet|get]] is about 10 feet in height from the surface of the [[Pond]], a Gilt Ball is thrown about 5 high and there suspinded [sic] by the force of the Water. Spiral [[fountain]] Triaes &c."

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], November 12, 1813, in a letter to his daughter, Angelica Peale Robinson, describing Belfield (Miller et al., eds., 1991: 3:216)<ref name="Miller et al., eds.,_1991"/>
:"I have made an [[obelisk|Oblisk]] to terminate a [[Walk]] in the Garden, read in Dictionary of Arts for description of them. I made it of rough boards & white washed it with lime & allum—The allum It is said will convert the lime in time to Stone. I have put the following motto on it—on one side ‘Never return an Injury, It is a noble Triumph to overcome Evil by Good.’ another, ‘Labour while you are able it will give health to the Body—peaceful content to the mind.’ another, ‘He that will live in peace & Rest, must hear, and see, and say the best & in french ‘y voy, & te tas, si tu veux vivre en paix.’ and on another ‘Neglect no Duty.’ The distick which I have adopted is claimed by several Nations, I have put the french because it is more concise & equally expressive.”

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], March 15, 27, 29, 1814, in a letter to his sons, Benjamin Franklin Peale and Titian Ramsey Peale, describing Belfield (Miller et al., eds., 1991: 3:239)<ref name="Miller et al., eds.,_1991"/>
:"when my leasure and I can spare a man to hall dirt I will raise the water in the fish [[Pond]] which will encrease its surfaces considerably raising the water to the stone [[wall]] at the head of the [[Pond]], deeper, and more water, will be better for fish & will raise the [[jet|get]] at the [[fountain]] considerably.”

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], March 15, 27, 29, 1814, in a letter to his sons, Benjamin Franklin Peale and Titian Ramsey Peale, describing Belfield (Miller et al., eds., 1991: 3:239)<ref name="Miller et al., eds.,_1991"/>
:"The stone and ground is remooved at the Bottom of the Garden but the [[Wall]] is not as high and access into the Garden is not so easey as it used to be, even before any [[wall]] is made."

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], March 15, 27, 29, 1814, describing Belfield (Miller et al., eds., 1991: 3:239)<ref name="Miller et al., eds.,_1991"/>
:"As soon as the weather becomes settled & warm, I will have the [[basin|Bason]] walled up with a proper morter, and when that is doing I shall put a Cock to the Leaden pipe to let the water pass out untill the [[basin|Bason]] is prepaired to receive it."

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], September 6, 1814, in a letter to his son, Rembrandt Peale, describing Belfield (Miller et al., eds., 1991: 3:263)<ref name="Miller et al., eds.,_1991"/>
:"I have finished my [[fountain]] and . . . the [[basin|Bason]] holds the water after much labour to make so having raised the Fish-[[pond]] it gives a [[jet]] of 12 feet high. . . . Rubens has place all his [[Pot]]s round the [[fountain]] [[basin|B[a]son]] and it makes a very handsome display, The [[basin|Bason]] being 13 feet long & 10 wide."

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], September 14, 1814, describing Belfield (Miller et al., eds., 1991: 3:266)<ref name="Miller et al., eds.,_1991"/>
:"The fountain [[basin|Bason]] now holds water completly, and the [[jet]] is 12 feet high, and is kept continually playing; Day & night, Rubens has placed all his plants round the [[basin|Bason]], and it is very handsome."

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], October 30, 1814, describing Belfield (Miller et al., eds., 2000: 5:380–83)<ref name="Miller et al., eds.,_2000">Lillian B. Miller et al., eds., ''The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family'', vol. 5, ''The Autobiography of Charles Willson Peale'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/IZAKPCBG view on Zotero].</ref>
:"The proprietor made [[summerhouse|summer houses]] (so called) roofs to ward off the Sunbeams with [[seat]]s of rest. one made of the [[Chinese manner|chinease]] [sic] taste, dedicated to medieation [sic], with the following sentiments round within it:
:"Mediate on the Creation of ''Worlds'', which perform their evolutions in proscribed periods!. . . .
:"He wanted a place to keep the garden seeds & Tools, and in a part of the Garden where a [[seat]] in the shade was often wanted, he built a shed or small room, and to hide that Salt-like-box, and to try his art of Painting, he made the front like [a] Gate way with a step to form a [[seat]], and above, steps painted as representing a passage through an [[Arch]] beyond on which was represented a western sky, and to ornament the upper part over the [[arch]], he painted several figures on boards cut the outlines of said figures as representing [[statue]]s in sculpture. And [so that] his design of those figures might be fully understood [by] visitors, he painted two pedestals ornamented with a ball to crown each. and the die of the Pedestals, on one the expla[na]tion of the figures vizt. America with an even ballance—as justifying her acts. The Fassie, emblematical of the several state[s], are bound together, incircled by a Rattle-snake, as inocent if not meddled with, but terrible if molested. This emblem of Congress is placed ''upright'' as that body ought to be, with wisdom its base, designed by the owl; the [[beehive]] and children; industry an increase the effects of good government, supported on one side, Truth and Temperance, on the other Industry, with her distaf, resting on the cornucopia— consequence a wise Policy will do away with wars. hence Mars is fallen." The figure of Mars was made on the end of shed roof to hide it. The making of this is rather of the Political cast, yet he had long given over being active in Politicks, but choose by it to shew his dislike of War. . . .
:"Having a good spring-house the water from it supplied a small fish-[[pond]], in which he put many cat-fish brought from the [[Schuylkill River|Schulkill]] and although they lived and perhaps might be breed there yet being petts never was served at his table[.] The same with Pidgeons, they had commodious house, and once a pr. of squabs was taken to the Kitchen, but the Parent came after them and alighting on the Kitchen window, Mrs. Peale’s delicate feelings could not suffer them to be killed and accordingly they were returned to the [[pigeon house|Pidgeon-house]].
:"finding a spring stream in the Garden he followed it up the side of the hill, untill it become [sic] of some debth and among large Stones—and having at this place made a considerable cavity in the bank round the sourse of the Spring, to [[wall]] it up this hollow and [[arch]] it over, it was thought that it might be an excellent place to keep cabbage and Turnups &c during the winter season, but on tryal it was found to[o] moist and warm. . . . This tryal gave the Idea of building a [[greenhouse]] jouining to the arched cave—and that [[greenhouse|Green house]] keepted all exotic plants perfectly well without the aid of stoves in the severest winters.
:"below the [[greenhouse|Green house]] he made a round [[basin|bason]] to receive the Water from the cave back of it—and from the fish-[[pond]] near the spring-house, to this [[basin|bason]] in the Garden is a fall of 15 feet, and in order to have a [[fountain]] in the [[basin|Bason]] he put log-pipes under ground, and thus had a [[jet]] of 13 feet high but of small diameter, in order that it might constantly [be] rising. but unfortunately he make the bore of his logs only of one Inch diameter, the consequence was that Frogs in two instances got into the bore of the logs and not being able to pass through all the joints, stopped the water, of course to free the passage of the logs, gave much labour. had these things been foreseen, trouble might have been prevented, by making the bore of the logs of a greater diameter, with other provisions to keep the passage free [Fig. 7].”
[[Image:0009.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 7, Charles Willson Peale, Letter to Angelica Peale describing his garden at Belfield, November 22, 1815.]]

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], November 22, 1815, in a letter to his daughter, Angelica Peale Robinson, describing Belfield (quoted in Rudnytzky 1986: 43)<ref name="Rudnytzsky_1986">Rudnytzky 1986, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/KJK46QBZ view on Zotero].</ref>
:"The objects in sight, are the road ascending to the Dwelling, Stone [[wall]] & Thorn [[hedge]] on it inclosing the Garden, The Garden [[Gate]] at the [[Fountain]], [[greenhouse|Green House]], [[summerhouse|Summer house]] a doom supported by 6 Pillars, and bust of Washington crowning it—beyond that an [[Obelisk]]; the Hay barracks; Barn with the wind-mill on top of it to pump water for the stock, stables; Mantion-House, Wash-House and connecting [[piazza|Piaza]]; Carriage House; Spring House, [[bathhouse|Bath-House]] and cover of the [[icehouse|Ice-house]].”

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], August 4, 1816, describing Belfield (quoted in Rudnytzky 1986: 44)<ref name="Rudnytzsky_1986"/>
:"I have been so long neglecting the [[view]] I am about in [the] garden that the trees & [[shrubbery]] have grown so high that I cannot represent them truly without almost totally hiding the [[walk]]]s, therefore I shall prefer leaving out many of them—and also make them smaller.”

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], October 13, 1816, describing Belfield (Miller et al., eds., 1991: 3:452)<ref name="Miller et al., eds.,_1991"/>
:"Other parts of my farm excited the curiousity of the Public—a wind-mill for pumping Water for the Cattle &c.—A [[fall garden|falling Garden]], [[fountain]], fish [[Pond]], common Sewers &c Machines to add [aid] the dairy and carriages of various uses—all these things employed the whole of my time to emprove & to keep them in proper order."

* [[Peale, Charles Willson]], January 14, 1824, in a letter to his son, Charles Linnaeus Peale, describing Belfield (quoted in Rudnytzky 1986: 32)<ref name="Rudnytzsky_1986"/>
:"Dear Linnius I wish you to consider whether it is not better to avoid these expenses by burying your Child in the Garden on the south side of the [[obelisk|Oblisk]], a place which if I hold the farm untill my decease, I shall desire to have my body deposited. This has been my determination ever since I painted those inscriptions.”

<hr>

==Images==
<span id="roundabout_img"></span>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:0116.jpg|[[Charles Willson Peale]], Sketches of Belfield, 1810.

Image:0560.jpg|[[Charles Willson Peale]], Ground plot of Belfield, 1810.

File:0010.jpg|[[Charles Willson Peale]], Letter to Angelica Peale describing his garden at Belfield, November 12, 1813.

Image:0009.jpg|[[Charles Willson Peale]], Letter to Angelica Peale describing his garden at Belfield, November 22, 1815.

Image:1958.jpg|[[Charles Willson Peale]], ''Cabbage Patch, The Gardens of Belfield, Pennsylvania'', c. 1815–16.

Image:1957.jpg|[[Charles Willson Peale]], ''Belfield Farm'', c. 1816.

Image:0044.jpg|[[Charles Willson Peale]], ''View of the garden at Belfield'', 1816.

Image:0047.jpg|Anna Peale Sellers, after [[Charles Willson Peale]], ''Belfield Farm, Germantown, PA'', Late 19th century.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Map==
{{#display_map:
40.037944, -75.155425
| service=google
| enablefullscreen=yes
}}

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://guides.lasalle.edu/local_history_guide/belfield La Salle Local History]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category: Places]]

Mount Auburn Cemetery

2019-12-30T18:35:24Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

'''Mount Auburn Cemetery''' was founded by Harvard botanist Jacob Bigelow and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and was the first cemetery to be laid out according the principles of English landscape design. Its establishment marked the beginning of the rural cemetery movement in the United States.

==Overview==
'''Alternate Names:''' Sweet Auburn<br>
'''Site Dates:''' 1831 to present<br>
'''Site Owner:''' Massachusetts Horticultural Society (1831−35); Proprietors of the Cemetery of Mount Auburn (1835−present)<br>
'''Associated People:''' Jacob Bigelow (1787−1879; original proponent of the cemetery); [[H. A. S. Dearborn]] (1783−1851; designer); Alexander Wadsworth (1806−1898; surveyor)<br>
'''Location''' Cambridge, MA<br>
'''Condition:''' extant<br/>
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mount+Auburn+Cemetery/@42.3711528,-71.1449564,16z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e37781c382fb8b:0x1cbffa1239f2d6f9!8m2!3d42.3752083!4d-71.1449745?hl=en View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[File:0117.jpg|thumb|Fig. 1, Thomas Chambers, ''Mount Auburn Cemetery'', mid-19th century.]]
Prior to the founding of Mount Auburn Cemetery [Fig. 1] in 1831, residents of New England were generally interred in graveyards associated with their respective churches; in Boston, these included the King’s Chapel, Old Granary, and Central Burying Grounds along the perimeter of the [[Common]], and Copp’s Hill Burying Ground in the North End. With the enormous growth of Boston’s population following the American Revolution, however, these sites were quickly overcrowded. Boston’s early [[burial ground|burying grounds]], with their disorganized jumble of headstones, came to be seen as an aesthetic blight on the developing city, and their close proximity to both residences and businesses was considered a public health hazard.<ref>Blanche M. G. Linden, ''Silent City on a Hill: Picturesque Landscapes of Memory and Boston’s Mount Auburn Cemetery'' (1989; repr., Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007), 118–20, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero]. See also David Charles Sloane, ''The Last Great Necessity: Cemeteries in American History'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), 45, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero], and James R. Cothran and Erica Danylchak, ''Grave Landscapes: The Nineteenth-Century Rural Cemetery Movement'' (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2018), 37–38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/THCP4J2V view on Zotero].</ref>

In the mid-1820s Boston mayor Josiah Quincy passed the Ordinance on the Burial of the Dead, which forbade further interments at the King’s Chapel and Old Granary Burying Grounds and better regulated other burials within city limits.<ref>Sloane 1991, 44–45, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero]; Linden 2007, 130, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero]; and Cothran and Danylchak 2018, 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/THCP4J2V view on Zotero]. For the text of the ordinance, see ''The Charter of the City of Boston, and Ordinances Made and Established by the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council'' (Boston: True and Greene, 1827), 182–87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8Z9RGAV2 view on Zotero].</ref> About the same time, according to historian Blanche Linden, a growing movement for a “rural” cemetery emerged. In 1823 Dr. John Coffin, a fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society, published a pamphlet arguing that bodies should be interred in a pastoral setting where they could “naturally” return to the earth, and in 1825 Jacob Bigelow, a professor of botany at Harvard, established an association for creating a cemetery that situated burial plots within a carefully cultivated landscape.<ref>Linden 2007, 128–35, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1027.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 2, Anonymous, “View of Mount Auburn,” ''American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge'' 2, no. 6 (February 1836): 234.]]
Despite the crowding and public health concerns of city burials, Bigelow’s proposal for a rural cemetery encountered some resistance. Many Bostonians believed rural interment was appropriate only for social outcasts; they also feared burial outside the city limits might lead to the theft of bodies by “resurrection men”—body snatchers who stole corpses for medical study.<ref>Linden 2007, 161, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref> Bigelow and his associates argued that a pastoral setting would allow for a more socially productive, and more American, type of mourning. Graves situated in a beautiful landscape would highlight the naturalness of death and reduce the anxiety and fear associated with the end of life [Fig. 2]. Moreover, a rural setting would recall the original landscape of New England, inviting the general public to connect to the country’s past and engage with ideas of continuity and posterity.<ref>Sloane 1991, 45, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero], and Linden 2007, 141, 145, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref>

The development of Mount Auburn Cemetery began in earnest in 1830, with the coordination of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, founded only a year earlier. The plan was to incorporate in one expansive site a rural burying ground, or “garden of graves,” alongside an experimental garden that together could foster “historical and horticultural consciousness.”<ref>Sloane 1991, 46, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero], and Linden 2007, 145, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero]. The phrase “Garden of Graves” was the title of an essay on Mount Auburn by John Pierpont, published in Nathaniel Parker Willis, ed., ''The Token'' (Boston: S. G. Goodrich, 1832), 374–90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JKTSIA5Q view on Zotero].</ref> The land Bigelow’s association purchased for the cemetery’s construction—Stone’s Woods or “Sweet Auburn,” 72 acres of rolling, wooded hills across the Charles River from Boston—had long been a place of pastoral respite for locals, including Harvard students. Writing in his journal in 1824, Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that “there is some wild land called Sweet Auburn . . . [and] the students will go in bands over a flat sandy road & in summer evenings the woods are full of them.”<ref>Edward Waldo Emerson and Waldo Emerson Forbes, eds., ''Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1820–24'' (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1909), 350, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/7APXZ4GT view on Zotero].</ref> Not surprisingly the connection between nature, culture, and the divine that drove the founding of Mount Auburn Cemetery would also shape the views of such Transcendentalists as Emerson.

[[File:0598.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 3, Alexander Wadsworth, “Plan of Mount Auburn,” November 1831.]]
The layout of Mount Auburn began in 1831 and was overseen by the first president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, [[H. A. S. Dearborn]], aided by Alexander Wadsworth [Fig. 3]. [[H. A. S. Dearborn|Dearborn]] drew on the design of the Parisian cemetery Père Lachaise—the world’s first garden or “ornamental” cemetery—and laid out the grounds according to the [[natural style]] of English landscape design.<ref>Sloane 1991, 46, 49–50, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero], and Linden 2007, 173–74, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero]. As Linden notes, Alexander Wadsworth surveyed the site but the design was primarily Dearborn’s. For more on the design and architecture of Père Lachaise, see Richard A. Etlin, ''The Architecture of Death: The Transformation of the Cemetery in Eighteenth-Century Paris'' (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984), 310–35, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G6QIFAZT/q/etlin view on Zotero].</ref> He incorporated winding gravel [[path]]s, wide planted [[border]]s, and small [[pond]]s among the rolling hills of the site, which created the variety of views so essential to the English garden.<ref>Linden 2007, 147, 155–59, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref> It was also a means of keeping burial lots properly distanced from one another. These were sold by subscription, mostly to families, but also to several local organizations, such as Harvard College and the Tremont House, a Boston hotel. The few corporate lots were intended for deceased students and visitors whose bodies could not be shipped home.<ref> Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (New York: R. Martin, 1847), 68, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/CN79BMN8 view on Zotero], and Linden 2007, 164, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref>

Lingering concerns about a pastoral cemetery, particularly regarding the security of graves, did not seem to limit interest in Mount Auburn, but the cemetery faced other challenges. Revenue generated by the sale of lots failed to cover the cost of establishing an experimental garden, leading to the Massachusetts Historical Society’s withdrawal from the project in 1835 and the chartering of a new, charitable organization–the Proprietors of the Cemetery of Mount Auburn–to oversee the site.<ref>Cothran and Danylchak 2018, 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/THCP4J2V view on Zotero].</ref> Another challenge was the behavior of some of Mount Auburn’s visitors: although originally designed as a fully public space, the cemetery was enclosed by [[fence]]s in 1833 to deter vandalism, and public visitation was limited to daylight hours. A system of fines was established to counter destructive behavior toward plants, trees, and burial markers.<ref>Linden 2007, 167, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1071.jpg|thumb|Fig. 4, James Smillie (artist), Robert Hinshelwood (engraver), “View of the Appleton Monument, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 76.]]
Mount Auburn also came under scrutiny for its apparent elitism. The prohibitive costs of the average 300-square-foot lot—about $60—were thought by some to undermine the cemetery’s accessibility and openness.<ref>Sloane 1991, 53, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero], and Linden 2007, 163, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref> Early critics saw the cemetery less as a site of moral education and more as an aggrandizement of New England’s elite, a number of whom marked their burial sites with imposing monuments. Although the cemetery’s board encouraged simplicity in burial markers—preferring obelisks, tombs, and sarcophagi over more elaborate constructions—the lot of the wealthy merchant and philanthropist Samuel Appleton boasted a 12-by-6-foot Grecian temple made of Italian marble, for which he paid the enormous sum of $10,000 [Fig. 4].<ref>Sloane 1991, 53, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero], and Linden 2007, 186–87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref> For those who could not afford the expense of a standard lot, Mount Auburn Cemetery offered 160 individual graves that could be purchased for $10 each, though this accommodation did not fully quash the view of rural interment as a luxury unattainable for many.<ref>Sloane 1991, 54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero], and Linden 2007, 163, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1974.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 5, James Smillie, “Entrance to the Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), title page.]]
Many of Mount Auburn’s visitors were neither proprietors nor friends and family of people interred at the site; despite the restrictions placed on the public, the cemetery functioned as “a place of general resort and interest, as well to strangers as to citizens,” one whose “shades and paths, ornamented with monumental structures, of various beauty and elegance, have already . . . awakened a deep moral sensibility in many a pious bosom.”<ref>Joseph Story, October 17, 1834, ''Records of Committees'', quoted in Linden 2007, 168, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NJ7267GQ/q/linden view on Zotero].</ref> A market for Mount Auburn guidebooks quickly developed, beginning with ''The Picturesque Companion, and Visitor’s Guide, through Mount Auburn'' (1839) and perhaps reaching its apogee with Cornelia W. Walter’s ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847), which was frequently reprinted over the next decade. In her book Walter, a former editor of the ''Boston Transcript'', provided readers a brief history of the cemetery and an architectural tour through its more celebrated monuments, illustrated by the prolific engraver James Smillie. The volume begins with a description of the imposing Egyptian-style portal at the cemetery’s entrance [Fig. 5] and passes by a variety of architectural styles—the neo-Gothic design of the Chapel and the classicizing temple on Samuel Appleton’s lot—before concluding with a view from Mount Auburn’s highest point, the “mount” of its name.

[[File:1066.jpg|thumb|Fig. 6, James Smillie, “View from Mount Auburn, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 112.]]
Walter’s guidebook, organized by prospects both of and from Mount Auburn, offsets manmade structures against the site’s pastoral setting to underscore the restorative qualities of nature. The mount of Mount Auburn, she observed, provides a view of “the numerous spires of the near city of Boston,” which—framed by the Charles River and the “varied undulations of the hills and dales, the tranquil lakes, and the deep shadows of the groves”—metamorphoses from an overcrowded metropolis into an image of solemnity and repose [Fig. 6].<ref>Walter 1847, 112–13, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/CN79BMN8 view on Zotero].</ref> The effect she described is the very one articulated by Mount Auburn’s promoters, who had intended to articulate a harmonious accord between life and death, culture and nature, history and horticulture.

The creation of Mount Auburn Cemetery, along with the reframing of death and decay as wholly natural processes, permanently altered Americans’ practices of burial and mourning and led to development of rural cemeteries across the United States. Between 1831 and 1873, more than 175 such cemeteries were established, including Philadelphia’s celebrated [[Laurel Hill]] (1838) and Brooklyn’s [[Green-Wood Cemetery]] (1838).<ref>Sloane 1991, 63, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/972MSSSH/q/sloane view on Zotero]; see also Appendix C in Cothran and Danylchak 2018, 231–39, which provides a select list of rural cemeteries organized by name, date, and location, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/THCP4J2V view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Elizabeth Athens''

<hr>

==Texts==
*Story, Joseph, September 24, 1831, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (1831: 16–17, 29)<ref>Joseph Story, ''An Address Delivered on the Dedication of the Cemetery at Mount Auburn'' (Boston: Joseph T. and Edwin Buckingham, 1831), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ABFHUWTP/q/address%20delivered%20on%20the%20dedication view on Zotero].</ref>
:“A rural [[Cemetery]] seems to combine in itself all the advantages, which can be proposed to gratify human feelings, or tranquillize human fears; to secure the best religious influences, and to cherish all those associations, which cast a cheerful light over the darkness of the grave.

:“And what spot can be more appropriate than this for such a purpose? Nature seems to point it out with significant energy, as the favorite retirement for the dead. There are around us all the varied features of her beauty and grandeur—the forest-crowned height; the abrupt acclivity; the sheltered valley; the deep glen; the grassy glade; and the silent [[grove]]. Here are the lofty oak, the beech, that ‘wreaths its old fantastic roots so high,’ the rustling pine, and the drooping willow; —the tree, that sheds its pale leaves with every autumn, a fit emblem of our own transitory bloom; and the evergreen, with its perennial shoots, instructing us, that ‘the wintry blast of death kills not the buds of virtue.’ Here is the thick [[shrubbery]] to protect and conceal the new-made grave; and there is the wild-flower creeping along the narrow path, and planting its seeds in the upturned earth. All around us there breathes a solemn calm, as if we were in the bosom of a wilderness, broken only by the breeze as it murmurs through the tops of the forest, or by the notes of the warbler pouring forth his matin or his evening song. . . .

:“The grounds of the [[Cemetery]] have been laid out with intersecting [[avenue]]s, so as to render every part of the [[wood]] accessible. These [[avenue]]s are curved and variously winding in their course, so as to be adapted to the natural inequalities of the surface. By this arrangement, the greatest economy of the land is produced, combining at the same time the [[picturesque]] effect of [[landscape gardening]]. Over the more level portions, the [[avenue]]s are made twenty feet wide, and are suitable for carriage roads.”

*[[H. A. S. Dearborn|Dearborn, H. A. S.]], 30 September 1831, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (quoted in Ward 1831: 48)<ref>Malthus Ward, ''An Address Pronounced Before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society'' (Boston: J. T. & E Buckingham, 1831), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/P7GWBEPX/q/an%20address%20pronounced%20before view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The [[nursery|nurseries]] may be established, the departments for culinary vegetables, fruit, and ornamental trees, [[shrubbery|shrubs]] and flowers, laid out and planted, a [[greenhouse|green house]] built, hot-[[bed]]s formed, the small ponds and morasses converted into [[picturesque]] sheets of water, and their margins diversified by clumps and belts of our most splendid native flowering trees, and [[shrubbery|shrubs]], requiring a soil thus constituted for their successful cultivation, while their surface may be spangled with the brilliant blossoms of Nymphae, and the other beautiful tribes of aquatic plants.”

*[[H. A. S. Dearborn|Dearborn, H. A. S.]], 1832, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (quoted in Harris 1832: 63–65, 67–68, 72, 80)<ref>Thaddeus William Harris, ''A Discourse Delivered Before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society on the Celebration of its Fourth Anniversary, October 3, 1832'' (Cambridge, MA: E. W. Metcalf, 1832), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/3A3UDHF3/q/a%20discourse%20delivered view on Zotero].</ref>
:“With the Experimental Garden it is recommended to unite a Rural [[Cemetery]]; for the period is not distant, when all the [[burial ground]]s within the city will be closed, and others must be formed in the country,—the primitive and only proper location. There the dead may repose undisturbed, through countless ages. There can be formed a public place of sepulture, where monuments can be erected to our illustrious men, whose remains, thus far, have unfortunately been consigned too obscure and isolated tombs, instead of being collected within one common depository, where their great deeds might be perpetuated and their memories cherished by succeeding generations. Though dead, they would be eternal admonitors to the living,—teaching them the way which leads to national glory and individual renown. . . .
:“For the accommodation of the Garden of Experiment and [[Cemetery]], at least seventy acres of land are deemed necessary; and in making the selection of a site, it was very important that from forty to fifty acres should be well or partially covered with forest trees and [[shrubbery|shrubs]], which could be appropriated for the latter establishment; and that it should present all possible varieties of soil, common in the vicinity of Boston; be diversified by hills, valleys, plains, brooks, and low [[meadow]]s and bogs, so as to afford proper localities for every kind of tree and plant, that will flourish in this climate;—be near to some large stream or river; and easy of access by land and water; but still sufficiently retired.

:“To realize these advantages it is proposed, that a tract of land called ‘Sweet Auburn,’ situated in Cambridge, should be purchased. As a large portion of the ground is now covered with trees, shrubs, and wild flowering plants, [[avenue]]s and [[walk]]s may be made through them, in such a manner as to render the whole establishment interesting and beautiful, at a small expense, and within a few years; and ultimately offer an example of [[landscape gardening|landscape]] or [[picturesque]] gardening, in conformity to the [[modern style]] of laying out grounds, which will be highly creditable to the Society. . . .

:“The establishment of rural [[cemetery|cemeteries]] similar to that of Pere La Chaise, has often been the subject of conversation in this country, and frequently adverted to by the writers in our scientific and literary publications. . . .

:“That part of the land which has been recommended for a [[Cemetery]] may be circumvallated by a spacious [[avenue]] bordered by trees, [[shrubbery]], and perennial flowers; rather as a line of demarcation than of disconnexion; for the ornamental grounds of the Garden should be apparently blended with those of the [[Cemetery]], and the [[walk]]s of each so intercommunicate as to afford an uninterrupted range over both, as one common domain.

:“Among the hills, glades, and dales, which are now covered with evergreen and deciduous trees and [[shrubbery|shrubs]], may be selected sites for isolated graves, and tombs, and these, being surmounted with [[column]]s, [[obelisk]]s, and other appropriate monuments of granite and marble, may be rendered interesting specimens of art; they will also vary and embelish the scenery embraced within the scope of the numerous sinuous [[avenue]]s, which may be felicitously opened in all directions and to a vast extent, from the diversified and [[picturesque]] features which the topography of the tract of land presents. . . .

:“The approach from the main road leading to Watertown, was by a broad and umbrageous [[avenue]] to the foot of the hill, which closes the dale of consecration on the north. . . . In the rear, under the shade of a stately [[grove]] of walnuts, where the main [[avenue]] divides and gracefully sweeps round the lofty hills to the east and west, the company [attending the consecration] descended from their carriages, and entered the secluded and romantic silvan theatre, by two foot paths, which wound through lonely vales of arching verdure. . . .

:“The upper Garden [[Pond]] has been excavated, to a sufficient depth to afford a constant sheet of water, with a fall at the outlet of three feet, and being embanked, [[avenue]]s with a [[border]] of six feet, for [[shrubbery|shrubs]] and flowers, have been made all round it. . . .

:“Arrangements have been made for excavating, to a greater depth, Forest and Consecration-Dell [[Pond]]s, and surrounding them by embellished pathways, like those of Garden-[[Pond]], and for cleaning the eastern portion of Garden and of [[Meadow]] [[Pond]]s, of bushes and weeds; all which will be done during the winter, that season being the most favorable for such work.”

*Anonymous, 1839, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (1839: 3)<ref>Anonymous, ''The Picturesque Pocket Companion and Visitor’s Guide through Mount Auburn'' (Boston: Otis, Broader, 1839), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TFW4IVDB view on Zotero].</ref>
:”The celebrity attained by '''Mount Auburn''', pronounced by European travellers the most beautiful [[Cemetery]] in existence, and which, perhaps, without assuming too much, may be called the Père la Chaise of America,—the extraordinary natural loveliness of the spot,—the admirable character of the establishment which is there maintained,—the fact that this was the first conspicuous example of the kind in our country.”

*Anonymous, 1839, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (1839: 47–48)<ref>''The Picturesque Pocket Companion'' 1839, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TFW4IVDB view on Zotero].</ref>
:“That part of the land which has been recommended for a [[cemetery|CEMETERY]], may be circumvallated by a spacious [[avenue]], bordered by trees, [[shrubbery]] and perennial flowers,—rather as a line of demarcation, than of disconnexion,—for the ornamental grounds of the GARDEN should be apparently blended with those of the [[Cemetery]], and the [[walk]]s of each so intercommunicate, as to afford an uninterrupted range over both, as one common domain.”

*Buckingham, James Silk, 1841, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (1841: 2:382)<ref>James Silk Buckingham, ''America, Historical, Statistical, and Descriptive'', 2 vols. (New York: Harper, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PIANFMVK/q/buckingham view on Zotero].</ref>
:“A comparison has been often made between the Père la Chaise of Paris and the '''Mount Auburn''' of Boston, and the similarity of their situation and their purpose naturally forces this comparison on the mind. Having seen both, I may venture to offer an opinion on this subject, with great deference, however, to those who may think otherwise. In many respects, then, I think Mount '''Auburn''' superior to Père la Chaise. Its natural scenery of hill and dale, of river, [[lake]], and forest-trees, with other surrounding objects, presents a combination which is not to be found in the [[cemetery]] of Paris, and which is far more in harmony with the repose of the dead than the most sumptuous monuments, without these combinations, can be. In this last respect Père la Chaise is perhaps unrivalled.”

[[File:1063.jpg|thumb|Fig. 7, James Smillie, “Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), frontispiece.]]
*[[Cornelia W. Walter|Walter, Cornelia W.]], 1847, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (1847: 14)<ref>Walter 1847, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/CN79BMN8 view on Zotero].</ref>
:“The [[avenues]] are winding in their course and exceedingly beautiful in their gentle circuits, adapted [[picturesque|picturesquely]] to the inequalities of the surface of the ground, and producing charming landscape effects from this natural arrangement, such as could never be had from straightness or regularity. . . .

:“The [[gate|gateway]] of '''Mount Auburn''' opened from what is known as the north boundary line of the [[Cemetery]]. This [[avenue]] forms a wide carriage-road, and is one of the most beautiful openings ever improved for such a purpose. With the exception of the necessary grading, levelling, and cutting done of the brushwood, and the planting of a few trees, it has been left as Nature has made it. On either side it is overshadowed by the foliage of forest-trees, firs, pines, and other evergreens; and here you first begin to see the monuments starting up from the surrounding verdure, like bright remembrances from the heart of earth” [Fig. 7].

*[[Nehemiah Cleaveland|Cleaveland, Nehemiah]], 1847, describing '''Mount Auburn Cemetery''', Cambridge, MA (quoted in Walter 1847: 20)<ref>Walter 1847, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/CN79BMN8 view on Zotero].</ref>
:“In 1844, the increasing funds of the corporation justified a new expenditure for the plain but massy iron [[fence]] which encloses the front of the [[Cemetery]]. This [[fence]] is ten feet in height, and supported on granite posts extending four feet into the ground. It measures half a mile in length, and will, when completed, effectually preserve the [[Cemetery]] inviolate from any rude intrusion. The cost of the [[gate|gateway]] was about $10,000—the [[fence]], $15,000.

:“A continuation of the iron [[fence]] on the easterly side is now under contract, and a strong wooden palisade is, as we learn, to be erected on the remaining boundary during the present year.”

*[[A. J. Downing|Downing, Alexander Jackson]], July 1849, “Public Cemeteries and Public Gardens” (''Horticulturist'' 4: 9–10)<ref>A. J. Downing, “Public Cemeteries and Public Gardens,” ''Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste'' 4, no. 1 (July 1849): 9–12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/EI9BER3I/q/public%20cemeteries%20and%20public%20gardens view on Zotero].</ref>
:“Indeed, in the absence of great [[public garden]]s, such as we must surely one day have in America, our rural [[cemetery|cemeteries]] are doing a great deal to enlarge and educate the popular taste in rural embellishment. They are for the most part laid out with admirable taste; they contain the greatest variety of trees and [[shrubbery|shrubs]] to be found in the country, and several of them are kept in a manner seldom equalled in private places. . . .

:“The character of each of the three great [[cemetery|cemeteries]] is essentially distinct. Greenwood, the largest, and unquestionably the finest, is grand, dignified, and [[park]]-like. It is laid out in a broad and simple style, commands noble ocean [[view]]s, and is admirably kept. '''Mount Auburn''' is richly [[picturesque]], in its varied hill and dale, and owes its charm mainly to this variety and intricacy of sylvan features. Laurel Hill is a charming [[pleasure ground|pleasure-ground]], filled with beautiful and rare [[shrubbery|shrubs]] and flowers; at this season, a wilderness of roses, as well as fine trees and monuments.”

*[[J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon|Loudon, J. C. (John Claudius)]], 1850, describing cemeteries in America (1850: 333)<ref>J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon, ''An Encyclopaedia of Gardening; Comprising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, and Landscape-Gardening'', new ed., corrected and improved (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1850), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/W8EQFZUG/order/creator/q/loudon/sort/descc view on Zotero].</ref>
:“857. [[Cemeteries]]. . . .

:“A public [[cemetery]] was formed in 1831 at '''Mount Auburn''', about three miles from Boston, and is easily approached either by the road, or the river which washes its [[border]]s. . . . ‘This romantic and [[picturesque]] [[cemetery]],’ says Dr. Mease, ‘is the fashionable place of interment with the people of Boston.’ . . .

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="5">

File:0117.jpg|Thomas Chambers, ''Mount Auburn Cemetery'', mid-19th century.

File:0598.jpg|Alexander Wadsworth, “Plan of Mount Auburn,” November 1831.

File:1025.jpg|Anonymous, “Entrance to Mount Auburn,” in ''American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge'' 1, no. 1 (September 1834): 9.

File:1026.jpg|Anonymous, “Mount Auburn,” ''American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge'' 1, no. 10 (June 1835): 450.

File:1027.jpg|Anonymous, “View of Mount Auburn,” ''American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge'' 2, no. 6 (February 1836): 234.

File:1035.jpg|Anonymous, “Garden Pond,” in ''The Picturesque Pocket Companion, and Visitor’s Guide, Through Mount Auburn'' (1839), 85.

File:1034.jpg|Anonymous, “Monument of ‘Dr. Bigelow,’” in ''The Picturesque Pocket Companion, and Visitor’s Guide, Through Mount Auburn'' (1839), 113.

File:1031.jpg|Anonymous, “Tomb and obelisk of ‘George W. Coffin,’” in ''The Picturesque Pocket Companion, and Visitor’s Guide, Through Mount Auburn'' (1839), 147.

File:1032.jpg|Anonymous, “Consecration Dell,” in ''The Picturesque Pocket Companion, and Visitor’s Guide, Through Mount Auburn'' (1839), 161.

File:1033.jpg|Anonymous, “Forest Pond," in ''The Picturesque Pocket Companion, and Visitor’s Guide, Through Mount Auburn'' (1839), 171.

File:1304.jpg|John Warner Barber, “Entrance to Mount Auburn Cemetery,” ''Historical Collections . . . Relating to the History & Antiquities of Every Town in Massachusetts'' (1844), 361.

File:1063.jpg|James Smillie, “Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), frontispiece.

File:1974.jpg|James Smillie, “Entrance to the Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), title page.

File:1074.jpg|James Smillie (artist), O. G. Hanks (engraver), “View of the Naval Monument (Central Avenue), Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 22.

File:1073.jpg|James Smillie (artist), Alfred Jones (engraver), “View of the Chapel, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 36.

File:1072.jpg|James Smillie (artist), Robert Hinshelwood (engraver), “View of the Tomb to Spurzheim, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 40.

File:1070.jpg|James Smillie (artist), J. A. Rolph (engraver), “View of the Central Square, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 61.

File:1071.jpg|James Smillie (artist), Robert Hinshelwood (engraver), “View of the Appleton Monument, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 76.

File:1975.jpg|James Smillie, “View from Battle Hill,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 79.

File:1976.jpg|James Smillie (artist), J. A. Rolph (engraver), “Forest Pond, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 94.

File:1069.jpg|James Smillie, “View of the Consecration Dell, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 100.

File:1068.jpg|James Smillie, “View of the Bowditch Monument, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 105.

File:1066.jpg|James Smillie, “View from Mount Auburn, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 112.

File:1065.jpg|James Smillie (artist), Robert Hinshelwood (engraver), “View of Gossler’s Monument, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 115.

File:1064.jpg|James Smillie (artist), Rice & Buttre (engravers), “View of Oxnard’s Monument, Mount Auburn Cemetery,” in Cornelia W. Walter, ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847; repr., 1850), opp. 116.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Map==
{{#display_map:
42.375208,-71.144974
| service=google
| enablefullscreen=yes
}}

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[https://mountauburn.org/ Mount Auburn Cemetery]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

National Mall

2019-12-30T18:34:30Z

L-Baradel: /* Overview */

The '''National Mall''' is a broad, tree-lined [[green]] in Washington, DC, that extends from the foot of Capitol Hill to the [[Washington Monument (Washington, DC)|Washington Monument]]. It is a public space used for recreational activities, cultural events, and democratic discourse. Museums and gardens flank the north and south sides. The United States Capitol building lies to the east and the monuments of West Potomac Park lie to the west. Both as a national icon and a civic space, the Mall is a key landmark of the nation’s capital.

==Overview==
'''Alternate Names:''' Public Grounds<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1791 to present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' U.S. National Park Service<br/>
'''Associated People:''' [[Pierre-Charles L’Enfant]] (1754–1825, urban designer); [[Robert Mills]] (1781–1855, architect); [[Andrew Jackson Downing]] (1815–1852, landscape designer)<br/>
'''Location:''' Washington, DC<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/National+Mall/@38.88962,-77.022977,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89b7b79b5aff3d31:0x3a08ab4ca2062741 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[File:0071.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, Thomas Jefferson, Plan for the City of Washington, March 1791.]]
The origins of the National Mall can be traced to a preliminary plan for the city of Washington sketched by [[Thomas Jefferson]] in March 1791. [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] laid out the city in a gridiron formation, envisioning the Capitol building and the President’s House as opposite ends of a prominent east-west axis connected by "public [[walk]]s" [Fig. 1].<ref>Richard W. Stephenson, ''“A Plan Whol[l]y New”: Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s Plan of the City of Washington'' (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1993), 17–19, see also 38–43, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Q3WX7W32 view on Zotero]; Therese O’Malley, “Art and Science in American Landscape Architecture: The National Mall, Washington, DC 1791–1852,” PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1989, 15–21, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TQVME883 view on Zotero].</ref> Over the next several months, the military engineer [[Pierre-Charles L’Enfant]] expanded upon [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson's]] ideas in his official plan for the city, which adapted abstract geometry to the natural topography of the site, which featured a [[park]]-like setting of rolling hills, a wooded terrain, and proximity to the Potomac River. <span id="LEnfant_Grand_cite"></span>Influenced by recent developments in French urban planning, [[Pierre-Charles L’Enfant|L’Enfant’s]] ambitious design called for a “Grand [[Avenue]], 400 feet in breadth, and about a mile in length” leading from “the Congress Garden” on Jenkins Hill (now Capitol Hill) to the “President’s [[park]]” and a “well-improved field” near the banks of the Potomac, which would be the site of a projected equestrian [[statue]] of [[George Washington]] ([[#LEnfant_Grand|view text]]). The [[view]] from that point back to the Capitol would feature a [[cascade]] falling from a height of forty feet down to a [[canal]] running alongside the Mall to the Potomac. <span id="LEnfant_resort_cite"></span>[[Pierre-Charles L’Enfant|L’Enfant]] conceived of the wide urban [[avenue]] as a social as well as a scenic space: a “place of general resort,” bordered by gardens and the stately residences of the city’s elite, as well as playhouses, assembly rooms, academies, “and all such sort of places as may be attractive to the l[e]arned and afford diver[s]ion to the idle” ([[#LEnfant_resort|view text]]).<ref>Michael J. Lewis, “The Idea of the American Mall,” in ''The National Mall: Rethinking Washington’s Monumental Core'', ed. Nathan Glazer and Cynthia R. Field (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 13–15, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/96G2E377 view on Zotero]; Pamela Scott, “‘This Vast Empire’: The Iconography of the Mall, 1791–1848,” in ''The Mall in Washington'', ed. Richard Longstreth, Studies in the History of Art, Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, Symposium Papers, XIV (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1991), 39–40 and 55, n.20, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/N4WS8QU7 view on Zotero]; O’Malley 1989, 26–48, 95–97,[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TQVME883 view on Zotero]; H. Paul Caemmerer, ''The Life of Pierre-Charles L’Enfant, Planner of the City Beautiful, The City of Washington'' (Washington, DC: National Republic Publishing Company, 1950), 151–53, 157–59, 163–65, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/PHWTAERT view on Zotero].</ref> [[Pierre-Charles L’Enfant|L’Enfant]] would later remark that he “changed the whole face of the city ground, from a savage wilderness into a compleat heden [''sic''] garden.”<ref>O’Malley 1989, 50, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TQVME883 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:0414.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 2, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, ''Plan of the west end of the public appropriation in the city of Washington, called the Mall, as proposed to be arranged for the site of the university'', 1816.]]
Development of the Mall stalled over the next several decades while a variety of alternative plans were advanced. [[Benjamin Henry Latrobe]], then Supervising Architect of the United States Capitol, proposed a design in 1815 that called for a [[canal]] originating in a circular basin at the foot of the Capitol and running the full length of the Mall to a [[cascade]] and lagoon at the opposite end [Fig. 2]. Nothing came of this proposal, nor of others advanced by the architects Charles Bulfinch (in 1822) and [[Robert Mills]] (in 1831).<ref>Scott 1991, 46–50, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/N4WS8QU7 view on Zotero].</ref> Sections of the Mall were cultivated on a piecemeal basis; for example, in 1821 the [[Columbian Institute]] began carrying out improvements on five acres at the Mall’s east end for a [[botanical garden]], which included cultivating a [[hedge]] enclosure, excavating an elliptical [[pond]] with an island, laying out gravel [[walk]]s, and planting [[border]]s with specimens of native and exotic trees and shrubs.<ref>Scott 1991, 46, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/N4WS8QU7 view on Zotero]; Therese O’Malley, “‘Your Garden Must Be a Museum to You’: Early American Botanic Gardens,” ''Huntington Library Quarterly'' 59 (1996): 218–20, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/GD2JQTRB view on Zotero]; O’Malley, 1989, 122–36,[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TQVME883 view on Zotero].</ref>

<div id="Fig_3"></div>[[File:0033.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 3, Robert Mills, ''Plan of the Mall'', Washington, DC, 1841. [[#Fig_3_cite|Back to texts]]]]
In 1841, as part of his design for the building that would ultimately house the Smithsonian Institution, [[Robert Mills]] submitted a comprehensive plan for a great public [[park]] extending from the [[Washington Monument (Washington, DC)|Washington Monument]] to the Capitol. As conceived by [[Robert Mills|Mills]], the Mall would be laid out as a [[picturesque]] assemblage of gardens of contrasting styles: informal plantings and serpentine paths in the [[English style]] surrounding the [[Washington Monument (Washington, DC)|Washington Monument]] and [[botanic garden]]s would be contrasted with more formal, [[Geometric style|geometric]] plantings near the Capitol [Fig. 3]. [[Robert Mills|Mills’s]] design was novel for its holistic integration of architecture and landscape, as well as for its botanical emphasis, which reflected the influence of the contemporary English theory of the [[gardenesque]] formulated by [[J. C. Loudon]].<ref>O’Malley 1989, 150–51, 158–61, 169–72, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TQVME883 view on Zotero].</ref> At the same time, [[Robert Mills|Mills’s]] design was consistent with the long-held objective of locating a publicly accessible [[botanic garden]] in the nation’s capital—an idea first broached in the 1790s by influential advocates including [[George Washington]] and [[Thomas Jefferson]].<ref>O’Malley 1996, 213–26, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/GD2JQTRB view on Zotero]; Scott 1991, 48–49, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/N4WS8QU7 view on Zotero]; O’Malley 1989, 98–105, 112, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TQVME883 view on Zotero].</ref> [[Robert Mills|Mills’s]] plan had little immediate impact on the landscaping of the Mall, which remained in a undeveloped state in 1845, when a member of the Smithsonian Institution Building Committee “urged the expediency and policy of rescuing the Mall from its present state of degradation and of ornamenting it at least with the different trees of this country, and protecting it with a decent enclosure.”<ref>Quoted in O’Malley 1989, 181, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TQVME883 view on Zotero].</ref> That same year, 2,000 indigenous trees (representing 200 species and varieties) were planted on the Mall, and additional plantings and enclosures were added in the years that followed.<ref>O’Malley 1989, 180–82, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TQVME883 view on Zotero].</ref> [[Robert Mills's]] conception of the Mall as a locus for scientific inquiry and display, and his adoption of the romantic aesthetic of [[natural style|naturalism]] set the tone for future landscaping of the area.
[[File:1967.jpg|thumb|Fig. 4, [[A. J. Downing]], ''Plan showing proposed method of laying out the public grounds at Washington'', 1851.]]

<span id="Downing_cite"></span>Botanical interests informed the landscape plan designed in 1851 by the architect and horticulturalist [[Andrew Jackson Downing]], who conceived of the Mall as “a national [[park]]” and a “public museum of living trees and shrubs” that would both influence taste by providing an example of the [[natural style]] of landscape gardening (illustrated by a sequence of contrasting landscape “scenes”), and educate visitors to the popular and scientific names, habits, and growth of botanical specimens suited to Washington’s climate ([[#Downing|view text]]) [Fig. 4].<ref>Thomas J. Schlereth, “Early North American Arboreta,” ''Garden History'' 35 (2007): 211–13, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Z265TMPB view on Zotero]; Kirk Savage, ''Monument Wars: Washington, DC, the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial'' (Berkeley, Los Angelos: University of California Press, 2005), 70–73, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WNN7I268 view on Zotero]; Therese O’Malley, “‘A Public Museum of Trees’: Mid-Nineteenth Century Plans for the Mall,” in Longstreth, 1991, 65–72, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/IV2DGE4I view on Zotero]; O’Malley 1989, 196–98, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TQVME883 view on Zotero].</ref> Rather than carry out [[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing's]] plan systematically, individual federal agencies developed portions of the Mall on an ad hoc basis, creating a loosely connected network of meandering [[walk]]s, gardens, and [[grove]]s.<ref>Savage 2005, 75, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WNN7I268 view on Zotero]; David C. Streatfield, “The Olmsteds and the Landscape of the Mall,” in Longstreth, 1991, 117–18, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/DF93A3NA view on Zotero]; O’Malley 1991, 72, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/IV2DGE4I view on Zotero].</ref> Under the McMillan Plan of 1902, the existing landscape was cleared and leveled in order to create a more unified, open space with unobstructed [[vista]]s in keeping with the spirit of [[Pierre-Charles L’Enfant|L’Enfant's]] original plan. Landscape and hardscape construction projects continue to reshape the Mall and its surroundings into the 21st century. <ref>Peter R. Penczer, ''The Washington National Mall'' (Arlington, VA: Oneonta Press, 2007), 21–121, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/UCQQK7BW view on Zotero]; Sue Kohler and Pamela Scott, eds., ''Designing the Nation’s Capital: The 1901 Plan for Washington, DC'' (Washington, DC: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2006), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4MKGI88M view on Zotero]; Savage 2005, 147–313, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WNN7I268 view on Zotero]; Therese O’Malley, “The Mall: 1992–2002,” in Longstreth, 2002, ix–xii, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/CFKB97I4/q/2002 view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Robyn Asleson''

<hr>

==Texts==
[[File:2095.jpg|thumb|Fig. 5, Pierre-Charles L’Enfant, ''Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of t[he] United States'', 1791.]]
*<div id="LEnfant_resort"></div>[[Pierre-Charles L’Enfant|L’Enfant, Pierre-Charles]], June 22, 1791, describing in a report to [[George Washington]] his plans for Washington, DC (quoted in Caemmerer 1950: 151–53)<ref>Caemmerer 1950, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/PHWTAERT/ view on Zotero].</ref> [[#LEnfant_resort_cite|back up to History]]

:“I placed the three grand Departments of State contigous to the principle Palace and on the way leading to the Congressional House the gardens of the one together with the [[park]] and other improvement on the dependency are connected with the publique [[walk]] and [[avenue]] to the Congress house in a manner as most [must] form a whole as grand as it will be agreeable and convenient to the whole city which form [from] the distribution of the local [locale] will have an early access to this place of general resort and all along side of which may be placed play houses, room of assembly, accademies and all such sort of places as may be attractive to the learned and afford diversion to the idle.” [Fig. 5]

*[[Pierre-Charles L’Enfant|L’Enfant, Pierre-Charles]], August 19, 1791, describing his plans for Washington, DC (quoted in Caemmerer 1950: 157)<ref>Caemmerer 1950, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/PHWTAERT view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The grand [[avenue]] connecting the palace and the Federal House will be magnificent, with the water of the [[cascade]] [falling] to the [[canal]] which will extend to the Potomac; as also the several [[square]]s which are intended for the Judiciary Courts, the National Bank, the grand Church, the play house, markets and exchange, offering a variety of situations unparallelled for beauty, suitable for every purpose, and in every point convenient, calculated to command the highest price at a sale.”

[[File:1134.jpg|thumb|Fig. 6, Facsimile reproduction of Pierre-Charles L’Enfant’s ''Plan of the City intended for the Permanent Seat of the Government of the United States'', made in 1887.]]
*<div id="LEnfant_Grand"></div>[[Pierre-Charles L’Enfant|L’Enfant, Pierre-Charles]], January 4, 1792, from notes on “Plan of the City” describing Washington, DC (quoted in Caemmerer 1950: 163–65)<ref>Caemmerer 1950, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/PHWTAERT view on Zotero].</ref> [[#LEnfant_Grand_cite|back up to History]]

:“F. Grand [[Cascade]], formed of water from the sources of the Tiber.

:“G. Public [[walk]], being a square of 1200 feet, through which carriages may ascend to the upper [[Square]] of the Federal House.

:“H. Grand [[Avenue]], 400 feet in breadth, and about a mile in length, bordered with gardens, ending in a [[slope]] from the houses on each side. This [[Avenue]] leads to Monument A and connects the Congress Garden with the

:“I. President’s [[park]] and the

:“K. well-improved field. . . .” [Fig. 6]

*[[Robert Mills]], c. 1804, describing the National Mall (quoted in Gallagher 1935: 1927)<ref>H. M. Pierce Gallagher, ''Robert Mills, Architect of the Washington Monument, 1781–1855'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1935), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/GC3NPRZJ view on Zotero].</ref>

:“It is a most commanding and beautiful [[prospect]], variegated with [[wood]]s, cleared land, gentle [[mount]]s and vales, and the waters of the Potomac and Tiber Rivers in the distant [[view]]; while there is revealed a glimpse of the navy yard where eight frigates of the United States Navy lie in mooring.”

*Anonymous, January 2, 1808, describing in the ''Washington Expositor'' the National Mall, Washington, DC (quoted in O’Malley 1989: 99–100)<ref>O’Malley 1989, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/IJ3JTTJB view on Zotero].</ref>

:“At present these large appropriations afford an increase to the pasturage of the city, more beneficial to the poor citizens, than their culture in the ordinary courses. . . . by laying off those in their occupancy so as to afford ample [[walk]]s open at seasonable hours and under proper regulations to the public, it will give to the city, much earlier than there is otherwise reasonable cause to hope for, agreeable [[promenade]]s, as conducive to the health of the inhabitants, as to the beauty of the places.”

*Hunt, Henry, William P. Elliot, and William Thornton, 1826, describing the National Mall, Washington, DC (U.S. Congress, 19th Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, doc. 123, book 138)

:“That, with a view to promote the public good, and to ornament and improve the [[public ground|public grounds]], they would recommend that the water of Tiber Creek be brought to the Capitol [[Square]]; and, after forming a reservoir, be carried in pipes to the [[Botanic Garden]], and thrown up in a [[jet|jet d'eau]] of 30 or 40 feet high, and then be used in watering the surrounding grounds. That a [[wall]] five feet high, with a stone coping, be put round the ground appropriated for a [[Botanic Garden]]; and that suitable buildings be erected, and the Garden be properly laid out, and cultivated as a National Garden; to effect which important national objects, a sum not exceeding 30,000 dollars will be required.”

*Commissioner of Public Buildings, June 9, 1827, describing the [[Columbian Institute]], Washington, DC (quoted in O’Malley 1989: 133)<ref>O’Malley 1989, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/IJ3JTTJB view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The new section of the Washington [[Canal]] was laid out along a line drawn through the middle of the Capitol and of the Mall. The pathway, [[canal]] and [[plantation]] in the garden do not coincide with this line, but diverge from it at an acute angle.”

*Bulfinch, Charles, January 21, 1829, proposal to the House Committee on Public Buildings regarding the National Mall, Washington, DC (quoted in Rathburn 1917: 49)<ref>Richard Rathburn, “The Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences,” ''United States National Museum’s Bulletin'' 101 (1917): 45–46. [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VKURU987 view on Zotero]</ref>

:“The Capitol being now finished with the exception of these particular objects, I beg leave to suggest that the [[public ground|public grounds]] immediately adjacent should conform in some degree to the importance and high finish of the building.”

*[[Robert Mills|Mills, Robert]], c. 1841, in a letter to Robert Dale Owen, describing the proposed Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (Scott, ed., 1990: n.p.)<ref>Pamela Scott, ''The Papers of Robert Mills'' (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1990), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/9CEBJWW8 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Three spacious [[avenue]]s (of the city) center within these grounds, which at some future day when improved will form three interesting [[vista]]s.”

*[[Robert Mills|Mills, Robert]], February 23?, 1841, in a letter to Joel R. Poinsett, describing his design for the National Mall, Washington, DC (Scott, ed., 1990: n.p.)<ref> Scott 1990, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/9CEBJWW8 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Agreeably to your requisition to prepare a plan of improvement to that part of the [[Mall]] lying between 7th and 12th Street West for a [[botanic garden]] . . . I have the honor to submit the following Report. . . .

:“Drawing No. 1 presents a general plan of the entire [[Mall]], including that annexed to the President’s house, with the particular improvement proposed of that part intended for the Institution and its objects. . . .[<span id="Fig_3_cite"></span>[[#Fig_3|See Fig. 3]]]

:“The relative position of the Capitol, President’s House, and other public buildings are laid down, as also the position of the proposed buildings for the Institution; the adjacent streets and [[avenue]]s are also shown, with the line of the [[Canal]] which courses through the City, at the foot of the Capitol hill to the Eastern Branch near the Navy Yard, thus making of the south western section, a complete island. . . .

:“The principle upon which this plan is founded is two fold, one is to provide suitable space for a [[Botanic garden]], the other to provide locations for subjects allied to agriculture, the propagation of useful and ornamental trees native and foreign, the provision of sites for the erection of suitable buildings to accommodate the various subjects to be lectured on and taught in the Institution. . . .

:“The [[Botanic garden]] is laid out in the centre fronting and opening to the south. On each side of this the grounds are laid out in serpentine [[walk]]s and in [[picturesque]] divisions forming [[plat]]s for grouping the various trees to be introduced and creating shady [[walk]]s for those visiting the establishments. . . .

:“A range of trees is proposed to surround three sides of the [[square]] which is intended to be laid open by an iron or other railing, the north side to be enclosed with a high brick wall to serve as a shelter and to secure the various [[hothouse|hot houses]] and other buildings of inferior character.

:“The main building for the Institution is located about 300 feet south of the [[wall]] fronting the [[Botanic garden]], from which it is separated by a circular road, in the centre of which is a [[fountain]] of water from the [[basin]] of which pipes are led underground thro’ the [[walk]]s of the garden, for irrigating the same at pleasure, the [[fountain]]s may be supplied from the [[canal]] flowing near the north [[wall]] of inclosure. . . .

:“By means of Groups and [[vista]]s of trees, [[picturesque]] [[view]]s may be obtained of the various buildings and other such objects as may be of a monumental character and thus there would be an attraction produced which would draw many of our citizens and strangers to partake of the pleasure of promenading here.”

*Mudd, Ignatius, 1849, describing the grounds of the United States Capitol and the reconstruction of the National Mall, Washington, DC (U.S. Congress, 31st Congress, 1st Session, doc. 30)

:“A disposition on the part of Congress to make the [[public ground|public grounds]] what they were originally designed to be. . . . An ornament and attraction to the capital of the nation.”

*[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], December, 1851, “The State and Prospects of Horticulture” (''Horticulturist'' 6: 540–41)<ref>Andrew Jackson Downing, “The State and Prospects of Horticulture,” ''Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste'' 6, no. 12 (December 1851): 537–41, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/XR68IJEG view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The plan [for a [[public ground]] in Washington] embraces four or five miles of carriage-[[drive]]—[[walk]]s for pedestrians—[[pond]]s of water, [[fountain]]s and [[statue]]s—[[picturesque]] groupings of trees and shrubs, and a complete collection of all the trees that belong to North America. It will, if carried out as it has been undertaken, undoubtedly give a great impetus to the popular taste in [[landscape gardening|landscape-gardening]] and the culture of ornamental trees; and as the climate of Washington is one peculiarly adapted to this purpose—this national [[park]] may be made a sylvan museum such as it would be difficult to equal in beauty and variety in any part of the world.”

[[File:0023.jpg|thumb|Fig. 7, A. J. Downing, ''Plan Showing Proposed Method of Laying Out the Public Grounds at Washington'', 1851. Manuscript copy by Nathaniel Michler, 1867.]]
*<div id="Downing"></div>[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], 1851, describing plans for improving the [[public ground|public grounds]] in Washington, DC (quoted in Washburn 1967: 54–55)<ref>Wilcomb E. Washburn, “Vision of Life for the Mall,” ''AIA Journal'' 47, no. 3 (March 1967): 52–59. [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TA59MHC7 view on Zotero]</ref> [[#Downing_cite|back up to History]]

:“My object in this Plan has been three-fold:

:“1st: To form a national [[Park]], which should be an ornament to the Capital of the United States; 2nd: To give an example of the [[natural style]] of [[landscape gardening|Landscape Gardening]] which may have an influence on the general taste of the Country; 3rd: To form a collection of all the trees that will grown in the climate of Washington, and, by having these trees plainly labelled with their popular and scientific names, to form a public museum of living trees and shrubs where every person visiting Washington could become familiar with the habits and growth of all the hardy trees. [Fig. 7]

:“The [[public ground|Public Grounds]] now to be improved I have arranged so as to form six different and distinct scenes: viz.

:“1st: The President’s [[Park]] or Parade.

:“This comprises the open Ground directly south of the President’s House. Adopting suggestions made me at Washington I propose to keep the large area of this ground open, as a place for parade or military reviews, as well as public festivities or celebrations. A circular carriage [[drive]] 40 feet wide and nearly a mile long shaded by an [[avenue]] of Elms, surrounds the Parade, while a series of foot-paths, 10 feet wide, winding through [[thicket]]s of trees and shrubs, forms the boundary to this [[park]], and would make an agreeable shaded [[promenade]] for pedestrians.

:“I propose to take down the present small stone [[gate]]s to the President’s Grounds, and place at the end of Pennsylvania Avenue a large and handsome [[arch|Archway]] of marble, which shall not only form the main entrance from the City to the whole of the proposed new Grounds, but shall also be one of the principal Architectural ornaments of the city; inside of this [[arch]]-way is a semicircle with three [[gate]]s commanding three carriage roads. Two of these lead into the Parade or President’s [[Park]], the third is a private carriage-[[drive]] into the President’s grounds; this [[gate]] should be protected by a Porter’s lodge, and should only be open on reception days, thus making the President’s grounds on this side of the house quite private at all other times. . . .

:“2nd: Monument [[Park]].

:“This comprises the fine [[plot]] of ground surrounding the [[Washington Monument (Washington, DC)|Washington monument]] and bordered by the Potomac. To reach it from the President’s [[Park]] I propose to cross the [[canal]] by a wire suspension [[bridge]], sufficiently strong for carriages, which would permit vessels of moderate size to pass under it, and would be an ornamental feature in the grounds. I propose to plant Monument [[Park]] wholly with ''American'' trees, of large growth, disposed in open groups, so as to al[l]ow of fine [[vista]]s of the Potomac river. . . .

:“4th: Smithsonian [[Park]] or [[pleasure ground|Pleasure Grounds]].

:“An arrangement of choice trees in the [[natural style]], the plots near the Institution would be thickly planted with the rarest trees and shrubs, to give greater seclusion and beauty to its immediate precincts.

:“5th: [[Fountain]] [[Park]].

:“This [[Park]] would be chiefly remarkable for its water features. The [[Fountain]] would be supplied from a [[basin]] in the Capitol. The [[pond]] or [[lake]] might either be formed from the overflow of this [[fountain]], or from a filtering drain from the [[canal]]. The earth that would be excavated to form this [[pond]] is needed to fill up low places now existing in this portion of the grounds.

:“6th: The [[Botanic Garden]].

:“This is the spot already selected for this purpose and containing three [[greenhouse|green-houses]]. It will probably at some future time, be filled with a collection of hardy plants. I have only shown how the carriage-[[drive]] should pass through it (Crossing the [[canal]] again here) and making the exit by a large [[gateway]] opposite the middle [[gate]] of the Capitol Grounds. . . .

:“The pleasing natural undulations of surface, where they occur, I propose to retain, instead of expending money in reducing them to a level. The surface of the [[Park]]s, generally, should be kept in grass or [[lawn]], and mown by the ''mowing machine'' used in England, by which, with a man and horse, the labor of six men can be done in one day. . . .

:“A national [[Park]] like this, laid out and planted in a thorough manner, would exercise as much influence on the public taste as [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]] near Boston, has done. Though only twenty years have elapsed since that spot was laid out, the lesson there taught has been so largely influential that at the present moment the United States, while they have no public [[park]]s, are acknowledged to possess the finest rural [[cemetery|cemeteries]] in the world. The [[public ground|Public Grounds]] at Washington treated in the manner I have here suggested, would undoubtedly become a Public School of Instruction in every thing that relates to the tasteful arrangement of [[park]]s and grounds, and the growth and culture of trees, while they would serve, more than anything else that could be devised, to embellish and give interest to the Capital. The straight lines and broad [[Avenue]]s of the streets of Washington would be pleasantly relieved and contrasted by the beauty of curved lines and natural groups of trees in the various [[park]]s. By its numerous public buildings and broad [[Avenue]]s, Washington will one day command the attention of every stranger, and if its un-improved [[public ground|public grounds]] are tastefully improved they will form the most perfect background or setting to the City, concealing many of its defects and heightening all its beauties.”

<hr>

==Images==
<span id="roundabout_img"></span>
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:0071.jpg|Thomas Jefferson, Plan for the City of Washington, March 1791.

Image:2095.jpg|Pierre-Charles L’Enfant, ''Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of t[he] United States'', 1791.

Image:1134.jpg|Facsimile reproduction of Pierre-Charles L’Enfant’s ''Plan of the City intended for the Permanent Seat of the Government of the United States'', made in 1887.

Image:0414.jpg|Benjamin Henry Latrobe, ''Plan of the west end of the public appropriation in the city of Washington, called the Mall, as proposed to be arranged for the site of the university'', 1816.

Image:0033.jpg|Robert Mills, ''Plan of the Mall'', Washington, DC, 1841.

Image:1835.jpg|Robert Mills, ''Sketch of the Washington Nat’l. Monumt.'', 1845.

Image:0110.jpg|Joseph Goldsborough Bruff (artist), Edward Weber & Co. (lithographer), ''Elements of National Thrift and Empire'', c. 1847.

Image:0428.jpg|Edward Weber, ''View of Washington City and Georgetown'' [detail], 1849.

Image:0025.jpg|Robert P. Smith, ''View of Washington'', c. 1850.

Image:0111.jpg|Seth Eastman, ''Washington’s Monument, Under Construction'', November 16, 1851.

Image:1967.jpg|A. J. Downing, ''Plan Showing Proposed Method of Laying Out the Public Grounds at Washington'', 1851.

Image:0023.jpg|A. J. Downing, ''Plan Showing Proposed Method of Laying Out the Public Grounds at Washington'', 1851. Manuscript copy by Nathaniel Michler, 1867.

Image:0042.jpg|Benjamin Franklin Smith Jr., ''Washington, DC with projected improvements'', c. 1852.
</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85080159.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[http://tclf.org/landscapes/national-mall?destination=search-results The Cultural Landscape Foundation]

[http://www.nps.gov/nationalmallplan/History.html National Mall Plan (National Park Service)]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category: Places]]

Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane

2019-12-30T18:27:10Z

L-Baradel: /* History */

'''The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane''', opened in 1841 on a rural site on the west side of the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia, was considered one of the premiere mental asylums during the nineteenth century. In accordance with the institution’s “moral treatment” philosophy, many patients were granted daily access to the hospital’s pleasure grounds and working farm. The institution’s superintendent, Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, believed that regular access to the outdoors was an essential component of therapeutic treatment for his patients.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Kirkbride’s Hospital; Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases; The Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1841–1997<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Thomas Story Kirkbride (superintendent and chief physician, 1841–1883); Isaac Holden (architect, c. 1835–1838); Samuel Sloan (construction manager and architect, 1838–1841 and 1856–1859) <br/>
'''Location:''' Philadelphia, PA<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/iRtvo3R5f6XHPxEXA View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane was one of the premiere facilities for treating mental disorders during the nineteenth century, drawing residential patients from across the United States. It opened under the direction of the superintendent Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809–1883), a Quaker physician who advocated for “moral treatment” therapeutic principles, arguing that patients should have regular schedules to encourage self-control, eat healthy food, exercise, and have frequent access to the outdoors.<ref>“Moral treatment” grew out of asylum reform movements in England and France during the late eighteenth century. It advocated “freeing chronic patients from physical restraint and treating them as capable of rational behavior.” Nancy Tomes, ''A Generous Confidence: Thomas Story Kirkbride and the Art of Asylum-Keeping, 1840–1883'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 21, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]. See also Carla Yanni, ''The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States'' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero].</ref> The facility’s surrounding landscape became an essential component of therapeutic treatment for patients at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, and the hospital’s design, which was popularized by Kirkbride’s 1854 treatise ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'', influenced the designs of asylums subsequently constructed across the United States.<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'' (Philadelphia, 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RSAEUT7R view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1103.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 1, W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.]]
The original hospital building opened in 1841 on a 111-acre site near the village of Blockley, located on the west side of the Schuylkill River approximately two miles outside of the city of Philadelphia [Fig. 1]. This facility, located at the intersection of 44th and Market streets, took advantage of the inexpensive land, fertile soil, and increased privacy that the rural location afforded. It also provided more space and better conditions for treating mental health patients who were previously housed at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Center City Philadelphia.<ref>Tomes 1984, 1, 5–6, 19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]; and Yanni 2007, 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2231.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 2, Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives.]]
The first hospital building, designed by the English architect Isaac Holden (d. 1884), accommodated 160 patients. The building’s design took advantage of the site’s wooded landscape by framing [[picturesque]] [[view]]s through the wards’ windows and the stone Doric [[portico]]es erected on the eastern and western facades. As seen in this plan [Fig. 2], two smaller buildings flanked either side of the main building’s wards. These u-shaped wards were reserved for the most violent and disruptive patients, who gained access to the outdoors in interior [[courtyard]]s that were surrounded on three sides by the building. [[Flower garden]]s were visible (but not physically accessible) from the fourth side.<ref>Holden oversaw the beginning of the building’s construction before he returned to England in 1838. After Holden’s departure, Samuel Sloan oversaw the rest of the building’s construction until its completion in 1841. Yanni 2007, 38–39, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero]; and Tomes 1984, 37, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref>

Kirkbride, who was hired by the Pennsylvania Hospital’s Board of Managers to run the new facility shortly before it opened, “played no part in the preliminary planning for the institution,” according to the scholar Nancy Tomes.<ref>Kirkbride was named superintendent on October 12, 1840. Tomes 1984, 149, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref> Because of this, the hospital did not align closely with Kirkbride’s philosophy for treating mental disorders or provide the institutional environment that he felt best served these goals. Kirkbride objected, in particular, to the layout of the hospital’s wards, and he attempted to make some modifications to the building’s design, overseeing an expansion that increased the hospital’s capacity to 250 patients by the late 1840s.<ref>Tomes 1984, 150, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1097.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 3, Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.]]
Despite his disappointment with the hospital’s built-environment, Kirkbride saw a great deal of potential in improving the grounds.<ref>Tomes 1984, 151, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref> He considered the landscape to be an essential component of therapeutic treatment, an idea that he drew from British models that adapted “the aristocratic landscape [[park]]” to suit patients’ medical needs, as well as from the example of the Worcester State Hospital in Massachusetts.<ref>Sarah Rutherford, “To Soothe and Cure Troubled Minds,” ''Historic Gardens Review'' 10 (Spring/Summer 2002): 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/36GHF9ZU view on Zotero.]</ref> As depicted in detailed plans and described by Kirkbride in his writings, he quickly laid out separate [[pleasure garden]]s for male and female patients; constructed [[walk]]s, [[flower garden]]s and a vegetable garden, [[summerhouse]]s, and a [[deer park]]; and oversaw the construction of a [[greenhouse]] [Fig. 3]. A ten-and-a-half-foot [[wall]] enclosed the gardens, shielding patients from the prying eyes of curious visitors and preventing patients from escaping the facility. Access to the landscape was dictated, to some degree, by a patient’s social class. More affluent patients frequently spent their days taking carriage rides through the grounds, while working-class male patients often labored in the hospital garden in exchange for reduced room and board payments. <span id="Kirkbride_cite"></span>Of the 111-acre farm purchased by the hospital’s Board of Managers, approximately forty-one acres were transformed into gardens, and the remaining seventy acres of land became the hospital’s farm, where fields of grains and vegetables were cultivated to feed the inmates and a large dairy supplied the hospital with milk and cream ([[#Kirkbride|view text]]).
[[File:2232.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 4, Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.]]

In 1856, due to overcrowded conditions in the existing facility, Kirkbride commissioned the architect Samuel Sloan (1815–1884) to design a second, slightly larger hospital less than one mile away from the first building on the grounds of the hospital farm at 49th Street.<ref>Tomes 1984, 154, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]. This later building, known as the “Kirkbride Building” and located on Forty-ninth street between Haverford and Market streets, is still extant.</ref> Male patients moved into the new building [Fig. 4] in 1859, and the first hospital became dedicated to the treatment of female residents. The two hospitals were separated by a creek, and each had [[pleasure ground]]s and vegetable and [[flower garden]]s laid out in close proximity to the wards, [Fig. 5]. Outdoor space remained an essential component of psychiatric therapy at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane.Many patients had regular access to [[pleasure ground]]s, gardens, and a [[deer park]], and they were encouraged to walk the grounds or take carriage rides daily.<ref>Yanni 2007, 71, 73, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero].</ref> Those who were deemed too disruptive to access the grounds without constant supervision could only glimpse the [[pleasure ground]]s from behind bars, as shown in this illustration of patients housed in the seventh ward of the Department of Males [Fig. 6].
[[File:2233.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 6, Haskell, Ebenezer. Illustration in ''The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.]]

The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane remained an influential medical institution in Philadelphia well into the twentieth century. The original 1841 hospital building, located on 44th Street, shuttered its doors in 1957, and the 49th Street facility, which is still extant, was sold when the institution ceased operations on the site in 1997.<ref>See the “Historical Timeline” on the Penn Medicine’s History of Pennsylvania Hospital Website, https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1951/.</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==

*<div id="Kirkbride"></div> Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 17–19)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Report of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the Year 1841'' (Philadelphia: Board of Managers, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FMH8M3TV view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“[[PLEASURE GROUND]] AND FARM.—Of the one hundred and eleven acres in the farm, about forty-one around the Hospital are specially appropriated as a vegetable garden and the pleasure ground of the patients, and are surrounded by a substantial stone-[[wall]]. This [[wall]] is five thousand four hundred and eighty-three feet long, and is ten and a half feet high.

:“Owing to the favourable character of the ground, the [[wall]] has been so placed that it can be seen but in a very small part of its extent, from any one position; and the enclosure is so large, that its presence exerts no unpleasant influence upon those within. Although it is probably sufficient to prevent the escape of a large proportion of the patients, that is a matter of small moment, in comparison with the quiet and privacy which it at all times affords, and the facility with which the patients are enabled to engage in labour, to take exercise, or to enjoy the active scenes which are passing around them, without fear of annoyance from the gaze of idle curiosity or the remarks of unfeeling strangers. Our location gives us the many advantages afforded by a thickly settled district, and proximity to a large city, and the wall obviates most of its disadvantages.

:"Immediately in front of the Hospital, is a [[lawn]] forming a segment of a circle, in which is a circular railroad. To the east of this, and passing into the [[wood]]s, is the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high pallisade, and forming an effectual and not unsightly division of the ground appropriated to the different sexes; from various points of which, and from the whole eastern front of the building, it is seen to much advantage.

:“The [[pleasure ground]] is beautifully undulating, interspersed with [[clump]]s and [[grove]]s of fine forest trees, and from every division of it, as well as from every room in the main Hospital, is a handsome [[view]]; either of the surrounding country and villages, the rivers in the distance, or the public roads in its immediate vicinity.

:“The [[grove]]s are fitted up with [[seat]]s, and are the favourite resort of the patients during the warm weather. That on the west, from the position of the wall, does not appear to be inclosed [sic], and offers full views of two public roads, of the farm and [[meadow]], a mill race, a fine stream of running water, and two large manufactories. The [[grove]] on the east is not less pleasant, and the views from it are equally animated. This last surrounds the [[pond]], in which is found a variety of fish.

:“On the north and south side of the building are private [[yard]]s, one hundred and seventeen feet wide, and extending two hundred feet from the return wings which form one of their sides. These [[yard]]s are enclosed by a tight board [[fence]] seven and a half feet high, and are surrounded with a brick pavement, which affords a fine [[promenade]] at all seasons.

:“The [[fence]]s around these [[yard]]s, like the [[wall]] itself, have been constructed, not so much to confine the patients, as for the sake of privacy, and to protect them from the gaze of visters [sic].

:“The remaining seventy acres, outside the wall, are cultivated by the farmer, and, with the grass obtained within it, furnish pasture and hay for the large dairy, which supplies both Hospitals with cream and milk during the whole year. From the source are also obtained some grain, and all the potatoes and other vegetables that are required in large quantities.

:“The possession of this property is of great importance to the Hospital, for the purposes just indicated; but its principal value consists in giving control of a body of land always in view from the western side of the building; and above all, in affording ample opportunities for agricultural labour to those patients who have been accustomed to such employment before entering the Hospital. Without a small farm, an insane hospital, receiving all classes of patients, cannot be perfect in its arrangements.

:“The buildings which were on the farm at the time of purchase, (in addition to the residence of the Physician within the enclosure) consist of a comfortable house for the farmer, an adjoining one for the gardener, a spring-house, an [[icehouse|ice-house]], coach-house, barn, &c., outside of the [[wall]], and near the public entrance.” [[#Kirkbride_cite|back up to History]]

*Buckingham, James Silk, 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 1:400–01)<ref>James Silk Buckingham, ''America, Historical, Statistic, and Descriptive'', 2 vols. (New York: Harper, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PIANFMVK? view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[greenhouse]]s, containing a handsome collection of exotic plants, together with the ornamental [[lawn]]s in front and rear of the house, are under the care of a regular gardener. The attention paid to neatness, and even ornament, in the exterior and interior of the house, gives to the whole an air of elegance seldom equalled in establishments of this nature.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1844, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 24–25)<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for The Insane, with a Sketch of its History, Buildings, and Organization'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/2CWBK2G6 view on Zotero]</ref>

[[File:1104.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 7, Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.]]
:“IMPROVEMENT OF THE [[pleasure ground|PLEASURE GROUNDS]]. – During the year just closed, the prosecution of contemplated improvements upon the forty-one acres which compose our pppleasure ground]]s, and are within the enclosure, has also furnished a great variety of interesting employment to various classes of patients. Many trees and [[shrubbery|shrubs]] have been planted; flower [[border]]s have been enlarged and improved; the brick [[walk]]s, for use when the ground is soft or covered with snow, have been extended; other [[walk]]s have been laid out through the different [[grove]]s, and covered with tan, and their extension, now in progress, will give us more than a mile in the men’s division, and nearly as much in that appropriated to the females. These [[walk]]s have been so located as to embrace our finest and most diversified [[view]]s, to wind through the [[wood]]s and [[clump]]s of trees which are scattered through the enclosure; and among them, it is hoped, will soon be seen [[summerhouse|summer-house]]s, rustic [[seat]]s, and other objects of interest, to tempt the patients voluntarily to prolong their walks, and to spend a greater portion of their time out of the wards, and engaged in some agreeable occupation. [Fig. 7]

:“The importance and utility of having the grounds about an insane hospital highly cultivated and improved, and everything in perfect order, is much greater than is generally supposed. It exercises a beneficial influence on all patients and on their friends. The good taste of many enables them to appreciate all such things in detail, many are pleased with them as a whole and even those who are not capable of realizing their beauties, still have an indistinct recollection of something pleasant in connexion with them. . . .

:“A surprising degree of interest is frequently excited among the patients, by having everything done in the neatest and best manner, by having fixtures and apparatus of the most approved kinds, and all the buildings and arrangements showing a peculiar fitness for the purposes for which they are intended. It is where these principles are fully carried out, that a farm, a garden, and various other external matters, become truly valuable aids in the management of the insane.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1845, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (quoted in Hawkins 1991: 105–6)<ref>Kenneth Hawkins, “The Therapeutic Landscape: Nature, Architecture, and Mind in Nineteenth-Century America” (PhD diss., University of Rochester, 1991), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UVDGPDHG view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“ . . . it would be easy in a few years to have within our enclosure, a specimen of every tree that will live in this climate, and I know of no spot near Philadelphia, where a complete [[arboretum]] could be established with less trouble, or be a subject of greater interest or more utility than upon the 41 acres which compose our [[pleasure ground]].”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1847, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 22)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the years 1846–7–8–9 and 50'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/IS9R2SUW view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The general improvement of the pleasure grounds has not been neglected; the groves have been made a more pleasant resort for the patients;—new walks have been laid out, a large number of evergreen, and other trees planted, and the flower borders enlarged and beautified.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., April 1848, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (''American Journal of Insanity'' 4: 347–53)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, “Description of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, with Remarks,” ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4, no. 4 (April 1848): 347–54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9RWM2FH8 view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s and farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, as shown in the accompanying plan, comprise a tract of one hundred and ten acres of well improved land, lying two miles west of the City of Philadelphia, between the Westchester and Haverford roads, on the latter of which is the only [[gate]] of entrance.

:“Of this land, forty-one and three-quarter acres constitute the [[pleasure ground]]s, which surround the Hospital buildings, and are enclosed by a substantial stone [[wall]], of an average height of ten and a half feet. The remaining sixty-nine and one-quarter acres comprise the farm of the Institution.

:“From the character of the ground near the Hospital, the wall surrounding the [[pleasure ground]]s is so arranged, as to be almost entirely out of sight from the buildings, and only a small part of it can be seen from any one point within the enclosure.

:“The entrance to the enclosure is through a handsome [[gate]]-way, on the west side of which is the [[Gate]]-keeper’s Lodge, and on the opposite side is a room for laying out the dead, access to which may be had from within as well as from without the [[pleasure ground]]s.

:“Carriages drive to the western front of the centre building of the Hospital that being most convenient in every respect, but the eastern is the architectural front and of most pretensions.

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s of the two sexes are very effectually separated on the eastern side, by the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high palisade [[fence]], but the [[Park]] itself is so low that it is completely overlooked from both sides; and the different animals in it are in full view from the adjoining grounds used by the patients of both sexes.

:“At the extreme end of the [[deer-park]], it is joined by the drying-[[yard]] which completes the separation of the sexes in that direction. In this [[yard]], are the wash-house and the pump and [[pond]] from which water is raised into the tanks in the dome of the centre building. This [[pond]] is supplied from various springs on the premises, and there is ample space in the [[yard]] for drying clothes in fine weather.

:“East of the entrance is the private [[yard]] and residence of the Physician of the Institution, being the mansion house on the farm when purchased by the Hospital. The vegetable garden containing three and a half acres is next, and in it are the [[green-house]], [[hothouse|hot-beds]], seed-houses, &c. The remainder of the grounds on this side of the [[deer-park]] is specially appropriated to the use of the male patients. In this division is a fine [[grove]] of large trees, several detached [[clump]]s of various kinds and a great variety of single trees standing alone or in [[avenue]]s along the different [[walk]]s, which, of brick, gravel or tan, are for the men, more than a mile and a quarter in extent. The [[grove]]s are fitted up with seats and [[summer house]]s, and have various means of exercise and amusement connected with them.

:“There is a single private [[yard]] of good size for gentlemen who wish to be less public than in the grounds, or for those whose mental condition renders more seclusion desirable. This [[yard]] is planted with trees and had broad brick [[walk]]s passing round it. Between the north lodge and the [[deer-park]], separated from the latter by a [[Ha-Ha/Sunk fence|sunk]] palisade [[fence]], is a neat [[flower garden]].

:“In connexion with each lodge, as now enlarged or about to be, are three small [[yard]]s paved with brick, and accessible to the patients of the respective divisions with which they are connected.

:“The work-shop and lumber-[[yard]] are just within the main entrance on the west—adjoining which is a fine [[grove]], in which is the gentlemen’s ten-pin [[alley]].

:“In the [[pleasure ground]]s of the ladies, is a fine piece of [[woods]], from which the farm is overlooked, as well as both of the public roads passing along the premises, and a handsome district of country beyond. The [[wall]] here is forty feet below the platform on which the Hospital stands, and is at the foot of a steep hill, so that it is not seen at all unless persons are in it’s [sic] immediate proximity.

:“The [[summerhouse|summer-houses]], [[rustic style|rustic-seats]], exercising-swings &c., in this division are all in particularly pleasant positions. The cottage fronts the [[woods]], and in every part this portion of the grounds is completely protected from intrusion and observation.

:“The undulating character of the [[pleasure ground]]s throughout, gives them many advantages, and the brick, gravel and tan [[walk]]s for the ladies, are more than a mile in extent.

:“As on the men’s side, there is a private [[yard]] for females, and the [[flower garden|flower-garden]] in front of the lodge, and the paved [[yard]]s connected with it are similarly arranged.

:“The semi-circular [[yard]], on the western side of the main building is surrounded by flower [[border]]s, contains the circular pleasure Rail-road, and is used at different hours, by patients of both sexes.

:“In the arrangement and location of the [[walk]]s for the patients, great pains have been taken to give as much extent and variety as possible, and to bring into [[view]] objects of interest, not only within the enclosure, but in the well improved district of country immediately around the Hospital.

:“The carriage road is sufficiently extended to give a pretty thorough [[view]] of the whole grounds, and of the farm and scenery beyond. This is occasionally used very advantageously, for giving carriage exercise to patients who could not with propriety be taken to more public situations.

:“The [[fence]]s that have been put up, were rendered necessary by the uses to which the different parts of the grounds were appropriated. A large part of the palisade [[fence]]s, like those enclosing the [[deer-park]] and drying-[[yard]], were to effect the separation of the sexes, and the close [[fence]]s have been made, almost invariably, for the sole purpose of protecting the patients from observation, and giving them the proper degree of privacy.

:“The farm, partly [[meadow]]-land, is divided into fields of convenient size for cultivation. It has two pleasant [[grove]]s on it, a stone-quarry, two good springs of water, besides Mill Creek and a mill-race, which pass through it. The residence of the farmer and gardener are outside of the enclosure, as well as the [[icehouse|ice-house]], spring-house, coach-house, barn, stabling and other arrangements for a well conducted farm.

:“An outline of the ground-plan of the Hospital and other buildings is shown on the sketch. All of these are now erected and in use, except the additions of the north and south sides of the Lodge for females, which it is hoped will be completed during the coming summer. . . .

:"The cultivation of the gardens and the improvement of the [[pleasure ground]]s, offer the generality of patients the most desirable forms of labour. It is sufficiently varied, not too laborious, and in some division of it many will engage who could not be induced to assist upon the farm or in any other kind of employment, out of doors. The vegetable garden should be large enough to furnish all of that description of supplies that may be required for the institution, and may occasionally be made profitable from sales of the excess. The [[flower garden]]s should be as extensive as can be well taken care of by the inmates and persons employed in the Hospital. The good influences which these, as well as a high state of improvement about the buildings, generally produce on patients and their friends, is often of great importance.

:“If the [[pleasure ground]]s are sufficiently extensive it is desirable that the two sexes would have their portions, entirely distinct, although some parts may be used in common, under the superintendence and direction of the proper officer. Without this arrangement certain classes will be much more restricted in out-door exercise than is proper or desirable.”

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:1103.jpg|W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.

Image:2231.jpg| Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives

Image:1097.jpg|Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.

Image:1104.jpg|Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.

Image:2232.jpg| Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.

Image:2233.jpg| Haskell, Ebenezer. Illustration in ''The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83121156.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1801/tline13.html "A history of the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital," Penn Medicine]

[https://www.nps.gov/places/kirkbrides-hospital.htm Kirkbride's Hospital (National Park Service)]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane

2019-12-30T18:25:59Z

L-Baradel: /* Texts */

'''The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane''', opened in 1841 on a rural site on the west side of the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia, was considered one of the premiere mental asylums during the nineteenth century. In accordance with the institution’s “moral treatment” philosophy, many patients were granted daily access to the hospital’s pleasure grounds and working farm. The institution’s superintendent, Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, believed that regular access to the outdoors was an essential component of therapeutic treatment for his patients.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Kirkbride’s Hospital; Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases; The Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1841–1997<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Thomas Story Kirkbride (superintendent and chief physician, 1841–1883); Isaac Holden (architect, c. 1835–1838); Samuel Sloan (construction manager and architect, 1838–1841 and 1856–1859) <br/>
'''Location:''' Philadelphia, PA<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/iRtvo3R5f6XHPxEXA View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane was one of the premiere facilities for treating mental disorders during the nineteenth century, drawing residential patients from across the United States. It opened under the direction of the superintendent Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809–1883), a Quaker physician who advocated for “moral treatment” therapeutic principles, arguing that patients should have regular schedules to encourage self-control, eat healthy food, exercise, and have frequent access to the outdoors.<ref>“Moral treatment” grew out of asylum reform movements in England and France during the late eighteenth century. It advocated “freeing chronic patients from physical restraint and treating them as capable of rational behavior.” Nancy Tomes, ''A Generous Confidence: Thomas Story Kirkbride and the Art of Asylum-Keeping, 1840–1883'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 21, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]. See also Carla Yanni, ''The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States'' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero].</ref> The facility’s surrounding landscape became an essential component of therapeutic treatment for patients at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, and the hospital’s design, which was popularized by Kirkbride’s 1854 treatise ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'', influenced the designs of asylums subsequently constructed across the United States.<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'' (Philadelphia, 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RSAEUT7R view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1103.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 1, W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.]]
The original hospital building opened in 1841 on a 111-acre site near the village of Blockley, located on the west side of the Schuylkill River approximately two miles outside of the city of Philadelphia [Fig. 1]. This facility, located at the intersection of 44th and Market streets, took advantage of the inexpensive land, fertile soil, and increased privacy that the rural location afforded. It also provided more space and better conditions for treating mental health patients who were previously housed at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Center City Philadelphia.<ref>Tomes 1984, 1, 5–6, 19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]; and Yanni 2007, 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2231.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 2, Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives.]]
The first hospital building, designed by the English architect Isaac Holden (d. 1884), accommodated 160 patients. The building’s design took advantage of the site’s wooded landscape by framing [[picturesque]] [[view]]s through the wards’ windows and the stone Doric [[portico]]es erected on the eastern and western facades. As seen in this plan [Fig. 2], two smaller buildings flanked either side of the main building’s wards. These u-shaped wards were reserved for the most violent and disruptive patients, who gained access to the outdoors in interior [[courtyard]]s that were surrounded on three sides by the building. [[Flower garden]]s were visible (but not physically accessible) from the fourth side.<ref>Holden oversaw the beginning of the building’s construction before he returned to England in 1838. After Holden’s departure, Samuel Sloan oversaw the rest of the building’s construction until its completion in 1841. Yanni 2007, 38–39, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero]; and Tomes 1984, 37, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref>

Kirkbride, who was hired by the Pennsylvania Hospital’s Board of Managers to run the new facility shortly before it opened, “played no part in the preliminary planning for the institution,” according to the scholar Nancy Tomes.<ref>Kirkbride was named superintendent on October 12, 1840. Tomes 1984, 149, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref> Because of this, the hospital did not align closely with Kirkbride’s philosophy for treating mental disorders or provide the institutional environment that he felt best served these goals. Kirkbride objected, in particular, to the layout of the hospital’s wards, and he attempted to make some modifications to the building’s design, overseeing an expansion that increased the hospital’s capacity to 250 patients by the late 1840s.<ref>Tomes 1984, 150, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1097.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 3, Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.]]
Despite his disappointment with the hospital’s built-environment, Kirkbride saw a great deal of potential in improving the grounds.<ref>Tomes 1984, 151, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref> He considered the landscape to be an essential component of therapeutic treatment, an idea that he drew from British models that adapted “the aristocratic landscape [[park]]” to suit patients’ medical needs, as well as from the example of the Worcester State Hospital in Massachusetts.<ref>Sarah Rutherford, “To Soothe and Cure Troubled Minds,” ''Historic Gardens Review'' 10 (Spring/Summer 2002): 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/36GHF9ZU view on Zotero.]</ref> As depicted in detailed plans and described by Kirkbride in his writings, he quickly laid out separate [[pleasure garden]]s for male and female patients; constructed [[walk]]s, [[flower garden]]s and a vegetable garden, [[summerhouse]]s, and a [[deer park]]; and oversaw the construction of a [[greenhouse]] [Fig. 3]. A ten-and-a-half-foot [[wall]] enclosed the gardens, shielding patients from the prying eyes of curious visitors and preventing patients from escaping the facility. Access to the landscape was dictated, to some degree, by a patient’s social class. More affluent patients frequently spent their days taking carriage rides through the grounds, while working-class male patients often labored in the hospital garden in exchange for reduced room and board payments. <span id="Kirkbride_cite"></span>Of the 111-acre farm purchased by the hospital’s Board of Managers, approximately forty-one acres were transformed into gardens, and the remaining seventy acres of land became the hospital’s farm, where fields of grains and vegetables were cultivated to feed the inmates and a large dairy supplied the hospital with milk and cream ([[#Kirkbride|view text]]).
[[File:2232.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 4, Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.]]

In 1856, due to overcrowded conditions in the existing facility, Kirkbride commissioned the architect Samuel Sloan (1815–1884) to design a second, slightly larger hospital less than one mile away from the first building on the grounds of the hospital farm at 49th Street.<ref>Tomes 1984, 154, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]. This later building, known as the “Kirkbride Building” and located on Forty-ninth street between Haverford and Market streets, is still extant.</ref> Male patients moved into the new building [Fig. 4] in 1859, and the first hospital became dedicated to the treatment of female residents. The two hospitals were separated by a creek, and each had [[pleasure ground]]s and vegetable and [[flower garden]]s laid out in close proximity to the wards, [Fig. 5]. Outdoor space remained an essential component of psychiatric therapy at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane.Many patients had regular access to [[pleasure ground]]s, gardens, and a [[deer park]], and they were encouraged to walk the grounds or take carriage rides daily.<ref>Yanni 2007, 71, 73, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 View on Zotero].</ref> Those who were deemed too disruptive to access the grounds without constant supervision could only glimpse the [[pleasure ground]]s from behind bars, as shown in this illustration of patients housed in the seventh ward of the Department of Males [Fig. 6].
[[File:2233.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 6, Haskell, Ebenezer. Illustration in ''The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.]]

The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane remained an influential medical institution in Philadelphia well into the twentieth century. The original 1841 hospital building, located on 44th Street, shuttered its doors in 1957, and the 49th Street facility, which is still extant, was sold when the institution ceased operations on the site in 1997.<ref>See the “Historical Timeline” on the Penn Medicine’s History of Pennsylvania Hospital Website, https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1951/.</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==

*<div id="Kirkbride"></div> Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 17–19)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Report of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the Year 1841'' (Philadelphia: Board of Managers, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FMH8M3TV view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“[[PLEASURE GROUND]] AND FARM.—Of the one hundred and eleven acres in the farm, about forty-one around the Hospital are specially appropriated as a vegetable garden and the pleasure ground of the patients, and are surrounded by a substantial stone-[[wall]]. This [[wall]] is five thousand four hundred and eighty-three feet long, and is ten and a half feet high.

:“Owing to the favourable character of the ground, the [[wall]] has been so placed that it can be seen but in a very small part of its extent, from any one position; and the enclosure is so large, that its presence exerts no unpleasant influence upon those within. Although it is probably sufficient to prevent the escape of a large proportion of the patients, that is a matter of small moment, in comparison with the quiet and privacy which it at all times affords, and the facility with which the patients are enabled to engage in labour, to take exercise, or to enjoy the active scenes which are passing around them, without fear of annoyance from the gaze of idle curiosity or the remarks of unfeeling strangers. Our location gives us the many advantages afforded by a thickly settled district, and proximity to a large city, and the wall obviates most of its disadvantages.

:"Immediately in front of the Hospital, is a [[lawn]] forming a segment of a circle, in which is a circular railroad. To the east of this, and passing into the [[wood]]s, is the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high pallisade, and forming an effectual and not unsightly division of the ground appropriated to the different sexes; from various points of which, and from the whole eastern front of the building, it is seen to much advantage.

:“The [[pleasure ground]] is beautifully undulating, interspersed with [[clump]]s and [[grove]]s of fine forest trees, and from every division of it, as well as from every room in the main Hospital, is a handsome [[view]]; either of the surrounding country and villages, the rivers in the distance, or the public roads in its immediate vicinity.

:“The [[grove]]s are fitted up with [[seat]]s, and are the favourite resort of the patients during the warm weather. That on the west, from the position of the wall, does not appear to be inclosed [sic], and offers full views of two public roads, of the farm and [[meadow]], a mill race, a fine stream of running water, and two large manufactories. The [[grove]] on the east is not less pleasant, and the views from it are equally animated. This last surrounds the [[pond]], in which is found a variety of fish.

:“On the north and south side of the building are private [[yard]]s, one hundred and seventeen feet wide, and extending two hundred feet from the return wings which form one of their sides. These [[yard]]s are enclosed by a tight board [[fence]] seven and a half feet high, and are surrounded with a brick pavement, which affords a fine [[promenade]] at all seasons.

:“The [[fence]]s around these [[yard]]s, like the [[wall]] itself, have been constructed, not so much to confine the patients, as for the sake of privacy, and to protect them from the gaze of visters [sic].

:“The remaining seventy acres, outside the wall, are cultivated by the farmer, and, with the grass obtained within it, furnish pasture and hay for the large dairy, which supplies both Hospitals with cream and milk during the whole year. From the source are also obtained some grain, and all the potatoes and other vegetables that are required in large quantities.

:“The possession of this property is of great importance to the Hospital, for the purposes just indicated; but its principal value consists in giving control of a body of land always in view from the western side of the building; and above all, in affording ample opportunities for agricultural labour to those patients who have been accustomed to such employment before entering the Hospital. Without a small farm, an insane hospital, receiving all classes of patients, cannot be perfect in its arrangements.

:“The buildings which were on the farm at the time of purchase, (in addition to the residence of the Physician within the enclosure) consist of a comfortable house for the farmer, an adjoining one for the gardener, a spring-house, an [[icehouse|ice-house]], coach-house, barn, &c., outside of the [[wall]], and near the public entrance.” [[#Kirkbride_cite|back up to History]]

*Buckingham, James Silk, 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 1:400–01)<ref>James Silk Buckingham, ''America, Historical, Statistic, and Descriptive'', 2 vols. (New York: Harper, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PIANFMVK? view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[greenhouse]]s, containing a handsome collection of exotic plants, together with the ornamental [[lawn]]s in front and rear of the house, are under the care of a regular gardener. The attention paid to neatness, and even ornament, in the exterior and interior of the house, gives to the whole an air of elegance seldom equalled in establishments of this nature.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1844, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 24–25)<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for The Insane, with a Sketch of its History, Buildings, and Organization'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/2CWBK2G6 view on Zotero]</ref>

[[File:1104.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 7, Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.]]
:“IMPROVEMENT OF THE [[pleasure ground|PLEASURE GROUNDS]]. – During the year just closed, the prosecution of contemplated improvements upon the forty-one acres which compose our pppleasure ground]]s, and are within the enclosure, has also furnished a great variety of interesting employment to various classes of patients. Many trees and [[shrubbery|shrubs]] have been planted; flower [[border]]s have been enlarged and improved; the brick [[walk]]s, for use when the ground is soft or covered with snow, have been extended; other [[walk]]s have been laid out through the different [[grove]]s, and covered with tan, and their extension, now in progress, will give us more than a mile in the men’s division, and nearly as much in that appropriated to the females. These [[walk]]s have been so located as to embrace our finest and most diversified [[view]]s, to wind through the [[wood]]s and [[clump]]s of trees which are scattered through the enclosure; and among them, it is hoped, will soon be seen [[summerhouse|summer-house]]s, rustic [[seat]]s, and other objects of interest, to tempt the patients voluntarily to prolong their walks, and to spend a greater portion of their time out of the wards, and engaged in some agreeable occupation. [Fig. 7]

:“The importance and utility of having the grounds about an insane hospital highly cultivated and improved, and everything in perfect order, is much greater than is generally supposed. It exercises a beneficial influence on all patients and on their friends. The good taste of many enables them to appreciate all such things in detail, many are pleased with them as a whole and even those who are not capable of realizing their beauties, still have an indistinct recollection of something pleasant in connexion with them. . . .

:“A surprising degree of interest is frequently excited among the patients, by having everything done in the neatest and best manner, by having fixtures and apparatus of the most approved kinds, and all the buildings and arrangements showing a peculiar fitness for the purposes for which they are intended. It is where these principles are fully carried out, that a farm, a garden, and various other external matters, become truly valuable aids in the management of the insane.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1845, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (quoted in Hawkins 1991: 105–6)<ref>Kenneth Hawkins, “The Therapeutic Landscape: Nature, Architecture, and Mind in Nineteenth-Century America” (PhD diss., University of Rochester, 1991), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UVDGPDHG view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“ . . . it would be easy in a few years to have within our enclosure, a specimen of every tree that will live in this climate, and I know of no spot near Philadelphia, where a complete [[arboretum]] could be established with less trouble, or be a subject of greater interest or more utility than upon the 41 acres which compose our [[pleasure ground]].”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1847, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 22)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the years 1846–7–8–9 and 50'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/IS9R2SUW view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The general improvement of the pleasure grounds has not been neglected; the groves have been made a more pleasant resort for the patients;—new walks have been laid out, a large number of evergreen, and other trees planted, and the flower borders enlarged and beautified.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., April 1848, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (''American Journal of Insanity'' 4: 347–53)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, “Description of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, with Remarks,” ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4, no. 4 (April 1848): 347–54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9RWM2FH8 view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s and farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, as shown in the accompanying plan, comprise a tract of one hundred and ten acres of well improved land, lying two miles west of the City of Philadelphia, between the Westchester and Haverford roads, on the latter of which is the only [[gate]] of entrance.

:“Of this land, forty-one and three-quarter acres constitute the [[pleasure ground]]s, which surround the Hospital buildings, and are enclosed by a substantial stone [[wall]], of an average height of ten and a half feet. The remaining sixty-nine and one-quarter acres comprise the farm of the Institution.

:“From the character of the ground near the Hospital, the wall surrounding the [[pleasure ground]]s is so arranged, as to be almost entirely out of sight from the buildings, and only a small part of it can be seen from any one point within the enclosure.

:“The entrance to the enclosure is through a handsome [[gate]]-way, on the west side of which is the [[Gate]]-keeper’s Lodge, and on the opposite side is a room for laying out the dead, access to which may be had from within as well as from without the [[pleasure ground]]s.

:“Carriages drive to the western front of the centre building of the Hospital that being most convenient in every respect, but the eastern is the architectural front and of most pretensions.

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s of the two sexes are very effectually separated on the eastern side, by the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high palisade [[fence]], but the [[Park]] itself is so low that it is completely overlooked from both sides; and the different animals in it are in full view from the adjoining grounds used by the patients of both sexes.

:“At the extreme end of the [[deer-park]], it is joined by the drying-[[yard]] which completes the separation of the sexes in that direction. In this [[yard]], are the wash-house and the pump and [[pond]] from which water is raised into the tanks in the dome of the centre building. This [[pond]] is supplied from various springs on the premises, and there is ample space in the [[yard]] for drying clothes in fine weather.

:“East of the entrance is the private [[yard]] and residence of the Physician of the Institution, being the mansion house on the farm when purchased by the Hospital. The vegetable garden containing three and a half acres is next, and in it are the [[green-house]], [[hothouse|hot-beds]], seed-houses, &c. The remainder of the grounds on this side of the [[deer-park]] is specially appropriated to the use of the male patients. In this division is a fine [[grove]] of large trees, several detached [[clump]]s of various kinds and a great variety of single trees standing alone or in [[avenue]]s along the different [[walk]]s, which, of brick, gravel or tan, are for the men, more than a mile and a quarter in extent. The [[grove]]s are fitted up with seats and [[summer house]]s, and have various means of exercise and amusement connected with them.

:“There is a single private [[yard]] of good size for gentlemen who wish to be less public than in the grounds, or for those whose mental condition renders more seclusion desirable. This [[yard]] is planted with trees and had broad brick [[walk]]s passing round it. Between the north lodge and the [[deer-park]], separated from the latter by a [[Ha-Ha/Sunk fence|sunk]] palisade [[fence]], is a neat [[flower garden]].

:“In connexion with each lodge, as now enlarged or about to be, are three small [[yard]]s paved with brick, and accessible to the patients of the respective divisions with which they are connected.

:“The work-shop and lumber-[[yard]] are just within the main entrance on the west—adjoining which is a fine [[grove]], in which is the gentlemen’s ten-pin [[alley]].

:“In the [[pleasure ground]]s of the ladies, is a fine piece of [[woods]], from which the farm is overlooked, as well as both of the public roads passing along the premises, and a handsome district of country beyond. The [[wall]] here is forty feet below the platform on which the Hospital stands, and is at the foot of a steep hill, so that it is not seen at all unless persons are in it’s [sic] immediate proximity.

:“The [[summerhouse|summer-houses]], [[rustic style|rustic-seats]], exercising-swings &c., in this division are all in particularly pleasant positions. The cottage fronts the [[woods]], and in every part this portion of the grounds is completely protected from intrusion and observation.

:“The undulating character of the [[pleasure ground]]s throughout, gives them many advantages, and the brick, gravel and tan [[walk]]s for the ladies, are more than a mile in extent.

:“As on the men’s side, there is a private [[yard]] for females, and the [[flower garden|flower-garden]] in front of the lodge, and the paved [[yard]]s connected with it are similarly arranged.

:“The semi-circular [[yard]], on the western side of the main building is surrounded by flower [[border]]s, contains the circular pleasure Rail-road, and is used at different hours, by patients of both sexes.

:“In the arrangement and location of the [[walk]]s for the patients, great pains have been taken to give as much extent and variety as possible, and to bring into [[view]] objects of interest, not only within the enclosure, but in the well improved district of country immediately around the Hospital.

:“The carriage road is sufficiently extended to give a pretty thorough [[view]] of the whole grounds, and of the farm and scenery beyond. This is occasionally used very advantageously, for giving carriage exercise to patients who could not with propriety be taken to more public situations.

:“The [[fence]]s that have been put up, were rendered necessary by the uses to which the different parts of the grounds were appropriated. A large part of the palisade [[fence]]s, like those enclosing the [[deer-park]] and drying-[[yard]], were to effect the separation of the sexes, and the close [[fence]]s have been made, almost invariably, for the sole purpose of protecting the patients from observation, and giving them the proper degree of privacy.

:“The farm, partly [[meadow]]-land, is divided into fields of convenient size for cultivation. It has two pleasant [[grove]]s on it, a stone-quarry, two good springs of water, besides Mill Creek and a mill-race, which pass through it. The residence of the farmer and gardener are outside of the enclosure, as well as the [[icehouse|ice-house]], spring-house, coach-house, barn, stabling and other arrangements for a well conducted farm.

:“An outline of the ground-plan of the Hospital and other buildings is shown on the sketch. All of these are now erected and in use, except the additions of the north and south sides of the Lodge for females, which it is hoped will be completed during the coming summer. . . .

:"The cultivation of the gardens and the improvement of the [[pleasure ground]]s, offer the generality of patients the most desirable forms of labour. It is sufficiently varied, not too laborious, and in some division of it many will engage who could not be induced to assist upon the farm or in any other kind of employment, out of doors. The vegetable garden should be large enough to furnish all of that description of supplies that may be required for the institution, and may occasionally be made profitable from sales of the excess. The [[flower garden]]s should be as extensive as can be well taken care of by the inmates and persons employed in the Hospital. The good influences which these, as well as a high state of improvement about the buildings, generally produce on patients and their friends, is often of great importance.

:“If the [[pleasure ground]]s are sufficiently extensive it is desirable that the two sexes would have their portions, entirely distinct, although some parts may be used in common, under the superintendence and direction of the proper officer. Without this arrangement certain classes will be much more restricted in out-door exercise than is proper or desirable.”

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:1103.jpg|W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.

Image:2231.jpg| Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives

Image:1097.jpg|Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.

Image:1104.jpg|Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.

Image:2232.jpg| Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.

Image:2233.jpg| Haskell, Ebenezer. Illustration in ''The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83121156.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1801/tline13.html "A history of the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital," Penn Medicine]

[https://www.nps.gov/places/kirkbrides-hospital.htm Kirkbride's Hospital (National Park Service)]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane

2019-12-30T18:23:57Z

L-Baradel: /* History */

'''The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane''', opened in 1841 on a rural site on the west side of the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia, was considered one of the premiere mental asylums during the nineteenth century. In accordance with the institution’s “moral treatment” philosophy, many patients were granted daily access to the hospital’s pleasure grounds and working farm. The institution’s superintendent, Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, believed that regular access to the outdoors was an essential component of therapeutic treatment for his patients.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Kirkbride’s Hospital; Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases; The Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1841–1997<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Thomas Story Kirkbride (superintendent and chief physician, 1841–1883); Isaac Holden (architect, c. 1835–1838); Samuel Sloan (construction manager and architect, 1838–1841 and 1856–1859) <br/>
'''Location:''' Philadelphia, PA<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/iRtvo3R5f6XHPxEXA View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane was one of the premiere facilities for treating mental disorders during the nineteenth century, drawing residential patients from across the United States. It opened under the direction of the superintendent Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809–1883), a Quaker physician who advocated for “moral treatment” therapeutic principles, arguing that patients should have regular schedules to encourage self-control, eat healthy food, exercise, and have frequent access to the outdoors.<ref>“Moral treatment” grew out of asylum reform movements in England and France during the late eighteenth century. It advocated “freeing chronic patients from physical restraint and treating them as capable of rational behavior.” Nancy Tomes, ''A Generous Confidence: Thomas Story Kirkbride and the Art of Asylum-Keeping, 1840–1883'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 21, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]. See also Carla Yanni, ''The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States'' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero].</ref> The facility’s surrounding landscape became an essential component of therapeutic treatment for patients at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, and the hospital’s design, which was popularized by Kirkbride’s 1854 treatise ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'', influenced the designs of asylums subsequently constructed across the United States.<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'' (Philadelphia, 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RSAEUT7R view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1103.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 1, W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.]]
The original hospital building opened in 1841 on a 111-acre site near the village of Blockley, located on the west side of the Schuylkill River approximately two miles outside of the city of Philadelphia [Fig. 1]. This facility, located at the intersection of 44th and Market streets, took advantage of the inexpensive land, fertile soil, and increased privacy that the rural location afforded. It also provided more space and better conditions for treating mental health patients who were previously housed at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Center City Philadelphia.<ref>Tomes 1984, 1, 5–6, 19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]; and Yanni 2007, 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2231.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 2, Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives.]]
The first hospital building, designed by the English architect Isaac Holden (d. 1884), accommodated 160 patients. The building’s design took advantage of the site’s wooded landscape by framing [[picturesque]] [[view]]s through the wards’ windows and the stone Doric [[portico]]es erected on the eastern and western facades. As seen in this plan [Fig. 2], two smaller buildings flanked either side of the main building’s wards. These u-shaped wards were reserved for the most violent and disruptive patients, who gained access to the outdoors in interior [[courtyard]]s that were surrounded on three sides by the building. [[Flower garden]]s were visible (but not physically accessible) from the fourth side.<ref>Holden oversaw the beginning of the building’s construction before he returned to England in 1838. After Holden’s departure, Samuel Sloan oversaw the rest of the building’s construction until its completion in 1841. Yanni 2007, 38–39, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero]; and Tomes 1984, 37, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref>

Kirkbride, who was hired by the Pennsylvania Hospital’s Board of Managers to run the new facility shortly before it opened, “played no part in the preliminary planning for the institution,” according to the scholar Nancy Tomes.<ref>Kirkbride was named superintendent on October 12, 1840. Tomes 1984, 149, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref> Because of this, the hospital did not align closely with Kirkbride’s philosophy for treating mental disorders or provide the institutional environment that he felt best served these goals. Kirkbride objected, in particular, to the layout of the hospital’s wards, and he attempted to make some modifications to the building’s design, overseeing an expansion that increased the hospital’s capacity to 250 patients by the late 1840s.<ref>Tomes 1984, 150, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1097.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 3, Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.]]
Despite his disappointment with the hospital’s built-environment, Kirkbride saw a great deal of potential in improving the grounds.<ref>Tomes 1984, 151, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref> He considered the landscape to be an essential component of therapeutic treatment, an idea that he drew from British models that adapted “the aristocratic landscape [[park]]” to suit patients’ medical needs, as well as from the example of the Worcester State Hospital in Massachusetts.<ref>Sarah Rutherford, “To Soothe and Cure Troubled Minds,” ''Historic Gardens Review'' 10 (Spring/Summer 2002): 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/36GHF9ZU view on Zotero.]</ref> As depicted in detailed plans and described by Kirkbride in his writings, he quickly laid out separate [[pleasure garden]]s for male and female patients; constructed [[walk]]s, [[flower garden]]s and a vegetable garden, [[summerhouse]]s, and a [[deer park]]; and oversaw the construction of a [[greenhouse]] [Fig. 3]. A ten-and-a-half-foot [[wall]] enclosed the gardens, shielding patients from the prying eyes of curious visitors and preventing patients from escaping the facility. Access to the landscape was dictated, to some degree, by a patient’s social class. More affluent patients frequently spent their days taking carriage rides through the grounds, while working-class male patients often labored in the hospital garden in exchange for reduced room and board payments. <span id="Kirkbride_cite"></span>Of the 111-acre farm purchased by the hospital’s Board of Managers, approximately forty-one acres were transformed into gardens, and the remaining seventy acres of land became the hospital’s farm, where fields of grains and vegetables were cultivated to feed the inmates and a large dairy supplied the hospital with milk and cream ([[#Kirkbride|view text]]).
[[File:2232.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 4, Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.]]

In 1856, due to overcrowded conditions in the existing facility, Kirkbride commissioned the architect Samuel Sloan (1815–1884) to design a second, slightly larger hospital less than one mile away from the first building on the grounds of the hospital farm at 49th Street.<ref>Tomes 1984, 154, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]. This later building, known as the “Kirkbride Building” and located on Forty-ninth street between Haverford and Market streets, is still extant.</ref> Male patients moved into the new building [Fig. 4] in 1859, and the first hospital became dedicated to the treatment of female residents. The two hospitals were separated by a creek, and each had [[pleasure ground]]s and vegetable and [[flower garden]]s laid out in close proximity to the wards, [Fig. 5]. Outdoor space remained an essential component of psychiatric therapy at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane.Many patients had regular access to [[pleasure ground]]s, gardens, and a [[deer park]], and they were encouraged to walk the grounds or take carriage rides daily.<ref>Yanni 2007, 71, 73, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 View on Zotero].</ref> Those who were deemed too disruptive to access the grounds without constant supervision could only glimpse the [[pleasure ground]]s from behind bars, as shown in this illustration of patients housed in the seventh ward of the Department of Males [Fig. 6].
[[File:2233.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 6, Haskell, Ebenezer. Illustration in ''The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.]]

The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane remained an influential medical institution in Philadelphia well into the twentieth century. The original 1841 hospital building, located on 44th Street, shuttered its doors in 1957, and the 49th Street facility, which is still extant, was sold when the institution ceased operations on the site in 1997.<ref>See the “Historical Timeline” on the Penn Medicine’s History of Pennsylvania Hospital Website, https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1951/.</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==

*<div id="Kirkbride"></div> Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 17–19)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Report of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the Year 1841'' (Philadelphia: Board of Managers, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FMH8M3TV view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“[[PLEASURE GROUND]] AND FARM.—Of the one hundred and eleven acres in the farm, about forty-one around the Hospital are specially appropriated as a vegetable garden and the pleasure ground of the patients, and are surrounded by a substantial stone-[[wall]]. This [[wall]] is five thousand four hundred and eighty-three feet long, and is ten and a half feet high.

:“Owing to the favourable character of the ground, the [[wall]] has been so placed that it can be seen but in a very small part of its extent, from any one position; and the enclosure is so large, that its presence exerts no unpleasant influence upon those within. Although it is probably sufficient to prevent the escape of a large proportion of the patients, that is a matter of small moment, in comparison with the quiet and privacy which it at all times affords, and the facility with which the patients are enabled to engage in labour, to take exercise, or to enjoy the active scenes which are passing around them, without fear of annoyance from the gaze of idle curiosity or the remarks of unfeeling strangers. Our location gives us the many advantages afforded by a thickly settled district, and proximity to a large city, and the wall obviates most of its disadvantages.

:"Immediately in front of the Hospital, is a [[lawn]] forming a segment of a circle, in which is a circular railroad. To the east of this, and passing into the [[wood]]s, is the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high pallisade, and forming an effectual and not unsightly division of the ground appropriated to the different sexes; from various points of which, and from the whole eastern front of the building, it is seen to much advantage.

:“The [[pleasure ground]] is beautifully undulating, interspersed with [[clump]]s and [[grove]]s of fine forest trees, and from every division of it, as well as from every room in the main Hospital, is a handsome [[view]]; either of the surrounding country and villages, the rivers in the distance, or the public roads in its immediate vicinity.

:“The [[grove]]s are fitted up with [[seat]]s, and are the favourite resort of the patients during the warm weather. That on the west, from the position of the wall, does not appear to be inclosed [sic], and offers full views of two public roads, of the farm and [[meadow]], a mill race, a fine stream of running water, and two large manufactories. The [[grove]] on the east is not less pleasant, and the views from it are equally animated. This last surrounds the [[pond]], in which is found a variety of fish.

:“On the north and south side of the building are private [[yard]]s, one hundred and seventeen feet wide, and extending two hundred feet from the return wings which form one of their sides. These [[yard]]s are enclosed by a tight board [[fence]] seven and a half feet high, and are surrounded with a brick pavement, which affords a fine [[promenade]] at all seasons.

:“The [[fence]]s around these [[yard]]s, like the [[wall]] itself, have been constructed, not so much to confine the patients, as for the sake of privacy, and to protect them from the gaze of visters [sic].

:“The remaining seventy acres, outside the wall, are cultivated by the farmer, and, with the grass obtained within it, furnish pasture and hay for the large dairy, which supplies both Hospitals with cream and milk during the whole year. From the source are also obtained some grain, and all the potatoes and other vegetables that are required in large quantities.

:“The possession of this property is of great importance to the Hospital, for the purposes just indicated; but its principal value consists in giving control of a body of land always in view from the western side of the building; and above all, in affording ample opportunities for agricultural labour to those patients who have been accustomed to such employment before entering the Hospital. Without a small farm, an insane hospital, receiving all classes of patients, cannot be perfect in its arrangements.

:“The buildings which were on the farm at the time of purchase, (in addition to the residence of the Physician within the enclosure) consist of a comfortable house for the farmer, an adjoining one for the gardener, a spring-house, an [[icehouse|ice-house]], coach-house, barn, &c., outside of the [[wall]], and near the public entrance.” [[#Kirkbride_cite|back up to History]]

*Buckingham, James Silk, 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 1:400–01)<ref>James Silk Buckingham, ''America, Historical, Statistic, and Descriptive'', 2 vols. (New York: Harper, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PIANFMVK? view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[greenhouse]]s, containing a handsome collection of exotic plants, together with the ornamental [[lawn]]s in front and rear of the house, are under the care of a regular gardener. The attention paid to neatness, and even ornament, in the exterior and interior of the house, gives to the whole an air of elegance seldom equalled in establishments of this nature.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1844, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 24–25)<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for The Insane, with a Sketch of its History, Buildings, and Organization'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/2CWBK2G6 view on Zotero]</ref>

[[File:1104.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 7, Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.]]
:“IMPROVEMENT OF THE [[pleasure ground|PLEASURE GROUNDS]]. – During the year just closed, the prosecution of contemplated improvements upon the forty-one acres which compose our pppleasure ground]]s, and are within the enclosure, has also furnished a great variety of interesting employment to various classes of patients. Many trees and [[shrubbery|shrubs]] have been planted; flower [[border]]s have been enlarged and improved; the brick [[walk]]s, for use when the ground is soft or covered with snow, have been extended; other [[walk]]s have been laid out through the different [[grove]]s, and covered with tan, and their extension, now in progress, will give us more than a mile in the men’s division, and nearly as much in that appropriated to the females. These [[walk]]s have been so located as to embrace our finest and most diversified [[view]]s, to wind through the [[wood]]s and [[clump]]s of trees which are scattered through the enclosure; and among them, it is hoped, will soon be seen [[summerhouse|summer-house]]s, rustic [[seat]]s, and other objects of interest, to tempt the patients voluntarily to prolong their walks, and to spend a greater portion of their time out of the wards, and engaged in some agreeable occupation. [Fig. 7]

:“The importance and utility of having the grounds about an insane hospital highly cultivated and improved, and everything in perfect order, is much greater than is generally supposed. It exercises a beneficial influence on all patients and on their friends. The good taste of many enables them to appreciate all such things in detail, many are pleased with them as a whole and even those who are not capable of realizing their beauties, still have an indistinct recollection of something pleasant in connexion with them. . . .

:“A surprising degree of interest is frequently excited among the patients, by having everything done in the neatest and best manner, by having fixtures and apparatus of the most approved kinds, and all the buildings and arrangements showing a peculiar fitness for the purposes for which they are intended. It is where these principles are fully carried out, that a farm, a garden, and various other external matters, become truly valuable aids in the management of the insane.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1845, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (quoted in Hawkins 1991: 105–6)<ref>Kenneth Hawkins, “The Therapeutic Landscape: Nature, Architecture, and Mind in Nineteenth-Century America” (PhD diss., University of Rochester, 1991), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UVDGPDHG view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“ . . . it would be easy in a few years to have within our enclosure, a specimen of every tree that will live in this climate, and I know of no spot near Philadelphia, where a complete [[arboretum]] could be established with less trouble, or be a subject of greater interest or more utility than upon the 41 acres which compose our [[pleasure ground]].”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1847, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 22) <ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the years 1846–7–8–9 and 50'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/IS9R2SUW view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The general improvement of the pleasure grounds has not been neglected; the groves have been made a more pleasant resort for the patients;—new walks have been laid out, a large number of evergreen, and other trees planted, and the flower borders enlarged and beautified.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., April 1848, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (''American Journal of Insanity'' 4: 347–53)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, “Description of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, with Remarks,” ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4, no. 4 (April 1848): 347–54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9RWM2FH8 view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s and farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, as shown in the accompanying plan, comprise a tract of one hundred and ten acres of well improved land, lying two miles west of the City of Philadelphia, between the Westchester and Haverford roads, on the latter of which is the only [[gate]] of entrance.

:“Of this land, forty-one and three-quarter acres constitute the [[pleasure ground]]s, which surround the Hospital buildings, and are enclosed by a substantial stone [[wall]], of an average height of ten and a half feet. The remaining sixty-nine and one-quarter acres comprise the farm of the Institution.

:“From the character of the ground near the Hospital, the wall surrounding the [[pleasure ground]]s is so arranged, as to be almost entirely out of sight from the buildings, and only a small part of it can be seen from any one point within the enclosure.

:“The entrance to the enclosure is through a handsome [[gate]]-way, on the west side of which is the [[Gate]]-keeper’s Lodge, and on the opposite side is a room for laying out the dead, access to which may be had from within as well as from without the [[pleasure ground]]s.

:“Carriages drive to the western front of the centre building of the Hospital that being most convenient in every respect, but the eastern is the architectural front and of most pretensions.

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s of the two sexes are very effectually separated on the eastern side, by the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high palisade [[fence]], but the [[Park]] itself is so low that it is completely overlooked from both sides; and the different animals in it are in full view from the adjoining grounds used by the patients of both sexes.

:“At the extreme end of the [[deer-park]], it is joined by the drying-[[yard]] which completes the separation of the sexes in that direction. In this [[yard]], are the wash-house and the pump and [[pond]] from which water is raised into the tanks in the dome of the centre building. This [[pond]] is supplied from various springs on the premises, and there is ample space in the [[yard]] for drying clothes in fine weather.

:“East of the entrance is the private [[yard]] and residence of the Physician of the Institution, being the mansion house on the farm when purchased by the Hospital. The vegetable garden containing three and a half acres is next, and in it are the [[green-house]], [[hothouse|hot-beds]], seed-houses, &c. The remainder of the grounds on this side of the [[deer-park]] is specially appropriated to the use of the male patients. In this division is a fine [[grove]] of large trees, several detached [[clump]]s of various kinds and a great variety of single trees standing alone or in [[avenue]]s along the different [[walk]]s, which, of brick, gravel or tan, are for the men, more than a mile and a quarter in extent. The [[grove]]s are fitted up with seats and [[summer house]]s, and have various means of exercise and amusement connected with them.

:“There is a single private [[yard]] of good size for gentlemen who wish to be less public than in the grounds, or for those whose mental condition renders more seclusion desirable. This [[yard]] is planted with trees and had broad brick [[walk]]s passing round it. Between the north lodge and the [[deer-park]], separated from the latter by a [[Ha-Ha/Sunk fence|sunk]] palisade [[fence]], is a neat [[flower garden]].

:“In connexion with each lodge, as now enlarged or about to be, are three small [[yard]]s paved with brick, and accessible to the patients of the respective divisions with which they are connected.

:“The work-shop and lumber-[[yard]] are just within the main entrance on the west—adjoining which is a fine [[grove]], in which is the gentlemen’s ten-pin [[alley]].

:“In the [[pleasure ground]]s of the ladies, is a fine piece of [[woods]], from which the farm is overlooked, as well as both of the public roads passing along the premises, and a handsome district of country beyond. The [[wall]] here is forty feet below the platform on which the Hospital stands, and is at the foot of a steep hill, so that it is not seen at all unless persons are in it’s [sic] immediate proximity.

:“The [[summerhouse|summer-houses]], [[rustic style|rustic-seats]], exercising-swings &c., in this division are all in particularly pleasant positions. The cottage fronts the [[woods]], and in every part this portion of the grounds is completely protected from intrusion and observation.

:“The undulating character of the [[pleasure ground]]s throughout, gives them many advantages, and the brick, gravel and tan [[walk]]s for the ladies, are more than a mile in extent.

:“As on the men’s side, there is a private [[yard]] for females, and the [[flower garden|flower-garden]] in front of the lodge, and the paved [[yard]]s connected with it are similarly arranged.

:“The semi-circular [[yard]], on the western side of the main building is surrounded by flower [[border]]s, contains the circular pleasure Rail-road, and is used at different hours, by patients of both sexes.

:“In the arrangement and location of the [[walk]]s for the patients, great pains have been taken to give as much extent and variety as possible, and to bring into [[view]] objects of interest, not only within the enclosure, but in the well improved district of country immediately around the Hospital.

:“The carriage road is sufficiently extended to give a pretty thorough [[view]] of the whole grounds, and of the farm and scenery beyond. This is occasionally used very advantageously, for giving carriage exercise to patients who could not with propriety be taken to more public situations.

:“The [[fence]]s that have been put up, were rendered necessary by the uses to which the different parts of the grounds were appropriated. A large part of the palisade [[fence]]s, like those enclosing the [[deer-park]] and drying-[[yard]], were to effect the separation of the sexes, and the close [[fence]]s have been made, almost invariably, for the sole purpose of protecting the patients from observation, and giving them the proper degree of privacy.

:“The farm, partly [[meadow]]-land, is divided into fields of convenient size for cultivation. It has two pleasant [[grove]]s on it, a stone-quarry, two good springs of water, besides Mill Creek and a mill-race, which pass through it. The residence of the farmer and gardener are outside of the enclosure, as well as the [[icehouse|ice-house]], spring-house, coach-house, barn, stabling and other arrangements for a well conducted farm.

:“An outline of the ground-plan of the Hospital and other buildings is shown on the sketch. All of these are now erected and in use, except the additions of the north and south sides of the Lodge for females, which it is hoped will be completed during the coming summer. . . .

:"The cultivation of the gardens and the improvement of the [[pleasure ground]]s, offer the generality of patients the most desirable forms of labour. It is sufficiently varied, not too laborious, and in some division of it many will engage who could not be induced to assist upon the farm or in any other kind of employment, out of doors. The vegetable garden should be large enough to furnish all of that description of supplies that may be required for the institution, and may occasionally be made profitable from sales of the excess. The [[flower garden]]s should be as extensive as can be well taken care of by the inmates and persons employed in the Hospital. The good influences which these, as well as a high state of improvement about the buildings, generally produce on patients and their friends, is often of great importance.

:“If the [[pleasure ground]]s are sufficiently extensive it is desirable that the two sexes would have their portions, entirely distinct, although some parts may be used in common, under the superintendence and direction of the proper officer. Without this arrangement certain classes will be much more restricted in out-door exercise than is proper or desirable.”

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:1103.jpg|W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.

Image:2231.jpg| Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives

Image:1097.jpg|Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.

Image:1104.jpg|Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.

Image:2232.jpg| Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.

Image:2233.jpg| Haskell, Ebenezer. Illustration in ''The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83121156.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1801/tline13.html "A history of the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital," Penn Medicine]

[https://www.nps.gov/places/kirkbrides-hospital.htm Kirkbride's Hospital (National Park Service)]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Frances Palmer

2019-12-30T16:58:10Z

L-Baradel: /* Texts */

'''Frances (“Fanny”) Flora Bond Palmer''' (June 26, 1812–August 20, 1876) was one of the few women to work as a professional lithographer in the mid-nineteenth century United States. She created prints in the 1840s that illustrated several important botanical and architectural texts, including William H. Ranlett’s ''The Architect'' (1847). Palmer joined Nathaniel Currier’s lithography firm full-time around 1849 and became one of the company’s most prolific artists.

==History==
[[File:2217.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 1, Mrs. Frances Flora (Bond) Palmer, 185-?. Harriet Endicott Waite research material concerning Currier & Ives, 1923-1956. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.]]
The artist and lithographer Frances Palmer [Fig. 1] emigrated from her birthplace of Leicester, England, to the United States in 1843 with her husband, Edmund Seymour Palmer (1809–1859), their children, and her younger siblings Maria Bond (b. 1815) and Robert Bond Jr. (b. 1821). She became well known as a professional lithographer during the 1840s–1860s while working in New York City. In the early part of her career in New York, Palmer designed and printed illustrations for several important botanical and architectural texts. Sometime around 1849 she joined the staff as a full-time artist at the N. Currier lithography firm (later known as Currier & Ives).

Palmer began her career in Leicester, England. Her first artistic training likely occurred at Miss Linwood’s academy for girls, a school Palmer attended as a child that was run by the “nationally recognized artist” Mary Linwood (1755–1845). Soon after marrying Edmund Palmer in 1832, the twenty-year-old Frances Palmer began to work as a professional artist.<ref>Linwood specialized in creating needlework copies of paintings by artists such as Thomas Gainsborough, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Rembrandt van Rijn and framing them under glass to emulate the original oil paintings. Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein, ''Fanny Palmer: The Life and Work of a Currier & Ives Artist,'' ed. Diann Benti (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2018), 2, 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KJ9CVGZ9 view on Zotero].</ref> By 1841 Palmer and her husband had opened a lithography business together in Leicester, for which Frances worked primarily as the artist and draftsman and Edmund as the printer. They advertised experience printing a wide range of subjects, including “[[View]]s, architectural and botanical drawings, maps, plans of estates, railway sections, elevations, law forms, invoice heads, tickets, checks, fac similes [''sic''], circulars and writings, of every description, and in every character.”<ref>Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein, "Palmer, Frances," ''The Grove Encyclopedia of American'', vol. 4, edited by Joan M. Marter (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 10, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RI8BBRS6 view on Zotero]. Quote from advertisement in Thomas Cook’s ''Trade Directory of Leicester'' (1842); qtd. in Rubinstein 2018, 12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KJ9CVGZ9 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Leicester_cite"></span>The Palmers received a commission to produce illustrations of [[picturesque]] local [[view]]s for a publication by the local scholar Thomas Rossell Potter entitled ''The History and Antiquities of Charnwood Forest'' (1842).<ref>T. R. Potter, ''The History and Antiquities of Charnwood Forest'' (London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co., 1842), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WHD47PID view on Zotero].</ref> They also published ''Sketches in Leicestershire'' (1842–1843), a portfolio of twenty-seven local [[view]]s, thirteen of which were fully designed and lithographed by Frances ([[#Leicester|view text]]).<ref>Rubinstein 2018, 16, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KJ9CVGZ9 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2208.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 2, E. Jones, F. [Fanny] Palmer, and E. Palmer (lithographers), Alexander Jackson Davis (architect), Suburban Gothic Villa, Murray Hill, N.Y. City. Residence of W. C. Waddell, Esq. 5th Avenue, Between 37 & 38th Street. Below, Plans of First and Second Floors, n.d.]]
Soon after arriving in New York City in 1843 the Palmers partnered with the established lithographer Edward Jones, but by 1846 they had started their own firm under the name “F. & S. Palmer.” During this period, Frances Palmer also began to show her watercolor landscapes at exhibitions in New York City, including the 1844 annual exhibition at the National Academy of Design.<ref>Rubinstein 2018, 23–24, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KJ9CVGZ9 view on Zotero]. See also Mary Bartlett Cowdrey, "Fanny Palmer, an American Lithographer," in ''Prints: Thirteen Illustrated Essays on the Art of the Print'', ed. Carl Zigrosser (New York: Holt, Reinhart, and Winston, 1962), 217–34, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5MMW3M62 view on Zotero].</ref> According to the scholar Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein, Palmer experimented with an even wider variety of subjects in New York than she had in England: “Whereas in England Palmer had restricted herself largely to [[picturesque]] local and historic sites, she now drew ships, battle scenes, botanicals, landscapes, architecture, sheet-music covers, cartoons, and magazine illustrations.”<ref>Rubinstein 2018, 27, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KJ9CVGZ9 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:0921.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 3, Frances Palmer, “English Cottage Style,” in William H. Ranlett, ''The Architect'' (1849), vol. 1, pl. 27, design VIII. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.]]
Palmer’s architectural prints from this period include an 1844 lithographic depiction of a fashionable gothic villa designed by architect [[Alexander Jackson Davis|A. J. Davis]] that stood on 5th Avenue in New York City [Fig. 2]. [[Alexander Jackson Davis|Davis’s]] original sepia, ink, and watercolor drawing served as the basis for Palmer’s print, but she added additional figures strolling by the mansion to integrate the architecture into its environment. In 1847 the Palmers also created the illustrations for William H. Ranlett’s two-volume ''The Architect'' based on Ranlett’s drawings [Fig. 3].<span id="Ranlett_cite"></span> Through this project, Frances Palmer became well acquainted with a variety of Victorian architectural styles that she later integrated into her own compositions when creating suburban scenes for Currier & Ives.<ref>Rubinstein 2018, 30–31, 46, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KJ9CVGZ9 view on Zotero].</ref> Ranlett praised Frances Palmer’s work in the “Advertisement” at the front of the first volume of ''The Architect'', noting that the “most difficult” of the illustrations were “executed on the stones by Mrs. F. Palmer, who stands at the head of the art” ([[#Ranlett|view text]]).

[[File:2212.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 4, Frances Flora Bond Palmer, ''Old Entrance to Greenwood Cemetery'', in: ''The New York Drawing Book, Containing a Series of Original Designs and Sketches of American Scenery'', No. 1, 1847. Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society.]]
In 1847 the Palmers also published some of Frances’s original landscape views in ''The New York Drawing Book'', a series of two four-page booklets that featured original compositions for art students to copy. Two of the lithographs feature scenes from Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. ''Old Entrance to Greenwood Cemetery'' [Fig. 4] depicts a road curving past a [[gateway]] and [[fence]] into a wooded landscape with a [[view]] of boats on the Gowanus Bay visible in the background. ''Sylvan Lake, Greenwood Cemetery'' shows a woman and young child taking in a [[picturesque]] [[view]] of one of the cemetery’s placid, tree-lined [[lake]]s [Fig. 5].
[[File:2213.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 5, Frances Flora Bond Palmer, ''Sylvan Lake, Greenwood Cemetery'', in: ''The New York Drawing Book, Containing a Series of Original Designs and Sketches of American Scenery'', No. 2, 1847, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1954.]]

[[File:2214.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 6, F. & S. Palmer, “The American Flora. Vol. II“ (frontispiece), 1848, [print from 1855 edition], Biodiversity Heritage Library.]]
The Palmers lithographed many of the illustrations for Asa B. Strong’s ''American Flora, or History of Plants and Wildflowers'' (1848), a popular four-volume encyclopedia that advertised itself on the title page as “a book of reference for botanists, physicians, florists, gardeners, students, etc.”<ref>A. B. Strong, ''The American Flora, or History of Plants and Wild Flowers'' (New York: Green & Strong, 1848), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/4H6QA64Q view on Zotero]. Other lithographs were completed by several different lithographers, including W. M. Moody, E. Whitefield, and F. Michelin. See Rubinstein 2018, 272, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KJ9CVGZ9 view on Zotero].</ref> Frances Palmer’s lithographs include the frontispiece for the second volume [Fig. 6], sixteen lithographs of Strong’s original botanical drawings that appear in the second and third volumes, including the ''Caper Bush'' [Fig. 7], and a portrait of the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) that appears in the third volume.<ref>For a full list of the lithographs in Strong’s encyclopedia that were executed by the Palmers, see Rubinstein 2018, 272–74, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KJ9CVGZ9 view on Zotero].</ref>
[[File:2215.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 7, F. & S. Palmer, Caper Bush (Plate 42), “The American Flora. Vol. II“, 1848 [print from 1855 edition]. RB 315449 v. 2, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.]]

[[File:2216.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 8, F. (Fanny) Palmer (artist) and Nathaniel Currier (lithographer and publisher), ''View of New York from Weehawken—North River'', 1849, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs: Print Collection, the New York Public Library, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/5e66b3e8-de04-d471-e040-e00a180654d7.]]
Palmer soon began to publish prints under her own name—no longer “F. & S. Palmer”—and at a new address, indicating that the professional partnership with her husband had come to an end, likely due, at least in part, to financial challenges. By 1849, the well-known New York City lithographer Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888) began to use Palmer’s work regularly as the basis for prints published by his firm, although initially he did not include her name below the images. However, by the end of the year, he printed Palmer’s name (“F. F. Palmer”) on two prints, ''View of New York. From Brooklyn Heights and View of New York. From Weehawken—North River'' [Fig. 8], a rare recognition for the period as most artists working for Currier remained anonymous. With her new full-time position at the N. Currier lithography firm (renamed Currier & Ives in 1857), Palmer became the primary earner for her family.<ref>By the 1850 federal census, Seymour Palmer’s occupation was listed as a tavern keeper and he seems to have abandoned work in the printing trade from this point on. By 1855 Edmund Palmer no longer appeared in the city’s business directories and was described by at least one contemporary acquaintance as “a ne’er-do-well.” Rubinstein 2018, 46, 50, 52, 55, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KJ9CVGZ9 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Penny_cite"></span> In her early days with N. Currier, Palmer sometimes traveled out to Long Island in Currier’s carriage to sketch with pencil background material—farmhouses and barns, [[fence]]s, etc.—to serve as source material for the firm’s large staff.<ref>Rubinstein 2018, 90, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KJ9CVGZ9 view on Zotero].</ref> While working for N. Currier, she produced approximately two hundred prints depicting a wide variety of subjects, including city and suburban [[view]]s, marine subjects, farm scenes, suburban and country homes, western landscapes, and still lifes, among others. She also took on freelance work with the assistance of male apprentices that she trained and paid to assist her ([[#Penny|view text]]). Palmer worked for Currier & Ives until 1868 and remained in the United States until her death from tuberculosis in 1876.<ref>According to Rubinstein, no prints by Palmer produced after 1868 have been located and confirmed. Rubinstein 2018, 174. For a list of prints by (or attributed to) Palmer published by Currier & Ives, see Appendix 3 and 3A in Rubinstein 2018, 281–338, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KJ9CVGZ9 view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
*Review of Frances Palmer’s and Edmund Palmer’s lithographs, May 13, 1842, published in the ''Leicester Journal'' (quoted in Rubinstein 2018: 16)<ref name="Rubinstein_2018">Rubinstein 2018, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KJ9CVGZ9 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Leicester General News Room and Library—A perspective [[view]] of this ornament to our town, drawn on stone, by Mrs. Palmer, executed in tinted Lithography, by Mr. E. J. [sic] Palmer, has just been published. . . . In this specimen before us, we have proof also that the difficult process of Lithography is skilfully [''sic''] conducted by a resident Lithographer. Of this view, although we pretend not that Mrs. Palmer’s drawing on stone equals in the handling the productions of the long-practiced Barnard, nor that the finer specimens of [Charles Joseph] Hulmandel’s [''sic''] Press do not surpass, in the more delicate effects, those of Mr. Palmer’s; it is impossible to deny that the former is an accomplished Artist, and the latter a skilful [''sic''] director in this beautiful art; and we look forward with pleasure to the promised appearance of their joint efforts in the publication of a series of [[view]]s, in numbers, of the most [[picturesque]] localities in our Town and Country.”

*<div id="Leicester"></div>Review of Frances Palmer’s and Edmund Palmer’s lithographs, July 1, 1842, published in the ''Leicester Journal'' (quoted in Rubinstein 2018: 16)<ref name="Rubinstein_2018"></ref>

:“SKETCHES IN LEICESTERSHIRE—We take the earliest opportunity of recommending this very promising work, the first number of which has just appeared to the notice of our readers. The [[view]]s. . . ''The Hanging Rock; St. Mary’s Church, Leicester, from the S.W.''; and that most [[picturesque]] and interesting of all the heights included in this extensive range of the Charnwood, Beacon Hill. Each is managed with great artistic effect; and the manner in which the lithographer has fulfilled his [''sic''] task is deserving of every commendation. . . . The [[view]] of Beacon Hill is in Mrs. Palmer’s most tasteful and successful style, and is distinguished by a boldness and freedom not often exhibited by a female pencil. . . . The tint delicately thrown upon the sky moreover, (apparently a soft and tranquil autumnal heaven,) is the very finish required as a contrast to the stern features of the rugged landscape which frowns beneath it. . . . We cordially recommend Mrs. Palmer’s work to the notice, not only of all attached to our local scenery, but of all interested (as who in these days is not!) in the general progress and advancement of the graphic art.” [[#Leicester_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Ranlett"></div>Ranlett, William H., describing Frances Palmer’s work (Ranlett 1847 1:1)<ref>William H. Ranlett, ''The Architect: A Series of Original Designs, for Domestic and Ornametnal Cottages and Villas, Connected with Landscape Gardening, Adapted to the United States…'' (New York: Dewitt & Davenport, 1847), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K98PVCSJ view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The volume contains 60 plates—19 of them tinted in a style of lithography which will commend itself to every judge of art. The most difficult of them being executed on the stones by Mrs. F. PALMER, who stands at the head of the art. . . . The plates are from the well-known lithographic press-room of Messrs. PALMER.” [[#Ranlett_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Penny"></div>Penny, Virginia, describing Frances Palmer’s career and working process (Penny 1863: 69)<ref>Virginia Penny, ''The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman’s Work'' (Boston: Walker, Wise, & Company, 1863), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZWTA35IG view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Mrs. P., Brooklyn, an English lady, learned to draw when eight years old, and studied lithography with a distinguished artist of London, who executed entirely with his left hand, having lost three fingers on his right when he was a child. She has spent twenty-two years in lithographing—seventeen of them in this county. She is probably the only lady professionally engaged in this business in the United States. She has earned almost constantly, I was told, from $12 to $30 a week. . . . Mrs. P. excels in architectural drawing. She thinks one must have the talent of an artist, and great practice with the pencil, to succeed. She has given instruction to several youths, but never to one of her own sex. One must be articled, and pass through a regular course of advancement, to follow it advantageously. To an apprentice, after two or three years’ practice, a small premium is paid. She had one youth to learn of her, who, after four years’ time, received $7 a week from her for his work. She thinks there will be employment to a few well qualified. She has always kept busy.” [[#Penny_cite|back up to History]]

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:2208.jpg|E. Jones, F. [Fanny] Palmer, and E. Palmer (lithographers), [[Alexander Jackson Davis]] (architect), ''Suburban Gothic Villa, Murray Hill, N.Y. City. Residence of W. C. Waddell, Esq. 5th Avenue, Between 37 & 38th Street. Below, Plans of First and Second Floors'', n.d.

Image:2212.jpg|Frances Flora Bond Palmer, ''Old Entrance to Greenwood Cemetery'', in: ''The New York Drawing Book, Containing a Series of Original Designs and Sketches of American Scenery'', No. 1, 1847. Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society.

Image:2213.jpg|Frances Flora Bond Palmer, ''Sylvan Lake, Greenwood Cemetery'', in: ''The New York Drawing Book, Containing a Series of Original Designs and Sketches of American Scenery'', No. 2, 1847, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1954.

Image:2214.jpg|F. & S. Palmer, “The American Flora. Vol. II“ (frontispiece), 1848, [print from 1855 edition], Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Image:2215.jpg|F. & S. Palmer, Caper Bush (Plate 42), “The American Flora. Vol. II“, 1848 [print from 1855 edition]. RB 315449 v. 2, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Image:0774.jpg|Ground plots for proposed houses near Clifton, Staten Island, in William H. Ranlett, ''The Architect'' (1849), vol 1, pl. 18. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Image:0921.jpg|Frances Palmer, “English Cottage Style,” in William H. Ranlett, ''The Architect'' (1849), vol. 1, pl. 27, design VIII. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Image:2216.jpg|F. (Fanny) Palmer (artist) and Nathaniel Currier (lithographer and publisher), ''View of New York from Weehawken—North River'', 1849, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs: Print Collection, the New York Public Library, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/5e66b3e8-de04-d471-e040-e00a180654d7.

Image:0790.jpg|Frances Palmer, "Design for a Vinery & Green House," in William H. Ranlett, ''The Architect'' (1851), vol. 2, pl. 43. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Image:2217.jpg|Mrs. Frances Flora (Bond) Palmer, 185-?. Harriet Endicott Waite research material concerning Currier & Ives, 1923-1956. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==

[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr95010133.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[http://lastingimpressions.winterthur.org/fannypalmer/ “Lasting Impressions: The Artists of Currier & Ives,” Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:People|Palmer, Frances]]

Frances Palmer

2019-12-30T16:57:40Z

L-Baradel: /* History */

Wye House

2019-12-30T16:56:07Z

L-Baradel: /* Texts */

'''Wye House''', a [[plantation]] on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, was well-known during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for its [[picturesque]] gardens and [[greenhouse]], which is believed to be the only extant eighteenth-century example of its kind in the United States. Archaeological excavations conducted on the property between 2005 and 2014 have yielded important insights into gardening practices at Wye House as well as into the daily lives of the [[plantation|plantation’s]] large enslaved population.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names''': Wye House Plantation; Wye House Farm; Home House Farm<br/>
'''Site Dates''': 1650s–present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s)''': Edward Lloyd I (1650s–1695); Edward Lloyd II (1695–1718); Edward Lloyd III (1718–1770); Edward Lloyd IV (1770–1796); Edward Lloyd V (1796–1834); Edward Lloyd VI (1834–1861); Edward Lloyd VII (1861–1907); Charles Howard Lloyd and Mary Donnell Lloyd (c. 1907–1943); Elizabeth Key Lloyd Schiller (1943–1993); Mary Donnell Singer Tilghman (1993–2012); Richard C. Tilghman, Jr. (2012–present)<br/>
'''Associated People''': Peter Moir (indentured gardener); Robert Cushney (free gardener); Frederick Douglass (enslaved person); Mr. McDermott (chief gardener); Big Jacob (enslaved gardener); Little Jacob (enslaved gardener); Kitt (enslaved gardener); and Stephen (enslaved gardener)<br/>
'''Location''': Talbot County, Maryland<br/>
'''Condition''': extant<br/>
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Wye+House/@38.8534359,-76.1704116,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89b815d93f0f3ff5:0xca27a55c02f2579a!8m2!3d38.8534359!4d-76.1682229?shorturl=1 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
[[File:2230.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, Dennis Griffith, ''Map of the State of Maryland laid down from an actual survey of all the principal waters, public roads, and divisions of the counties therein; describing the situation of the cities, towns, villages, houses of worship and other public buildings, furnaces, forges, mills, and other remarkable places; and of the Federal Territory; as also a sketch of the State of Delaware shewing the probable connexion of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays,'' ca. 1794 [detail]. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Washington, DC.]]
Wye House was established in the middle of the seventeenth century when Edward Lloyd I (d. 1695), a Welsh Puritan, purchased 3,500 acres of farmland on the Wye River in Talbot County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore [Fig. 1].<ref>J. Donnell Tilghman writes that the tracts at Wye were granted to Edward I in 1658. J. Donnell Tilghman, “Wye House,” in ''Gardens of Colony and State: Gardens and Gardeners of the American Colonies and the Republic before 1840'', vol. 2, edited by Alice B. Lockwood (New York: Charles Scribner’s for the Garden Club of America, 2000), 139, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AWHQTEF7 view on Zotero].</ref> The Lloyds relied on a large enslaved workforce to build their fortune raising livestock and growing tobacco, corn, and wheat.<ref>Jean B. Russo discusses the agricultural labor used to run Edward Lloyd IV’s plantations, including Wye House. See Russo, “A Model Planter: Edward Lloyd IV of Maryland, 1770–1796,” ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 49, no. 1 (January 1992): 62–88, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/33G4DBP3 view on Zotero].</ref> The [[plantation]] has remained in the continuous possession of the Lloyd family since its founding, and subsequent generations built the late eighteenth-century mansion, gardens, and [[greenhouse]] for which the property is known.

Although many of the Lloyds’ buildings at Wye House are still extant, most of the structures associated with the [[plantation|plantation’s]] large enslaved population no longer survive.<ref>Edward IV’s mansion, many of the Lloyds’ gardens, the Lloyd family cemetery, a smokehouse, stables, and a seventeenth-century house known as the Captain’s Cottage survive. The slave quarters on the Long Green and near the agricultural fields, the blacksmith’s and carpenter’s shops, and various storehouses are no longer standing. Elizabeth Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape of Wye House: Nature, Spirituality, and Social Order'' (Lantham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017), xvi, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero].</ref> Scholar Alan Rice argues that the destruction of most of the physical traces of the lives and homes of the enslaved at Wye House amounts to a “‘symbolic annihilation’ of black presence” on the estate. This destruction contributes to the erasure of slavery from the traditional historical narrative of the site.<ref>Alan Rice, “The History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Heritage from Below in Action: Guerrilla Memorialisation in the Era of Bicentennial Commemoration,” in ''Heritage from Below'', edited by Iain J.M. Robertson (London: Routledge, 2012), 220, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/4HIRQQZQ view on Zotero]. This “steady disappearance of quarters and work buildings in the early twentieth century” was also the result of “Emancipation and downsizing of labor.” Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', 10, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Douglass_1855_cite"></span>First-hand accounts by Frederick Douglass (1818–1895)—undoubtedly the best-known enslaved person to have lived at Wye House—partially illuminate the abuses enslaved people faced on the [[plantation]] and describe the appearance of the Lloyds’ home and gardens ([[#Douglass_1855|view text]]). These accounts provide an important “counterbalance [to] the overwhelming influence of the Lloyd family in the historical record.”<ref>Elizabeth Pruitt, “Transatlantic Roots: Cultural Uses of Plants at the Wye House Plantation,” in ''Atlantic Crossings in the Wake of Frederick Douglass: Archaeology, Literature, and Spatial Culture'', edited by Mark P. Leone and Lee M. Jenkins (Leiden: Brill Rodopi, 2017), 4, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/INXARUTF view on Zotero].</ref> Furthermore, archaeological excavations conducted between 2005 and 2014 by Archeology in Annapolis and the University of Maryland, College Park, have yielded additional insights about the daily lives and spiritual practices of the hundreds of enslaved individuals who lived and labored on the estate.<ref>Mary Tilghman, an eleventh-generation descendant of Edward Lloyd I, invited the researchers to excavate at Wye House, but the team also solicited input from the descendants of enslaved residents, many of whom still live in the vicinity. After consulting with the descendants of the Lloyds and people enslaved by the Lloyds, the archaeologists concentrated their efforts on understanding the history of gardening at Wye House and the daily lives and spiritual and religious practices of the plantation’s enslaved population. The Archeology in Annapolis project, founded in 1981, is a collaboration between the University of Maryland, College Park, and the Historic Annapolis Foundation to conduct publicly engaged archaeological research. In 2001, Archeology in Annapolis began to expand its excavation sites to include places on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, first to Wye Hall (not related to Wye House) and then Wye House and Easton. Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', 69–71, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero].</ref> “Through plants and gardening,” both the Lloyds and the enslaved population at Wye House “maintained cultural connections” to their ancestral homelands (Great Britain and Africa respectively).<ref>Pruitt, “Transatlantic Roots,” 5, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/INXARUTF view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2210.jpg|thumb|Fig. 2, ''The Edward Lloyd Family'', Charles Wilson Peale, 1771, Oil on canvas, 1964.0124 A, B, Museum purchase, Courtesy of Winterthur Museum.]]
Little is known about the design of the first mansion and gardens constructed at Wye House. When Edward I moved to England in 1668, he left the estate in the care of his son Philemon Lloyd (1646–85), who most likely built the first Wye House mansion and other structures. The first house was organized along an east-west axis and was located in closer proximity than the current house to the Long [[Green]], the industrial center of production at Wye House and the center of [[plantation]] life for its enslaved residents. It is possible that the elegant Palladian villa depicted in the background at the left-hand side of [[Charles Willson Peale|Charles Willson Peale’s]] 1771 portrait of Edward Lloyd IV (1744–1796), his wife, Elizabeth Tayloe Lloyd (1750–1825), and their daughter Ann (1769–1841) represents the first Wye House mansion [Fig. 2].<ref>Peale painted the Lloyds at Wye House during the spring and summer of 1771. Christopher Weeks, ''Where Land and Water Intertwine: An Architectural History of Talbot County, Maryland'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984), 58n18, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FAA7H5A5 view on Zotero].</ref> A small brick house called the Captain’s Cottage (still extant) may have been an original dependency of the first Wye House and was likely built around 1660–64 and remodeled about 1810. It housed the [[plantation]] overseer who, from this location, could see and surveil the slave quarters on the Long [[Green]].<ref>“Wye House,” National Historic Landmark Nomination Form (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior. National Park Service, 2009), 5, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/M2AK49TQ view on Zotero]; Rice 2012, 221–22, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/4HIRQQZQ view on Zotero]; and Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', 51, 69–70, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero]. The cottage is where, according to Douglass’s 1845 autobiography, the overseer Aaron Anthony brutally and repeatedly whipped Douglass’s Aunt Hester.</ref>

Soon after Edward IV inherited Wye House from his father, Edward Lloyd III (1711–1770), he began modernizing its architecture and landscape to keep up with English trends.<ref>Pruitt argues, “Everything from agricultural tools, gardening manuals, seeds, plant cuttings, and stylistic trends came from England to Wye House.” In 1793, for example, Lloyd purchased a dozen each of garden rakes, garden scythes, and garden hoes from Oxley, Hancock & Co. of London. Pruitt, “Transatlantic Roots,” 5–6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/INXARUTF view on Zotero]. See also Michael Bourne, et al., ''Architecture and Change in the Chesapeake: A Field Tour on the Eastern and Western Shores'' (Crownsville, MD: Vernacular Architecture Forum and the Maryland Historical Trust Press, 1998), 115–19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5AGKPTNI view on Zotero].</ref> He commissioned the building of a new manor house—the extant late-Georgian, seven-part mansion—that was likely constructed between 1781–84.<ref>Robert Key, and architect and carpenter from Annapolis, Maryland, worked on the construction of the plantation house from 1781–98 and may have designed it as well. “Wye House” 2009, 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/M2AK49TQ view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Anonymous_cite"></span> Relocated farther from the Long [[Green]] than the first house, the construction of the new house also reoriented the landscape ninety degrees from the earlier east-west axis to the current north-south one. A one-story Palladian [[portico]] with four [[column]]s, added about 1799, covers the mansion’s south-facing front entrance. The landscape visible from the [[portico]] was symmetrical and ordered, with two long tree-lined [[avenue]]s leading from the public road to the house ([[#Anonymous|view text]]). The [[avenue]]s formed a circle around a large [[lawn]] to the south of the mansion with a [[ha-ha]]—one of the earliest known examples in America—that enabled livestock to graze without obstructing the [[vista]] from the house.<ref>Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', xv–xvi, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero]; Pruitt, “Transatlantic Roots,” 9, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/INXARUTF view on Zotero]; Russo 1992, 63, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/33G4DBP3 view on Zotero].Weeks argues that the ha-ha at Wye House is probably contemporary with the one at Mount Vernon an is “yet another example of how aware the Lloyds were of the latest trends in design, whether architectural or horticultural.” Weeks 1984, 67, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FAA7H5A5 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Parkinson_1805_cite"></span>Visitors to Wye House at the end of the eighteenth century, including the artist [[Charles Willson Peale]] and the British agricultural writer Richard Parkinson (1748–1815), noted the presence of a small [[deer park]] at Wye House, a relatively rare landscape feature in the United States ([[#Parkinson_1805|view text]]). A one-story [[veranda]] added in 1799 to the rear, north-facing side of the mansion covers the central block of the home and provides a [[view]] of an expansive [[green]] and Wye House’s [[greenhouse]].

Several acres of formal gardens were planted on either side of the [[green]] located between the mansion and [[greenhouse]], creating a secluded environment around the Lloyds’ home. The archeologists Mark P. Leone, James M. Harmon, and Jessica L. Neuwirth argue that such [[Geometric style|geometric]] gardens, a style favored by the Chesapeake Tidewater elite, was “consonant with the slaveholder ideology” by promoting and controlling “the hierarchy of movement throughout the gardens, the control over access to the gardens, the use of gardens as places to display oneself to visitors and workers alike, and the emphasis on the great house and garden of leisure in the midst of a larger working [[plantation]].”<ref>Mark P. Leone, James M. Harmon, and Jessica L. Neuwirth, “Perspective and Surveillance in Eighteenth-Century Maryland Gardens, including William Paca’s Garden on Wye Island,” ''Historical Archaeology'' 39, no. 4 (2005): 139, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZGGNCM5H view on Zotero]. See also Pruitt, “Transatlantic Roots,” 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/INXARUTF view on Zotero].</ref> The growing preference for the [[picturesque]] in late seventeenth-century British landscape architecture certainly shaped Edward IV’s landscape design as well; he used tall hedges and covered [[walk]]s to create [[view]]s that disappear and reemerge as visitors stroll the grounds.<ref>Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Douglass_1845_cite"></span>

[[File:0629.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 3, E. H. Pickering and Jack E. Boucher, Wye House Orangery, c. 1933.]]
According to Frederick Douglass, visitors from Baltimore, Annapolis, and Easton frequently came to visit the gardens at Wye House and especially the Lloyds’ collection of fruits in the [[greenhouse]] ([[#Douglass_1845|view text]]). The [[greenhouse]], also known as the [[orangery]], dates to about 1775 and is believed to be the only extant eighteenth-century structure of its kind in the United States [Fig. 3]. Measuring just over 85 feet long, it is composed of a central two-story section with a billiard room that is flanked by two single-story hip-roofed wings [Fig. 2]. Its brick walls are covered with rusticated stucco to imitate stonework. Tall Palladian windows enabled visitors to glimpse the various kinds of flora—decorative, edible, and medicinal—grown inside. The Lloyds sourced many of their plants from England, either through direct connections there or through intermediaries such as Upton Scott (1722–1814), an Irish-born Annapolis-based physician who purchased specimens for the Lloyds and connected them with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Records indicate that there was at least one other [[greenhouse]] and a [[hothouse]] on the property. A [[hothouse]], constructed around 1784 and located to the southeast of the extant [[greenhouse]], was used until improvements in heating the [[greenhouse]] at the turn of the nineteenth century rendered the [[hothouse]] redundant (it was demolished in the 1830s). The [[greenhouse|greenhouse’s]] new systems—including hot-air-duct heating and a water pump for irrigation—facilitated the cultivation of exotic plants such as orange and lemon trees.<ref>“Wye House” 2009, 4–5, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/M2AK49TQ view on Zotero]; and Pruitt, “Transatlantic Roots,” 5–6, 12, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/INXARUTF view on Zotero]. The federal tax records from 1798, which describe each building at Wye House Plantation, “indicate that there were multiple greenhouse and hothouse buildings operating concurrently on the plantation.” Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', 31, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero]. Analysis of fossil pollen collected from the main rooms of the extant greenhouse reveal that lilies, crocuses, geraniums, pinks, irises, as well as some medicinal plants and other tropical plants were cultivated there. Ibid., 30.</ref> Douglass reports that the fruit cultivated in the Lloyds’ garden tempted many enslaved people at Wye House to attempt to sneak produce for themselves, despite the Lloyds’ efforts to exclude them from the garden and the risk of physical punishment if they were caught transgressing the barriers ([[#Douglass_1845|view text]]).

According to the archaeologist Elizabeth Pruitt, “The Lloyds cultivated the persona of the scientific gardener and kept social and economic connections to England in order to maintain their place among the Chesapeake elite…. However, the knowledge and abilities to run the [[plantation|plantation’s]] gardens and care for its plants belonged not only to them, but also to the enslaved gardeners.”<ref>Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', xviii, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero].</ref> A July 1796 inventory of the Lloyds’s library at Wye House reveal an extensive collection of books about agriculture, horticulture, and animal husbandry, including many well-known British publications such as Philip Miller’s ''Gardeners Dictionary'' (London, 7th ed., 1759), John Mills’s ''New and Complete System of Practical Husbandry'' (London, 5 vols., 1762–65), William Ellis’s ''Practical Farmer'' (London, 5th ed., 1759), Thomas Mawe and John Abercrombie’s ''Universal Gardener and Botanist'' (London, 1778), James Meader’s ''Modern Gardner'' (London, 1771), and numerous books by the English agriculturalist Arthur Young (1741–1820). They also owned more specialized volumes such as William Speechy’s ''Treatise on the Culture of the Vine'' (York, 1790) and John Abercrombie’s ''Hot-House Gardener'' (London, 1789), as well as architectural treatises including Isaac Ware’s translation of Andrea Palladio’s ''Four Books of Architecture'' (London, 1738), James Gibbs’s ''Book of Architecture'' (London, 2nd ed., 1739), Abraham Swan’s ''Collection of Designs in Architecture'' (London, 2 vols., 1757), and Thomas Collins Overton’s ''Original Designs of Temples, and Other Ornamental Buildings for Parks and Gardens'' (London, 1766).<ref>Edwin Wolf II, “The Library of Edward Lloyd IV of Wye House,” ''Winterthur Portfolio'' 5 (1969): 90–1; see p. 92–121 for the inventory, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/CH8KXAJJ view on Zotero].</ref> Frederick Douglass reports that the Lloyds brought a Mr. McDermott from Scotland to be the chief scientific gardener on the [[plantation]], and that he worked alongside four assistants (who were likely enslaved). A 1796 census (taken before Douglass’s account) names four enslaved gardeners: Big Jacob, Little Jacob, Kitt, and Stephen.<ref>According to Russo, surviving labor contracts suggest that Edward Lloyd IV hired free laborers to work as gardeners at Wye House during the 1770s and purchased indentured servants to work as gardeners during the same period. Russo notes at least two skilled indentured gardeners who were employed by Lloyd: Peter Moir was purchased to work as a gardener for a period of three years in March 1774 at a price of £30. Lloyd purchased another indentured servant to work as a gardener from James Hutchings in February 1775. Lloyd hired the free gardener Robert Cushney in 1772. Russo 1992, 75–79, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/33G4DBP3 view on Zotero]. After the 1770s, as Edward IV greatly expanded his enslaved labor force and the number of farms he operated, he relied increasingly on the labor of enslaved workers. The majority performed agricultural labor in Lloyd’s fields. In 1770 there were thirty-three enslaved people at Wye House Plantation, but by 1834 the population had grown to 151 enslaved people. Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', 15, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero]. The Lloyds’ records of the more than five hundred enslaved men, women, and children who lived at Wye House between 1770 and 1834 survive and have been entered into an online searchable database maintained by Archaeology in Annapolis, http://aia.umd.edu/wyehouse/.</ref>

Archaeological and archaeobotanical evidence points to the fact that African American and European cultivation and use practices coexisted at Wye House. Archaeological excavations at the [[greenhouse]] have revealed the presence of a slave quarter in a northwest room. This space likely housed the individuals who ran the [[greenhouse]] between 1790 and 1840.<ref>Pruitt, ''Reordering the Landscape'', 49, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5IF76TWD/q/pruitt view on Zotero].</ref> Archeologists have also identified four bundles of West and West-Central African objects that they connect to Hoodoo spiritual practices, two of which were found in the [[greenhouse]]: one, located at the threshold of the slave quarter, contained two coins and two prehistoric projectile points, while the other, a pestle, was found concealed within the bricks of the [[greenhouse|greenhouse’s]] furnace system, likely placed there during its construction.<ref>Mark P. Leone and Lee M. Jenkins, “Introduction: Frederick Douglass and the Transatlantic Classroom,” in ''Atlantic Crossings in the Wake of Frederick Douglass: Archaeology, Literature, and Spatial Culture'', edited by Mark P. Leone and Lee M. Jenkins (Leiden: Brill Rodopi, 2017), xxxv–xxxvi, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGQEV4UM view on Zotero].</ref> Fossilized pollen collected from the [[greenhouse]] slave quarter reveals some of the ways that enslaved people at Wye House utilized plants—both grown and foraged—to meet their nutritional and medicinal needs. The data indicate that the room’s inhabitants consumed bananas and plantains, nightshades, cranberries, blueberries, mustards, and cabbage, as well as medicinal plants that were likely grown by enslaved gardeners, including buckbean, ginger root, arrowhead, arsmart, and phlox. Leone and his team argue that “the pollen at the Wye [[greenhouse]] shows a full understanding [on the part of the enslaved] of European gardening and agriculture and a full use of the food-producing environment too,” contributing to the “beginning for our understanding of African American gardening.”<ref>Mark P. Leone, et al., “In the Shade of Frederick Douglass: The Archaeology of Wye House,” ''Reclaiming Archaeology: Beyond the Tropes of Modernity'', edited by Alfredo González-Ruibal (Milton Park, NY: Routledge, 2013), 223, 226, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/MN6G9469 view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==

*[[Charles Willson Peale|Peale, Charles Willson]], c. 1790, describing Wye House (Miller et al., eds., 2000: 5:147)<ref>Lillian B. Miller et al., eds., ''The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family'', vol. 5, ''The Autobiography of Charles Willson Peale'' (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/IZAKPCBG? view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The Coll. is possessed of immence property, he had 400 Ars. of land in a [[park]] to keep [[Deer park|Deer]], round which was a [[fence]] of 20 rails high, Maise were planted within for sustenance of his deer. He also had on his farm an immence number of wild Turkies—the writer has seen 20 of them in a flock. His seat being on Wye river, he had a seine of immence length and breadth, requiring at least 20 men to hawl it, of course the quantity of Fish which at times has been taken is wonderful. at one time and in wares [weirs] he fed sheepshead so that at all times of the summer season he could have them fresh for his table.”

*<div id="Parkinson_1805"></div>Parkinson, Richard, 1798–1800, describing Wye House (1805: 1:226–28)<ref>Richard Parkinson, ''A Tour in America, 1798, 1799, and 1800: Exhibiting Sketches of Society and Manners, and a Particular Account of the American System of Agriculture, with Its Recent Improvements'', 2 vols. (London: J. Harding, 1805), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/J8PV5PS4 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“I then was introduced to Ed. Loyd [''sic''], Esq. at Why-House, a man of very extensive possessions—I have heard say, thirteen [[plantation]]s, of one thousand acres each. His house and gardens are what may be termed elegant: and the land appeared the best I ever saw in any one spot in America. He had a [[Deer park|deer-park]], which is a very rare thing there: I saw but two in the county; this, and another belonging to Colonel Mercer. These [[park]]s are small—not above fifty acres each. I could scarcely tell what the deer lived on. There were only some of those small rushes growing in this [[park]] which bear the name of grass, and leaves of trees.

:“Mr. Singleton and Mr. Loyd had each a field of clover, and all the clover I saw in my ride. If clover were as productive as some authors tell us, there would be more of it grown: but, like mine, it will not pay for mowing. Mr. Loyd had a small field of timothy,—I suppose intended for his saddle and carriage horses,--and the only one I saw in all my ride, of any intended for hay. Mr. Loyd had the finest field of Indian corn I ever beheld—so neat, not a weed that I saw in one hundred acres all in one field; and the corn then going into silk, and in general as high as a man on horseback. He had the best crop of buckwheat I ever saw, intended to be ploughed in the vegetable manure. He had about five acres of pumpkins in good condition. All his crops were better than any other I saw in any part of America, and every thing in the greatest order. He has some very good sheep, fine cattle, and very good horses. Mr. Loyd’s father had some years before imported a bull and two cows from Mr. Bakewell: and from the offspring he had some of the fattest cattle that could be imagined, for the food they had to live upon. He estimated some of his wheat at fifteen bushels per acre; and it was said the produce from eighteen hundred acres of land was eighteen thousand bushels of wheat; which was one of the greatest crops in America.” [[#Parkinson_1805_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Douglass_1845"></div>Douglass, Frederick, 1845, describing Wye House (1845: 15–16)<ref>Frederick Douglass, ''Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave'' (Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JFVW6XCU view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Colonel Lloyd kept a large and finely cultivated garden, which afforded almost constant employment for four men, besides the chief gardener, (Mr. M’Durmond.) This garden was probably the greatest attraction of the place. During the summer months, people came from far and near—from Baltimore, Easton, and Annapolis—to see it. It abounded in fruits of almost every description, from the hardy apple of the north to the delicate orange of the south. This garden was not the least source of trouble on the [[plantation]]. Its excellent fruit was quite a temptation to the hungry swarms of boys, as well as the older slaves, belonging to the colonel, few of whom had the virtue or vice to resist it. Scarcely a day passed, during the summer, but that some slave had to take the lash for stealing fruit. The colonel had to resort to all kinds of stratagems to keep his slaves out of the garden. The last and most successful one was that of tarring the [[fence]] all around; after which, if a slave was caught with any tar upon his person, it was deemed sufficient proof that he had either been into the garden, or had tried to get in. In either case, he was severely whipped by the chief gardener.” [[#Douglass_1845_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Anonymous"></div>Anonymous, 1852, describing Wye House (1852: 59)<ref>Anonymous, “The Maryland Trial of Reapers,” ''The American Farmer, a Monthly Magazine of Agriculture and Horticulture'' 8, no. 2 (August 1852): 59, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/5MN43NRR view on Zotero].</ref>

:“[Col. Lloyd’s] residence is one of the most splendid in this country, being the homestead of the Lloyd family since their first settlement in Maryland. The lane leading from the public road to the house is about half a mile long, and arched with stately rows of linden and magnificent elm trees—the gardens are extensive, and in a most splendid state of cultivation, and the lawns and trees and shrubbery around his beautiful mansion, are tastefully arranged, and present a most lovely appearance. The broad and fertile fields are dotted over with majestic forest trees, which present to the eye a most picturesque and beautiful view of the surrounding country.” [[#Anonymous_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Douglass_1855"></div>Douglass, Frederick, 1855, describing Wye House (1855; repr., 1987: 44–48, 70–71)<ref>Frederick Douglass, ''My Bondage and My Freedom'', ed. William L. Andrews (1855; repr., Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1987), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/Q764CVCK? view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Just such a secluded, dark, and out-of-the-way place, is the ‘home [[plantation]]’ of Col. Edward Lloyd, on the Eastern Shore, Maryland. It is far away from all the great thoroughfares, and is proximate to no town or village. . . Its whole public is made up of, and divided into, three classes—SLAVEHOLDERS, SLAVES and OVERSEERS. . .

:“. . . . Civilization is shut out, but nature cannot be. Though separated from the rest of the world; though public opinion, as I have said, seldom gets a chance to penetrate its dark domain; though the whole place is stamped with its own peculiar, iron-like individuality; and though crimes, high-handed and atrocious, may there be committed, with almost as much impunity as upon the deck of a pirate ship,—it is, nevertheless, altogether, to outward deeming, a most strikingly interesting place, full of life, activity, and spirit. . .

:“There was a windmill (always a commanding object to a child’s eye) on Long Point—a tract of land dividing Miles river from the Wye—a mile or more from my old master’s house. There was a creek to swim in, at the bottom of an open flat space, of twenty acres or more, called 'the Long [[Green]]'—a very beautiful play-ground for the children. . .

:“Then here were a great many houses; human habitations, full of the mysteries of life at every stage of it. There was the little red house, up the road, occupied by Mr. Sevier, the overseer. A little nearer to my old master’s, stood a very long, rough, low building, literally alive with slaves, of all ages, conditions and sizes. This was called ‘the Long Quarter.’ Perched upon a hill, across the Long Green, was a tall, dilapidated, old brick building—the architectural dimensions of which proclaimed its erection for a different purpose—now occupied by slaves, in a similar manner to the Long Quarter. Besides these, there were numerous other slave houses and huts, scattered around in the neighborhood, every nook and corner of which was completely occupied. . .

:“Besides these dwellings, there were barns, stables, store-houses, and tobacco-houses; blacksmiths’ shops, wheelwrights’ shops, coopers’ shops—all objects of interest; but, above all, there stood the grandest building my eyes had then ever beheld, called, by every one on the [[plantation]], the ‘Great House.’ This was occupied by Col. Lloyd and his family. They occupied it; I enjoyed it. The great house was surrounded by numerous and variously shaped out-buildings. There were kitchens, wash-houses, dairies, [[summerhouse|summer-house]], [[greenhouse|green-houses]], hen-houses, turkey-houses, pigeon-houses, and [[arbor]]s, of many sizes and devices, all neatly painted, and altogether interspersed with grand old trees, ornamental and primitive, which afforded delightful shade in summer, and imparted to the scene a high degree of stately beauty. The great house itself was a large, white, wooden building, with wings on three sides of it. In front, a large [[portico]], extending the entire length of the building, and supported by a long range of [[column]]s, gave to the whole establishment an air of solemn grandeur. It was a treat to my young and gradually opening mind, to behold this elaborate exhibition of wealth, power, and vanity. The carriage entrance to the house was a large [[gate]], more than a quarter of a mile distant from it; the intermediate space was a beautiful [[lawn]], very neatly trimmed, and watched with the greatest care. It was dotted thickly over with delightful trees, [[shrubbery]], and flowers. The road, or lane, from the [[gate]] to the great house, was richly paved with white pebbles from the beach, and, in its course, formed a complete circle around the beautiful [[lawn]]. Carriages going in and retiring from the great house, made the circuit of the lawn, and their passengers were permitted to behold a scene of almost Eden-like beauty. Outside this select inclosure, were [[park]]s, where—as about the residences of the English nobility—rabbits, deer, and other wild game, might be seen, peering and playing about, with none to molest them or make them afraid. The tops of the stately poplars were often covered with the red-winged black-birds, making all nature vocal with the joyous life and beauty of their wild, warbling notes. . .

:“A short distance from the great house, were the stately mansions of the dead, a place of somber aspect. Vast tombs, embowered beneath the weeping willow and the fir tree, told of the antiquities of the Lloyd family, as well as of their wealth. Superstition was rife among the slaves about this family [[cemetery|burying ground]]. Strange sights had been seen there by some of the older slaves. Shrouded ghosts, riding on great black horses, had been seen to enter; balls of fire had been seen to fly there at midnight, and horrid sounds had been repeatedly heard. Slaves know enough of the rudiments of theology to believe that those go to hell who die slaveholders; and they often fancy such persons wishing themselves back again, to wield the lash. Tales of sights and sounds, strange and terrible, connected with the huge black tombs, were a very great security to the grounds about them, for few of the slaves felt like approaching them even in the day time. It was a dark, gloomy and forbidding place, and it was difficult to feel that the spirits of the sleeping dust there deposited, reigned with the blest in the realms of eternal peace. . .

:. . . Nor are the fruits of the earth forgotten or neglected. The fertile garden, many acres in size, constituting a separate establishment, distinct from the common farm—with its scientific gardener, imported from Scotland, (a Mr. McDermott,) with four men under his direction, was not behind, either in the abundance or in the delicacy of its contributions to the same full board. The tender asparagus, the succulent celery, and the delicate cauliflower; egg plants, beets, lettuce, parsnips, peas, and French beans, early and late; radishes, cantelopes [''sic''], melons of all kinds; the fruit and flowers of all climes and of all descriptions, from the hardy apple of the north to the lemon and orange of the south, culminate at this point.” [[#Douglass_1855_cite|back up to History]]

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:2210.jpg|''The Edward Lloyd Family'', Charles Wilson Peale, 1771, Oil on canvas, 1964.0124 A, B, Museum purchase, Courtesy of Winterthur Museum.

Image:2211.jpg| Dennis Griffith, ''Map of the State of Maryland laid down from an actual survey of all the principal waters, public roads, and divisions of the counties therein; describing the situation of the cities, towns, villages, houses of worship and other public buildings, furnaces, forges, mills, and other remarkable places; and of the Federal Territory; as also a sketch of the State of Delaware shewing the probable connexion of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays,'' ca. 1794 [detail]. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Washington, DC.

Image:0629.jpg|E. H. Pickering and Jack E. Boucher, ''Wye House Orangery'', c. 1933. Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==

[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2002004385.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[http://aia.umd.edu/wyehouse/ Archeology in Annapolis Project – People of Wye House]

[http://www.wyehousearchaeology.org/ Wye House Archaeology – “Frederick Douglass and Wye House”]

[http://www.chipstone.org/html/publications/2002AF/Kirtley/2002Kirtleyindex.html Chipstone Foundation – Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley, “Survival of the Fittest: The Lloyd Family’s Furniture Legacy”]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane

2019-12-30T16:52:54Z

L-Baradel: /* History */

'''The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane''', opened in 1841 on a rural site on the west side of the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia, was considered one of the premiere mental asylums during the nineteenth century. In accordance with the institution’s “moral treatment” philosophy, many patients were granted daily access to the hospital’s pleasure grounds and working farm. The institution’s superintendent, Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, believed that regular access to the outdoors was an essential component of therapeutic treatment for his patients.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Kirkbride’s Hospital; Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases; The Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1841–1997<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Thomas Story Kirkbride (superintendent and chief physician, 1841–1883); Isaac Holden (architect, c. 1835–1838); Samuel Sloan (construction manager and architect, 1838–1841 and 1856–1859) <br/>
'''Location:''' Philadelphia, PA<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/iRtvo3R5f6XHPxEXA View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane was one of the premiere facilities for treating mental disorders during the nineteenth century, drawing residential patients from across the United States. It opened under the direction of the superintendent Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809–1883), a Quaker physician who advocated for “moral treatment” therapeutic principles, arguing that patients should have regular schedules to encourage self-control, eat healthy food, exercise, and have frequent access to the outdoors.<ref>“Moral treatment” grew out of asylum reform movements in England and France during the late eighteenth century. It advocated “freeing chronic patients from physical restraint and treating them as capable of rational behavior.” Nancy Tomes, ''A Generous Confidence: Thomas Story Kirkbride and the Art of Asylum-Keeping, 1840–1883'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 21, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]. See also Carla Yanni, ''The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States'' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero].</ref> The facility’s surrounding landscape became an essential component of therapeutic treatment for patients at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, and the hospital’s design, which was popularized by Kirkbride’s 1854 treatise ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'', influenced the designs of asylums subsequently constructed across the United States<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'' (Philadelphia, 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RSAEUT7R view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1103.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 1, W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.]]
The original hospital building opened in 1841 on a 111-acre site near the village of Blockley, located on the west side of the Schuylkill River approximately two miles outside of the city of Philadelphia [Fig. 1]. This facility, located at the intersection of 44th and Market streets, took advantage of the inexpensive land, fertile soil, and increased privacy that the rural location afforded. It also provided more space and better conditions for treating mental health patients who were previously housed at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Center City Philadelphia.<ref>Tomes 1984, 1, 5–6, 19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]; and Yanni 2007, 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2231.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 2, Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives.]]
The first hospital building, designed by the English architect Isaac Holden (d. 1884), accommodated 160 patients. The building’s design took advantage of the site’s wooded landscape by framing [[picturesque]] [[view]]s through the wards’ windows and the stone Doric [[portico]]es erected on the eastern and western facades. As seen in this plan [Fig. 2], two smaller buildings flanked either side of the main building’s wards. These u-shaped wards were reserved for the most violent and disruptive patients, who gained access to the outdoors in interior [[courtyard]]s that were surrounded on three sides by the building. [[Flower garden]]s were visible (but not physically accessible) from the fourth side.<ref>Holden oversaw the beginning of the building’s construction before he returned to England in 1838. After Holden’s departure, Samuel Sloan oversaw the rest of the building’s construction until its completion in 1841. Yanni 2007, 38–39, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero]; and Tomes 1984, 37, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref>

Kirkbride, who was hired by the Pennsylvania Hospital’s Board of Managers to run the new facility shortly before it opened, “played no part in the preliminary planning for the institution,” according to the scholar Nancy Tomes.<ref>Kirkbride was named superintendent on October 12, 1840. Tomes 1984, 149, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]. </ref> Because of this, the hospital did not align closely with Kirkbride’s philosophy for treating mental disorders or provide the institutional environment that he felt best served these goals. Kirkbride objected, in particular, to the layout of the hospital’s wards, and he attempted to make some modifications to the building’s design, overseeing an expansion that increased the hospital’s capacity to 250 patients by the late 1840s. <ref>Tomes 1984, 150, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1097.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 3, Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.]]
Despite his disappointment with the hospital’s built-environment, Kirkbride saw a great deal of potential in improving the grounds.<ref>Tomes 1984, 151, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref> He considered the landscape to be an essential component of therapeutic treatment, an idea that he drew from British models that adapted “the aristocratic landscape [[park]]” to suit patients’ medical needs, as well as from the example of the Worcester State Hospital in Massachusetts.<ref>Sarah Rutherford, “To Soothe and Cure Troubled Minds,” ''Historic Gardens Review'' 10 (Spring/Summer 2002): 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/36GHF9ZU view on Zotero.]</ref> As depicted in detailed plans and described by Kirkbride in his writings, he quickly laid out separate [[pleasure garden]]s for male and female patients; constructed [[walk]]s, [[flower garden]]s and a vegetable garden, [[summerhouse]]s, and a [[deer park]]; and oversaw the construction of a [[greenhouse]] [Fig. 3]. A ten-and-a-half-foot [[wall]] enclosed the gardens, shielding patients from the prying eyes of curious visitors and preventing patients from escaping the facility. Access to the landscape was dictated, to some degree, by a patient’s social class. More affluent patients frequently spent their days taking carriage rides through the grounds, while working-class male patients often labored in the hospital garden in exchange for reduced room and board payments. <span id="Kirkbride_cite"></span>Of the 111-acre farm purchased by the hospital’s Board of Managers, approximately forty-one acres were transformed into gardens, and the remaining seventy acres of land became the hospital’s farm, where fields of grains and vegetables were cultivated to feed the inmates and a large dairy supplied the hospital with milk and cream ([[#Kirkbride|view text]]).
[[File:2232.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 4, Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.]]

In 1856, due to overcrowded conditions in the existing facility, Kirkbride commissioned the architect Samuel Sloan (1815–1884) to design a second, slightly larger hospital less than one mile away from the first building on the grounds of the hospital farm at 49th Street.<ref>Tomes 1984, 154, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]. This later building, known as the “Kirkbride Building” and located on Forty-ninth street between Haverford and Market streets, is still extant.</ref>Male patients moved into the new building [Fig. 4] in 1859, and the first hospital became dedicated to the treatment of female residents. The two hospitals were separated by a creek, and each had [[pleasure ground]]s and vegetable and [[flower garden]]s laid out in close proximity to the wards, [Fig. 5]. Outdoor space remained an essential component of psychiatric therapy at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane.Many patients had regular access to [[pleasure ground]]s, gardens, and a [[deer park]], and they were encouraged to walk the grounds or take carriage rides daily.<ref>Yanni 2007, 71, 73, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 View on Zotero].</ref>Those who were deemed too disruptive to access the grounds without constant supervision could only glimpse the [[pleasure ground]]s from behind bars, as shown in this illustration of patients housed in the seventh ward of the Department of Males [Fig. 6].
[[File:2233.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 6, Haskell, Ebenezer. ''Illustration The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.]]

The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane remained an influential medical institution in Philadelphia well into the twentieth century. The original 1841 hospital building, located on 44th Street, shuttered its doors in 1957, and the 49th Street facility, which is still extant, was sold when the institution ceased operations on the site in 1997.<ref>See the “Historical Timeline” on the Penn Medicine’s History of Pennsylvania Hospital Website, https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1951/.</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==

*<div id="Kirkbride"></div> Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 17–19)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Report of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the Year 1841'' (Philadelphia: Board of Managers, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FMH8M3TV view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“[[PLEASURE GROUND]] AND FARM.—Of the one hundred and eleven acres in the farm, about forty-one around the Hospital are specially appropriated as a vegetable garden and the pleasure ground of the patients, and are surrounded by a substantial stone-[[wall]]. This [[wall]] is five thousand four hundred and eighty-three feet long, and is ten and a half feet high.

:“Owing to the favourable character of the ground, the [[wall]] has been so placed that it can be seen but in a very small part of its extent, from any one position; and the enclosure is so large, that its presence exerts no unpleasant influence upon those within. Although it is probably sufficient to prevent the escape of a large proportion of the patients, that is a matter of small moment, in comparison with the quiet and privacy which it at all times affords, and the facility with which the patients are enabled to engage in labour, to take exercise, or to enjoy the active scenes which are passing around them, without fear of annoyance from the gaze of idle curiosity or the remarks of unfeeling strangers. Our location gives us the many advantages afforded by a thickly settled district, and proximity to a large city, and the wall obviates most of its disadvantages.

:"Immediately in front of the Hospital, is a [[lawn]] forming a segment of a circle, in which is a circular railroad. To the east of this, and passing into the [[wood]]s, is the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high pallisade, and forming an effectual and not unsightly division of the ground appropriated to the different sexes; from various points of which, and from the whole eastern front of the building, it is seen to much advantage.

:“The [[pleasure ground]] is beautifully undulating, interspersed with [[clump]]s and [[grove]]s of fine forest trees, and from every division of it, as well as from every room in the main Hospital, is a handsome [[view]]; either of the surrounding country and villages, the rivers in the distance, or the public roads in its immediate vicinity.

:“The [[grove]]s are fitted up with [[seat]]s, and are the favourite resort of the patients during the warm weather. That on the west, from the position of the wall, does not appear to be inclosed [sic], and offers full views of two public roads, of the farm and [[meadow]], a mill race, a fine stream of running water, and two large manufactories. The [[grove]] on the east is not less pleasant, and the views from it are equally animated. This last surrounds the [[pond]], in which is found a variety of fish.

:“On the north and south side of the building are private [[yard]]s, one hundred and seventeen feet wide, and extending two hundred feet from the return wings which form one of their sides. These [[yard]]s are enclosed by a tight board [[fence]] seven and a half feet high, and are surrounded with a brick pavement, which affords a fine [[promenade]] at all seasons.

:“The [[fence]]s around these [[yard]]s, like the [[wall]] itself, have been constructed, not so much to confine the patients, as for the sake of privacy, and to protect them from the gaze of visters [sic].

:“The remaining seventy acres, outside the wall, are cultivated by the farmer, and, with the grass obtained within it, furnish pasture and hay for the large dairy, which supplies both Hospitals with cream and milk during the whole year. From the source are also obtained some grain, and all the potatoes and other vegetables that are required in large quantities.

:“The possession of this property is of great importance to the Hospital, for the purposes just indicated; but its principal value consists in giving control of a body of land always in view from the western side of the building; and above all, in affording ample opportunities for agricultural labour to those patients who have been accustomed to such employment before entering the Hospital. Without a small farm, an insane hospital, receiving all classes of patients, cannot be perfect in its arrangements.

:“The buildings which were on the farm at the time of purchase, (in addition to the residence of the Physician within the enclosure) consist of a comfortable house for the farmer, an adjoining one for the gardener, a spring-house, an [[icehouse|ice-house]], coach-house, barn, &c., outside of the [[wall]], and near the public entrance.” [[#Kirkbride_cite|back up to History]]

*Buckingham, James Silk, 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 1:400–01)<ref>James Silk Buckingham, ''America, Historical, Statistic, and Descriptive'', 2 vols. (New York: Harper, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PIANFMVK? view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[greenhouse]]s, containing a handsome collection of exotic plants, together with the ornamental [[lawn]]s in front and rear of the house, are under the care of a regular gardener. The attention paid to neatness, and even ornament, in the exterior and interior of the house, gives to the whole an air of elegance seldom equalled in establishments of this nature.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1844, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 24–25)<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for The Insane, with a Sketch of its History, Buildings, and Organization'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/2CWBK2G6 view on Zotero]</ref>

[[File:1104.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 7, Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.]]
:“IMPROVEMENT OF THE [[pleasure ground|PLEASURE GROUNDS]]. – During the year just closed, the prosecution of contemplated improvements upon the forty-one acres which compose our pppleasure ground]]s, and are within the enclosure, has also furnished a great variety of interesting employment to various classes of patients. Many trees and [[shrubbery|shrubs]] have been planted; flower [[border]]s have been enlarged and improved; the brick [[walk]]s, for use when the ground is soft or covered with snow, have been extended; other [[walk]]s have been laid out through the different [[grove]]s, and covered with tan, and their extension, now in progress, will give us more than a mile in the men’s division, and nearly as much in that appropriated to the females. These [[walk]]s have been so located as to embrace our finest and most diversified [[view]]s, to wind through the [[wood]]s and [[clump]]s of trees which are scattered through the enclosure; and among them, it is hoped, will soon be seen [[summerhouse|summer-house]]s, rustic [[seat]]s, and other objects of interest, to tempt the patients voluntarily to prolong their walks, and to spend a greater portion of their time out of the wards, and engaged in some agreeable occupation. [Fig. 7]

:“The importance and utility of having the grounds about an insane hospital highly cultivated and improved, and everything in perfect order, is much greater than is generally supposed. It exercises a beneficial influence on all patients and on their friends. The good taste of many enables them to appreciate all such things in detail, many are pleased with them as a whole and even those who are not capable of realizing their beauties, still have an indistinct recollection of something pleasant in connexion with them. . . .

:“A surprising degree of interest is frequently excited among the patients, by having everything done in the neatest and best manner, by having fixtures and apparatus of the most approved kinds, and all the buildings and arrangements showing a peculiar fitness for the purposes for which they are intended. It is where these principles are fully carried out, that a farm, a garden, and various other external matters, become truly valuable aids in the management of the insane.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1845, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (quoted in Hawkins 1991: 105–6)<ref>Kenneth Hawkins, “The Therapeutic Landscape: Nature, Architecture, and Mind in Nineteenth-Century America” (PhD diss., University of Rochester, 1991), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UVDGPDHG view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“ . . . it would be easy in a few years to have within our enclosure, a specimen of every tree that will live in this climate, and I know of no spot near Philadelphia, where a complete [[arboretum]] could be established with less trouble, or be a subject of greater interest or more utility than upon the 41 acres which compose our [[pleasure ground]].”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1847, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 22) <ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the years 1846–7–8–9 and 50'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/IS9R2SUW view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The general improvement of the pleasure grounds has not been neglected; the groves have been made a more pleasant resort for the patients;—new walks have been laid out, a large number of evergreen, and other trees planted, and the flower borders enlarged and beautified.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., April 1848, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (''American Journal of Insanity'' 4: 347–53)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, “Description of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, with Remarks,” ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4, no. 4 (April 1848): 347–54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9RWM2FH8 view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s and farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, as shown in the accompanying plan, comprise a tract of one hundred and ten acres of well improved land, lying two miles west of the City of Philadelphia, between the Westchester and Haverford roads, on the latter of which is the only [[gate]] of entrance.

:“Of this land, forty-one and three-quarter acres constitute the [[pleasure ground]]s, which surround the Hospital buildings, and are enclosed by a substantial stone [[wall]], of an average height of ten and a half feet. The remaining sixty-nine and one-quarter acres comprise the farm of the Institution.

:“From the character of the ground near the Hospital, the wall surrounding the [[pleasure ground]]s is so arranged, as to be almost entirely out of sight from the buildings, and only a small part of it can be seen from any one point within the enclosure.

:“The entrance to the enclosure is through a handsome [[gate]]-way, on the west side of which is the [[Gate]]-keeper’s Lodge, and on the opposite side is a room for laying out the dead, access to which may be had from within as well as from without the [[pleasure ground]]s.

:“Carriages drive to the western front of the centre building of the Hospital that being most convenient in every respect, but the eastern is the architectural front and of most pretensions.

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s of the two sexes are very effectually separated on the eastern side, by the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high palisade [[fence]], but the [[Park]] itself is so low that it is completely overlooked from both sides; and the different animals in it are in full view from the adjoining grounds used by the patients of both sexes.

:“At the extreme end of the [[deer-park]], it is joined by the drying-[[yard]] which completes the separation of the sexes in that direction. In this [[yard]], are the wash-house and the pump and [[pond]] from which water is raised into the tanks in the dome of the centre building. This [[pond]] is supplied from various springs on the premises, and there is ample space in the [[yard]] for drying clothes in fine weather.

:“East of the entrance is the private [[yard]] and residence of the Physician of the Institution, being the mansion house on the farm when purchased by the Hospital. The vegetable garden containing three and a half acres is next, and in it are the [[green-house]], [[hothouse|hot-beds]], seed-houses, &c. The remainder of the grounds on this side of the [[deer-park]] is specially appropriated to the use of the male patients. In this division is a fine [[grove]] of large trees, several detached [[clump]]s of various kinds and a great variety of single trees standing alone or in [[avenue]]s along the different [[walk]]s, which, of brick, gravel or tan, are for the men, more than a mile and a quarter in extent. The [[grove]]s are fitted up with seats and [[summer house]]s, and have various means of exercise and amusement connected with them.

:“There is a single private [[yard]] of good size for gentlemen who wish to be less public than in the grounds, or for those whose mental condition renders more seclusion desirable. This [[yard]] is planted with trees and had broad brick [[walk]]s passing round it. Between the north lodge and the [[deer-park]], separated from the latter by a [[Ha-Ha/Sunk fence|sunk]] palisade [[fence]], is a neat [[flower garden]].

:“In connexion with each lodge, as now enlarged or about to be, are three small [[yard]]s paved with brick, and accessible to the patients of the respective divisions with which they are connected.

:“The work-shop and lumber-[[yard]] are just within the main entrance on the west—adjoining which is a fine [[grove]], in which is the gentlemen’s ten-pin [[alley]].

:“In the [[pleasure ground]]s of the ladies, is a fine piece of [[woods]], from which the farm is overlooked, as well as both of the public roads passing along the premises, and a handsome district of country beyond. The [[wall]] here is forty feet below the platform on which the Hospital stands, and is at the foot of a steep hill, so that it is not seen at all unless persons are in it’s [sic] immediate proximity.

:“The [[summerhouse|summer-houses]], [[rustic style|rustic-seats]], exercising-swings &c., in this division are all in particularly pleasant positions. The cottage fronts the [[woods]], and in every part this portion of the grounds is completely protected from intrusion and observation.

:“The undulating character of the [[pleasure ground]]s throughout, gives them many advantages, and the brick, gravel and tan [[walk]]s for the ladies, are more than a mile in extent.

:“As on the men’s side, there is a private [[yard]] for females, and the [[flower garden|flower-garden]] in front of the lodge, and the paved [[yard]]s connected with it are similarly arranged.

:“The semi-circular [[yard]], on the western side of the main building is surrounded by flower [[border]]s, contains the circular pleasure Rail-road, and is used at different hours, by patients of both sexes.

:“In the arrangement and location of the [[walk]]s for the patients, great pains have been taken to give as much extent and variety as possible, and to bring into [[view]] objects of interest, not only within the enclosure, but in the well improved district of country immediately around the Hospital.

:“The carriage road is sufficiently extended to give a pretty thorough [[view]] of the whole grounds, and of the farm and scenery beyond. This is occasionally used very advantageously, for giving carriage exercise to patients who could not with propriety be taken to more public situations.

:“The [[fence]]s that have been put up, were rendered necessary by the uses to which the different parts of the grounds were appropriated. A large part of the palisade [[fence]]s, like those enclosing the [[deer-park]] and drying-[[yard]], were to effect the separation of the sexes, and the close [[fence]]s have been made, almost invariably, for the sole purpose of protecting the patients from observation, and giving them the proper degree of privacy.

:“The farm, partly [[meadow]]-land, is divided into fields of convenient size for cultivation. It has two pleasant [[grove]]s on it, a stone-quarry, two good springs of water, besides Mill Creek and a mill-race, which pass through it. The residence of the farmer and gardener are outside of the enclosure, as well as the [[icehouse|ice-house]], spring-house, coach-house, barn, stabling and other arrangements for a well conducted farm.

:“An outline of the ground-plan of the Hospital and other buildings is shown on the sketch. All of these are now erected and in use, except the additions of the north and south sides of the Lodge for females, which it is hoped will be completed during the coming summer. . . .

:"The cultivation of the gardens and the improvement of the [[pleasure ground]]s, offer the generality of patients the most desirable forms of labour. It is sufficiently varied, not too laborious, and in some division of it many will engage who could not be induced to assist upon the farm or in any other kind of employment, out of doors. The vegetable garden should be large enough to furnish all of that description of supplies that may be required for the institution, and may occasionally be made profitable from sales of the excess. The [[flower garden]]s should be as extensive as can be well taken care of by the inmates and persons employed in the Hospital. The good influences which these, as well as a high state of improvement about the buildings, generally produce on patients and their friends, is often of great importance.

:“If the [[pleasure ground]]s are sufficiently extensive it is desirable that the two sexes would have their portions, entirely distinct, although some parts may be used in common, under the superintendence and direction of the proper officer. Without this arrangement certain classes will be much more restricted in out-door exercise than is proper or desirable.”

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:1103.jpg|W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.

Image:2231.jpg| Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives

Image:1097.jpg|Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.

Image:1104.jpg|Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.

Image:2232.jpg| Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.

Image:2233.jpg| Haskell, Ebenezer. ''Illustration The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83121156.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1801/tline13.html "A history of the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital," Penn Medicine]

[https://www.nps.gov/places/kirkbrides-hospital.htm Kirkbride's Hospital (National Park Service)]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane

2019-12-30T16:52:21Z

L-Baradel: /* History */

'''The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane''', opened in 1841 on a rural site on the west side of the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia, was considered one of the premiere mental asylums during the nineteenth century. In accordance with the institution’s “moral treatment” philosophy, many patients were granted daily access to the hospital’s pleasure grounds and working farm. The institution’s superintendent, Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, believed that regular access to the outdoors was an essential component of therapeutic treatment for his patients.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Kirkbride’s Hospital; Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases; The Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1841–1997<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Thomas Story Kirkbride (superintendent and chief physician, 1841–1883); Isaac Holden (architect, c. 1835–1838); Samuel Sloan (construction manager and architect, 1838–1841 and 1856–1859) <br/>
'''Location:''' Philadelphia, PA<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/iRtvo3R5f6XHPxEXA View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane was one of the premiere facilities for treating mental disorders during the nineteenth century, drawing residential patients from across the United States. It opened under the direction of the superintendent Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809–1883), a Quaker physician who advocated for “moral treatment” therapeutic principles, arguing that patients should have regular schedules to encourage self-control, eat healthy food, exercise, and have frequent access to the outdoors.<ref>“Moral treatment” grew out of asylum reform movements in England and France during the late eighteenth century. It advocated “freeing chronic patients from physical restraint and treating them as capable of rational behavior.” Nancy Tomes, ''A Generous Confidence: Thomas Story Kirkbride and the Art of Asylum-Keeping, 1840–1883'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 21, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]. See also Carla Yanni, ''The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States'' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero].</ref> The facility’s surrounding landscape became an essential component of therapeutic treatment for patients at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, and the hospital’s design, which was popularized by Kirkbride’s 1854 treatise ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'', influenced the designs of asylums subsequently constructed across the United States<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'' (Philadelphia, 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RSAEUT7R view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1103.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 1, W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.]]
The original hospital building opened in 1841 on a 111-acre site near the village of Blockley, located on the west side of the Schuylkill River approximately two miles outside of the city of Philadelphia [Fig. 1]. This facility, located at the intersection of 44th and Market streets, took advantage of the inexpensive land, fertile soil, and increased privacy that the rural location afforded. It also provided more space and better conditions for treating mental health patients who were previously housed at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Center City Philadelphia.<ref>Tomes 1984, 1, 5–6, 19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]; and Yanni 2007, 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2231.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 2, Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives.]]
The first hospital building, designed by the English architect Isaac Holden (d. 1884), accommodated 160 patients. The building’s design took advantage of the site’s wooded landscape by framing [[picturesque]] [[view]]s through the wards’ windows and the stone Doric [[portico]]es erected on the eastern and western facades. As seen in this plan [Fig. 2], two smaller buildings flanked either side of the main building’s wards. These u-shaped wards were reserved for the most violent and disruptive patients, who gained access to the outdoors in interior [[courtyard]]s that were surrounded on three sides by the building. [[Flower garden]]s were visible (but not physically accessible) from the fourth side.<ref>Holden oversaw the beginning of the building’s construction before he returned to England in 1838. After Holden’s departure, Samuel Sloan oversaw the rest of the building’s construction until its completion in 1841. Yanni 2007, 38–39, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero]; and Tomes 1984, 37, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref>

Kirkbride, who was hired by the Pennsylvania Hospital’s Board of Managers to run the new facility shortly before it opened, “played no part in the preliminary planning for the institution,” according to the scholar Nancy Tomes.<ref>Kirkbride was named superintendent on October 12, 1840. Tomes 1984, 149, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]. </ref> Because of this, the hospital did not align closely with Kirkbride’s philosophy for treating mental disorders or provide the institutional environment that he felt best served these goals. Kirkbride objected, in particular, to the layout of the hospital’s wards, and he attempted to make some modifications to the building’s design, overseeing an expansion that increased the hospital’s capacity to 250 patients by the late 1840s. <ref>Tomes 1984, 150, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1097.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 3, Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.]]
Despite his disappointment with the hospital’s built-environment, Kirkbride saw a great deal of potential in improving the grounds.<ref>Tomes 1984, 151, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref> He considered the landscape to be an essential component of therapeutic treatment, an idea that he drew from British models that adapted “the aristocratic landscape [[park]]” to suit patients’ medical needs, as well as from the example of the Worcester State Hospital in Massachusetts.<ref>Sarah Rutherford, “To Soothe and Cure Troubled Minds,” ''Historic Gardens Review'' 10 (Spring/Summer 2002): 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/36GHF9ZU view on Zotero.]</ref> As depicted in detailed plans and described by Kirkbride in his writings, he quickly laid out separate [[pleasure garden]]s for male and female patients; constructed [[walk]]s, [[flower garden]]s and a vegetable garden, [[summerhouse]]s, and a [[deer park]]; and oversaw the construction of a [[greenhouse]] [Fig. 3]. A ten-and-a-half-foot [[wall]] enclosed the gardens, shielding patients from the prying eyes of curious visitors and preventing patients from escaping the facility. Access to the landscape was dictated, to some degree, by a patient’s social class. More affluent patients frequently spent their days taking carriage rides through the grounds, while working-class male patients often labored in the hospital garden in exchange for reduced room and board payments. <span id="Kirkbride_cite"></span>Of the 111-acre farm purchased by the hospital’s Board of Managers, approximately forty-one acres were transformed into gardens, and the remaining seventy acres of land became the hospital’s farm, where fields of grains and vegetables were cultivated to feed the inmates and a large dairy supplied the hospital with milk and cream ([[#Kirkbride|view text]]).
[[File:2232.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 4, Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.]]

In 1856, due to overcrowded conditions in the existing facility, Kirkbride commissioned the architect Samuel Sloan (1815–1884) to design a second, slightly larger hospital less than one mile away from the first building on the grounds of the hospital farm at 49th Street.<ref>Tomes 1984, 154, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]. This later building, known as the “Kirkbride Building” and located on Forty-ninth street between Haverford and Market streets, is still extant.</ref>Male patients moved into the new building [Fig. 4] in 1859, and the first hospital became dedicated to the treatment of female residents. The two hospitals were separated by a creek, and each had [[pleasure ground]]s and vegetable and [[flower garden]]s laid out in close proximity to the wards, [Fig. 5]. Outdoor space remained an essential component of psychiatric therapy at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane.Many patients had regular access to [[pleasure ground]]s, gardens, and a [[deer park]], and they were encouraged to walk the grounds or take carriage rides daily.<ref>Yanni 2007, 71, 73, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 View on Zotero].</ref>Those who were deemed too disruptive to access the grounds without constant supervision could only glimpse the [[pleasure ground]]s from behind bars, as shown in this illustration of patients housed in the seventh ward of the Department of Males [Fig. 6].
[[File:2233.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 6, Haskell, Ebenezer. ''Illustration The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.]]

The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane remained an influential medical institution in Philadelphia well into the twentieth century. The original 1841 hospital building, located on 44th Street, shuttered its doors in 1957, and the 49th Street facility, which is still extant, was sold when the institution ceased operations on the site in 1997.<ref>See the “Historical Timeline” on the Penn Medicine’s History of Pennsylvania Hospital Website, https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1951/.</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==

*<div id="Kirkbride"></div> Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 17–19)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Report of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the Year 1841'' (Philadelphia: Board of Managers, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FMH8M3TV view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“[[PLEASURE GROUND]] AND FARM.—Of the one hundred and eleven acres in the farm, about forty-one around the Hospital are specially appropriated as a vegetable garden and the pleasure ground of the patients, and are surrounded by a substantial stone-[[wall]]. This [[wall]] is five thousand four hundred and eighty-three feet long, and is ten and a half feet high.

:“Owing to the favourable character of the ground, the [[wall]] has been so placed that it can be seen but in a very small part of its extent, from any one position; and the enclosure is so large, that its presence exerts no unpleasant influence upon those within. Although it is probably sufficient to prevent the escape of a large proportion of the patients, that is a matter of small moment, in comparison with the quiet and privacy which it at all times affords, and the facility with which the patients are enabled to engage in labour, to take exercise, or to enjoy the active scenes which are passing around them, without fear of annoyance from the gaze of idle curiosity or the remarks of unfeeling strangers. Our location gives us the many advantages afforded by a thickly settled district, and proximity to a large city, and the wall obviates most of its disadvantages.

:"Immediately in front of the Hospital, is a [[lawn]] forming a segment of a circle, in which is a circular railroad. To the east of this, and passing into the [[wood]]s, is the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high pallisade, and forming an effectual and not unsightly division of the ground appropriated to the different sexes; from various points of which, and from the whole eastern front of the building, it is seen to much advantage.

:“The [[pleasure ground]] is beautifully undulating, interspersed with [[clump]]s and [[grove]]s of fine forest trees, and from every division of it, as well as from every room in the main Hospital, is a handsome [[view]]; either of the surrounding country and villages, the rivers in the distance, or the public roads in its immediate vicinity.

:“The [[grove]]s are fitted up with [[seat]]s, and are the favourite resort of the patients during the warm weather. That on the west, from the position of the wall, does not appear to be inclosed [sic], and offers full views of two public roads, of the farm and [[meadow]], a mill race, a fine stream of running water, and two large manufactories. The [[grove]] on the east is not less pleasant, and the views from it are equally animated. This last surrounds the [[pond]], in which is found a variety of fish.

:“On the north and south side of the building are private [[yard]]s, one hundred and seventeen feet wide, and extending two hundred feet from the return wings which form one of their sides. These [[yard]]s are enclosed by a tight board [[fence]] seven and a half feet high, and are surrounded with a brick pavement, which affords a fine [[promenade]] at all seasons.

:“The [[fence]]s around these [[yard]]s, like the [[wall]] itself, have been constructed, not so much to confine the patients, as for the sake of privacy, and to protect them from the gaze of visters [sic].

:“The remaining seventy acres, outside the wall, are cultivated by the farmer, and, with the grass obtained within it, furnish pasture and hay for the large dairy, which supplies both Hospitals with cream and milk during the whole year. From the source are also obtained some grain, and all the potatoes and other vegetables that are required in large quantities.

:“The possession of this property is of great importance to the Hospital, for the purposes just indicated; but its principal value consists in giving control of a body of land always in view from the western side of the building; and above all, in affording ample opportunities for agricultural labour to those patients who have been accustomed to such employment before entering the Hospital. Without a small farm, an insane hospital, receiving all classes of patients, cannot be perfect in its arrangements.

:“The buildings which were on the farm at the time of purchase, (in addition to the residence of the Physician within the enclosure) consist of a comfortable house for the farmer, an adjoining one for the gardener, a spring-house, an [[icehouse|ice-house]], coach-house, barn, &c., outside of the [[wall]], and near the public entrance.” [[#Kirkbride_cite|back up to History]]

*Buckingham, James Silk, 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 1:400–01)<ref>James Silk Buckingham, ''America, Historical, Statistic, and Descriptive'', 2 vols. (New York: Harper, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PIANFMVK? view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[greenhouse]]s, containing a handsome collection of exotic plants, together with the ornamental [[lawn]]s in front and rear of the house, are under the care of a regular gardener. The attention paid to neatness, and even ornament, in the exterior and interior of the house, gives to the whole an air of elegance seldom equalled in establishments of this nature.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1844, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 24–25)<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for The Insane, with a Sketch of its History, Buildings, and Organization'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/2CWBK2G6 view on Zotero]</ref>

[[File:1104.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 7, Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.]]
:“IMPROVEMENT OF THE [[pleasure ground|PLEASURE GROUNDS]]. – During the year just closed, the prosecution of contemplated improvements upon the forty-one acres which compose our pppleasure ground]]s, and are within the enclosure, has also furnished a great variety of interesting employment to various classes of patients. Many trees and [[shrubbery|shrubs]] have been planted; flower [[border]]s have been enlarged and improved; the brick [[walk]]s, for use when the ground is soft or covered with snow, have been extended; other [[walk]]s have been laid out through the different [[grove]]s, and covered with tan, and their extension, now in progress, will give us more than a mile in the men’s division, and nearly as much in that appropriated to the females. These [[walk]]s have been so located as to embrace our finest and most diversified [[view]]s, to wind through the [[wood]]s and [[clump]]s of trees which are scattered through the enclosure; and among them, it is hoped, will soon be seen [[summerhouse|summer-house]]s, rustic [[seat]]s, and other objects of interest, to tempt the patients voluntarily to prolong their walks, and to spend a greater portion of their time out of the wards, and engaged in some agreeable occupation. [Fig. 7]

:“The importance and utility of having the grounds about an insane hospital highly cultivated and improved, and everything in perfect order, is much greater than is generally supposed. It exercises a beneficial influence on all patients and on their friends. The good taste of many enables them to appreciate all such things in detail, many are pleased with them as a whole and even those who are not capable of realizing their beauties, still have an indistinct recollection of something pleasant in connexion with them. . . .

:“A surprising degree of interest is frequently excited among the patients, by having everything done in the neatest and best manner, by having fixtures and apparatus of the most approved kinds, and all the buildings and arrangements showing a peculiar fitness for the purposes for which they are intended. It is where these principles are fully carried out, that a farm, a garden, and various other external matters, become truly valuable aids in the management of the insane.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1845, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (quoted in Hawkins 1991: 105–6)<ref>Kenneth Hawkins, “The Therapeutic Landscape: Nature, Architecture, and Mind in Nineteenth-Century America” (PhD diss., University of Rochester, 1991), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UVDGPDHG view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“ . . . it would be easy in a few years to have within our enclosure, a specimen of every tree that will live in this climate, and I know of no spot near Philadelphia, where a complete [[arboretum]] could be established with less trouble, or be a subject of greater interest or more utility than upon the 41 acres which compose our [[pleasure ground]].”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1847, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 22) <ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the years 1846–7–8–9 and 50'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/IS9R2SUW view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The general improvement of the pleasure grounds has not been neglected; the groves have been made a more pleasant resort for the patients;—new walks have been laid out, a large number of evergreen, and other trees planted, and the flower borders enlarged and beautified.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., April 1848, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (''American Journal of Insanity'' 4: 347–53)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, “Description of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, with Remarks,” ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4, no. 4 (April 1848): 347–54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9RWM2FH8 view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s and farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, as shown in the accompanying plan, comprise a tract of one hundred and ten acres of well improved land, lying two miles west of the City of Philadelphia, between the Westchester and Haverford roads, on the latter of which is the only [[gate]] of entrance.

:“Of this land, forty-one and three-quarter acres constitute the [[pleasure ground]]s, which surround the Hospital buildings, and are enclosed by a substantial stone [[wall]], of an average height of ten and a half feet. The remaining sixty-nine and one-quarter acres comprise the farm of the Institution.

:“From the character of the ground near the Hospital, the wall surrounding the [[pleasure ground]]s is so arranged, as to be almost entirely out of sight from the buildings, and only a small part of it can be seen from any one point within the enclosure.

:“The entrance to the enclosure is through a handsome [[gate]]-way, on the west side of which is the [[Gate]]-keeper’s Lodge, and on the opposite side is a room for laying out the dead, access to which may be had from within as well as from without the [[pleasure ground]]s.

:“Carriages drive to the western front of the centre building of the Hospital that being most convenient in every respect, but the eastern is the architectural front and of most pretensions.

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s of the two sexes are very effectually separated on the eastern side, by the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high palisade [[fence]], but the [[Park]] itself is so low that it is completely overlooked from both sides; and the different animals in it are in full view from the adjoining grounds used by the patients of both sexes.

:“At the extreme end of the [[deer-park]], it is joined by the drying-[[yard]] which completes the separation of the sexes in that direction. In this [[yard]], are the wash-house and the pump and [[pond]] from which water is raised into the tanks in the dome of the centre building. This [[pond]] is supplied from various springs on the premises, and there is ample space in the [[yard]] for drying clothes in fine weather.

:“East of the entrance is the private [[yard]] and residence of the Physician of the Institution, being the mansion house on the farm when purchased by the Hospital. The vegetable garden containing three and a half acres is next, and in it are the [[green-house]], [[hothouse|hot-beds]], seed-houses, &c. The remainder of the grounds on this side of the [[deer-park]] is specially appropriated to the use of the male patients. In this division is a fine [[grove]] of large trees, several detached [[clump]]s of various kinds and a great variety of single trees standing alone or in [[avenue]]s along the different [[walk]]s, which, of brick, gravel or tan, are for the men, more than a mile and a quarter in extent. The [[grove]]s are fitted up with seats and [[summer house]]s, and have various means of exercise and amusement connected with them.

:“There is a single private [[yard]] of good size for gentlemen who wish to be less public than in the grounds, or for those whose mental condition renders more seclusion desirable. This [[yard]] is planted with trees and had broad brick [[walk]]s passing round it. Between the north lodge and the [[deer-park]], separated from the latter by a [[Ha-Ha/Sunk fence|sunk]] palisade [[fence]], is a neat [[flower garden]].

:“In connexion with each lodge, as now enlarged or about to be, are three small [[yard]]s paved with brick, and accessible to the patients of the respective divisions with which they are connected.

:“The work-shop and lumber-[[yard]] are just within the main entrance on the west—adjoining which is a fine [[grove]], in which is the gentlemen’s ten-pin [[alley]].

:“In the [[pleasure ground]]s of the ladies, is a fine piece of [[woods]], from which the farm is overlooked, as well as both of the public roads passing along the premises, and a handsome district of country beyond. The [[wall]] here is forty feet below the platform on which the Hospital stands, and is at the foot of a steep hill, so that it is not seen at all unless persons are in it’s [sic] immediate proximity.

:“The [[summerhouse|summer-houses]], [[rustic style|rustic-seats]], exercising-swings &c., in this division are all in particularly pleasant positions. The cottage fronts the [[woods]], and in every part this portion of the grounds is completely protected from intrusion and observation.

:“The undulating character of the [[pleasure ground]]s throughout, gives them many advantages, and the brick, gravel and tan [[walk]]s for the ladies, are more than a mile in extent.

:“As on the men’s side, there is a private [[yard]] for females, and the [[flower garden|flower-garden]] in front of the lodge, and the paved [[yard]]s connected with it are similarly arranged.

:“The semi-circular [[yard]], on the western side of the main building is surrounded by flower [[border]]s, contains the circular pleasure Rail-road, and is used at different hours, by patients of both sexes.

:“In the arrangement and location of the [[walk]]s for the patients, great pains have been taken to give as much extent and variety as possible, and to bring into [[view]] objects of interest, not only within the enclosure, but in the well improved district of country immediately around the Hospital.

:“The carriage road is sufficiently extended to give a pretty thorough [[view]] of the whole grounds, and of the farm and scenery beyond. This is occasionally used very advantageously, for giving carriage exercise to patients who could not with propriety be taken to more public situations.

:“The [[fence]]s that have been put up, were rendered necessary by the uses to which the different parts of the grounds were appropriated. A large part of the palisade [[fence]]s, like those enclosing the [[deer-park]] and drying-[[yard]], were to effect the separation of the sexes, and the close [[fence]]s have been made, almost invariably, for the sole purpose of protecting the patients from observation, and giving them the proper degree of privacy.

:“The farm, partly [[meadow]]-land, is divided into fields of convenient size for cultivation. It has two pleasant [[grove]]s on it, a stone-quarry, two good springs of water, besides Mill Creek and a mill-race, which pass through it. The residence of the farmer and gardener are outside of the enclosure, as well as the [[icehouse|ice-house]], spring-house, coach-house, barn, stabling and other arrangements for a well conducted farm.

:“An outline of the ground-plan of the Hospital and other buildings is shown on the sketch. All of these are now erected and in use, except the additions of the north and south sides of the Lodge for females, which it is hoped will be completed during the coming summer. . . .

:"The cultivation of the gardens and the improvement of the [[pleasure ground]]s, offer the generality of patients the most desirable forms of labour. It is sufficiently varied, not too laborious, and in some division of it many will engage who could not be induced to assist upon the farm or in any other kind of employment, out of doors. The vegetable garden should be large enough to furnish all of that description of supplies that may be required for the institution, and may occasionally be made profitable from sales of the excess. The [[flower garden]]s should be as extensive as can be well taken care of by the inmates and persons employed in the Hospital. The good influences which these, as well as a high state of improvement about the buildings, generally produce on patients and their friends, is often of great importance.

:“If the [[pleasure ground]]s are sufficiently extensive it is desirable that the two sexes would have their portions, entirely distinct, although some parts may be used in common, under the superintendence and direction of the proper officer. Without this arrangement certain classes will be much more restricted in out-door exercise than is proper or desirable.”

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:1103.jpg|W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.

Image:2231.jpg| Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives

Image:1097.jpg|Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.

Image:1104.jpg|Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.

Image:2232.jpg| Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.

Image:2233.jpg| Haskell, Ebenezer. ''Illustration The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83121156.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1801/tline13.html "A history of the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital," Penn Medicine]

[https://www.nps.gov/places/kirkbrides-hospital.htm Kirkbride's Hospital (National Park Service)]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane

2019-12-30T16:51:18Z

L-Baradel:

'''The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane''', opened in 1841 on a rural site on the west side of the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia, was considered one of the premiere mental asylums during the nineteenth century. In accordance with the institution’s “moral treatment” philosophy, many patients were granted daily access to the hospital’s pleasure grounds and working farm. The institution’s superintendent, Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, believed that regular access to the outdoors was an essential component of therapeutic treatment for his patients.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Kirkbride’s Hospital; Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases; The Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1841–1997<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Thomas Story Kirkbride (superintendent and chief physician, 1841–1883); Isaac Holden (architect, c. 1835–1838); Samuel Sloan (construction manager and architect, 1838–1841 and 1856–1859) <br/>
'''Location:''' Philadelphia, PA<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/iRtvo3R5f6XHPxEXA View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane was one of the premiere facilities for treating mental disorders during the nineteenth century, drawing residential patients from across the United States. It opened under the direction of the superintendent Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809–1883), a Quaker physician who advocated for “moral treatment” therapeutic principles, arguing that patients should have regular schedules to encourage self-control, eat healthy food, exercise, and have frequent access to the outdoors.<ref>“Moral treatment” grew out of asylum reform movements in England and France during the late eighteenth century. It advocated “freeing chronic patients from physical restraint and treating them as capable of rational behavior.” Nancy Tomes, ''A Generous Confidence: Thomas Story Kirkbride and the Art of Asylum-Keeping, 1840–1883'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 21, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]. See also Carla Yanni, ''The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States'' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero].</ref> The facility’s surrounding landscape became an essential component of therapeutic treatment for patients at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, and the hospital’s design, which was popularized by Kirkbride’s 1854 treatise ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'', influenced the designs of asylums subsequently constructed across the United States<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'' (Philadelphia, 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RSAEUT7R view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1103.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 1, W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.]]
The original hospital building opened in 1841 on a 111-acre site near the village of Blockley, located on the west side of the Schuylkill River approximately two miles outside of the city of Philadelphia [Fig. 1]. This facility, located at the intersection of 44th and Market streets, took advantage of the inexpensive land, fertile soil, and increased privacy that the rural location afforded. It also provided more space and better conditions for treating mental health patients who were previously housed at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Center City Philadelphia.<ref>Tomes 1984, 1, 5–6, 19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]; and Yanni 2007, 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2231.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 2, Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives.]]
The first hospital building, designed by the English architect Isaac Holden (d. 1884), accommodated 160 patients. The building’s design took advantage of the site’s wooded landscape by framing [[picturesque]] [[view]]s through the wards’ windows and the stone Doric [[portico]]es erected on the eastern and western facades. As seen in this plan [Fig. 2], two smaller buildings flanked either side of the main building’s wards. These u-shaped wards were reserved for the most violent and disruptive patients, who gained access to the outdoors in interior [[courtyard]]s that were surrounded on three sides by the building. [[Flower garden]]s were visible (but not physically accessible) from the fourth side.<ref>Holden oversaw the beginning of the building’s construction before he returned to England in 1838. After Holden’s departure, Samuel Sloan oversaw the rest of the building’s construction until its completion in 1841. Yanni 2007, 38–39, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 view on Zotero]; and Tomes 1984, 37, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref>

Kirkbride, who was hired by the Pennsylvania Hospital’s Board of Managers to run the new facility shortly before it opened, “played no part in the preliminary planning for the institution,” according to the scholar Nancy Tomes.<ref>Kirkbride was named superintendent on October 12, 1840. Tomes 1984, 149, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]. </ref> Because of this, the hospital did not align closely with Kirkbride’s philosophy for treating mental disorders or provide the institutional environment that he felt best served these goals. Kirkbride objected, in particular, to the layout of the hospital’s wards, and he attempted to make some modifications to the building’s design, overseeing an expansion that increased the hospital’s capacity to 250 patients by the late 1840s. <ref>Tomes 1984, 150, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1097.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 3, Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.]]
Despite his disappointment with the hospital’s built-environment, Kirkbride saw a great deal of potential in improving the grounds.<ref>Tomes 1984, 151, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero].</ref> He considered the landscape to be an essential component of therapeutic treatment, an idea that he drew from British models that adapted “the aristocratic landscape [[park]]” to suit patients’ medical needs, as well as from the example of the Worcester State Hospital in Massachusetts.<ref>Sarah Rutherford, “To Soothe and Cure Troubled Minds,” ''Historic Gardens Review'' 10 (Spring/Summer 2002): 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/36GHF9ZU view on Zotero.]</ref> As depicted in detailed plans and described by Kirkbride in his writings, he quickly laid out separate [[pleasure garden]]s for male and female patients; constructed [[walk]]s, [[flower garden]]s and a vegetable garden, [[summerhouse]]s, and a [[deer park]]; and oversaw the construction of a [[greenhouse]] [Fig. 3]. A ten-and-a-half-foot [[wall]] enclosed the gardens, shielding patients from the prying eyes of curious visitors and preventing patients from escaping the facility. Access to the landscape was dictated, to some degree, by a patient’s social class. More affluent patients frequently spent their days taking carriage rides through the grounds, while working-class male patients often labored in the hospital garden in exchange for reduced room and board payments. <span id="Kirkbride_cite"></span>Of the 111-acre farm purchased by the hospital’s Board of Managers, approximately forty-one acres were transformed into gardens, and the remaining seventy acres of land became the hospital’s farm, where fields of grains and vegetables were cultivated to feed the inmates and a large dairy supplied the hospital with milk and cream ([[#Kirkbride|view text]]).
[[File:2232.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 4, Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.]]

In 1856, due to overcrowded conditions in the existing facility, Kirkbride commissioned the architect Samuel Sloan (1815–1884) to design a second, slightly larger hospital less than one mile away from the first building on the grounds of the hospital farm at 49th Street.<ref>Tomes 1984, 154, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF view on Zotero]. This later building, known as the “Kirkbride Building” and located on Forty-ninth street between Haverford and Market streets, is still extant.</ref>Male patients moved into the new building [Fig. 4] in 1859, and the first hospital became dedicated to the treatment of female residents. The two hospitals were separated by a creek, and each had [[pleasure ground]]s and vegetable and [[flower garden]]s laid out in close proximity to the wards, [Fig. 5]. Outdoor space remained an essential component of psychiatric therapy at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane.Many patients had regular access to [[pleasure ground]]s, gardens, and a [[deer park]], and they were encouraged to walk the grounds or take carriage rides daily.<ref>Yanni 2007, 71, 73, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 View on Zotero].</ref>Those who were deemed too disruptive to access the grounds without constant supervision could only glimpse the [[pleasure ground]]s from behind bars, as shown in this illustration of patients housed in the seventh ward of the Department of Males [Fig. 6].
[[File:2233.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 6, Haskell, Ebenezer. ''Illustration The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.]]

The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane remained an influential medical institution in Philadelphia well into the twentieth century. The original 1841 hospital building, located on 44th Street, shuttered its doors in 1957, and the 49th Street facility, which is still extant, was sold when the institution ceased operations on the site in 1997.<ref>See the “Historical Timeline” on the Penn Medicine’s History of Pennsylvania Hospital Website, https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1951/.</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==

*<div id="Kirkbride"></div> Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 17–19)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Report of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the Year 1841'' (Philadelphia: Board of Managers, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FMH8M3TV view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“[[PLEASURE GROUND]] AND FARM.—Of the one hundred and eleven acres in the farm, about forty-one around the Hospital are specially appropriated as a vegetable garden and the pleasure ground of the patients, and are surrounded by a substantial stone-[[wall]]. This [[wall]] is five thousand four hundred and eighty-three feet long, and is ten and a half feet high.

:“Owing to the favourable character of the ground, the [[wall]] has been so placed that it can be seen but in a very small part of its extent, from any one position; and the enclosure is so large, that its presence exerts no unpleasant influence upon those within. Although it is probably sufficient to prevent the escape of a large proportion of the patients, that is a matter of small moment, in comparison with the quiet and privacy which it at all times affords, and the facility with which the patients are enabled to engage in labour, to take exercise, or to enjoy the active scenes which are passing around them, without fear of annoyance from the gaze of idle curiosity or the remarks of unfeeling strangers. Our location gives us the many advantages afforded by a thickly settled district, and proximity to a large city, and the wall obviates most of its disadvantages.

:"Immediately in front of the Hospital, is a [[lawn]] forming a segment of a circle, in which is a circular railroad. To the east of this, and passing into the [[wood]]s, is the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high pallisade, and forming an effectual and not unsightly division of the ground appropriated to the different sexes; from various points of which, and from the whole eastern front of the building, it is seen to much advantage.

:“The [[pleasure ground]] is beautifully undulating, interspersed with [[clump]]s and [[grove]]s of fine forest trees, and from every division of it, as well as from every room in the main Hospital, is a handsome [[view]]; either of the surrounding country and villages, the rivers in the distance, or the public roads in its immediate vicinity.

:“The [[grove]]s are fitted up with [[seat]]s, and are the favourite resort of the patients during the warm weather. That on the west, from the position of the wall, does not appear to be inclosed [sic], and offers full views of two public roads, of the farm and [[meadow]], a mill race, a fine stream of running water, and two large manufactories. The [[grove]] on the east is not less pleasant, and the views from it are equally animated. This last surrounds the [[pond]], in which is found a variety of fish.

:“On the north and south side of the building are private [[yard]]s, one hundred and seventeen feet wide, and extending two hundred feet from the return wings which form one of their sides. These [[yard]]s are enclosed by a tight board [[fence]] seven and a half feet high, and are surrounded with a brick pavement, which affords a fine [[promenade]] at all seasons.

:“The [[fence]]s around these [[yard]]s, like the [[wall]] itself, have been constructed, not so much to confine the patients, as for the sake of privacy, and to protect them from the gaze of visters [sic].

:“The remaining seventy acres, outside the wall, are cultivated by the farmer, and, with the grass obtained within it, furnish pasture and hay for the large dairy, which supplies both Hospitals with cream and milk during the whole year. From the source are also obtained some grain, and all the potatoes and other vegetables that are required in large quantities.

:“The possession of this property is of great importance to the Hospital, for the purposes just indicated; but its principal value consists in giving control of a body of land always in view from the western side of the building; and above all, in affording ample opportunities for agricultural labour to those patients who have been accustomed to such employment before entering the Hospital. Without a small farm, an insane hospital, receiving all classes of patients, cannot be perfect in its arrangements.

:“The buildings which were on the farm at the time of purchase, (in addition to the residence of the Physician within the enclosure) consist of a comfortable house for the farmer, an adjoining one for the gardener, a spring-house, an [[icehouse|ice-house]], coach-house, barn, &c., outside of the [[wall]], and near the public entrance.” [[#Kirkbride_cite|back up to History]]

*Buckingham, James Silk, 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 1:400–01)<ref>James Silk Buckingham, ''America, Historical, Statistic, and Descriptive'', 2 vols. (New York: Harper, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PIANFMVK? view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[greenhouse]]s, containing a handsome collection of exotic plants, together with the ornamental [[lawn]]s in front and rear of the house, are under the care of a regular gardener. The attention paid to neatness, and even ornament, in the exterior and interior of the house, gives to the whole an air of elegance seldom equalled in establishments of this nature.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1844, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 24–25)<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for The Insane, with a Sketch of its History, Buildings, and Organization'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/2CWBK2G6 view on Zotero]</ref>

[[File:1104.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 7, Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.]]
:“IMPROVEMENT OF THE [[pleasure ground|PLEASURE GROUNDS]]. – During the year just closed, the prosecution of contemplated improvements upon the forty-one acres which compose our pppleasure ground]]s, and are within the enclosure, has also furnished a great variety of interesting employment to various classes of patients. Many trees and [[shrubbery|shrubs]] have been planted; flower [[border]]s have been enlarged and improved; the brick [[walk]]s, for use when the ground is soft or covered with snow, have been extended; other [[walk]]s have been laid out through the different [[grove]]s, and covered with tan, and their extension, now in progress, will give us more than a mile in the men’s division, and nearly as much in that appropriated to the females. These [[walk]]s have been so located as to embrace our finest and most diversified [[view]]s, to wind through the [[wood]]s and [[clump]]s of trees which are scattered through the enclosure; and among them, it is hoped, will soon be seen [[summerhouse|summer-house]]s, rustic [[seat]]s, and other objects of interest, to tempt the patients voluntarily to prolong their walks, and to spend a greater portion of their time out of the wards, and engaged in some agreeable occupation. [Fig. 7]

:“The importance and utility of having the grounds about an insane hospital highly cultivated and improved, and everything in perfect order, is much greater than is generally supposed. It exercises a beneficial influence on all patients and on their friends. The good taste of many enables them to appreciate all such things in detail, many are pleased with them as a whole and even those who are not capable of realizing their beauties, still have an indistinct recollection of something pleasant in connexion with them. . . .

:“A surprising degree of interest is frequently excited among the patients, by having everything done in the neatest and best manner, by having fixtures and apparatus of the most approved kinds, and all the buildings and arrangements showing a peculiar fitness for the purposes for which they are intended. It is where these principles are fully carried out, that a farm, a garden, and various other external matters, become truly valuable aids in the management of the insane.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1845, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (quoted in Hawkins 1991: 105–6)<ref>Kenneth Hawkins, “The Therapeutic Landscape: Nature, Architecture, and Mind in Nineteenth-Century America” (PhD diss., University of Rochester, 1991), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UVDGPDHG view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“ . . . it would be easy in a few years to have within our enclosure, a specimen of every tree that will live in this climate, and I know of no spot near Philadelphia, where a complete [[arboretum]] could be established with less trouble, or be a subject of greater interest or more utility than upon the 41 acres which compose our [[pleasure ground]].”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1847, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 22) <ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the years 1846–7–8–9 and 50'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/IS9R2SUW view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The general improvement of the pleasure grounds has not been neglected; the groves have been made a more pleasant resort for the patients;—new walks have been laid out, a large number of evergreen, and other trees planted, and the flower borders enlarged and beautified.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., April 1848, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (''American Journal of Insanity'' 4: 347–53)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, “Description of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, with Remarks,” ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4, no. 4 (April 1848): 347–54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9RWM2FH8 view on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s and farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, as shown in the accompanying plan, comprise a tract of one hundred and ten acres of well improved land, lying two miles west of the City of Philadelphia, between the Westchester and Haverford roads, on the latter of which is the only [[gate]] of entrance.

:“Of this land, forty-one and three-quarter acres constitute the [[pleasure ground]]s, which surround the Hospital buildings, and are enclosed by a substantial stone [[wall]], of an average height of ten and a half feet. The remaining sixty-nine and one-quarter acres comprise the farm of the Institution.

:“From the character of the ground near the Hospital, the wall surrounding the [[pleasure ground]]s is so arranged, as to be almost entirely out of sight from the buildings, and only a small part of it can be seen from any one point within the enclosure.

:“The entrance to the enclosure is through a handsome [[gate]]-way, on the west side of which is the [[Gate]]-keeper’s Lodge, and on the opposite side is a room for laying out the dead, access to which may be had from within as well as from without the [[pleasure ground]]s.

:“Carriages drive to the western front of the centre building of the Hospital that being most convenient in every respect, but the eastern is the architectural front and of most pretensions.

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s of the two sexes are very effectually separated on the eastern side, by the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high palisade [[fence]], but the [[Park]] itself is so low that it is completely overlooked from both sides; and the different animals in it are in full view from the adjoining grounds used by the patients of both sexes.

:“At the extreme end of the [[deer-park]], it is joined by the drying-[[yard]] which completes the separation of the sexes in that direction. In this [[yard]], are the wash-house and the pump and [[pond]] from which water is raised into the tanks in the dome of the centre building. This [[pond]] is supplied from various springs on the premises, and there is ample space in the [[yard]] for drying clothes in fine weather.

:“East of the entrance is the private [[yard]] and residence of the Physician of the Institution, being the mansion house on the farm when purchased by the Hospital. The vegetable garden containing three and a half acres is next, and in it are the [[green-house]], [[hothouse|hot-beds]], seed-houses, &c. The remainder of the grounds on this side of the [[deer-park]] is specially appropriated to the use of the male patients. In this division is a fine [[grove]] of large trees, several detached [[clump]]s of various kinds and a great variety of single trees standing alone or in [[avenue]]s along the different [[walk]]s, which, of brick, gravel or tan, are for the men, more than a mile and a quarter in extent. The [[grove]]s are fitted up with seats and [[summer house]]s, and have various means of exercise and amusement connected with them.

:“There is a single private [[yard]] of good size for gentlemen who wish to be less public than in the grounds, or for those whose mental condition renders more seclusion desirable. This [[yard]] is planted with trees and had broad brick [[walk]]s passing round it. Between the north lodge and the [[deer-park]], separated from the latter by a [[Ha-Ha/Sunk fence|sunk]] palisade [[fence]], is a neat [[flower garden]].

:“In connexion with each lodge, as now enlarged or about to be, are three small [[yard]]s paved with brick, and accessible to the patients of the respective divisions with which they are connected.

:“The work-shop and lumber-[[yard]] are just within the main entrance on the west—adjoining which is a fine [[grove]], in which is the gentlemen’s ten-pin [[alley]].

:“In the [[pleasure ground]]s of the ladies, is a fine piece of [[woods]], from which the farm is overlooked, as well as both of the public roads passing along the premises, and a handsome district of country beyond. The [[wall]] here is forty feet below the platform on which the Hospital stands, and is at the foot of a steep hill, so that it is not seen at all unless persons are in it’s [sic] immediate proximity.

:“The [[summerhouse|summer-houses]], [[rustic style|rustic-seats]], exercising-swings &c., in this division are all in particularly pleasant positions. The cottage fronts the [[woods]], and in every part this portion of the grounds is completely protected from intrusion and observation.

:“The undulating character of the [[pleasure ground]]s throughout, gives them many advantages, and the brick, gravel and tan [[walk]]s for the ladies, are more than a mile in extent.

:“As on the men’s side, there is a private [[yard]] for females, and the [[flower garden|flower-garden]] in front of the lodge, and the paved [[yard]]s connected with it are similarly arranged.

:“The semi-circular [[yard]], on the western side of the main building is surrounded by flower [[border]]s, contains the circular pleasure Rail-road, and is used at different hours, by patients of both sexes.

:“In the arrangement and location of the [[walk]]s for the patients, great pains have been taken to give as much extent and variety as possible, and to bring into [[view]] objects of interest, not only within the enclosure, but in the well improved district of country immediately around the Hospital.

:“The carriage road is sufficiently extended to give a pretty thorough [[view]] of the whole grounds, and of the farm and scenery beyond. This is occasionally used very advantageously, for giving carriage exercise to patients who could not with propriety be taken to more public situations.

:“The [[fence]]s that have been put up, were rendered necessary by the uses to which the different parts of the grounds were appropriated. A large part of the palisade [[fence]]s, like those enclosing the [[deer-park]] and drying-[[yard]], were to effect the separation of the sexes, and the close [[fence]]s have been made, almost invariably, for the sole purpose of protecting the patients from observation, and giving them the proper degree of privacy.

:“The farm, partly [[meadow]]-land, is divided into fields of convenient size for cultivation. It has two pleasant [[grove]]s on it, a stone-quarry, two good springs of water, besides Mill Creek and a mill-race, which pass through it. The residence of the farmer and gardener are outside of the enclosure, as well as the [[icehouse|ice-house]], spring-house, coach-house, barn, stabling and other arrangements for a well conducted farm.

:“An outline of the ground-plan of the Hospital and other buildings is shown on the sketch. All of these are now erected and in use, except the additions of the north and south sides of the Lodge for females, which it is hoped will be completed during the coming summer. . . .

:"The cultivation of the gardens and the improvement of the [[pleasure ground]]s, offer the generality of patients the most desirable forms of labour. It is sufficiently varied, not too laborious, and in some division of it many will engage who could not be induced to assist upon the farm or in any other kind of employment, out of doors. The vegetable garden should be large enough to furnish all of that description of supplies that may be required for the institution, and may occasionally be made profitable from sales of the excess. The [[flower garden]]s should be as extensive as can be well taken care of by the inmates and persons employed in the Hospital. The good influences which these, as well as a high state of improvement about the buildings, generally produce on patients and their friends, is often of great importance.

:“If the [[pleasure ground]]s are sufficiently extensive it is desirable that the two sexes would have their portions, entirely distinct, although some parts may be used in common, under the superintendence and direction of the proper officer. Without this arrangement certain classes will be much more restricted in out-door exercise than is proper or desirable.”

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:1103.jpg|W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.

Image:2231.jpg| Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives

Image:1097.jpg|Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.

Image:1104.jpg|Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.

Image:2232.jpg| Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.

Image:2233.jpg| Haskell, Ebenezer. ''Illustration The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83121156.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1801/tline13.html "A history of the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital," Penn Medicine]

[https://www.nps.gov/places/kirkbrides-hospital.htm Kirkbride's Hospital (National Park Service)]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane

2019-12-30T16:48:44Z

L-Baradel: /* Texts */

'''The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane''', opened in 1841 on a rural site on the west side of the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia, was considered one of the premiere mental asylums during the nineteenth century. In accordance with the institution’s “moral treatment” philosophy, many patients were granted daily access to the hospital’s pleasure grounds and working farm. The institution’s superintendent, Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, believed that regular access to the outdoors was an essential component of therapeutic treatment for his patients.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Kirkbride’s Hospital; Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases; The Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1841–1997<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Thomas Story Kirkbride (superintendent and chief physician, 1841–1883); Isaac Holden (architect, c. 1835–1838); Samuel Sloan (construction manager and architect, 1838–1841 and 1856–1859) <br/>
'''Location:''' Philadelphia, PA<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/iRtvo3R5f6XHPxEXA View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane was one of the premiere facilities for treating mental disorders during the nineteenth century, drawing residential patients from across the United States. It opened under the direction of the superintendent Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809–1883), a Quaker physician who advocated for “moral treatment” therapeutic principles, arguing that patients should have regular schedules to encourage self-control, eat healthy food, exercise, and have frequent access to the outdoors.<ref>“Moral treatment” grew out of asylum reform movements in England and France during the late eighteenth century. It advocated “freeing chronic patients from physical restraint and treating them as capable of rational behavior.” Nancy Tomes, ''A Generous Confidence: Thomas Story Kirkbride and the Art of Asylum-Keeping, 1840–1883'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 21, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF View on Zotero]. See also Carla Yanni, ''The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States'' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 View on Zotero].</ref> The facility’s surrounding landscape became an essential component of therapeutic treatment for patients at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, and the hospital’s design, which was popularized by Kirkbride’s 1854 treatise ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'', influenced the designs of asylums subsequently constructed across the United States<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'' (Philadelphia, 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RSAEUT7R View on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1103.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 1, W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.]]
The original hospital building opened in 1841 on a 111-acre site near the village of Blockley, located on the west side of the Schuylkill River approximately two miles outside of the city of Philadelphia [Fig. 1]. This facility, located at the intersection of 44th and Market streets, took advantage of the inexpensive land, fertile soil, and increased privacy that the rural location afforded. It also provided more space and better conditions for treating mental health patients who were previously housed at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Center City Philadelphia.<ref>Tomes 1984, 1, 5–6, 19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF View on Zotero]; and Yanni 2007, 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 View on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2231.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 2, Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives.]]
The first hospital building, designed by the English architect Isaac Holden (d. 1884), accommodated 160 patients. The building’s design took advantage of the site’s wooded landscape by framing [[picturesque]] [[view]]s through the wards’ windows and the stone Doric [[portico]]es erected on the eastern and western facades. As seen in this plan [Fig. 2], two smaller buildings flanked either side of the main building’s wards. These u-shaped wards were reserved for the most violent and disruptive patients, who gained access to the outdoors in interior [[courtyard]]s that were surrounded on three sides by the building. [[Flower garden]]s were visible (but not physically accessible) from the fourth side.<ref>Holden oversaw the beginning of the building’s construction before he returned to England in 1838. After Holden’s departure, Samuel Sloan oversaw the rest of the building’s construction until its completion in 1841. Yanni 2007, 38–39, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 View on Zotero]; and Tomes 1984, 37, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF View on Zotero].</ref>

Kirkbride, who was hired by the Pennsylvania Hospital’s Board of Managers to run the new facility shortly before it opened, “played no part in the preliminary planning for the institution,” according to the scholar Nancy Tomes.<ref>Kirkbride was named superintendent on October 12, 1840. Tomes 1984, 149, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF View on Zotero]. </ref> Because of this, the hospital did not align closely with Kirkbride’s philosophy for treating mental disorders or provide the institutional environment that he felt best served these goals. Kirkbride objected, in particular, to the layout of the hospital’s wards, and he attempted to make some modifications to the building’s design, overseeing an expansion that increased the hospital’s capacity to 250 patients by the late 1840s. <ref>Tomes 1984, 150, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF View on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1097.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 3, Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.]]
Despite his disappointment with the hospital’s built-environment, Kirkbride saw a great deal of potential in improving the grounds.<ref>Tomes 1984, 151, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF View on Zotero].</ref> He considered the landscape to be an essential component of therapeutic treatment, an idea that he drew from British models that adapted “the aristocratic landscape [[park]]” to suit patients’ medical needs, as well as from the example of the Worcester State Hospital in Massachusetts.<ref>Sarah Rutherford, “To Soothe and Cure Troubled Minds,” ''Historic Gardens Review'' 10 (Spring/Summer 2002): 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/36GHF9ZU View on Zotero.]</ref> As depicted in detailed plans and described by Kirkbride in his writings, he quickly laid out separate [[pleasure garden]]s for male and female patients; constructed [[walk]]s, [[flower garden]]s and a vegetable garden, [[summerhouse]]s, and a [[deer park]]; and oversaw the construction of a [[greenhouse]] [Fig. 3]. A ten-and-a-half-foot [[wall]] enclosed the gardens, shielding patients from the prying eyes of curious visitors and preventing patients from escaping the facility. Access to the landscape was dictated, to some degree, by a patient’s social class. More affluent patients frequently spent their days taking carriage rides through the grounds, while working-class male patients often labored in the hospital garden in exchange for reduced room and board payments. <span id="Kirkbride_cite"></span>Of the 111-acre farm purchased by the hospital’s Board of Managers, approximately forty-one acres were transformed into gardens, and the remaining seventy acres of land became the hospital’s farm, where fields of grains and vegetables were cultivated to feed the inmates and a large dairy supplied the hospital with milk and cream ([[#Kirkbride|view text]]).
[[File:2232.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 4, Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.]]

In 1856, due to overcrowded conditions in the existing facility, Kirkbride commissioned the architect Samuel Sloan (1815–1884) to design a second, slightly larger hospital less than one mile away from the first building on the grounds of the hospital farm at 49th Street.<ref>Tomes 1984, 154, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF View on Zotero]. This later building, known as the “Kirkbride Building” and located on Forty-ninth street between Haverford and Market streets, is still extant.</ref>Male patients moved into the new building [Fig. 4] in 1859, and the first hospital became dedicated to the treatment of female residents. The two hospitals were separated by a creek, and each had [[pleasure ground]]s and vegetable and [[flower garden]]s laid out in close proximity to the wards, [Fig. 5]. Outdoor space remained an essential component of psychiatric therapy at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane.Many patients had regular access to [[pleasure ground]]s, gardens, and a [[deer park]], and they were encouraged to walk the grounds or take carriage rides daily.<ref>Yanni 2007, 71, 73, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 View on Zotero].</ref>Those who were deemed too disruptive to access the grounds without constant supervision could only glimpse the [[pleasure ground]]s from behind bars, as shown in this illustration of patients housed in the seventh ward of the Department of Males [Fig. 6].
[[File:2233.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 6, Haskell, Ebenezer. ''Illustration The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.]]

The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane remained an influential medical institution in Philadelphia well into the twentieth century. The original 1841 hospital building, located on 44th Street, shuttered its doors in 1957, and the 49th Street facility, which is still extant, was sold when the institution ceased operations on the site in 1997.<ref>See the “Historical Timeline” on the Penn Medicine’s History of Pennsylvania Hospital Website, https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1951/.</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==

*<div id="Kirkbride"></div> Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 17–19)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Report of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the Year 1841'' (Philadelphia: Board of Managers, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FMH8M3TV View on Zotero.]</ref>

:“[[PLEASURE GROUND]] AND FARM.—Of the one hundred and eleven acres in the farm, about forty-one around the Hospital are specially appropriated as a vegetable garden and the pleasure ground of the patients, and are surrounded by a substantial stone-[[wall]]. This [[wall]] is five thousand four hundred and eighty-three feet long, and is ten and a half feet high.

:“Owing to the favourable character of the ground, the [[wall]] has been so placed that it can be seen but in a very small part of its extent, from any one position; and the enclosure is so large, that its presence exerts no unpleasant influence upon those within. Although it is probably sufficient to prevent the escape of a large proportion of the patients, that is a matter of small moment, in comparison with the quiet and privacy which it at all times affords, and the facility with which the patients are enabled to engage in labour, to take exercise, or to enjoy the active scenes which are passing around them, without fear of annoyance from the gaze of idle curiosity or the remarks of unfeeling strangers. Our location gives us the many advantages afforded by a thickly settled district, and proximity to a large city, and the wall obviates most of its disadvantages.

:"Immediately in front of the Hospital, is a [[lawn]] forming a segment of a circle, in which is a circular railroad. To the east of this, and passing into the [[wood]]s, is the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high pallisade, and forming an effectual and not unsightly division of the ground appropriated to the different sexes; from various points of which, and from the whole eastern front of the building, it is seen to much advantage.

:“The [[pleasure ground]] is beautifully undulating, interspersed with [[clump]]s and [[grove]]s of fine forest trees, and from every division of it, as well as from every room in the main Hospital, is a handsome [[view]]; either of the surrounding country and villages, the rivers in the distance, or the public roads in its immediate vicinity.

:“The [[grove]]s are fitted up with [[seat]]s, and are the favourite resort of the patients during the warm weather. That on the west, from the position of the wall, does not appear to be inclosed [sic], and offers full views of two public roads, of the farm and [[meadow]], a mill race, a fine stream of running water, and two large manufactories. The [[grove]] on the east is not less pleasant, and the views from it are equally animated. This last surrounds the [[pond]], in which is found a variety of fish.

:“On the north and south side of the building are private [[yard]]s, one hundred and seventeen feet wide, and extending two hundred feet from the return wings which form one of their sides. These [[yard]]s are enclosed by a tight board [[fence]] seven and a half feet high, and are surrounded with a brick pavement, which affords a fine [[promenade]] at all seasons.

:“The [[fence]]s around these [[yard]]s, like the [[wall]] itself, have been constructed, not so much to confine the patients, as for the sake of privacy, and to protect them from the gaze of visters [sic].

:“The remaining seventy acres, outside the wall, are cultivated by the farmer, and, with the grass obtained within it, furnish pasture and hay for the large dairy, which supplies both Hospitals with cream and milk during the whole year. From the source are also obtained some grain, and all the potatoes and other vegetables that are required in large quantities.

:“The possession of this property is of great importance to the Hospital, for the purposes just indicated; but its principal value consists in giving control of a body of land always in view from the western side of the building; and above all, in affording ample opportunities for agricultural labour to those patients who have been accustomed to such employment before entering the Hospital. Without a small farm, an insane hospital, receiving all classes of patients, cannot be perfect in its arrangements.

:“The buildings which were on the farm at the time of purchase, (in addition to the residence of the Physician within the enclosure) consist of a comfortable house for the farmer, an adjoining one for the gardener, a spring-house, an [[icehouse|ice-house]], coach-house, barn, &c., outside of the [[wall]], and near the public entrance.” [[#Kirkbride_cite|back up to History]]

*Buckingham, James Silk, 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 1:400–01)<ref>James Silk Buckingham, ''America, Historical, Statistic, and Descriptive'', 2 vols. (New York: Harper, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PIANFMVK? View on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[greenhouse]]s, containing a handsome collection of exotic plants, together with the ornamental [[lawn]]s in front and rear of the house, are under the care of a regular gardener. The attention paid to neatness, and even ornament, in the exterior and interior of the house, gives to the whole an air of elegance seldom equalled in establishments of this nature.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1844, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 24–25)<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for The Insane, with a Sketch of its History, Buildings, and Organization'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/2CWBK2G6 View on Zotero]</ref>

[[File:1104.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 7, Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.]]
:“IMPROVEMENT OF THE [[pleasure ground|PLEASURE GROUNDS]]. – During the year just closed, the prosecution of contemplated improvements upon the forty-one acres which compose our pppleasure ground]]s, and are within the enclosure, has also furnished a great variety of interesting employment to various classes of patients. Many trees and [[shrubbery|shrubs]] have been planted; flower [[border]]s have been enlarged and improved; the brick [[walk]]s, for use when the ground is soft or covered with snow, have been extended; other [[walk]]s have been laid out through the different [[grove]]s, and covered with tan, and their extension, now in progress, will give us more than a mile in the men’s division, and nearly as much in that appropriated to the females. These [[walk]]s have been so located as to embrace our finest and most diversified [[view]]s, to wind through the [[wood]]s and [[clump]]s of trees which are scattered through the enclosure; and among them, it is hoped, will soon be seen [[summerhouse|summer-house]]s, rustic [[seat]]s, and other objects of interest, to tempt the patients voluntarily to prolong their walks, and to spend a greater portion of their time out of the wards, and engaged in some agreeable occupation. [Fig. 7]

:“The importance and utility of having the grounds about an insane hospital highly cultivated and improved, and everything in perfect order, is much greater than is generally supposed. It exercises a beneficial influence on all patients and on their friends. The good taste of many enables them to appreciate all such things in detail, many are pleased with them as a whole and even those who are not capable of realizing their beauties, still have an indistinct recollection of something pleasant in connexion with them. . . .

:“A surprising degree of interest is frequently excited among the patients, by having everything done in the neatest and best manner, by having fixtures and apparatus of the most approved kinds, and all the buildings and arrangements showing a peculiar fitness for the purposes for which they are intended. It is where these principles are fully carried out, that a farm, a garden, and various other external matters, become truly valuable aids in the management of the insane.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1845, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (quoted in Hawkins 1991: 105–6)<ref>Kenneth Hawkins, “The Therapeutic Landscape: Nature, Architecture, and Mind in Nineteenth-Century America” (PhD diss., University of Rochester, 1991), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UVDGPDHG View on Zotero.]</ref>

:“ . . . it would be easy in a few years to have within our enclosure, a specimen of every tree that will live in this climate, and I know of no spot near Philadelphia, where a complete [[arboretum]] could be established with less trouble, or be a subject of greater interest or more utility than upon the 41 acres which compose our [[pleasure ground]].”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1847, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 22) <ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the years 1846–7–8–9 and 50'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/IS9R2SUW View on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The general improvement of the pleasure grounds has not been neglected; the groves have been made a more pleasant resort for the patients;—new walks have been laid out, a large number of evergreen, and other trees planted, and the flower borders enlarged and beautified.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., April 1848, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (''American Journal of Insanity'' 4: 347–53)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, “Description of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, with Remarks,” ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4, no. 4 (April 1848): 347–54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9RWM2FH8 View on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s and farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, as shown in the accompanying plan, comprise a tract of one hundred and ten acres of well improved land, lying two miles west of the City of Philadelphia, between the Westchester and Haverford roads, on the latter of which is the only [[gate]] of entrance.

:“Of this land, forty-one and three-quarter acres constitute the [[pleasure ground]]s, which surround the Hospital buildings, and are enclosed by a substantial stone [[wall]], of an average height of ten and a half feet. The remaining sixty-nine and one-quarter acres comprise the farm of the Institution.

:“From the character of the ground near the Hospital, the wall surrounding the [[pleasure ground]]s is so arranged, as to be almost entirely out of sight from the buildings, and only a small part of it can be seen from any one point within the enclosure.

:“The entrance to the enclosure is through a handsome [[gate]]-way, on the west side of which is the [[Gate]]-keeper’s Lodge, and on the opposite side is a room for laying out the dead, access to which may be had from within as well as from without the [[pleasure ground]]s.

:“Carriages drive to the western front of the centre building of the Hospital that being most convenient in every respect, but the eastern is the architectural front and of most pretensions.

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s of the two sexes are very effectually separated on the eastern side, by the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high palisade [[fence]], but the [[Park]] itself is so low that it is completely overlooked from both sides; and the different animals in it are in full view from the adjoining grounds used by the patients of both sexes.

:“At the extreme end of the [[deer-park]], it is joined by the drying-[[yard]] which completes the separation of the sexes in that direction. In this [[yard]], are the wash-house and the pump and [[pond]] from which water is raised into the tanks in the dome of the centre building. This [[pond]] is supplied from various springs on the premises, and there is ample space in the [[yard]] for drying clothes in fine weather.

:“East of the entrance is the private [[yard]] and residence of the Physician of the Institution, being the mansion house on the farm when purchased by the Hospital. The vegetable garden containing three and a half acres is next, and in it are the [[green-house]], [[hothouse|hot-beds]], seed-houses, &c. The remainder of the grounds on this side of the [[deer-park]] is specially appropriated to the use of the male patients. In this division is a fine [[grove]] of large trees, several detached [[clump]]s of various kinds and a great variety of single trees standing alone or in [[avenue]]s along the different [[walk]]s, which, of brick, gravel or tan, are for the men, more than a mile and a quarter in extent. The [[grove]]s are fitted up with seats and [[summer house]]s, and have various means of exercise and amusement connected with them.

:“There is a single private [[yard]] of good size for gentlemen who wish to be less public than in the grounds, or for those whose mental condition renders more seclusion desirable. This [[yard]] is planted with trees and had broad brick [[walk]]s passing round it. Between the north lodge and the [[deer-park]], separated from the latter by a [[Ha-Ha/Sunk fence|sunk]] palisade [[fence]], is a neat [[flower garden]].

:“In connexion with each lodge, as now enlarged or about to be, are three small [[yard]]s paved with brick, and accessible to the patients of the respective divisions with which they are connected.

:“The work-shop and lumber-[[yard]] are just within the main entrance on the west—adjoining which is a fine [[grove]], in which is the gentlemen’s ten-pin [[alley]].

:“In the [[pleasure ground]]s of the ladies, is a fine piece of [[woods]], from which the farm is overlooked, as well as both of the public roads passing along the premises, and a handsome district of country beyond. The [[wall]] here is forty feet below the platform on which the Hospital stands, and is at the foot of a steep hill, so that it is not seen at all unless persons are in it’s [sic] immediate proximity.

:“The [[summerhouse|summer-houses]], [[rustic style|rustic-seats]], exercising-swings &c., in this division are all in particularly pleasant positions. The cottage fronts the [[woods]], and in every part this portion of the grounds is completely protected from intrusion and observation.

:“The undulating character of the [[pleasure ground]]s throughout, gives them many advantages, and the brick, gravel and tan [[walk]]s for the ladies, are more than a mile in extent.

:“As on the men’s side, there is a private [[yard]] for females, and the [[flower garden|flower-garden]] in front of the lodge, and the paved [[yard]]s connected with it are similarly arranged.

:“The semi-circular [[yard]], on the western side of the main building is surrounded by flower [[border]]s, contains the circular pleasure Rail-road, and is used at different hours, by patients of both sexes.

:“In the arrangement and location of the [[walk]]s for the patients, great pains have been taken to give as much extent and variety as possible, and to bring into [[view]] objects of interest, not only within the enclosure, but in the well improved district of country immediately around the Hospital.

:“The carriage road is sufficiently extended to give a pretty thorough [[view]] of the whole grounds, and of the farm and scenery beyond. This is occasionally used very advantageously, for giving carriage exercise to patients who could not with propriety be taken to more public situations.

:“The [[fence]]s that have been put up, were rendered necessary by the uses to which the different parts of the grounds were appropriated. A large part of the palisade [[fence]]s, like those enclosing the [[deer-park]] and drying-[[yard]], were to effect the separation of the sexes, and the close [[fence]]s have been made, almost invariably, for the sole purpose of protecting the patients from observation, and giving them the proper degree of privacy.

:“The farm, partly [[meadow]]-land, is divided into fields of convenient size for cultivation. It has two pleasant [[grove]]s on it, a stone-quarry, two good springs of water, besides Mill Creek and a mill-race, which pass through it. The residence of the farmer and gardener are outside of the enclosure, as well as the [[icehouse|ice-house]], spring-house, coach-house, barn, stabling and other arrangements for a well conducted farm.

:“An outline of the ground-plan of the Hospital and other buildings is shown on the sketch. All of these are now erected and in use, except the additions of the north and south sides of the Lodge for females, which it is hoped will be completed during the coming summer. . . .

:"The cultivation of the gardens and the improvement of the [[pleasure ground]]s, offer the generality of patients the most desirable forms of labour. It is sufficiently varied, not too laborious, and in some division of it many will engage who could not be induced to assist upon the farm or in any other kind of employment, out of doors. The vegetable garden should be large enough to furnish all of that description of supplies that may be required for the institution, and may occasionally be made profitable from sales of the excess. The [[flower garden]]s should be as extensive as can be well taken care of by the inmates and persons employed in the Hospital. The good influences which these, as well as a high state of improvement about the buildings, generally produce on patients and their friends, is often of great importance.

:“If the [[pleasure ground]]s are sufficiently extensive it is desirable that the two sexes would have their portions, entirely distinct, although some parts may be used in common, under the superintendence and direction of the proper officer. Without this arrangement certain classes will be much more restricted in out-door exercise than is proper or desirable.”

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:1103.jpg|W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.

Image:2231.jpg| Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives

Image:1097.jpg|Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.

Image:1104.jpg|Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.

Image:2232.jpg| Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.

Image:2233.jpg| Haskell, Ebenezer. ''Illustration The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83121156.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1801/tline13.html "A history of the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital," Penn Medicine]

[https://www.nps.gov/places/kirkbrides-hospital.htm Kirkbride's Hospital (National Park Service)]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane

2019-12-30T16:47:12Z

L-Baradel: /* Texts */

'''The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane''', opened in 1841 on a rural site on the west side of the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia, was considered one of the premiere mental asylums during the nineteenth century. In accordance with the institution’s “moral treatment” philosophy, many patients were granted daily access to the hospital’s pleasure grounds and working farm. The institution’s superintendent, Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, believed that regular access to the outdoors was an essential component of therapeutic treatment for his patients.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Kirkbride’s Hospital; Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases; The Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1841–1997<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Pennsylvania Hospital<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Thomas Story Kirkbride (superintendent and chief physician, 1841–1883); Isaac Holden (architect, c. 1835–1838); Samuel Sloan (construction manager and architect, 1838–1841 and 1856–1859) <br/>
'''Location:''' Philadelphia, PA<br/>
'''Condition:''' altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/iRtvo3R5f6XHPxEXA View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane was one of the premiere facilities for treating mental disorders during the nineteenth century, drawing residential patients from across the United States. It opened under the direction of the superintendent Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809–1883), a Quaker physician who advocated for “moral treatment” therapeutic principles, arguing that patients should have regular schedules to encourage self-control, eat healthy food, exercise, and have frequent access to the outdoors.<ref>“Moral treatment” grew out of asylum reform movements in England and France during the late eighteenth century. It advocated “freeing chronic patients from physical restraint and treating them as capable of rational behavior.” Nancy Tomes, ''A Generous Confidence: Thomas Story Kirkbride and the Art of Asylum-Keeping, 1840–1883'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 21, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF View on Zotero]. See also Carla Yanni, ''The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States'' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 View on Zotero].</ref> The facility’s surrounding landscape became an essential component of therapeutic treatment for patients at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, and the hospital’s design, which was popularized by Kirkbride’s 1854 treatise ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'', influenced the designs of asylums subsequently constructed across the United States<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane'' (Philadelphia, 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RSAEUT7R View on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1103.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 1, W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.]]
The original hospital building opened in 1841 on a 111-acre site near the village of Blockley, located on the west side of the Schuylkill River approximately two miles outside of the city of Philadelphia [Fig. 1]. This facility, located at the intersection of 44th and Market streets, took advantage of the inexpensive land, fertile soil, and increased privacy that the rural location afforded. It also provided more space and better conditions for treating mental health patients who were previously housed at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Center City Philadelphia.<ref>Tomes 1984, 1, 5–6, 19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF View on Zotero]; and Yanni 2007, 38, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 View on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2231.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 2, Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives.]]
The first hospital building, designed by the English architect Isaac Holden (d. 1884), accommodated 160 patients. The building’s design took advantage of the site’s wooded landscape by framing [[picturesque]] [[view]]s through the wards’ windows and the stone Doric [[portico]]es erected on the eastern and western facades. As seen in this plan [Fig. 2], two smaller buildings flanked either side of the main building’s wards. These u-shaped wards were reserved for the most violent and disruptive patients, who gained access to the outdoors in interior [[courtyard]]s that were surrounded on three sides by the building. [[Flower garden]]s were visible (but not physically accessible) from the fourth side.<ref>Holden oversaw the beginning of the building’s construction before he returned to England in 1838. After Holden’s departure, Samuel Sloan oversaw the rest of the building’s construction until its completion in 1841. Yanni 2007, 38–39, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 View on Zotero]; and Tomes 1984, 37, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF View on Zotero].</ref>

Kirkbride, who was hired by the Pennsylvania Hospital’s Board of Managers to run the new facility shortly before it opened, “played no part in the preliminary planning for the institution,” according to the scholar Nancy Tomes.<ref>Kirkbride was named superintendent on October 12, 1840. Tomes 1984, 149, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF View on Zotero]. </ref> Because of this, the hospital did not align closely with Kirkbride’s philosophy for treating mental disorders or provide the institutional environment that he felt best served these goals. Kirkbride objected, in particular, to the layout of the hospital’s wards, and he attempted to make some modifications to the building’s design, overseeing an expansion that increased the hospital’s capacity to 250 patients by the late 1840s. <ref>Tomes 1984, 150, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF View on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:1097.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 3, Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.]]
Despite his disappointment with the hospital’s built-environment, Kirkbride saw a great deal of potential in improving the grounds.<ref>Tomes 1984, 151, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF View on Zotero].</ref> He considered the landscape to be an essential component of therapeutic treatment, an idea that he drew from British models that adapted “the aristocratic landscape [[park]]” to suit patients’ medical needs, as well as from the example of the Worcester State Hospital in Massachusetts.<ref>Sarah Rutherford, “To Soothe and Cure Troubled Minds,” ''Historic Gardens Review'' 10 (Spring/Summer 2002): 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/36GHF9ZU View on Zotero.]</ref> As depicted in detailed plans and described by Kirkbride in his writings, he quickly laid out separate [[pleasure garden]]s for male and female patients; constructed [[walk]]s, [[flower garden]]s and a vegetable garden, [[summerhouse]]s, and a [[deer park]]; and oversaw the construction of a [[greenhouse]] [Fig. 3]. A ten-and-a-half-foot [[wall]] enclosed the gardens, shielding patients from the prying eyes of curious visitors and preventing patients from escaping the facility. Access to the landscape was dictated, to some degree, by a patient’s social class. More affluent patients frequently spent their days taking carriage rides through the grounds, while working-class male patients often labored in the hospital garden in exchange for reduced room and board payments. <span id="Kirkbride_cite"></span>Of the 111-acre farm purchased by the hospital’s Board of Managers, approximately forty-one acres were transformed into gardens, and the remaining seventy acres of land became the hospital’s farm, where fields of grains and vegetables were cultivated to feed the inmates and a large dairy supplied the hospital with milk and cream ([[#Kirkbride|view text]]).
[[File:2232.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 4, Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.]]

In 1856, due to overcrowded conditions in the existing facility, Kirkbride commissioned the architect Samuel Sloan (1815–1884) to design a second, slightly larger hospital less than one mile away from the first building on the grounds of the hospital farm at 49th Street.<ref>Tomes 1984, 154, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UEQ3A2CF View on Zotero]. This later building, known as the “Kirkbride Building” and located on Forty-ninth street between Haverford and Market streets, is still extant.</ref>Male patients moved into the new building [Fig. 4] in 1859, and the first hospital became dedicated to the treatment of female residents. The two hospitals were separated by a creek, and each had [[pleasure ground]]s and vegetable and [[flower garden]]s laid out in close proximity to the wards, [Fig. 5]. Outdoor space remained an essential component of psychiatric therapy at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane.Many patients had regular access to [[pleasure ground]]s, gardens, and a [[deer park]], and they were encouraged to walk the grounds or take carriage rides daily.<ref>Yanni 2007, 71, 73, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/QW7IRRA3 View on Zotero].</ref>Those who were deemed too disruptive to access the grounds without constant supervision could only glimpse the [[pleasure ground]]s from behind bars, as shown in this illustration of patients housed in the seventh ward of the Department of Males [Fig. 6].
[[File:2233.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 6, Haskell, Ebenezer. ''Illustration The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.]]

The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane remained an influential medical institution in Philadelphia well into the twentieth century. The original 1841 hospital building, located on 44th Street, shuttered its doors in 1957, and the 49th Street facility, which is still extant, was sold when the institution ceased operations on the site in 1997.<ref>See the “Historical Timeline” on the Penn Medicine’s History of Pennsylvania Hospital Website, https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1951/.</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==

*<div id="Kirkbride"></div> Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 17–19)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Report of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the Year 1841'' (Philadelphia: Board of Managers, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FMH8M3TV View on Zotero.]</ref>

:“[[PLEASURE GROUND]] AND FARM.—Of the one hundred and eleven acres in the farm, about forty-one around the Hospital are specially appropriated as a vegetable garden and the pleasure ground of the patients, and are surrounded by a substantial stone-[[wall]]. This [[wall]] is five thousand four hundred and eighty-three feet long, and is ten and a half feet high.

:“Owing to the favourable character of the ground, the [[wall]] has been so placed that it can be seen but in a very small part of its extent, from any one position; and the enclosure is so large, that its presence exerts no unpleasant influence upon those within. Although it is probably sufficient to prevent the escape of a large proportion of the patients, that is a matter of small moment, in comparison with the quiet and privacy which it at all times affords, and the facility with which the patients are enabled to engage in labour, to take exercise, or to enjoy the active scenes which are passing around them, without fear of annoyance from the gaze of idle curiosity or the remarks of unfeeling strangers. Our location gives us the many advantages afforded by a thickly settled district, and proximity to a large city, and the wall obviates most of its disadvantages.

:"Immediately in front of the Hospital, is a [[lawn]] forming a segment of a circle, in which is a circular railroad. To the east of this, and passing into the [[wood]]s, is the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high pallisade, and forming an effectual and not unsightly division of the ground appropriated to the different sexes; from various points of which, and from the whole eastern front of the building, it is seen to much advantage.

:“The [[pleasure ground]] is beautifully undulating, interspersed with [[clump]]s and [[grove]]s of fine forest trees, and from every division of it, as well as from every room in the main Hospital, is a handsome [[view]]; either of the surrounding country and villages, the rivers in the distance, or the public roads in its immediate vicinity.

:“The [[grove]]s are fitted up with [[seat]]s, and are the favourite resort of the patients during the warm weather. That on the west, from the position of the wall, does not appear to be inclosed [sic], and offers full views of two public roads, of the farm and [[meadow]], a mill race, a fine stream of running water, and two large manufactories. The [[grove]] on the east is not less pleasant, and the views from it are equally animated. This last surrounds the [[pond]], in which is found a variety of fish.

:“On the north and south side of the building are private [[yard]]s, one hundred and seventeen feet wide, and extending two hundred feet from the return wings which form one of their sides. These [[yard]]s are enclosed by a tight board [[fence]] seven and a half feet high, and are surrounded with a brick pavement, which affords a fine [[promenade]] at all seasons.

:“The [[fence]]s around these [[yard]]s, like the [[wall]] itself, have been constructed, not so much to confine the patients, as for the sake of privacy, and to protect them from the gaze of visters [sic].

:“The remaining seventy acres, outside the wall, are cultivated by the farmer, and, with the grass obtained within it, furnish pasture and hay for the large dairy, which supplies both Hospitals with cream and milk during the whole year. From the source are also obtained some grain, and all the potatoes and other vegetables that are required in large quantities.

:“The possession of this property is of great importance to the Hospital, for the purposes just indicated; but its principal value consists in giving control of a body of land always in view from the western side of the building; and above all, in affording ample opportunities for agricultural labour to those patients who have been accustomed to such employment before entering the Hospital. Without a small farm, an insane hospital, receiving all classes of patients, cannot be perfect in its arrangements.

:“The buildings which were on the farm at the time of purchase, (in addition to the residence of the Physician within the enclosure) consist of a comfortable house for the farmer, an adjoining one for the gardener, a spring-house, an [[icehouse|ice-house]], coach-house, barn, &c., outside of the [[wall]], and near the public entrance.” [[#Kirkbride_cite|back up to History]]

*Buckingham, James Silk, 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1841: 1:400–01)<ref>James Silk Buckingham, ''America, Historical, Statistic, and Descriptive'', 2 vols. (New York: Harper, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PIANFMVK? View on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[greenhouse]]s, containing a handsome collection of exotic plants, together with the ornamental [[lawn]]s in front and rear of the house, are under the care of a regular gardener. The attention paid to neatness, and even ornament, in the exterior and interior of the house, gives to the whole an air of elegance seldom equalled in establishments of this nature.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1844, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 24–25)<ref>Thomas Story Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for The Insane, with a Sketch of its History, Buildings, and Organization'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/2CWBK2G6 View on Zotero]</ref>

[[File:1104.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 7, Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.]]
:“IMPROVEMENT OF THE [[PLEASURE GROUND]]S. – During the year just closed, the prosecution of contemplated improvements upon the forty-one acres which compose our pppleasure ground]]s, and are within the enclosure, has also furnished a great variety of interesting employment to various classes of patients. Many trees and [[shrubbery|shrubs]] have been planted; flower [[border]]s have been enlarged and improved; the brick [[walk]]s, for use when the ground is soft or covered with snow, have been extended; other [[walk]]s have been laid out through the different [[grove]]s, and covered with tan, and their extension, now in progress, will give us more than a mile in the men’s division, and nearly as much in that appropriated to the females. These [[walk]]s have been so located as to embrace our finest and most diversified [[view]]s, to wind through the [[wood]]s and [[clump]]s of trees which are scattered through the enclosure; and among them, it is hoped, will soon be seen [[summerhouse|summer-house]]s, rustic [[seat]]s, and other objects of interest, to tempt the patients voluntarily to prolong their walks, and to spend a greater portion of their time out of the wards, and engaged in some agreeable occupation. [Fig. 7]

:“The importance and utility of having the grounds about an insane hospital highly cultivated and improved, and everything in perfect order, is much greater than is generally supposed. It exercises a beneficial influence on all patients and on their friends. The good taste of many enables them to appreciate all such things in detail, many are pleased with them as a whole and even those who are not capable of realizing their beauties, still have an indistinct recollection of something pleasant in connexion with them. . . .

:“A surprising degree of interest is frequently excited among the patients, by having everything done in the neatest and best manner, by having fixtures and apparatus of the most approved kinds, and all the buildings and arrangements showing a peculiar fitness for the purposes for which they are intended. It is where these principles are fully carried out, that a farm, a garden, and various other external matters, become truly valuable aids in the management of the insane.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1845, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (quoted in Hawkins 1991: 105–6)<ref>Kenneth Hawkins, “The Therapeutic Landscape: Nature, Architecture, and Mind in Nineteenth-Century America” (PhD diss., University of Rochester, 1991), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/UVDGPDHG View on Zotero.]</ref>

:“ . . . it would be easy in a few years to have within our enclosure, a specimen of every tree that will live in this climate, and I know of no spot near Philadelphia, where a complete [[arboretum]] could be established with less trouble, or be a subject of greater interest or more utility than upon the 41 acres which compose our [[pleasure ground]].”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1847, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851: 22) <ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: for the years 1846–7–8–9 and 50'' (Philadelphia: Published by order of the Board of Managers, 1851), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/IS9R2SUW View on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The general improvement of the pleasure grounds has not been neglected; the groves have been made a more pleasant resort for the patients;—new walks have been laid out, a large number of evergreen, and other trees planted, and the flower borders enlarged and beautified.”

*Kirkbride, Thomas S., April 1848, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (''American Journal of Insanity'' 4: 347–53)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, “Description of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, with Remarks,” ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4, no. 4 (April 1848): 347–54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/9RWM2FH8 View on Zotero.]</ref>

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s and farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, as shown in the accompanying plan, comprise a tract of one hundred and ten acres of well improved land, lying two miles west of the City of Philadelphia, between the Westchester and Haverford roads, on the latter of which is the only [[gate]] of entrance.

:“Of this land, forty-one and three-quarter acres constitute the [[pleasure ground]]s, which surround the Hospital buildings, and are enclosed by a substantial stone [[wall]], of an average height of ten and a half feet. The remaining sixty-nine and one-quarter acres comprise the farm of the Institution.

:“From the character of the ground near the Hospital, the wall surrounding the [[pleasure ground]]s is so arranged, as to be almost entirely out of sight from the buildings, and only a small part of it can be seen from any one point within the enclosure.

:“The entrance to the enclosure is through a handsome [[gate]]-way, on the west side of which is the [[Gate]]-keeper’s Lodge, and on the opposite side is a room for laying out the dead, access to which may be had from within as well as from without the [[pleasure ground]]s.

:“Carriages drive to the western front of the centre building of the Hospital that being most convenient in every respect, but the eastern is the architectural front and of most pretensions.

:“The [[pleasure ground]]s of the two sexes are very effectually separated on the eastern side, by the [[deer-park]], surrounded by a high palisade [[fence]], but the [[Park]] itself is so low that it is completely overlooked from both sides; and the different animals in it are in full view from the adjoining grounds used by the patients of both sexes.

:“At the extreme end of the [[deer-park]], it is joined by the drying-[[yard]] which completes the separation of the sexes in that direction. In this [[yard]], are the wash-house and the pump and [[pond]] from which water is raised into the tanks in the dome of the centre building. This [[pond]] is supplied from various springs on the premises, and there is ample space in the [[yard]] for drying clothes in fine weather.

:“East of the entrance is the private [[yard]] and residence of the Physician of the Institution, being the mansion house on the farm when purchased by the Hospital. The vegetable garden containing three and a half acres is next, and in it are the [[green-house]], [[hothouse|hot-beds]], seed-houses, &c. The remainder of the grounds on this side of the [[deer-park]] is specially appropriated to the use of the male patients. In this division is a fine [[grove]] of large trees, several detached [[clump]]s of various kinds and a great variety of single trees standing alone or in [[avenue]]s along the different [[walk]]s, which, of brick, gravel or tan, are for the men, more than a mile and a quarter in extent. The [[grove]]s are fitted up with seats and [[summer house]]s, and have various means of exercise and amusement connected with them.

:“There is a single private [[yard]] of good size for gentlemen who wish to be less public than in the grounds, or for those whose mental condition renders more seclusion desirable. This [[yard]] is planted with trees and had broad brick [[walk]]s passing round it. Between the north lodge and the [[deer-park]], separated from the latter by a [[Ha-Ha/Sunk fence|sunk]] palisade [[fence]], is a neat [[flower garden]].

:“In connexion with each lodge, as now enlarged or about to be, are three small [[yard]]s paved with brick, and accessible to the patients of the respective divisions with which they are connected.

:“The work-shop and lumber-[[yard]] are just within the main entrance on the west—adjoining which is a fine [[grove]], in which is the gentlemen’s ten-pin [[alley]].

:“In the [[pleasure ground]]s of the ladies, is a fine piece of [[woods]], from which the farm is overlooked, as well as both of the public roads passing along the premises, and a handsome district of country beyond. The [[wall]] here is forty feet below the platform on which the Hospital stands, and is at the foot of a steep hill, so that it is not seen at all unless persons are in it’s [sic] immediate proximity.

:“The [[summerhouse|summer-houses]], [[rustic style|rustic-seats]], exercising-swings &c., in this division are all in particularly pleasant positions. The cottage fronts the [[woods]], and in every part this portion of the grounds is completely protected from intrusion and observation.

:“The undulating character of the [[pleasure ground]]s throughout, gives them many advantages, and the brick, gravel and tan [[walk]]s for the ladies, are more than a mile in extent.

:“As on the men’s side, there is a private [[yard]] for females, and the [[flower-garde]]n in front of the lodge, and the paved [[yard]]s connected with it are similarly arranged.

:“The semi-circular [[yard]], on the western side of the main building is surrounded by flower [[border]]s, contains the circular pleasure Rail-road, and is used at different hours, by patients of both sexes.

:“In the arrangement and location of the [[walk]]s for the patients, great pains have been taken to give as much extent and variety as possible, and to bring into [[view]] objects of interest, not only within the enclosure, but in the well improved district of country immediately around the Hospital.

:“The carriage road is sufficiently extended to give a pretty thorough [[view]] of the whole grounds, and of the farm and scenery beyond. This is occasionally used very advantageously, for giving carriage exercise to patients who could not with propriety be taken to more public situations.

:“The [[fence]]s that have been put up, were rendered necessary by the uses to which the different parts of the grounds were appropriated. A large part of the palisade [[fence]]s, like those enclosing the [[deer-park]] and drying-[[yard]], were to effect the separation of the sexes, and the close [[fence]]s have been made, almost invariably, for the sole purpose of protecting the patients from observation, and giving them the proper degree of privacy.

:“The farm, partly [[meadow]]-land, is divided into fields of convenient size for cultivation. It has two pleasant [[grove]]s on it, a stone-quarry, two good springs of water, besides Mill Creek and a mill-race, which pass through it. The residence of the farmer and gardener are outside of the enclosure, as well as the [[icehouse|ice-house]], spring-house, coach-house, barn, stabling and other arrangements for a well conducted farm.

:“An outline of the ground-plan of the Hospital and other buildings is shown on the sketch. All of these are now erected and in use, except the additions of the north and south sides of the Lodge for females, which it is hoped will be completed during the coming summer. . . .

:"The cultivation of the gardens and the improvement of the [[pleasure ground]]s, offer the generality of patients the most desirable forms of labour. It is sufficiently varied, not too laborious, and in some division of it many will engage who could not be induced to assist upon the farm or in any other kind of employment, out of doors. The vegetable garden should be large enough to furnish all of that description of supplies that may be required for the institution, and may occasionally be made profitable from sales of the excess. The [[flower garden]]s should be as extensive as can be well taken care of by the inmates and persons employed in the Hospital. The good influences which these, as well as a high state of improvement about the buildings, generally produce on patients and their friends, is often of great importance.

:“If the [[pleasure ground]]s are sufficiently extensive it is desirable that the two sexes would have their portions, entirely distinct, although some parts may be used in common, under the superintendence and direction of the proper officer. Without this arrangement certain classes will be much more restricted in out-door exercise than is proper or desirable.”

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:1103.jpg|W. Mason, "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," c. 1841, in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane: with a sketch of its history, buildings, and organization'' (1851), frontispiece. University of Chicago Library.

Image:2231.jpg| Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Plan of the Principal Story n.d. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Archives

Image:1097.jpg|Thomas S. Sinclair, "Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia," in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4 (April 1848): plate opp. p. 280. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library.

Image:1104.jpg|Anonymous, "Ladies' Summer House. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," in Thomas Kirkbride, ''Reports of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (1851)'', frontispiece of "Report for 1849." University of Chicago Library.

Image:2232.jpg| Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884 - Architect, Butler, J. M. - Engraver, Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler. ''Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital''. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Department.

Image:2233.jpg| Haskell, Ebenezer. ''Illustration The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, In Lunacy, And His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster, In November, 1868, Together With a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics In Difference Asylums In This Country And In England: With Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene In Old Bedlam, In London, 1635'' (Philadelphia:1869, p. 10). Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83121156.html Library of Congress Authority File]

[https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1801/tline13.html "A history of the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital," Penn Medicine]

[https://www.nps.gov/places/kirkbrides-hospital.htm Kirkbride's Hospital (National Park Service)]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Point Breeze

2019-12-30T16:42:45Z

L-Baradel: /* Texts */

'''Point Breeze''' on the Delaware River was the country estate of Joseph Bonaparte, older brother of Napoleon I, who resided in the United States between 1816 and 1839. Bonaparte regularly welcomed members of the public to enjoy the grounds and river [[View/Vista|views]] at Point Breeze, and his landscape design provided an important early model of a [[picturesque]] [[park]] in the United States.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Bonaparte’s Park<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1816–present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Joseph Bonaparte (1816–1844); Joseph Lucien Bonaparte (1844–1847); Thomas Richards (1847–1850); Henry Beckett (1850–1874); Vincentian Fathers of Philadelphia (1874–1911); Harris Hammond (1911–?); Divine Word Seminary (1941–present)<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Theodore Mauroy (master mason); Michel Bouvier (cabinetmaker)<br/>
'''Location:''' Burlington County, NJ<br/>
'''Condition:''' extant; altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/kgBb64S6zZy7rn7GA View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
Joseph Bonaparte (1768–1844), the former king of Naples and Spain, known as Count de Survilliers, resided at his country estate, Point Breeze, for much of his time in the United States between 1815 and 1839.<ref>Bonaparte fled to the United States following the abdication and surrender to British forces of his younger brother Napoleon I after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.</ref> He first purchased seven tracts of land comprising approximately 395 acres near Bordentown, New Jersey. A 125-acre farm known as Point Breeze, at the junction of Crosswick Creek and the Delaware River, formed the core of the property. Soon after taking possession of the farm from Stephen Sayre (1736–1818) in July 1816, Bonaparte replaced Sayre’s existing Georgian home with a larger manor house situated on a sixty-foot promontory with spectacular [[View/Vista|views]] of the Delaware River.<ref>Although Bonaparte purchased Point Breeze from Sayre, historically the land had been owned by the Farnsworth and Douglas families. Richard Veit and Michael J. Gall, “‘He Will Be a Bourgeois American and Spend His Fortune in Making Gardens’: An Archaeological Examination of Joseph Bonaparte’s Point Breeze Estate,” in ''Historical Archaeology of the Delaware Valley, 1600–1850'', ed. Richard Veit and David Orr (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2014), 299, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero]. For the full ownership history of the property between 1681 and Bonaparte’s purchase of it in 1816, see United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places—Nomination Form, “Point Breeze,” February 1977, 6, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/C5KD7RI7 view on Zotero]. Bonaparte hired Theodore Mauroy, a master mason whom he had employed previously at his residence Mortefontaine in France, to design the new home, although Bonaparte largely oversaw the construction process himself. Stephen Girard, an entrepreneur, financier, and philanthropist, helped Bonaparte acquire high-quality building supplies, including Carolina pine and imported marble. Bonaparte moved into the house by August 1817. Patricia Tyson Stroud, ''The Man Who Had Been King: The American Exile of Napoleon’s Brother Joseph'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), 23–24, 58, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]; and Veit and Gall 2014, 300, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero].</ref> Within four months he amassed an additional three hundred acres, and would continue to add to the estate over the next nineteen years until it reached approximately eighteen hundred acres.<ref>Bonaparte’s first land purchases had to be made through his agent, James Carret, because Bonaparte was not a United States citizen. However, the law changed in 1817, when New Jersey permitted non-naturalized foreigners from countries not at war with the United States to hold real estate. Stroud 2005, 23, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Bonaparte_cite"></span>

[[File:2221.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 1, Thomas Birch, ''View from the Hill near Bordentown'', 1818, Oil on Canvas, 37.5 x 48.5 in, Purchase 2004 Helen McMahon Brady Cutting Fund, Collection of the Newark Museum of Art 2004.12.]]
The proximity of Bordentown’s steamboat docks to Point Breeze made the estate readily accessible to visitors. According to Bonaparte, steamboats arrived four times daily ([[#Bonaparte|view text]]). <span id="Gordon_1834_cite"></span>In addition to frequently entertaining dignitaries, including many French exiles, at Point Breeze, Bonaparte welcomed members of the public on a weekly basis to view the [[picturesque]] [[park]] and gardens, and to see his collection of art (including a version of David’s ''Napoleon crossing the Alps''), decorative arts, and library, then the largest in the United States ([[#Gordon_1834|view text]]).<ref>Bonaparte’s collection of art and furnishings was very large; one 1818 memorandum lists nineteen cases of paintings, engravings, furniture, rugs, candelabra, sconces, mirrors, clocks, maps, table linens and kitchenware that Bonaparte shipped from Le Havre to Philadelphia. Stroud 2005, 57, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]. Paintings in the collection included, among others, a version of Jacques Louis David’s ''Bonaparte Crossing the Alps'' (1801) commissioned by Charles IV of Spain; Frans Snyders’s ''Two Lions and a Fawn''; Charles Joseph Natoire’s ''La Toilette de Psyche'' (1745; New Orleans Museum of Art); Noël Nicolas Coypel’s ''Rape of Europa'' (1726–1727; Philadelphia Museum of Art); and various portrait statues and paintings of the Bonaparte family by artists such as Lorenzo Bartolini (1777–1850), Antonio Canova (1757–1822), Raimondo Trentanove (1792–1832), and François Gérard. Bonaparte often loaned artworks to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’s annual exhibitions, making his collection even more widely accessible to the public. Bonaparte’s library included approximately eight thousand volumes, compared to the 6,500 in the Library of Congress during this period. Patricia Tyson Stroud, “Point Breeze: Joseph Bonaparte’s American Retreat,” ''Magazine Antiques'' 162, no. 4 (October 2002): 133–34, 136, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RVZ47VFC view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Barber_Howe_cite"></span> Noted artists including Thomas Birch (1779–1851) and Karl Bodmer (1809–1893) created paintings that emphasize Point Breeze’s elevated position over the river and highlight the fruits of Bonaparte’s efforts to transform the landscape, as one nineteenth-century account described it, from “a wild and impoverished tract... into a place of beauty” ([[#Barber_Howe|view text]]) [Fig. 1].

[[File:0098.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 2, Miller & Co., Map of the residence & park grounds, near Bordentown, New Jersey: of the late Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain, 1847.]]
For his landscape improvements at Point Breeze, Bonaparte drew on his previous experiences designing gardens at his European estates, Mortefontaine in France (where he lived off and on between 1798 and 1815) and Prangins in Switzerland (where he resided from 1814–1815). His designs reflected the taste for [[picturesque]], asymmetrical landscapes that had recently become popular in France.<ref>Stroud 2005, 74, 77, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]. Mortefontaine was located adjacent to Ermenonville, an estate belonging to the Marquis René-Louis Girardin (1735–1808), an eighteenth-century theorist of picturesque gardens whose ideas informed the design of the gardens at Mortefontaine. Ermenonville and Mortefontaine also informed Bonaparte’s landscape design for Point Breeze. See Constance A. Webster, “Bonaparte’s Park: A French Picturesque Garden in America,” ''Journal of Garden History'' 6, no. 4 (October–December 1986): 330–47, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/EJ5RQV8I view on Zotero]; and Constance A. Webster, “Recreating an American Landscape: Joseph Bonaparte’s Park at Point Breeze,” ''Journal of the New England Garden History Society'' 4 (Spring 1996): 14–15, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/R6RM996Z view on Zotero]. According to Stroud, the design also reflected Bonaparte’s familiarity with the gardens at El Escorial, the sixteenth-century palace of Philip II (1527–1598) located northwest of Madrid. Stroud 2005, 78, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Watson_1826_cite"></span>Point Breeze was an early example of this style of landscape design in the United States.<ref>Webster 1986, 330, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/EJ5RQV8I view on Zotero].</ref> Teams of approximately thirty to fifty workmen planted trees and an [[orchard]], built roads, created a [[deer park]], and made a half-mile-long artificial [[lake]] [Fig. 2]. Islands in the [[lake]] were planted with velvet grass and exotic trees and shrubs, and swan-shaped pleasure boats were anchored at the boat house with an adjacent garden featuring forget-me-nots and veronica ([[#Watson_1826|view text]]).<span id="Haines_cite"></span> Twelve miles of carriage roads led passengers around the [[lake]], over stone [[bridge]]s, and past gazebos.<ref>Stroud 2005, 59, 78, 80, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]; Stroud 2002, 137, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RVZ47VFC view on Zotero]; and Veit and Gall 2014, 302, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero]. In the winter, Bonaparte and his guests used the frozen lake for ice skating. Webster 1996, 16, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/R6RM996Z view on Zotero].</ref> One commentator reported driving by the [[lake]], an [[aviary]], and [[statue]]s situated in [[alcove]]s during a visit to Point Breeze in 1825 ([[#Haines|view text]]).

Bonaparte imported plants and trees from France including apricots and peaches, but he also relied on the services of Philadelphia collectors and nurserymen. In the spring of 1818, for example, Stephen Girard wrote to Bonaparte offering him raspberry bushes, hazelnut trees, and artichokes. In 1821, Bonaparte received from Landreth Nursery shipments of grapevines and assorted [[Shrubbery|shrubs]] and trees, including “20 White Lindens, 40 Athenia Poplars, 40 Lombardy Poplars, 20 Weeping Willows, [and] 10 Button-Flowering Locusts.” Bonaparte’s [[park]] included sassafras and tulip trees, beech, chestnut, ash white birch, sweet gum, dogwood, honey locust, pines, twenty-five species of oak, persimmon trees, and eight species of walnut. According to Bonaparte’s son-in-law, native wildflowers grew in the [[wood]]s and [[fountain]]s in the park were surrounded by [[Rustic style|rustic]] [[seat]]s and planted with stargrass, andromeda, and tulip trees. He also reported that Bonaparte had planted azalea, mock orange, viburnum, and rhododendron near the main house.<ref>Stroud 2005, 78–80; quote on 79, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Frances_cite"></span> During a visit to Point Breeze in June 1819, the Englishwoman Frances Wright observed that the mansion house stood on a [[lawn]] encircled by “the choice [[Shrubbery|shrubs]] of the American forest, magnolias, kalmias, &c. planted tastefully under the higher trees” ([[#Frances|view text]]).

<span id="Berkley_cite"></span>After a fire destroyed Bonaparte’s first mansion house on January 4, 1820, he reportedly considered buying [[The Woodlands]], [[William Hamilton|William Hamilton’s]] estate on the west bank of the [[Schuylkill River]], but decided instead to rebuild at Point Breeze. Bonaparte engaged French émigré Michel Bouvier, a skilled cabinetmaker, to supervise the building of the second manor house. It was constructed by expanding the existing stables ([[#Berkley|view text]]), which were located further back from the promontory than the first house had been. This new location, as seen in this 1823 sketched plan, provided better protection from high winds that had helped fan the flames and hasten the destruction of the first house [Fig. 3].<span id="Trollope_cite"></span> Only a [[belvedere]], with winding interior stairs and various balconies, survived the fire and remained on the promontory [Fig. 4]. This and the [[terrace]] nearby offered extensive [[view]]s of the river ([[#Trollope|view text]]). Bonaparte’s private apartments on the second floor of the home included a balcony, from which he could take in panoramic views of the gardens and river landscape.<ref>Bonaparte was away from Point Breeze when the fire broke out, but, thanks to the efforts of the people of Bordentown, most of his collection was saved. Stroud 2005, 46–7, 62–66, 71, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]; and Veit and Gall 2014, 300, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero].</ref>
[[File:2222.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 4, Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809-1893), ''View on the Delaware near Bordentown'', 1832, watercolor on paper, Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, Gift of the Enron Art Foundation, 1986.49.24.]]

In addition to the new mansion, Bonaparte built several other dwellings on the property. The largest of these was a three-story Lake House, erected near the new mansion probably in the spring of 1820. Bonaparte’s daughter Zénaïde (1801–1854) resided in the Lake House with her husband, the ornithologist Charles-Lucien Bonaparte (1803–1857), after they emigrated in 1823.<ref>The Lake House was connected to the manor house by a forty-foot subterranean passage as well as a lattice-covered arcade. Stroud 2005, 81, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero].</ref> Bonaparte also constructed a smaller guest house, known as the Wash or [[Icehouse|Ice House]]; a two-story gardener’s house (still extant) with [[kitchen garden]]; and servants’ quarters. The gardener’s house as well as tenant farmhouses were situated on the eastern end of the property, along a main road leading away from the second mansion house. At the site of the original mansion, Bonaparte added the servants’ house and a classical domed-circular [[temple]]. Winding sandstone steps led down the steep bluffs from this part of the property to the wharves and docks on Crosswicks Creek below.<ref>Veit and Gall 2014, 306–8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero].</ref> Bonaparte also constructed subterranean tunnels, modeled after one at his Mortefontaine estate, to connect buildings throughout the grounds. These tunnels facilitated the transportation of supplies and hid laborers as they traversed the property. One tunnel connecting the main manor house to the lake had three doors leading to different destinations in the vicinity: the wine cellar, the Lake House, and [[icehouse]]s that stored ice cut from the Delaware River in winter.<ref>Stroud 2005, 81, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]; and Veit and Gall 2014, 300, 302, 310, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero].</ref>

Bonaparte retained ownership of Point Breeze until his death in 1844, but, finding himself in ill health, he returned permanently to Europe in 1839. After his death, Point Breeze passed to his grandson Joseph Lucien Bonaparte (1824–1865) who sold his grandfather’s possessions and country estate three years later. The purchaser, Thomas Richards (1780–1860) and his wife Anna Bartram (1787–1865), granddaughter of celebrated botanist [[John Bartram]], sold it to Henry Beckett (1791–1871), the son of a British consul in Philadelphia, in 1850. According to scholar Patricia Tyson Stroud, Beckett, “a fervent Francophobe,” moved into the gatehouse and quickly razed Bonaparte’s manor house. He built a new home, which survived until it was destroyed by fire in 1983. The Vincentian Fathers of Philadelphia purchased Point Breeze in 1874 and used it as a summer retreat until 1911, before selling it to the wealthy industrialist Harris Hammond. Point Breeze was repossessed by Hammond’s bank following the 1929 stock market crash and lay derelict for many years. Since 1941 the Divine Word Seminary, a facility for Roman Catholic missionary priests, has occupied the site. Between 2005 and 2012, Point Breeze was the subject of investigation by archaeologists Richard Veit and Michael Gall, who led annual field schools in historic archaeology through Monmouth University and volunteer excavations by members of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey at the site. These investigations documented extant above-ground structures and conducted selective subsurface testing, shedding new light on the history and design of Point Breeze.<ref>Stroud 2005, 218–19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]; and Rev. Raymond Lennon, "The Bordentown Story, 1941–2012," Chicago Province, 2014, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FR2X94ZK view on Zotero]. According to Veit and Gall, Hammond had hired the noted Ashcan artist Everett Shinn to help reconstruct the Bonaparte-era landscape at Point Breeze, but the plan was never executed due to Hammond’s losses in the 1929 stock market crash. Veit and Gall 2014, 297, 302, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==

*<div id="Bonaparte"></div>Bonaparte, Joseph, September 14, 1817, in a letter to his daughter Zénaïde Bonaparte, describing Point Breeze (quoted in Stroud 2005: 32)<ref name="Stroud_2005">Stroud 2005, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero].</ref>

:“I am writing from a room which is the most appealing in the house and perhaps all of the left bank of the Delaware. It has seven windows of which five are on the river. Four times a day the steamboats stop below the windows—I hope that someday I will have the pleasure to be here with you. Today I am all alone.” [[#Bonaparte_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Frances"></div>Wright, Frances, June 1819, in a letter describing Point Breeze (Wright 1821: 99–103)<ref>Frances Wright, ''Views of Society and Manners in America; in a Series of Letters from that Country to a Friend in England, During the Years 1818, 1819, and 1820'' (New York: E. Bliss and E. White, 1821), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FGFR7QUU view on Zotero].</ref>

:“It is a pretty villa, commanding a fine [[prospect]] of the river; the soil around it is unproductive; but a step removed from the ''pine-barren''; the pines, however, worthless as they may be, clothe the banks pleasantly enough, and, altogether, the place is cheerful and pretty. Entering upon the [[lawn]], we found the choice [[Shrubbery|shrubs]] of the American forest, magnolias, kalmias, &c. planted tastefully under the higher trees which skirted, and here and there shadowed, the green carpet upon which the white mansion stood. Advancing, we were now faced at all corners by gods and goddesses in naked, —I cannot say ''majesty'', for they were, for the most part, clumsy enough. . .

:“Until the entrance of the count, who was superintending the additions yet making to the house, we employed ourselves in considering the paintings and Canovas, of which last we found a small but interesting collection. It consists chiefly of busts of the different members of the Buonaparte family. The similar and classic outline prevailing in all is striking, and has truly something ''imperial'' in it. . . Turning to look at David’s portrait of Napoleon crossing the Alps, I was greatly disappointed with the expression of the young soldier; the horse has far more spirit than the rider, who sits carelessly on his steed, a handsome beardless boy, pointing his legions up the beetling crags as though they were some easy steps into a drawing room. Such, at least, was my impression. Count Survillier (he wears this title, perhaps, to save the awkwardness of ''Mr. Bonaparte'') soon came to us from his workmen, in an old coat, from which he had barely shaken off the mortar, and, –a sign of the true gentleman, –made no apologies. . . He walked us round his improvements in-doors and out. When I observed upon the amusement he seemed to find in beautifying his little villa, he replied, that he was happier in it than he had ever found himself in more bustling scenes. He gathered a wild flower, and, in presenting it to me, carelessly drew a comparison between its minute beauties and the pleasures of private life; contrasting those of ambition and power with the more gaudy flowers of the [[parterre]], which look better at a distance than upon a nearer approach. He said this so naturally, with a manner so simple, and accent so mild, that it was impossible to see in it attempt at display of any kind. . .” [[#Frances_cite|back up to History]]

*Douglas, David, August 27, 1823, in a journal entry describing Point Breeze (1914: 9)<ref>David Douglas, ''Journal Kept by David Douglas During His Travels in North America 1823–1827 Together with a Particular Description of Thirty-Three Species of American Oaks and Eighteen Species of Pinus, with Appendices Containing a List of the Plants Introduced by Douglas and an Account of His Death in 1834'' (London: W. Wesley & Son, for the Royal Historical Society, 1914), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GVY4XWI3 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“We set off by steamboat at 11 o’clock from Philadelphia to Bordentown. Here stands the house of Joseph Bonaparte, a most splendid mansion, fields well cultivated, [[pleasure ground]] laid out in the English style; there are many fine [[view]]s.”

*<div id="Haines"></div>Haines, Reuben, July 3, 1825, in a letter to Ann Haines, describing Point Breeze (quoted in Stroud 2002: 137)<ref>Stroud 2002, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RVZ47VFC view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Drawn by two ''Elegant Horses'' along the ever varying roads of the [[park]] amidst splendid Rhododendrons on the margin of the artificial [[lake]] on whose smooth surface gently glided the majestic European swans. Stopping to visit the [[Aviary]] enlivened by the most beautiful English Pheasants, passing by [[alcove]]s ornamented with [[statue]]s and busts of Parian marble, our course enlivened by the footsteps of the tame deer and the flight of the Woodcock, and when alighting stopping to admire the graceful form of two splendid Etruscan vases of Porphyry 3 ft. high & 2 in diameter presented by the Queen of Sweden.” [[#Haines_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Watson_1826"></div>Watson, John Fanning, 1826, describing Point Breeze (quoted in Stroud 2005: 81)<ref name="Stroud_2005"></ref>

:“Nothing can be more romantic than the whole Scenery–the Shades, where so required, are so very deep & impressive—In the midst of the premises is a beautiful [[Lake]], surrounded by high Banks covered with innumerable [[Shrubbery|Shrubs]] & Trees–In the middle an Island (artificial) beautifully covered with weeping Willows—Swans & Exotic Geese, sported upon the bosom of the [[Lake]]. . . The novelty of such costliness & elegance was like enchantment to my feelings & when I had traversed the various sections of the [[wood]]s & [[lawn]]s, through all their charming & meandering [[avenue]]s & mazes, I could not forbear to think it was the best terrestrial paradise I ever enjoyed.” [[#Watson_1826_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Trollope"></div>Trollope, Frances Milton, 1830, describing Point Breeze (1832: 2:153)<ref>Frances Milton Trollope, ''Domestic Manners of the Americans'', 3rd ed., 2 vols. (London: Wittaker, Treacher, 1832), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/T5RXDF7G view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The country is very flat, but a [[terrace]] of two sides has been raised, commanding a fine reach of the Delaware River; at the point where this [[terrace]] forms a right angle, a lofty chapel has been erected, which looks very much like an observatory.” [[#Trollope_cite|back up to History]]

*Wied, Prince Maximilian, July 19, 1832, describing Point Breeze (2008: 1:73–75)<ref>Maximilian of Wied, ''The North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied, Volume 1, May 1832–April 1833'', edited by Stephen S. Witte and Marsha V. Gallagher (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8EM56HZP view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Early on the nineteenth, I undertook a walk to the country home of Louis [''sic'', Joseph] Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain. It is located 300 paces from Bordentown, not far from the railroad from Amboy, which passes here in the direction of Camden, opposite Philadelphia, and is already sixty miles in length. This road is still under construction, and in sections of the valley, large embankments have been thrown up, as for a highway. . .

:“On the right side of the path, in the region near L. [''sic'', Joseph] Bonaparte’s country home, I went botanizing. Near a deep ditch in the swamp, with dense thickets and woods on the opposite side, there were magnificent rhododendron shrubs blooming, ten to fifteen and more feet tall, with thick tufts of large, beautiful white or pale reddish flowers and stiff, laurel-like leaves. The young blossoms are rose pink, the older ones almost completely white with a pale shimmer or reddish color. Count Survilliers’ gardener maintains that this is ''Rhododendron maximum''. The [[Shrubbery|shrubs]] were thickly entangled by wild grapevines. I took all of these plants with me. . .

:“As the day began to cool off, I went to Louis [''sic'', Joseph] Bonaparte’s country home. The gardener, who was working in the large garden, well and nicely planted with all sorts of European vegetables and fruits, opened the door for me. The county home itself is nice and simple, moderately large with three floors and a flat roof built in this shape [see diagram of house]: ‘a’ is the garden side; ‘b,’ a [[terrace]] surrounded with a white railing above a deep ditch, here passing through dark forest. Several heads (probably antiques) have been set up in ‘e.’ A flower garden is found in ‘c,’ before which, closer to the street, the administrative buildings of the superintendent, or manager, and servants are located. In ‘d,’ on the left wing of the house, there is a small, single-story [[pavilion]] with glass doors all around. Behind this wing a row of white and red oleander (''Nerium''), now in bloom, has been planted.

:“I now passed through the entire, very shady, [[park]], which extends on the same level areas along Crosswicks Creek, a rapid brook that flows into the Delaware near Bordentown. On the elevation facing Bordentown, there is a high, narrow [[pavilion]] with a small tower and a balcony, from which there must be an excellent view. Around the [[pavilion]] there is a [[terrace]] with [a] railing from which one enjoys the beautiful [[view]], high over the wooded bank of the river, toward the green region, covered with [[wood]]s and bushes, through which the Delaware gently glides. From here dark, shady paths go along this tall bank, always on the edge, in twists and turns; this forest, as well as the one shading the mountain face down toward the creek, is magnificent.

:“All the beautiful forest trees of this region, with a now magnificently blooming undergrowth of rhododendron with its white-reddish tufts, provided dark shade. Coniferous and deciduous trees were intermingled. I heard only a few kinds of bird calls here, which seldom came from a few small songbirds but, on the contrary, frequently from catbirds (''Turdus felivox'' Vicill.), which were uncommonly numerous here...

:“An elevated spot on the steep creek bank, mentioned earlier, is interesting. Here in the dark forest, a [[bridge]] with a railing has been constructed out over the edge, and beside a stout old hemlock fir (''Pinus canadensis''), from which I took branches with young fruit, there is a roomy, rectangular platform with benches and railings from which one has an extensive [[view]] of the Delaware and its green surroundings, as well as the creek emptying into it at the right and left. Along its banks this rapid brook has extensive strips of an aquatic plant with a shieldlike leaf. And the wooded [[slope]] below the [[park]] was adorned with the white-reddish flower clusters of the tall rhododendron. Farther away there were rugged pathways in this forest; everywhere the wild grape sent out vines and the rhododendron bloomed. In this [[park]] there are also several large fields on which grain had evidently been harvested; other grain was still standing.”

*<div id="Gordon_1834"></div>Gordon, Thomas F., 1834, describing Point Breeze (1834: 106–7)<ref>Thomas F. Gordon, ''A Gazetteer of the State of New Jersey'' (Trenton, NJ: Daniel Fenton, 1834), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/62RCWJ2Q view on Zotero].</ref>

:“From the brow of the hill, there is a delightful [[view]] of the majestic Delaware, pursuing for miles its tranquil course through the rich country which it laves. . . The attractions of the scene determined Joseph Buonaparte, Count de Surveilliers, in his choice of a residence in this country; and this distinguished exile, who has filled two thrones, and has pretensions based on popular suffrage to a third, has dwelt here many years in philosophic retirement. He has in the vicinity of about 1500 acres of land, part of which possessed natural beauty, which his taste and wealth have been employed to embellish. At the expense of some hundred thousand dollars, he has converted a wild and impoverished tract, into a [[park]] of surpassing beauty, blending the charms of woodland and [[plantation]] scenery, with a delightful water [[prospect]]. The present buildings, plain but commodious, are on the site of the offices of his original and more splendid mansion, which was destroyed by fire, together with some rare pictures from the pencils of the first masters, whose merit made them invaluable. With characteristic liberality, the County has opened his grounds to the public, we regret to perceive, that he has been ungratefully repaid, by the defacement of his ornamental structures and mutilation of his [[statue]]s.” [[#Gordon_1834_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Barber_Howe"></div>Barber, John Warner, and Henry Howe, 1844, describing Point Breeze (1844: 102–3)<ref>John Warner Barber and Henry Howe, ''Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey; Containing a General Collection of the Most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, &c. Relating to History and Antiquities, with Geographical Descriptions of Every Township in the State'' (Newark, NJ: Benjamin Olds, 1844), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KBBHZ5NT view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The [[park]] and grounds of the Count comprise about fourteen hundred acres, which, from a wild and impoverished tract, he has converted into a place of beauty, blending the charms of [[Wood|woodland]] and [[plantation]] scenery with a delightful water-[[prospect]]. . . While here, his time was occupied in planning and executing improvements upon his grounds. He did not mingle in society; but was frequently seen walking through his [[park]], attending to his workmen, or, with hatchet in hand, lopping branches from the trees.” [[#Barber_Howe_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Berkley"></div>Berkley, Helen [Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie], 1845, describing Point Breeze (1845: 184–86)<ref>Helen Berkley, “A Sketch of Joseph Buonaparte,” ''Godey’s Lady’s Book'' 30 (April 1845): 184–87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JSH3AAAF view on Zotero].</ref>

:“We came within sight of his country-[[seat]] at eleven o’clock in the morning. I presume you have heard that his former residence had been burnt to the ground; his stables, which were about a quarter of a mile distant, remained uninjured. Their architectural construction was very beautiful and their situation remarkably [[picturesque]]. These he had converted into a mansion, hardly inferior in elegance to his former dwelling. The house was long and low, built of stone, and thickly embowered with fine old trees. The expansive folding doors of the front entrance, in spite of their finely-carved workmanship, reminded you that they had once been thrown back to admit horses and carriages instead of the guests which alighted from them. . . The doors at the further end of the hall were open, and displayed several marble [[fountain]]s flinging their glittering spray over the willows–''weeping willows'' I might say–that gracefully bent around them. We could steal but a hasty glance at the emblematical [[statue]]s which graced the centre of every [[fountain]]. . .

[[File:0992.jpg|thumb|Fig. 5, Charles B. Lawrence (attr.), ''Point Breeze, the Estate of Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte at Bordentown, New Jersey'', 1817–20.]]
:“About half an hour after the ''dejeuner'', a couple of the count’s carriages drove to the door, and he invited us to take a [[drive]] around his grounds. . . I cannot even attempt to give you any idea of the romantic beauty of the grounds, or even of the tasteful manner in which they were laid out. Your imaginations will do them greater justice than any description, and yet will hardly overstep the bounds of reality. If I remember correctly, they are twelve miles round. We visited the site of his former chateau, but every trace of the conflagration had been carefully removed. The only portion of the building left is the [[Belvedere|observatory]], which is surrounded by a stone enclosure and looked like a miniature ruin left purposely in this dilapidated state to add to the [[Picturesque|picturesqueness]] of the scene. A narrow stream winds itself gracefully through one part of the grounds, over which several [[Rustic style|rustic]] [[bridge]]s are erected. Equally [[Rustic style|rustic]] [[seat]]s are scattered beneath the shade of the tall trees on its banks, and upon its clear surface a flock of snow-white swans were floating about, diving for fish, or flapping their wings as they bathed their fleecy plumage in the clear stream. A few years ago, a railroad was cut through the count’s property, dividing off one of the pleasantest portions of his grounds. At this he was exceedingly incensed, and could only content himself by building a tunnel ''beneath'' the railroad, so that his carriage could drive through without traversing the offensive steam-car path.

:“We occupied several hours in driving about and enjoying the beautiful [[view]]s. . .

:“The next morning we rose early, and each wrapping herself in a ''robe de chamber'', stole into the garden and wandered for an hour or two through the private [[pleasure ground]]s, which we had not yet visited.” [[#Berkley_cite|back up to History]]

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:0992.jpg|Charles B. Lawrence (attr.), ''Point Breeze, the Estate of Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte at Bordentown, New Jersey'', 1817–20.

Image:2221.jpg| Thomas Birch, ''View from the Hill near Bordentown'', 1818, Oil on Canvas, 37.5 x 48.5 in, Purchase 2004 Helen McMahon Brady Cutting Fund, Collection of the Newark Museum of Art 2004.12.

Image:1021.jpg|Charles B. Lawrence, Point Breeze, c. 1820.

Image:2006.jpg|Joseph Drayton, ''View near Bordentown, from the Gardens of the Count de Survilliers'', c. 1820.

Image:1018.jpg|Thomas Birch, Point Breeze, c. 1820, in Edward J. Nygren, ''Views and Visions: American Landscape before 1830'' (1986), p. 146, pl. 120.

Image:0665.jpg|Anonymous, Bonaparte's residence and the surrounding park, c. 1830.

Image:2223.jpg|Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809-1893), ''Manor House of Joseph Bonaparte near Bordentown'', 1832, watercolor on paper, Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, Gift of the Enron Art Foundation, 1986.49.26.

Image:2222.jpg|Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809-1893), ''View on the Delaware near Bordentown'', 1832, watercolor on paper, Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, Gift of the Enron Art Foundation, 1986.49.24.

Image:2224.jpg|After Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809-1893), Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein, engraver, ''View on the Delaware near Bordentown'', 1839, hand-colored aquatint, Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, Gift of Enron Art Foundation, 1986.49.542.50.

Image:0098.jpg|Miller & Co., Map of the residence & park grounds, near Bordentown, New Jersey: of the late Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain, 1847.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==

[https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/point-breeze-bonaparte/ The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Point Breeze

2019-12-30T16:42:02Z

L-Baradel: /* Texts */

'''Point Breeze''' on the Delaware River was the country estate of Joseph Bonaparte, older brother of Napoleon I, who resided in the United States between 1816 and 1839. Bonaparte regularly welcomed members of the public to enjoy the grounds and river [[View/Vista|views]] at Point Breeze, and his landscape design provided an important early model of a [[picturesque]] [[park]] in the United States.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Bonaparte’s Park<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' 1816–present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Joseph Bonaparte (1816–1844); Joseph Lucien Bonaparte (1844–1847); Thomas Richards (1847–1850); Henry Beckett (1850–1874); Vincentian Fathers of Philadelphia (1874–1911); Harris Hammond (1911–?); Divine Word Seminary (1941–present)<br/>
'''Associated People:''' Theodore Mauroy (master mason); Michel Bouvier (cabinetmaker)<br/>
'''Location:''' Burlington County, NJ<br/>
'''Condition:''' extant; altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/kgBb64S6zZy7rn7GA View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
Joseph Bonaparte (1768–1844), the former king of Naples and Spain, known as Count de Survilliers, resided at his country estate, Point Breeze, for much of his time in the United States between 1815 and 1839.<ref>Bonaparte fled to the United States following the abdication and surrender to British forces of his younger brother Napoleon I after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.</ref> He first purchased seven tracts of land comprising approximately 395 acres near Bordentown, New Jersey. A 125-acre farm known as Point Breeze, at the junction of Crosswick Creek and the Delaware River, formed the core of the property. Soon after taking possession of the farm from Stephen Sayre (1736–1818) in July 1816, Bonaparte replaced Sayre’s existing Georgian home with a larger manor house situated on a sixty-foot promontory with spectacular [[View/Vista|views]] of the Delaware River.<ref>Although Bonaparte purchased Point Breeze from Sayre, historically the land had been owned by the Farnsworth and Douglas families. Richard Veit and Michael J. Gall, “‘He Will Be a Bourgeois American and Spend His Fortune in Making Gardens’: An Archaeological Examination of Joseph Bonaparte’s Point Breeze Estate,” in ''Historical Archaeology of the Delaware Valley, 1600–1850'', ed. Richard Veit and David Orr (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2014), 299, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero]. For the full ownership history of the property between 1681 and Bonaparte’s purchase of it in 1816, see United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places—Nomination Form, “Point Breeze,” February 1977, 6, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/C5KD7RI7 view on Zotero]. Bonaparte hired Theodore Mauroy, a master mason whom he had employed previously at his residence Mortefontaine in France, to design the new home, although Bonaparte largely oversaw the construction process himself. Stephen Girard, an entrepreneur, financier, and philanthropist, helped Bonaparte acquire high-quality building supplies, including Carolina pine and imported marble. Bonaparte moved into the house by August 1817. Patricia Tyson Stroud, ''The Man Who Had Been King: The American Exile of Napoleon’s Brother Joseph'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), 23–24, 58, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]; and Veit and Gall 2014, 300, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero].</ref> Within four months he amassed an additional three hundred acres, and would continue to add to the estate over the next nineteen years until it reached approximately eighteen hundred acres.<ref>Bonaparte’s first land purchases had to be made through his agent, James Carret, because Bonaparte was not a United States citizen. However, the law changed in 1817, when New Jersey permitted non-naturalized foreigners from countries not at war with the United States to hold real estate. Stroud 2005, 23, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Bonaparte_cite"></span>

[[File:2221.jpg|left|thumb|Fig. 1, Thomas Birch, ''View from the Hill near Bordentown'', 1818, Oil on Canvas, 37.5 x 48.5 in, Purchase 2004 Helen McMahon Brady Cutting Fund, Collection of the Newark Museum of Art 2004.12.]]
The proximity of Bordentown’s steamboat docks to Point Breeze made the estate readily accessible to visitors. According to Bonaparte, steamboats arrived four times daily ([[#Bonaparte|view text]]). <span id="Gordon_1834_cite"></span>In addition to frequently entertaining dignitaries, including many French exiles, at Point Breeze, Bonaparte welcomed members of the public on a weekly basis to view the [[picturesque]] [[park]] and gardens, and to see his collection of art (including a version of David’s ''Napoleon crossing the Alps''), decorative arts, and library, then the largest in the United States ([[#Gordon_1834|view text]]).<ref>Bonaparte’s collection of art and furnishings was very large; one 1818 memorandum lists nineteen cases of paintings, engravings, furniture, rugs, candelabra, sconces, mirrors, clocks, maps, table linens and kitchenware that Bonaparte shipped from Le Havre to Philadelphia. Stroud 2005, 57, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]. Paintings in the collection included, among others, a version of Jacques Louis David’s ''Bonaparte Crossing the Alps'' (1801) commissioned by Charles IV of Spain; Frans Snyders’s ''Two Lions and a Fawn''; Charles Joseph Natoire’s ''La Toilette de Psyche'' (1745; New Orleans Museum of Art); Noël Nicolas Coypel’s ''Rape of Europa'' (1726–1727; Philadelphia Museum of Art); and various portrait statues and paintings of the Bonaparte family by artists such as Lorenzo Bartolini (1777–1850), Antonio Canova (1757–1822), Raimondo Trentanove (1792–1832), and François Gérard. Bonaparte often loaned artworks to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’s annual exhibitions, making his collection even more widely accessible to the public. Bonaparte’s library included approximately eight thousand volumes, compared to the 6,500 in the Library of Congress during this period. Patricia Tyson Stroud, “Point Breeze: Joseph Bonaparte’s American Retreat,” ''Magazine Antiques'' 162, no. 4 (October 2002): 133–34, 136, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RVZ47VFC view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Barber_Howe_cite"></span> Noted artists including Thomas Birch (1779–1851) and Karl Bodmer (1809–1893) created paintings that emphasize Point Breeze’s elevated position over the river and highlight the fruits of Bonaparte’s efforts to transform the landscape, as one nineteenth-century account described it, from “a wild and impoverished tract... into a place of beauty” ([[#Barber_Howe|view text]]) [Fig. 1].

[[File:0098.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 2, Miller & Co., Map of the residence & park grounds, near Bordentown, New Jersey: of the late Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain, 1847.]]
For his landscape improvements at Point Breeze, Bonaparte drew on his previous experiences designing gardens at his European estates, Mortefontaine in France (where he lived off and on between 1798 and 1815) and Prangins in Switzerland (where he resided from 1814–1815). His designs reflected the taste for [[picturesque]], asymmetrical landscapes that had recently become popular in France.<ref>Stroud 2005, 74, 77, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]. Mortefontaine was located adjacent to Ermenonville, an estate belonging to the Marquis René-Louis Girardin (1735–1808), an eighteenth-century theorist of picturesque gardens whose ideas informed the design of the gardens at Mortefontaine. Ermenonville and Mortefontaine also informed Bonaparte’s landscape design for Point Breeze. See Constance A. Webster, “Bonaparte’s Park: A French Picturesque Garden in America,” ''Journal of Garden History'' 6, no. 4 (October–December 1986): 330–47, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/EJ5RQV8I view on Zotero]; and Constance A. Webster, “Recreating an American Landscape: Joseph Bonaparte’s Park at Point Breeze,” ''Journal of the New England Garden History Society'' 4 (Spring 1996): 14–15, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/R6RM996Z view on Zotero]. According to Stroud, the design also reflected Bonaparte’s familiarity with the gardens at El Escorial, the sixteenth-century palace of Philip II (1527–1598) located northwest of Madrid. Stroud 2005, 78, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Watson_1826_cite"></span>Point Breeze was an early example of this style of landscape design in the United States.<ref>Webster 1986, 330, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/EJ5RQV8I view on Zotero].</ref> Teams of approximately thirty to fifty workmen planted trees and an [[orchard]], built roads, created a [[deer park]], and made a half-mile-long artificial [[lake]] [Fig. 2]. Islands in the [[lake]] were planted with velvet grass and exotic trees and shrubs, and swan-shaped pleasure boats were anchored at the boat house with an adjacent garden featuring forget-me-nots and veronica ([[#Watson_1826|view text]]).<span id="Haines_cite"></span> Twelve miles of carriage roads led passengers around the [[lake]], over stone [[bridge]]s, and past gazebos.<ref>Stroud 2005, 59, 78, 80, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]; Stroud 2002, 137, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RVZ47VFC view on Zotero]; and Veit and Gall 2014, 302, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero]. In the winter, Bonaparte and his guests used the frozen lake for ice skating. Webster 1996, 16, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/R6RM996Z view on Zotero].</ref> One commentator reported driving by the [[lake]], an [[aviary]], and [[statue]]s situated in [[alcove]]s during a visit to Point Breeze in 1825 ([[#Haines|view text]]).

Bonaparte imported plants and trees from France including apricots and peaches, but he also relied on the services of Philadelphia collectors and nurserymen. In the spring of 1818, for example, Stephen Girard wrote to Bonaparte offering him raspberry bushes, hazelnut trees, and artichokes. In 1821, Bonaparte received from Landreth Nursery shipments of grapevines and assorted [[Shrubbery|shrubs]] and trees, including “20 White Lindens, 40 Athenia Poplars, 40 Lombardy Poplars, 20 Weeping Willows, [and] 10 Button-Flowering Locusts.” Bonaparte’s [[park]] included sassafras and tulip trees, beech, chestnut, ash white birch, sweet gum, dogwood, honey locust, pines, twenty-five species of oak, persimmon trees, and eight species of walnut. According to Bonaparte’s son-in-law, native wildflowers grew in the [[wood]]s and [[fountain]]s in the park were surrounded by [[Rustic style|rustic]] [[seat]]s and planted with stargrass, andromeda, and tulip trees. He also reported that Bonaparte had planted azalea, mock orange, viburnum, and rhododendron near the main house.<ref>Stroud 2005, 78–80; quote on 79, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero].</ref><span id="Frances_cite"></span> During a visit to Point Breeze in June 1819, the Englishwoman Frances Wright observed that the mansion house stood on a [[lawn]] encircled by “the choice [[Shrubbery|shrubs]] of the American forest, magnolias, kalmias, &c. planted tastefully under the higher trees” ([[#Frances|view text]]).

<span id="Berkley_cite"></span>After a fire destroyed Bonaparte’s first mansion house on January 4, 1820, he reportedly considered buying [[The Woodlands]], [[William Hamilton|William Hamilton’s]] estate on the west bank of the [[Schuylkill River]], but decided instead to rebuild at Point Breeze. Bonaparte engaged French émigré Michel Bouvier, a skilled cabinetmaker, to supervise the building of the second manor house. It was constructed by expanding the existing stables ([[#Berkley|view text]]), which were located further back from the promontory than the first house had been. This new location, as seen in this 1823 sketched plan, provided better protection from high winds that had helped fan the flames and hasten the destruction of the first house [Fig. 3].<span id="Trollope_cite"></span> Only a [[belvedere]], with winding interior stairs and various balconies, survived the fire and remained on the promontory [Fig. 4]. This and the [[terrace]] nearby offered extensive [[view]]s of the river ([[#Trollope|view text]]). Bonaparte’s private apartments on the second floor of the home included a balcony, from which he could take in panoramic views of the gardens and river landscape.<ref>Bonaparte was away from Point Breeze when the fire broke out, but, thanks to the efforts of the people of Bordentown, most of his collection was saved. Stroud 2005, 46–7, 62–66, 71, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]; and Veit and Gall 2014, 300, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero].</ref>
[[File:2222.jpg|right|thumb|Fig. 4, Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809-1893), ''View on the Delaware near Bordentown'', 1832, watercolor on paper, Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, Gift of the Enron Art Foundation, 1986.49.24.]]

In addition to the new mansion, Bonaparte built several other dwellings on the property. The largest of these was a three-story Lake House, erected near the new mansion probably in the spring of 1820. Bonaparte’s daughter Zénaïde (1801–1854) resided in the Lake House with her husband, the ornithologist Charles-Lucien Bonaparte (1803–1857), after they emigrated in 1823.<ref>The Lake House was connected to the manor house by a forty-foot subterranean passage as well as a lattice-covered arcade. Stroud 2005, 81, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero].</ref> Bonaparte also constructed a smaller guest house, known as the Wash or [[Icehouse|Ice House]]; a two-story gardener’s house (still extant) with [[kitchen garden]]; and servants’ quarters. The gardener’s house as well as tenant farmhouses were situated on the eastern end of the property, along a main road leading away from the second mansion house. At the site of the original mansion, Bonaparte added the servants’ house and a classical domed-circular [[temple]]. Winding sandstone steps led down the steep bluffs from this part of the property to the wharves and docks on Crosswicks Creek below.<ref>Veit and Gall 2014, 306–8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero].</ref> Bonaparte also constructed subterranean tunnels, modeled after one at his Mortefontaine estate, to connect buildings throughout the grounds. These tunnels facilitated the transportation of supplies and hid laborers as they traversed the property. One tunnel connecting the main manor house to the lake had three doors leading to different destinations in the vicinity: the wine cellar, the Lake House, and [[icehouse]]s that stored ice cut from the Delaware River in winter.<ref>Stroud 2005, 81, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]; and Veit and Gall 2014, 300, 302, 310, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero].</ref>

Bonaparte retained ownership of Point Breeze until his death in 1844, but, finding himself in ill health, he returned permanently to Europe in 1839. After his death, Point Breeze passed to his grandson Joseph Lucien Bonaparte (1824–1865) who sold his grandfather’s possessions and country estate three years later. The purchaser, Thomas Richards (1780–1860) and his wife Anna Bartram (1787–1865), granddaughter of celebrated botanist [[John Bartram]], sold it to Henry Beckett (1791–1871), the son of a British consul in Philadelphia, in 1850. According to scholar Patricia Tyson Stroud, Beckett, “a fervent Francophobe,” moved into the gatehouse and quickly razed Bonaparte’s manor house. He built a new home, which survived until it was destroyed by fire in 1983. The Vincentian Fathers of Philadelphia purchased Point Breeze in 1874 and used it as a summer retreat until 1911, before selling it to the wealthy industrialist Harris Hammond. Point Breeze was repossessed by Hammond’s bank following the 1929 stock market crash and lay derelict for many years. Since 1941 the Divine Word Seminary, a facility for Roman Catholic missionary priests, has occupied the site. Between 2005 and 2012, Point Breeze was the subject of investigation by archaeologists Richard Veit and Michael Gall, who led annual field schools in historic archaeology through Monmouth University and volunteer excavations by members of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey at the site. These investigations documented extant above-ground structures and conducted selective subsurface testing, shedding new light on the history and design of Point Breeze.<ref>Stroud 2005, 218–19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero]; and Rev. Raymond Lennon, "The Bordentown Story, 1941–2012," Chicago Province, 2014, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FR2X94ZK view on Zotero]. According to Veit and Gall, Hammond had hired the noted Ashcan artist Everett Shinn to help reconstruct the Bonaparte-era landscape at Point Breeze, but the plan was never executed due to Hammond’s losses in the 1929 stock market crash. Veit and Gall 2014, 297, 302, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/G2AZCPQ2 view on Zotero].</ref>

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==

*<div id="Bonaparte"></div>Bonaparte, Joseph, September 14, 1817, in a letter to his daughter Zénaïde Bonaparte, describing Point Breeze (quoted in Stroud 2005: 32)<ref name="Stroud_2005">Stroud 2005, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WGXVV8FQ view on Zotero].</ref>

:“I am writing from a room which is the most appealing in the house and perhaps all of the left bank of the Delaware. It has seven windows of which five are on the river. Four times a day the steamboats stop below the windows—I hope that someday I will have the pleasure to be here with you. Today I am all alone.” [[#Bonaparte_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Frances"></div>Wright, Frances, June 1819, in a letter describing Point Breeze (Wright 1821: 99–103)<ref>Frances Wright, ''Views of Society and Manners in America; in a Series of Letters from that Country to a Friend in England, During the Years 1818, 1819, and 1820'' (New York: E. Bliss and E. White, 1821), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FGFR7QUU view on Zotero].</ref>

:“It is a pretty villa, commanding a fine [[prospect]] of the river; the soil around it is unproductive; but a step removed from the ''pine-barren''; the pines, however, worthless as they may be, clothe the banks pleasantly enough, and, altogether, the place is cheerful and pretty. Entering upon the [[lawn]], we found the choice [[Shrubbery|shrubs]] of the American forest, magnolias, kalmias, &c. planted tastefully under the higher trees which skirted, and here and there shadowed, the green carpet upon which the white mansion stood. Advancing, we were now faced at all corners by gods and goddesses in naked, —I cannot say ''majesty'', for they were, for the most part, clumsy enough. . .

:“Until the entrance of the count, who was superintending the additions yet making to the house, we employed ourselves in considering the paintings and Canovas, of which last we found a small but interesting collection. It consists chiefly of busts of the different members of the Buonaparte family. The similar and classic outline prevailing in all is striking, and has truly something ''imperial'' in it. . . Turning to look at David’s portrait of Napoleon crossing the Alps, I was greatly disappointed with the expression of the young soldier; the horse has far more spirit than the rider, who sits carelessly on his steed, a handsome beardless boy, pointing his legions up the beetling crags as though they were some easy steps into a drawing room. Such, at least, was my impression. Count Survillier (he wears this title, perhaps, to save the awkwardness of ''Mr. Bonaparte'') soon came to us from his workmen, in an old coat, from which he had barely shaken off the mortar, and, –a sign of the true gentleman, –made no apologies. . . He walked us round his improvements in-doors and out. When I observed upon the amusement he seemed to find in beautifying his little villa, he replied, that he was happier in it than he had ever found himself in more bustling scenes. He gathered a wild flower, and, in presenting it to me, carelessly drew a comparison between its minute beauties and the pleasures of private life; contrasting those of ambition and power with the more gaudy flowers of the [[parterre]], which look better at a distance than upon a nearer approach. He said this so naturally, with a manner so simple, and accent so mild, that it was impossible to see in it attempt at display of any kind. . .” [[#Frances_cite|back up to History]]

*Douglas, David, August 27, 1823, in a journal entry describing Point Breeze (1914: 9)<ref>David Douglas, ''Journal Kept by David Douglas During His Travels in North America 1823–1827 Together with a Particular Description of Thirty-Three Species of American Oaks and Eighteen Species of Pinus, with Appendices Containing a List of the Plants Introduced by Douglas and an Account of His Death in 1834'' (London: W. Wesley & Son, for the Royal Historical Society, 1914), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/GVY4XWI3 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“We set off by steamboat at 11 o’clock from Philadelphia to Bordentown. Here stands the house of Joseph Bonaparte, a most splendid mansion, fields well cultivated, [[pleasure ground]] laid out in the English style; there are many fine [[view]]s.”

*<div id="Haines"></div>Haines, Reuben, July 3, 1825, in a letter to Ann Haines, describing Point Breeze (quoted in Stroud 2002: 137)<ref>Stroud 2002, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/RVZ47VFC view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Drawn by two ''Elegant Horses'' along the ever varying roads of the [[park]] amidst splendid Rhododendrons on the margin of the artificial [[lake]] on whose smooth surface gently glided the majestic European swans. Stopping to visit the [[Aviary]] enlivened by the most beautiful English Pheasants, passing by [[alcove]]s ornamented with [[statue]]s and busts of Parian marble, our course enlivened by the footsteps of the tame deer and the flight of the Woodcock, and when alighting stopping to admire the graceful form of two splendid Etruscan vases of Porphyry 3 ft. high & 2 in diameter presented by the Queen of Sweden.” [[#Haines_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Watson_1826"></div>Watson, John Fanning, 1826, describing Point Breeze (quoted in Stroud 2005: 81)<ref name="Stroud_2005"></ref>

:“Nothing can be more romantic than the whole Scenery–the Shades, where so required, are so very deep & impressive—In the midst of the premises is a beautiful [[Lake]], surrounded by high Banks covered with innumerable [[Shrubbery|Shrubs]] & Trees–In the middle an Island (artificial) beautifully covered with weeping Willows—Swans & Exotic Geese, sported upon the bosom of the [[Lake]]. . . The novelty of such costliness & elegance was like enchantment to my feelings & when I had traversed the various sections of the [[wood]]s & [[lawn]]s, through all their charming & meandering [[avenue]]s & mazes, I could not forbear to think it was the best terrestrial paradise I ever enjoyed.” [[#Watson_1826_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Trollope"></div>Trollope, Frances Milton, 1830, describing Point Breeze (1832: 2:153)<ref>Frances Milton Trollope, ''Domestic Manners of the Americans'', 3rd ed., 2 vols. (London: Wittaker, Treacher, 1832), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/T5RXDF7G view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The country is very flat, but a [[terrace]] of two sides has been raised, commanding a fine reach of the Delaware River; at the point where this [[terrace]] forms a right angle, a lofty chapel has been erected, which looks very much like an observatory.” [[#Trollope_cite|back up to History]]

*Wied, Prince Maximilian, July 19, 1832, describing Point Breeze (2008: 1:73–75)<ref>Maximilian of Wied, ''The North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied, Volume 1, May 1832–April 1833'', edited by Stephen S. Witte and Marsha V. Gallagher (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/8EM56HZP view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Early on the nineteenth, I undertook a walk to the country home of Louis [''sic'', Joseph] Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain. It is located 300 paces from Bordentown, not far from the railroad from Amboy, which passes here in the direction of Camden, opposite Philadelphia, and is already sixty miles in length. This road is still under construction, and in sections of the valley, large embankments have been thrown up, as for a highway. . .

:“On the right side of the path, in the region near L. [''sic'', Joseph] Bonaparte’s country home, I went botanizing. Near a deep ditch in the swamp, with dense thickets and woods on the opposite side, there were magnificent rhododendron shrubs blooming, ten to fifteen and more feet tall, with thick tufts of large, beautiful white or pale reddish flowers and stiff, laurel-like leaves. The young blossoms are rose pink, the older ones almost completely white with a pale shimmer or reddish color. Count Survilliers’ gardener maintains that this is ''Rhododendron maximum''. The [[Shrubbery|shrubs]] were thickly entangled by wild grapevines. I took all of these plants with me. . .

:“As the day began to cool off, I went to Louis [''sic'', Joseph] Bonaparte’s country home. The gardener, who was working in the large garden, well and nicely planted with all sorts of European vegetables and fruits, opened the door for me. The county home itself is nice and simple, moderately large with three floors and a flat roof built in this shape [see diagram of house]: ‘a’ is the garden side; ‘b,’ a [[terrace]] surrounded with a white railing above a deep ditch, here passing through dark forest. Several heads (probably antiques) have been set up in ‘e.’ A flower garden is found in ‘c,’ before which, closer to the street, the administrative buildings of the superintendent, or manager, and servants are located. In ‘d,’ on the left wing of the house, there is a small, single-story [[pavilion]] with glass doors all around. Behind this wing a row of white and red oleander (''Nerium''), now in bloom, has been planted.

:“I now passed through the entire, very shady, [[park]], which extends on the same level areas along Crosswicks Creek, a rapid brook that flows into the Delaware near Bordentown. On the elevation facing Bordentown, there is a high, narrow [[pavilion]] with a small tower and a balcony, from which there must be an excellent view. Around the [[pavilion]] there is a [[terrace]] with [a] railing from which one enjoys the beautiful [[view]], high over the wooded bank of the river, toward the green region, covered with [[wood]]s and bushes, through which the Delaware gently glides. From here dark, shady paths go along this tall bank, always on the edge, in twists and turns; this forest, as well as the one shading the mountain face down toward the creek, is magnificent.

:“All the beautiful forest trees of this region, with a now magnificently blooming undergrowth of rhododendron with its white-reddish tufts, provided dark shade. Coniferous and deciduous trees were intermingled. I heard only a few kinds of bird calls here, which seldom came from a few small songbirds but, on the contrary, frequently from catbirds (''Turdus felivox'' Vicill.), which were uncommonly numerous here...

:“An elevated spot on the steep creek bank, mentioned earlier, is interesting. Here in the dark forest, a [[bridge]] with a railing has been constructed out over the edge, and beside a stout old hemlock fir (''Pinus canadensis''), from which I took branches with young fruit, there is a roomy, rectangular platform with benches and railings from which one has an extensive [[view]] of the Delaware and its green surroundings, as well as the creek emptying into it at the right and left. Along its banks this rapid brook has extensive strips of an aquatic plant with a shieldlike leaf. And the wooded [[slope]] below the [[park]] was adorned with the white-reddish flower clusters of the tall rhododendron. Farther away there were rugged pathways in this forest; everywhere the wild grape sent out vines and the rhododendron bloomed. In this [[park]] there are also several large fields on which grain had evidently been harvested; other grain was still standing.”

*<div id="Gordon_1834"></div>Gordon, Thomas F., 1834, describing Point Breeze (1834: 106–7)<ref>Thomas F. Gordon, ''A Gazetteer of the State of New Jersey'' (Trenton, NJ: Daniel Fenton, 1834), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/62RCWJ2Q view on Zotero].</ref>

:“From the brow of the hill, there is a delightful [[view]] of the majestic Delaware, pursuing for miles its tranquil course through the rich country which it laves. . . The attractions of the scene determined Joseph Buonaparte, Count de Surveilliers, in his choice of a residence in this country; and this distinguished exile, who has filled two thrones, and has pretensions based on popular suffrage to a third, has dwelt here many years in philosophic retirement. He has in the vicinity of about 1500 acres of land, part of which possessed natural beauty, which his taste and wealth have been employed to embellish. At the expense of some hundred thousand dollars, he has converted a wild and impoverished tract, into a [[park]] of surpassing beauty, blending the charms of woodland and [[plantation]] scenery, with a delightful water [[prospect]]. The present buildings, plain but commodious, are on the site of the offices of his original and more splendid mansion, which was destroyed by fire, together with some rare pictures from the pencils of the first masters, whose merit made them invaluable. With characteristic liberality, the County has opened his grounds to the public, we regret to perceive, that he has been ungratefully repaid, by the defacement of his ornamental structures and mutilation of his [[statue]]s.” [[#Gordon_1834_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Barber_Howe"></div>Barber, John Warner, and Henry Howe, 1844, describing Point Breeze (1844: 102–3)<ref>John Warner Barber and Henry Howe, ''Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey; Containing a General Collection of the Most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, &c. Relating to History and Antiquities, with Geographical Descriptions of Every Township in the State'' (Newark, NJ: Benjamin Olds, 1844), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/KBBHZ5NT view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The [[park]] and grounds of the Count comprise about fourteen hundred acres, which, from a wild and impoverished tract, he has converted into a place of beauty, blending the charms of [[Wood|woodland]] and [[plantation]] scenery with a delightful water-[[prospect]]. . . While here, his time was occupied in planning and executing improvements upon his grounds. He did not mingle in society; but was frequently seen walking through his [[park]], attending to his workmen, or, with hatchet in hand, lopping branches from the trees.” [[#Barber_Howe_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Berkley"></div>Berkley, Helen [Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie], 1845, describing Point Breeze (1845: 184–86)<ref>Helen Berkley, “A Sketch of Joseph Buonaparte,” ''Godey’s Lady’s Book'' 30 (April 1845): 184–87, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/JSH3AAAF view on Zotero].</ref>

:“We came within sight of his country-[[seat]] at eleven o’clock in the morning. I presume you have heard that his former residence had been burnt to the ground; his stables, which were about a quarter of a mile distant, remained uninjured. Their architectural construction was very beautiful and their situation remarkably [[picturesque]]. These he had converted into a mansion, hardly inferior in elegance to his former dwelling. The house was long and low, built of stone, and thickly embowered with fine old trees. The expansive folding doors of the front entrance, in spite of their finely-carved workmanship, reminded you that they had once been thrown back to admit horses and carriages instead of the guests which alighted from them. . . The doors at the further end of the hall were open, and displayed several marble [[fountain]]s flinging their glittering spray over the willows–''weeping willows'' I might say–that gracefully bent around them. We could steal but a hasty glance at the emblematical [[statue]]s which graced the centre of every [[fountain]]. . .

[[File:0992.jpg|thumb|Fig. 5, Charles B. Lawrence (attr.), ''Point Breeze, the Estate of Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte at Bordentown, New Jersey'', 1817–20.]]
:“About half an hour after the ''dejeuner'', a couple of the count’s carriages drove to the door, and he invited us to take a [[drive]] around his grounds. . . I cannot even attempt to give you any idea of the romantic beauty of the grounds, or even of the tasteful manner in which they were laid out. Your imaginations will do them greater justice than any description, and yet will hardly overstep the bounds of reality. If I remember correctly, they are twelve miles round. We visited the site of his former chateau, but every trace of the conflagration had been carefully removed. The only portion of the building left is the [[Belvedere|observatory]], which is surrounded by a stone enclosure and looked like a miniature ruin left purposely in this dilapidated state to add to the [[Picturesque|picturesqueness]] of the scene. A narrow stream winds itself gracefully through one part of the grounds, over which several [[Rustic style|rustic]] [[bridge]]s are erected. Equally [[Rustic style|rustic]] [[seat]]s are scattered beneath the shade of the tall trees on its banks, and upon its clear surface a flock of snow-white swans were floating about, diving for fish, or flapping their wings as they bathed their fleecy plumage in the clear stream. A few years ago, a railroad was cut through the count’s property, dividing off one of the pleasantest portions of his grounds. At this he was exceedingly incensed, and could only content himself by building a tunnel ''beneath'' the railroad, so that his carriage could drive through without traversing the offensive steam-car path.

:“We occupied several hours in driving about and enjoying the beautiful [[view]]s. . .

:“The next morning we rose early, and each wrapping herself in a ''robe de chamber'', stole into the garden and wandered for an hour or two through the private [[pleasure ground]]s, which we had not yet visited.” [[#Berkley_cite|back up to History]]

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">

Image:0992.jpg|Charles B. Lawrence (attr.), ''Point Breeze, the Estate of Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte at Bordentown, New Jersey'', 1817–20.

Image:2221.jpg| Thomas Birch, ''View from the Hill near Bordentown'', 1818, Oil on Canvas, 37.5 x 48.5 in, Purchase 2004 Helen McMahon Brady Cutting Fund, Collection of the Newark Museum of Art 2004.12.

Image:1021.jpg|Charles B. Lawrence, Point Breeze, c. 1820.

Image:2006.jpg|Joseph Drayton, ''View near Bordentown, from the Gardens of the Count de Survilliers'', c. 1820.

Image:1018.jpg|Thomas Birch, Point Breeze, c. 1820, in Edward J. Nygren, ''Views and Visions: American Landscape before 1830'' (1986), p. 146, pl. 120.

Image:0665.jpg|Anonymous, Bonaparte's residence and the surrounding park, c. 1830.

Image:2223.jpg|Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809-1893), ''Manor House of Joseph Bonaparte near Bordentown'', 1832, watercolor on paper, Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, Gift of the Enron Art Foundation, 1986.49.26.

Image:2222.jpg|Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809-1893), ''View on the Delaware near Bordentown'', 1832, watercolor on paper, Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, Gift of the Enron Art Foundation, 1986.49.24.

Image:2224.jpg|After Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809-1893), Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein, engraver, ''View on the Delaware near Bordentown'', 1839, hand-colored aquatint, Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, Gift of Enron Art Foundation, 1986.49.542.50.

Image:0098.jpg|Miller & Co., Map of the residence & park grounds, near Bordentown, New Jersey: of the late Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain, 1847.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==

[https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/point-breeze-bonaparte/ The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Berkeley Springs

2019-12-30T16:33:04Z

L-Baradel: /* Texts */

'''Berkeley Springs''', a resort area in present-day Morgan County, West Virginia, has been well known for its mineral springs since the precolonial period. The Virginia Assembly established the town of Bath (later renamed Berkeley Springs) in 1776, and the town’s trustees soon commissioned the construction of public [[bath|bathhouse]]s in the town [[square]]. It has remained a prominent public spa and leisure destination since the time of its founding.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Warm Springs; Medicinal Springs; Frederick Springs; Bath<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' precolonial–present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Sixth Lord Fairfax (1719–1776); Trustees of Bath (1776–1925); West Virginia Commissioner of Public Institutions (1925–1970); West Virginia Department of Natural Resources (1970–present) <br/>
'''Associated People:''' James Rumsey (builder), Charles Varlé (designer) <br/>
'''Location:''' Morgan County, WV <br/>
'''Condition:''' extant; altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/XvbGG9SPYmJAdJWS9 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
Berkeley Springs is located 1,710 feet above sea level in a valley on the eastern edge of Warm Springs Ridge less than a mile east of the Potomac River in present-day Morgan County, West Virginia.<ref>David L. Taylor, “Town of Bath Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2009), 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero].</ref> The alleged medicinal properties of the area’s mineral springs drew people to both consume and bathe in the waters, and attracted various Native American peoples to visit the area long before European colonists began using the springs regularly around 1740.<ref>James E. Harding, “Berkeley Springs State Park,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1976), 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2229.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, John Warner, ''A survey of the northern neck of Virginia, being the lands belonging to the Rt. Honourable Thomas Lord Fairfax Baron Cameron…as surveyed according to order in the years 1736 & 1737,'' ca. 1747 [detail]. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, Washington, DC.]]
During the colonial period, the springs lay within the Northern Neck Proprietary, a territory of more than five million acres between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers that belonged to Thomas, Baron Cameron, sixth Lord Fairfax (1693–1781).<ref>Lord Fairfax inherited one-sixth of the Northern Neck Proprietary upon the death of his maternal grandmother in the spring of 1710. He inherited the remaining five-sixths of the proprietary from his mother, Katherine Culpeper Fairfax, in May 1719. She had inherited the land from her father, Thomas Culpeper, second baron Culpeper of Thoresway, who had served as governor of Virginia from 1677–1683. See Warren R. Hofstra, “Thomas Fairfax, sixth baron Fairfax of Cameron (1693–1781)," ''Dictionary of Virginia Biography'', Library of Virginia, 2016, http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Fairfax_Thomas_baron_Fairfax_of_Cameron. </ref> Since this time, the springs have been known by many names, including Warm Springs, the appellation used in an early survey map of the Northern Neck [Fig. 1].<ref>This is not to be confused with the town Warm Springs located in Bath County, Virginia, which has also attracted visitors since the colonial period. For more on the history of Warm Springs, Virginia, see Carl Bridenbaugh, “Baths and Watering Places of Colonial America,” ''The William and Mary Quarterly'' 3, no. 2 (April 1946): 163, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FDI9CBAU view on Zotero].</ref> By the mid-1740s, white settlers had reportedly begun to erect makeshift accommodations in the area.<ref>Harding 1976, 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Fairfax_cite"></span>As early as June 1747, Fairfax proposed a town and promised to “give all Encouragement to invite People to inhabit and Settle there" ([[#Fairfax|view text]]). <span id="Washington_1748_cite"></span>A young [[George Washington]], serving as an assistant on a surveying trip for Lord Fairfax, recorded in his diary his first visit to the “Fam’d Warm Springs” in March 1748, suggesting the site’s familiarity to Virginia colonists by this early date ([[#Washington_1748|view text]]).

Although a town was not officially established at Berkeley Springs for another thirty years, the waters continued to attract visitors of different backgrounds and social classes who sought a cure for ailments such as rheumatism or who simply desired rest and relaxation.<ref>Bridenbaugh 1946, 161, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FDI9CBAU view on Zotero].</ref> Moravian missionaries Joseph Spangenberg and Matthew Reutz stopped at Berkeley Springs in 1748 and enjoyed the proximity of the site’s warm and cold springs, noting that “being in the one, you can reach into the other."<ref>Quoted in William J. Hinke and Charles E. Kemper, “Moravian Diaries of Travels through Virginia (Continued),” ''The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' 11, no. 3 (January 1904): 238, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H64SNKMH view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Thomas_cite"></span>Dr. Thomas Walker of Albemarle County recorded his encounter in 1750 with “Six Invalids” and found the springs to be “very clear and warmer than New milk” ([[#Thomas|view text]]). When [[George Washington|Washington]] returned to Berkeley Springs in August 1761 to seek relief from rheumatic fever, he found more than two hundred people “of both sexes…full of all manner of diseases & Complaints.” This number is surprising given how difficult it was to reach the springs during this period; [[George Washington|Washington]] found the terrain to be quite rugged and struggled to pass a road blocked by fallen trees. After completing the arduous trip, bathers often had to construct their own rudimentary shelters. <span id="Washington_1761_cite"></span>[[George Washington|Washington]] was grateful to have secured a tent to pitch, writing that otherwise he “would have been in a most miserable situation” ([[#Washington_1761|view text]]). <span id="Washington_1769_cite"></span> By August 1769, the amenities at the springs had apparently improved enough for [[George Washington|Washington]] to bring his wife and stepdaughter with him in a desperate bid to treat the latter’s seizures ([[#Washington_1769|view text]]).<ref>According to Jeanne Mozier and Betty Lou Harmison, Washington was able to stay in houses during his visits to Warm Springs in the late 1760s, including a house that belonged to his friend James Mercer. ''Berkeley Springs'', Images of America (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2011), 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Fithian_cite"></span>Philip Vickers Fithian (1747–1776), a diarist and Presbyterian minister, stopped in 1775 to drink the waters while on a missionary tour of the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontier. He reported approximately four hundred people at Berkeley Springs—about half of whom he estimated to be ill. The other half were there presumably to enjoy what had evolved into a site of leisure with various evening entertainments, including a ball, card games, and, to his dismay, “promiscuous Company” engaged in “Amusements in all Shapes” ([[#Fithian|view text]]).

The influx of summer visitors prompted the Virginia General Assembly to improve the site and formally establish a town at the springs. A 1776 act called for “the laying off of fifty acres of land in lots and streets” in the hopes of “encouraging the purchasers thereof to build convenient houses for accommodating numbers of infirm person, who frequent those springs yearly for the recovery of their health.”<ref>Harding 1976, 5–6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> The town, which the Assembly named Bath after the spa in Somerset, England, was to be comprised of one-quarter acre lots laid out by appointed trustees. Proceeds from the sale of the lots at public auction were to be paid by the trustees to Lord Fairfax, and purchasers were required to build houses “twelve feet square at least” on their new parcels within a year. <span id="Assembly_cite"></span>The springs—save for one, which remained under the private ownership of Lord Fairfax—were to “be vested in the said trustees in trust, to and for the public use and benefit” ([[#Assembly|view text]]).<ref>Taylor 2009, 55, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Mozier and Harmison 2011, 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Washington_1777_cite"></span>The August 1777 sale attracted several prominent individuals from Maryland and Virginia, including [[George Washington|Washington]], to purchase lots in Bath ([[#Washington_1777|view text]]).<ref>Washington purchased two lots located on the southeast corner of Fairfax and Mercer streets, two blocks from the springs, for the cost of 100 pounds and 15 shillings. Other early Bath landholders included Horatio Gates, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Charles Mynn Thruston, and Fielding Lewis, among others. Taylor 2009, 56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Harding 1976, 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:0462.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 2, Samuel Vaughan, ''Warm or Berkley Springs, in Virginia'', from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June–September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.]]
<span id="Vaughan_cite"></span>Bath’s streets took the form of a gridded plan arranged just below a large [[square]], as recorded by [[Samuel Vaughan]] in his diary in 1787 [Fig. 2] ([[#Vaughan|view text]]). In another sketch of Berkeley Springs, [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] observed the formation of islands surrounded by the warm spring’s flows, as well as the arrangement of the public [[bath]]s, noting a separate “[[Bath]] for Poor People [g]” [Fig. 3]. Separate [[bath]]s for men and women constructed in the [[square]] in 1786 were likely the work of James Rumsey (c. 1743–1792), an inventor, builder, and “jack-of-all-trades” who had opened a general store and boarding house in town in 1782.<ref>Harding 1976, 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view in Zotero]; and Mabel Henshaw Gardiner and Ann Henshaw Gardiner, ''Chronicles of Old Berkeley: A Narrative History of a Virginia County from Its Beginnings to 1926'' (Durham, NC: The Seeman Press, 1938), 222, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view in Zotero]. The early bathhouses at Berkeley Springs were likely constructed by Rumsey, but this is not certain. See Taylor 2009, 57, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view in Zotero].</ref> The so-called Roman Baths, which are still extant, are in a two-story brick building with a hipped roof that contains ten individual [[bath]] stalls built initially for use by men. Each stall is accessible by a private entrance from the long hallway that runs along the length of the first floor. On the building’s east elevation, a row of ten openings provides ventilation to each stall. The other extant eighteenth-century building, the old [[bathhouse]] or shower [[bath]], was initially constructed for women. The building, a one-story brick building with a hipped roof, is smaller.<ref> Taylor 2009, 56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Harding 1976, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Vaughan_cite"></span>[[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]]'s textual description of Bath notes a flurry of building activity in the town’s early years, including 164 houses constructed over a four-year period, a playhouse, a Methodist church, and several taverns with [[piazza]]s that were among “the best calculated for America of any [he had] seen”([[#Vaughan|view text]]).
[[File:0461.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 3, Samuel Vaughan, Plan of Bath (Berkeley Springs), VA [detail], 1787, from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June-September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.]]

Berkeley Springs continued to prosper as a resort until about 1805 when a fever plagued the summer guest population, reducing the number of seasonal visitors by more than half for the next several years. The relative inaccessibility of Berkeley Springs compared to other springs in the region also contributed to its decline. In 1809 Charles Varlé proposed a redesign to improve Bath’s [[public garden]]. His drawing indicated, among other features, a [[canal]] with a foot [[bridge]] [A], a [[basin]] with a [[jet d’eau]] in the center [B & C], a reservoir or [[fountain]] “covered with a vine treliage in a form of a dome or copula” [E], an additional [[bath]] [F], a sunken [[bowling green]] [H] within a [[parterre]], a two-sided [[sundial]] [I] located near the [[basin]] and [[bowling green]], and two [[labyrinth]]s “contrived so as to be different in their issues and windings” [K] [Fig. 4]. Colonel Robert Bailey (1773–1827), an infamous gambler and entrepreneur, also made a concerted effort to revitalize the resort’s reputation. <span id="Bailey_cite"></span>In an 1813 advertisement he promoted the quality of the springs’ waters, [[bath]]s, [[walk]]s, and lodging, and personally guaranteed that visitors who stayed in his guesthouse would be well satisfied ([[#Bailey|view text]]).
[[File:0460.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 4, Charles Varlé, ''Project for the Improvement of the Square and the Town of Bath'' [detail], c. 1809. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, DC.]]

[[File:1781.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 5, Sophie Madeleine du Pont, Octagonal Bath at Warm Springs (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.15).]]
Visitors to Berkeley Springs during the first half of the nineteenth century celebrated the quality of the springs but sometimes found the town’s infrastructure and amenities wanting. <span id="Paulding_cite"></span>In 1816 James Kirke Paulding (1778–1860) declared “the spring which supplies the ladies’ [[bath]] is one of the finest I have ever seen” ([[#Paulding|view text]]). <span id="Hayden_cite"></span> By 1831, Dr. H. H. Hayden wrote of his disappointment in the “appearance of dilapidation and ruins” that characterized most of Bath’s buildings, although he praised the springs and “the fine and spacious [[bath]]s attached to them” ([[#Hayden|view text]]). <span id="Kercheval_cite"></span>The author and Virginia historian Samuel Kercheval (1767–1845) took a more favorable view in 1833, celebrating the well-known seasonal appeal of Berkeley Springs as a destination for “recreation and pleasure” ([[#Kercheval|view text]]). Sophie du Pont, who visited the springs in 1837, on the other hand, found “nothing very pretty about [Bath], except its situation, in an undulating valley,” but commended the large octagonal [[bathhouse]] [Fig. 5], as “one of the most curious & beautiful objects I have seen, the water is pure & translucent to an almost dazzling degree.” <span id="duPont_cite"></span>She bathed in a smaller [[bathhouse]] comprising four small stalls, including one with a spout [Fig. 6], which she tried at her doctor’s behest ([[#duPont|view text]]).
[[File:1782.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 6, Sophie Madeleine du Pont, ''Spout bath at Warm Springs'' (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.17).]]

[[File:2219.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 7, David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', sheet music cover, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.]] [[File:2220.jpg|thumb|left|David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', notated music, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.]]
The town’s fortunes improved with the extension in 1842 of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad into Sir John’s Run, located just to the west of Bath, making Berkeley Springs the only major resort in the state accessible by rail at that time. But, in a devastating blow to the recent revitalization efforts, an 1844 fire destroyed most of the eighteenth-century buildings. Colonel John Strother (1792–1862), who had operated boardinghouses in town before the fire, built the Berkeley Springs Hotel (also known by the names Pavilion Hotel and Strother’s Hotel), which was completed in 1848 at the southern end of the [[park]]. It was the largest building at the resort and could accommodate four hundred guests.<ref> Harding 1976, 6–7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero]; Taylor 2009, 58, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Mozier and Harmison 2011, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Moorman_cite"></span>Dr. John J. Moorman wrote in 1854 that the u-shaped hotel was situated next to a [[grove]] and that the courtyard was “tastefully ornamented with trees, flowers, and [[shrubbery]]” ([[#Moorman|view text]]). Strother’s son David H. Strother (1816–1888), an artist, included in his 1851 sheet music cover for “A Day at Berkeley Springs” (an instrumental “descriptive piece” composed by Erneste Szemelňyi) a depiction of the hotel at the left as well as the public [[pavilion]] and [[fountain]] at the center [Fig. 7]. The hotel remained a popular accommodation and entertainment venue—known for hosting lively balls and concerts—until it was destroyed by fire in March 1898.<ref>Harding 1976, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

Although Berkeley Spring’s popularity ebbed and flowed over time—as transportation developments made the town more accessible to tourists at the same time that fires and other challenges (not least the U.S. Civil War) caused significant setbacks—it has remained open to the public since its founding in 1776. West Virginia’s Department of Natural Resources has overseen the public [[square]] and [[bathhouse]]s, which operate as Berkeley Springs State Park, since 1970.

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
*<div id="Fairfax"></div>Lord Fairfax, June 1, 1747, in a letter to an unknown recipient (possibly Warner Washington) describing his plans for land near Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Conway 1892: 246–47)<ref> Moncure Daniel Conway, ''Barons of the Potomack and the Rappahannock'' (New York: The Grolier Club, 1892), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TAG2KD5N view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Having been informed that several Persons who go to drink and bath in the Medicinal Springs near the Mountains of Cape Capon and River Potomack, within my Proprietary, do not unnecessarily bark and cut down Timber Trees on the waste and ungranted Lands near the said Springs and the Mountain adjacent, more than useful for the erecting and building the Houses and Cottages required to shelter them, I desire You will in my Name use your best Endeavors to prevent such waste of Timber. . . .

:You may assure the Gentlemen and Others that if the Waters continue to be useful in relieving the Sick I shall cause the Lands around the Springs to be surveyd, and Number of convenient Lots laid off for a Town, also give all Encouragement to invite People to inhabit and Settle there.” [[#Fairfax_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1748"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], March 18, 1748, in a diary entry describing a visit to Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref> Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-01-02-0001-0002-0008 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“We Travell’d up about 35 Miles to Thomas Barwicks on Potomack where we found the River so excessively high by Reason of the Great Rains that had fallen up about the Allegany Mountains as they told us which was then bringing down the melted Snow & that it would not be fordable for severall Days it was then above Six foot Higher than usual & was Rising. We agreed to stay till Monday. We this day call’d to see the Fam’d Warm Springs. We camped out in the field this Night.” [[#Washington_1748_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Thomas"></div>Walker, Thomas, July 9, 1750, in a diary entry describing a visit to Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in McAllister 1911: 172)<ref> J. T. McAllister, “Early Settlers in Greenbrier County. Extracts from the Journal of Dr. Thomas Walker,” ''The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' 19, no. 2 (April 1911), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DZVZ67R4 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“July 9th, we went to the Hot Springs and found Six Invalids there. The Spring Water is very clear and warmer than New milk and there is a Spring of cold Water within 20 feet of the Warm one.” [[#Thomas_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1761"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], August 26–30, 1761, in a letter to Charles Green describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref>Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-07-02-0039 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“To begin then—We arrivd here yesterday, and our Journey (as you may imagine) was not of the most agreable sort, through such Weather & such Roads as we had to encounter; these last for 20 or 25 Miles from hence are almost impassable for Carriages; not so much from the Mountainous Country (but this in fact is very rugged) as from Trees that have fallen across the Road, and renderd the ways intolerable.

:We found of both sexes about 2⟨5⟩0 People at this place, full of all manner of diseases & Complaints; some of which are much benefitted, while others find no relief from the Water’s—two or three Doctors are here, but whether attending as Physicians or to Drink of the Waters I know not—It is thought the Springs will soon begin to loose there Virtues, and the Weather get too cold for People, not well provided, to remain here—They are situated very badly on the East side of a steep Mountain, and Inclosed by Hills on all Sides, so that the Afternoon’s Sun is hid by 4 Oclock and the Fogs hang over us till 9 or 10 wch occasion’s great Damps and the Mornings and Evenings to be cool.

:The Place I am told, and indeed have found it so already, is supplyed with Provisions of all kinds—good Beef & venison, fine Veal, Lamb, Fowls &ca may be bought at almost any time; but Lodgings can be had on no Terms but building for them, and I am of opinion that numbers get more hurt by there manner of lying, than the Waters can do them good—had we not succeeded in getting a Tent & marquee from Winchester we shoud have been in a most miserable situation here.

:In regard to myself I must beg leave to say, that I was much overcome with the fatigue of the Ride & Weather together—however I think my Fevers are a good deal abated, altho my Pains grow rather worse, & my sleep equally disturbd; what effect the Waters may have upon me I cant say at present, but I expect Nothing from the Air—this certainly must be unwholesome—I purpose to stay here a fortnight & longer if benefitted.” [[#Washington_1761_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1769"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], August 18, 1769, in a letter to John Armstrong describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref>Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-08-02-0164 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“About a fortnight ago I came to this place with Mrs Washington and her daughter, the latter of whom being troubled with a complaint, which the efficacy of these Waters it is thought might remove, we resolvd to try them, but have found little benefit as yet from the experiment; what a Week or two more may do, we know not, & therefore are inclind to put them to the Test. it was with much pleasure however I hear by Mr Clingan that you stand in no need of assistance from these Springs which I find are applied to in all cases, altho. there be a moral certainty of their hurting in some—Many poor, miserable objects are now attending here, which I hope will receive the desired benefit, as I dare say they are deprivd of the means of obtaining any other relief, from their Indigent Circumstances.” [[#Washington_1769_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Fithian"></div>Fithian, Philip Vickers, August 31–September 1, 1775, in diary entries describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (Fithian 1934: 123–26)<ref>Philip Vickers Fithian, ''Philip Vickers Fithian: Journal, 1775–1776. Written on the Virginia-Pennsylvania Frontier and in the Army Around New York'', eds. Robert Greenhalgh Albion and Leonidas Dodson (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1934), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/47NU5BKR view on Zotero].</ref>

:“August 31

:Warm Spring by 4 Evening. . . . Cloudy sloppy Day. . . .

:Huge Stone tumbled from the Mountain directly to the Drinking-Spring. . . .

:I took Lodging at Mrs. Baker’s. Mr. Miller, an aged Rheumatic Invalid taken ill in the [[Bath]].

:Fryday Sept: 1

:Drank early & freely of the Waters. About four Hundred now present. Near one Half of these visibly indisposed. Many in sore Distress. . . . Tickets going about for a Ball this Evening. . . .

:Evening

:In one Part of the little bush Village a splendid Ball—At some Distance, & within hearing, a Methodist Preacher was haranguing the People. Frequent Writings on the Plates, &c—In our dining Room Companies at Cards. . . . I walked out among the Bushes here also was—Amusements in all Shapes, & in high Degrees, are constantly taking Place among so promiscuous Company. The Observation, when on the Spot, to see it in real Life. I can picture it out but sadly, is curious & improving.” [[#Fithian_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Assembly"></div>General Assembly of Virginia, October 1776, in an Act establishing the town of Bath at Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Gardiner and Gardiner 1938: 50–51)<ref> Gardiner and Gardiner 1938, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Whereas it hath been represented to this General Assembly, that the laying off of fifty acres of land in lots and streets for a town at the Warm Springs in the county of Berkeley, will be of great utility by encouraging the purchasers thereof to build convenient houses for accommodating numbers of infirm persons, who frequent those springs yearly for the recovery of their health: Be it enacted,. . . That fifty acres of land adjoining the said springs, being a part of a larger tract of land, the property of the Right Thomas Lord Fairfax, or other person or persons holding the same by a grant or conveyance of him, be and is hereby vested in Bryan Fairfax, Thomas Bryan Martin, Warner Washington, the Reverend Charles Mynn Thurston, Robert Rutherford, Alexander White, Philip Pendleton, Samuel Washington, William Ellzey, Van Searingen, Thomas Hite, James N. Edmundson, James Nourse, Gentlemen, trustees, to be by them, or any seven of them, laid out into lots of one quarter of an acre each with convenient streets, which shall be and the same is hereby established a town, by the name of Bath. . . . The said lots to be sold at public auction. . . . The purchasers building a dwelling house twelve feet square at least…trustees to pay the money from the sale to Thomas Lord Fairfax.

:''And be it further enacted'', That all the said Warm Springs except one large and convenient spring suitable for a bath, shall be vested in the said trustees in trust, to and for the public use and benefit and for no other purpose whatsoever.” [[#Assembly_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1777"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], October 27, 1777, in a letter to Samuel Washington describing his purchase of land at Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref>Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-12-02-0030 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“I am very glad Colo. Lewis purchased a Lott or two for me at the Warm Springs, as it was always my Intention to become a Proprietor there if a Town should be laid off at that place. Two Lotts is not more than I wish’d to possess, but if he is altogether disappointed, and cannot be otherwise supplied, I will, under those circumstances, part with one of mine—of this you will inform him; and I shall not only depend upon, but thank, & pay you chearfully, for the Improvements which are necessarily erected for the saving of the Lotts. As I do not know what Sort of Buildings the Act of Assembly requires to save the Lotts, I can give no directions about them; but, if I hold both Lotts which I had rather do I would reserve the best spott for a tolerable convenient dwelling House to be built hereafter. and, if a House which may (hereafter) serve for a Kitchen, together with a Stable, would be sufficient to save the Lotts, they might be so placed as to appear uniform & clever, when the whole are finished, and in that case, content myself with building for the present no more than the Kitchen and Stable.” [[#Washington_1777_cite|back up to History]]

*Anonymous, June 19, 1784, notice in a Richmond, VA, newspaper describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Gardiner and Gardiner 1938: 53)<ref> Gardiner and Gardiner 1938, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“In Berkeley County five [[bathhouse|bathing houses]], with adjacent dressing rooms, are already completed; an assembly room and theatre are also constructed for the innocent and rational amusement of the polite who may assemble there.

:The American Company of Comedians, it is expected, will open there, under the direction of Mr. Ryan, on the 15th of July, and to continue till the 1st of September. It is supposed they will prove so acceptable to the Bathers as to encourage the proprietor to renew his visits yearly.”

*[[George Washington|Washington, George]], September 6, 1784, in a diary entry describing his plans for his property at Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref> Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-04-02-0001-0001-0006 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“Having obtained a Plan of this Town (Bath) and ascertained the situation of my lots therein, which I examined; it appears that the disposition of a dwelling House; Kitchen & Stable cannot be more advantageously placed than they are marked in the copy I have taken from the plan of the Town; to which I refer for recollection, of my design; & Mr. Rumsey being willing to undertake those Buildings, I have agreed with him to have them finished by the 10th. of next July. The dwelling House is to be 36 feet by 24, with a gallery of 7 feet on each side of the House, the whole fronts. Under the House is to be a Cellar half the size of it, walled with Stone, and the whole underpined. On the first floor are to be 3 rooms; one of them 24 by 20 feet, with a chimney at the end (middle thereof)—the other two to be 12 by 16 feet with corner chimneys. On the upper Floor there are to be two rooms of equal sizes, with fire places; the Stair case to go up in the Gallery—galleries above also. The Kitchen and Stable are to be of the same size—18 by 22; the first with a stone Chimney and good floor above. The Stable is to be sunk in the ground, so as that the floor above it on the North, or side next the dwelling House, shall be level with the Yard—to have a partition therein—the West part of which to be for a Carriage, Harness, and Saddles—the East for Hay or Grain—all three of the Houses to be shingled with [ ]”

*<div id="Vaughan"></div> [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan, Samuel]], July 14, 1787, in a diary entry describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (Vaughan: 32, 34–35)<ref>Samuel Vaughan, Samuel Vaughan Diary, 1787–1796, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NIGWMHCK view in Zotero].</ref>

:“The warm [[Bath]]s, as on the otherside [sic], are situated on the lower side of a [[square]] on the East Mountain, & opposite to the principal Street. The Town consists of three long parallel streets & eight at right Angles. There is at present 172 houses, of which 164 have been built within the last four years, a play house well constructed, an Assembly & tea room, a house for the poor[,] a Methodist Church building & Mr. Wolley of Liverpool having bought a Double large framed house, hath this spring built adjoining these to a dining room 54 by 24, five bard rooms adjoining & a drawing room 18 by 24 over which an Assembly room 72 feet by 24 & 14 feet high, & a tea room 33 feet by 25, with [[piazza]]s on both side [of] the houses all completely framed & well filled, which is to be called the Bell Inn. There are several other taverns three of them good framed houses of 2 stories, with [[piazza]]s & [[seat]]s round to both stories & on both sides & the best calculated for America of any I have seen. The town is situated in a vale & partly on the side of the East & west Mountain, the Lots differing in Elevation. At the South end of the town on the west hill there is a range of Rocks & a mile above there is a remarkable cold [?] spring. The warm springs flow in great abundance from the base of the western mountain, forming three romantick Islands, & when all accumilated [sic] forms a large body of water which runs diagonally through the town. The hills on each side with beautiful hanging [[wood|woods]], renders the whole truly [[picturesque]], romantick and original; the climate is temperate, provisions cheap & plenty, except [[green]]s which are scarce. A charming retreat in hot or unhealthy weather, tho too much used for disipation [sic] & gambling, The water is pure & light, without any apparent medical quality, tho found in many cases beneficial. To try their effect & for 3 days drink 3 quarts each day & that only, it causes a swimming [sic] in my head, want quickly of an opening quality by urine & I thought it created an appetite; it is scarcely so warm as milk from the Cow & said to be 57 degrees Fahrenheit thermal. There were 4 Methodist preachers (two for health,) services 3 times on Sunday & once or twice on week days, which are well attended by the lower sort to the neglect on week days of their businesses & families. There was 14 or 15 stores & like many well furnished with goods, for which I should think there was little encouragement; when I left it there was not above 30 persons of note arrived, but it was early in the Season.” [[#Vaughan_cite|back up to History]]

*[[Benjamin Henry Latrobe|Latrobe, Benjamin Henry]], July 1796, in a journal entry about discussing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV), with [[George Washington]] at [[Mount Vernon]] (Latrobe 1905: 54–55)<ref>Benjamin Henry Latrobe, ''The Journal of Latrobe: The Notes and Sketches of an Architect, Naturalist and Traveler in the United States from 1796 to 1820'' (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1905), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/N49VTQS8 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Having inquired after the family I had left, the conversation turned upon Bath, to which they were going. He said he had known the place when there was scarce a house upon it fit to step in, that the accommodations were, he believed, very good at present. He thought the best thing a family, regularly and constantly visiting Bath, could do would be to build a house for their separate accommodation, the expense of which might be two hundred pounds. He has himself a house there which he supposed must be going to ruin. Independent of his public situation, the increased dissipation and frequency of visitors would be an objection to his visiting it again, unless the health of himself or family should render it necessary. At first that was the motive, he said, that induced people to encounter the badness of the roads and the inconvenience of the lodgings, but at present few, he believed, in comparison of the whole number, had health in view. Even those whose object it was, were interrupted in their quiet by the dissipation of the rest. This, he observed, must naturally be the case in every large collection of men whose minds were not occupied by pressing business or personal interest. In these and many more observations of the same kind there was no moroseness nor anything that appeared as if the rapidly increasing immorality of the citizens particularly impressed him at the time he made them. They seemed the well-expressed remarks of a man who has seen and knows the world.”

*<div id="Bailey"></div>Bailey, Robert, June 26, 1813, in a promotion in the Winchester Gazette for Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (Bailey 1813: 3)<ref>Robert Bailey, “Bath Berkeley Springs,” ''Winchester Gazette'' (June 26, 1813), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZKR7U28H view on Zotero]. </ref>

:“Those Ladies and Gentlemen, of Winchester in particular, and the state in general, wishing to visit Bath Berkeley Springs in Virginia, (near Martinsburg,) being the Theatre of America for three months of the year (June, July, August, and even September,) are respectfully informed that the Waters are in their strongest state and in the greatest purity; the [[Bath]]s and [[Walk]]s in the best order, and every attention paid by the subscriber, to render full satisfaction. . . . [T]he public may depend on having the best accommodation—clean beds and bedding, with comfortable rooms; choice liquors, wines, &c. which have been carefully collected; and the tables will be decorated in the first style.

:The subscriber having several houses at Berkeley Springs, he will make the table to suit parties, or have a general table as the Guests may think proper.

:The subscriber has a Drawing Room furnished for the Ladies, a Piano Forte, Maps of different kinds, reading room, &c—a grand Band of Music for balls, once or twice a week as the company may thing [sic] proper. The very best servants are selected for attendance, and every attention paid. . . ." [[#Bailey_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Paulding"></div>Paulding, James Kirke, 1816, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1817: 2:227, 235–36)<ref>James Kirke Paulding, ''Letters from the South'', 2 vols. (New York: James Eastburn, 1817), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H5XVF9WE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“As it is prevailing opinion among your fellow-citizens, that there is nothing refined to the south of Schuylkill, and no watering-place worth visiting except Long-Branch, I will try and set you right in this matter. The truth is, these springs are as gay, as fashionable, and far more delightfully situated than any I have ever visited. In all the constituents of a fashionable watering-place, Berkeley maintains a most respectable rank, inasmuch as it affords as great a variety of character, as many gay equipages, and gay people, and almost as great a lack of variety of amusement, as Ballston or Long-Branch. . . .

:. . . we staid nearly a week at Berkeley. There is a fine drawing-room here, in which the ladies meet to chat, or work, and play at chess, or devise some pleasant excursion. Every night or two there is a ball, in a very splendid room appropriated to that purpose; and in afternoons it is pleasant to stroll backwards and forwards along the brook that skirts the [[green]] in front of the springs, that gush out from the foot of the mountain. There is a [[pavilion]] built over the spring, which is used for drinking, and two [[bathhouse|bath-houses]] —one for either sex. The spring which supplies the ladies’ [[bath]] is one of the finest I have ever seen. It bursts from a fissure in the rock in the form of a cone, much larger than the crown of a hat, and, together with the others, forms a fine stream, in some places six or eight yards wide. This place was formerly the property of the family of Fairfax, once lords of a great portion of the tract of country called the Great Northern Neck of Virginia, situated between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. One of these potent chieftains vested the springs and a little tract around in trustees, to be chosen from time to time, for the use of all comers for ever. People using the [[bath]]s pay a small sum, which is appropriated by the trustees to keeping up the repairs of the place, and other objects of utility and ornament.” [[#Paulding_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Hayden"></div>Hayden, Dr. H. H., 1829, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1831: 102–03)<ref>H. H. Hayden, “Notices of the Geology of the Country near Bedford Springs in Pennsylvania, and the Bath or Berkeley spring in Virginia, with remarks upon those waters,” ''The American Journal of Science and Arts'' 19, no. 1 (January 1831), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/7T5WQA6A view on Zotero].</ref>

:“On my return from Bedford springs, I passed by the way of Pigeon-cove Valley, across the narrow part of Maryland into Virginia, to Bath or Berkeley springs, so called, being in what was but recently Berkeley county. These springs issues from the food and on the east side of an abrupt and elevated ridge, running in a north east direction, about five miles, to the Potomac River, where it terminates, opposite the town of Hancock, Maryland. Little can be said in favor of the village of Bath, since, with the exception of a few buildings, it presents the appearance of dilapidation and ruins. The accommodations for visitors are, however, tolerable, at least for such as are not fastidious. The springs, which are principally magnesian and justly celebrated, especially for the chronic affections, and also the fine and spacious [[bath]]s attached to them, constitute the principal inducement that attracts persons to this place. Indeed, such is their celebrity, that they are, annually, during the months of July and August, frequented, (and that too in no inconsiderable numbers,) by persons of the highest respectability.” [[#Paulding_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Kercheval"></div>Kercheval, Samuel, 1833, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1833: 473)<ref>Samuel Kercheval, ''The History of the Valley of Virginia'' (Winchester, VA: Samuel H. Davis, 1833), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/IRHEDX6N view on Zotero].</ref>

:“This is doubtless the most ancient watering place in the valley. Tradition relates that those springs were known to the Indians as possessing valuable medicinal properties, and were much frequented by them. They were anciently called the ‘Berkeley Warm Springs,’ and have always kept their character for their medical virtues. They are much resorted to not only for their value as medicinal waters, but as a place (in the season) of recreation and pleasure. Bath has become a considerable village, is the seat of justice in Morgan county, and has several stores and fine boarding houses. It is too publicly known to require further notice in this work.” [[#Kercheval_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="duPont"></div>Du Pont, Sophie Madeleine, July 21, 1837, in a letter to Clementina Smith describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Low and Hinsley 1987: 173, 176, 177, 179)<ref>Betty-Bright Low and Jacqueline Hinsley, ''Sophie du Pont, A Young Lady in America: Sketches, Diaries, & Letters, 1823–1833'' (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/U2EJBX3K view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Warm Springs. . . . The most abundant of these gushes from the earth in the middle of a large octagonal [[basin]] of mason work covered with a wooden building having an opening at the top, & four neat & comfortable rooms on as many sides for the accommodation of bathing. This [[bath]] is thirty eight feet in diameter; & the temperature of water 96 degrees—It is one of the most curious & beautiful objects I have seen, the water is pure & translucent to an almost dazzling degree, & rises in ceaseless flow, accompanied by showers of bright gleaming air bubbles. . . .

:The settlement of the springs, consisting of two large brick hotels with long [[piazza]]s in front, & several rows of brick or log cabins, has nothing very pretty about it, except its situation, in an undulating valley completely embosomed in the mountains. Altho’ there is so little company here that we had our choice of rooms anywhere, we preferred a cabin, to be nearer the spring; & we could not have made a better choice….

:Our domicile consists of two rooms communicating, in which we have every thing we want to make us comfortable, & a very attentive & obliging maid to bring us our meals & all we wish for – The front door (from my room) opens towards the roads, & on a path which leads up to the hotel! The door of Elizas room leads out into a green sloping [[meadow]], planted with trees, in the centre of which are the warm springs….

:There are several other springs of the same kind in the [[meadow]]—round one a platform is built with benches, under shady trees, for those who drink the water, which notwithstanding its odour of half spoiled eggs & its warmth, is not very nauseous to the taste—Another [[bathhouse|bath house]] contains four small [[bath]]s, into one of which a spout is arranged for the benefit of those who are recommended to take douches. I have tried this at Dr Horner’s request & think it of service to me, as well as the bathing." [[#duPont_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Moorman"></div>Moorman, Dr. John J., 1854, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1854: 264–65)<ref>John J. Moorman, ''The Virginia Springs: Comprising an Account of All the Principal Mineral Springs of Virginia, with Remarks on the Nature and Medical Applicability of Each'', 2nd ed. (Richmond: J. W. Randolph, 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/4PSBVGF3 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The ''gentlemen’s'' [[bathhouse|bath house]], a substantial brick building, contains ten large bathing rooms. The [[bath]]s are of cement, 12 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 4 ½ deep, filled from a reservoir by a four inch pipe, and containing about 1600 gallons each. In addition to this, and for the use of the gentlemen, there is a swimming [[bath]], 60 feet long by 20 wide, and 5 feet deep, containing 50,000 gallons. The superstructure is handsome and tasteful, 82 feet long, and contains 14 dressing rooms. The luxury of disporting in this ample and exhilarating pool can only by appreciated by those who have indulged in it.

:The ''ladies’'' bath house is an elegant structure on the opposite side of the [[grove]], 90 feet long, which contains in addition to 9 private [[bath]]s, a plunge [[bath]] 30 feet long by 16 feet wide, 4 ½ feet deep, and floored with white marble. There is also an establishment for shower spout and artificial warm [[bath]]s. The bathing area is surrounded by a beautiful [[grove]] several acres in extent and handsomely improved.

:The Hotel accommodations are extensive and well gotten up.

:Strother’s, the principal hotel at the place, is a large, elegant and well conducted establishment, adjoining the [[grove]], and will comfortably accommodate about 400 persons. It is built upon three sides of a quadrangle 168 feet front by 198, the front building being four stories high, the wings respectively being two and three stories. The court-yard is tastefully ornamented with trees, flowers, and [[shrubbery]]. Altogether it constitutes one of the most extensive and comfortable establishments to be found at any of our places of fashionable resort.” [[#Moorman_cite|back up to History]]

*R.J., 1854, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1854: 264–65)<ref>R. J. “Rambling Sketches: Berkeley Springs: Historical and Social,” ''The Southern Literary Messenger'' (December 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/89ZRZSN5 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The swimming [[bath]] is for pure recreation and cleanliness, a delightful place. It is fifty or sixty feet long, about forty feet broad, and as clear as crystal. The depth is about five feet—the bottom smooth cement. It is the finest bath I have ever seen, though doubtless there are many larger. You reach the [[bath]]s through the [[grove]], which is a pleasant [[promenade]]. It extends nearly to the top of the mountain. . . . For simple recreation, no place could be more agreeable; and the man who visits Berkeley and the White Sulphur and Saratoga, and returns in preference to either of the latter, is a hopeless case.”

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="5">

Image:2218.jpg|John Warner, ''A survey of the northern neck of Virginia, being the lands belonging to the Rt. Honourable Thomas Lord Fairfax Baron Cameron…as surveyed according to order in the years 1736 & 1737,'' ca. 1747. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, DC.

File:0462.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, ''Warm or Berkley Springs, in Virginia'', from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June–September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.

Image:0461.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, Plan of Bath (Berkeley Springs), VA [detail], 1787, from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June-September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.

Image:0460.jpg|Charles Varlé, ''Project for the Improvement of the Square and the Town of Bath'' [detail], c. 1809. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, DC.

Image:1781.jpg|Sophie Madeleine du Pont, Octagonal Bath at Warm Springs (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.15)

Image:1782.jpg|Sophie Madeleine du Pont, ''Spout bath at Warm Springs'' (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.17)

Image:2219.jpg|David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', sheet music cover, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.

Image:2220.jpg|David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', notated music, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80051018.html Library of Congress Authority File]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Berkeley Springs

2019-12-30T16:30:13Z

L-Baradel: /* Texts */

'''Berkeley Springs''', a resort area in present-day Morgan County, West Virginia, has been well known for its mineral springs since the precolonial period. The Virginia Assembly established the town of Bath (later renamed Berkeley Springs) in 1776, and the town’s trustees soon commissioned the construction of public [[bath|bathhouse]]s in the town [[square]]. It has remained a prominent public spa and leisure destination since the time of its founding.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Warm Springs; Medicinal Springs; Frederick Springs; Bath<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' precolonial–present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Sixth Lord Fairfax (1719–1776); Trustees of Bath (1776–1925); West Virginia Commissioner of Public Institutions (1925–1970); West Virginia Department of Natural Resources (1970–present) <br/>
'''Associated People:''' James Rumsey (builder), Charles Varlé (designer) <br/>
'''Location:''' Morgan County, WV <br/>
'''Condition:''' extant; altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/XvbGG9SPYmJAdJWS9 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
Berkeley Springs is located 1,710 feet above sea level in a valley on the eastern edge of Warm Springs Ridge less than a mile east of the Potomac River in present-day Morgan County, West Virginia.<ref>David L. Taylor, “Town of Bath Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2009), 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero].</ref> The alleged medicinal properties of the area’s mineral springs drew people to both consume and bathe in the waters, and attracted various Native American peoples to visit the area long before European colonists began using the springs regularly around 1740.<ref>James E. Harding, “Berkeley Springs State Park,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1976), 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2229.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, John Warner, ''A survey of the northern neck of Virginia, being the lands belonging to the Rt. Honourable Thomas Lord Fairfax Baron Cameron…as surveyed according to order in the years 1736 & 1737,'' ca. 1747 [detail]. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, Washington, DC.]]
During the colonial period, the springs lay within the Northern Neck Proprietary, a territory of more than five million acres between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers that belonged to Thomas, Baron Cameron, sixth Lord Fairfax (1693–1781).<ref>Lord Fairfax inherited one-sixth of the Northern Neck Proprietary upon the death of his maternal grandmother in the spring of 1710. He inherited the remaining five-sixths of the proprietary from his mother, Katherine Culpeper Fairfax, in May 1719. She had inherited the land from her father, Thomas Culpeper, second baron Culpeper of Thoresway, who had served as governor of Virginia from 1677–1683. See Warren R. Hofstra, “Thomas Fairfax, sixth baron Fairfax of Cameron (1693–1781)," ''Dictionary of Virginia Biography'', Library of Virginia, 2016, http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Fairfax_Thomas_baron_Fairfax_of_Cameron. </ref> Since this time, the springs have been known by many names, including Warm Springs, the appellation used in an early survey map of the Northern Neck [Fig. 1].<ref>This is not to be confused with the town Warm Springs located in Bath County, Virginia, which has also attracted visitors since the colonial period. For more on the history of Warm Springs, Virginia, see Carl Bridenbaugh, “Baths and Watering Places of Colonial America,” ''The William and Mary Quarterly'' 3, no. 2 (April 1946): 163, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FDI9CBAU view on Zotero].</ref> By the mid-1740s, white settlers had reportedly begun to erect makeshift accommodations in the area.<ref>Harding 1976, 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Fairfax_cite"></span>As early as June 1747, Fairfax proposed a town and promised to “give all Encouragement to invite People to inhabit and Settle there" ([[#Fairfax|view text]]). <span id="Washington_1748_cite"></span>A young [[George Washington]], serving as an assistant on a surveying trip for Lord Fairfax, recorded in his diary his first visit to the “Fam’d Warm Springs” in March 1748, suggesting the site’s familiarity to Virginia colonists by this early date ([[#Washington_1748|view text]]).

Although a town was not officially established at Berkeley Springs for another thirty years, the waters continued to attract visitors of different backgrounds and social classes who sought a cure for ailments such as rheumatism or who simply desired rest and relaxation.<ref>Bridenbaugh 1946, 161, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FDI9CBAU view on Zotero].</ref> Moravian missionaries Joseph Spangenberg and Matthew Reutz stopped at Berkeley Springs in 1748 and enjoyed the proximity of the site’s warm and cold springs, noting that “being in the one, you can reach into the other."<ref>Quoted in William J. Hinke and Charles E. Kemper, “Moravian Diaries of Travels through Virginia (Continued),” ''The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' 11, no. 3 (January 1904): 238, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H64SNKMH view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Thomas_cite"></span>Dr. Thomas Walker of Albemarle County recorded his encounter in 1750 with “Six Invalids” and found the springs to be “very clear and warmer than New milk” ([[#Thomas|view text]]). When [[George Washington|Washington]] returned to Berkeley Springs in August 1761 to seek relief from rheumatic fever, he found more than two hundred people “of both sexes…full of all manner of diseases & Complaints.” This number is surprising given how difficult it was to reach the springs during this period; [[George Washington|Washington]] found the terrain to be quite rugged and struggled to pass a road blocked by fallen trees. After completing the arduous trip, bathers often had to construct their own rudimentary shelters. <span id="Washington_1761_cite"></span>[[George Washington|Washington]] was grateful to have secured a tent to pitch, writing that otherwise he “would have been in a most miserable situation” ([[#Washington_1761|view text]]). <span id="Washington_1769_cite"></span> By August 1769, the amenities at the springs had apparently improved enough for [[George Washington|Washington]] to bring his wife and stepdaughter with him in a desperate bid to treat the latter’s seizures ([[#Washington_1769|view text]]).<ref>According to Jeanne Mozier and Betty Lou Harmison, Washington was able to stay in houses during his visits to Warm Springs in the late 1760s, including a house that belonged to his friend James Mercer. ''Berkeley Springs'', Images of America (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2011), 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Fithian_cite"></span>Philip Vickers Fithian (1747–1776), a diarist and Presbyterian minister, stopped in 1775 to drink the waters while on a missionary tour of the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontier. He reported approximately four hundred people at Berkeley Springs—about half of whom he estimated to be ill. The other half were there presumably to enjoy what had evolved into a site of leisure with various evening entertainments, including a ball, card games, and, to his dismay, “promiscuous Company” engaged in “Amusements in all Shapes” ([[#Fithian|view text]]).

The influx of summer visitors prompted the Virginia General Assembly to improve the site and formally establish a town at the springs. A 1776 act called for “the laying off of fifty acres of land in lots and streets” in the hopes of “encouraging the purchasers thereof to build convenient houses for accommodating numbers of infirm person, who frequent those springs yearly for the recovery of their health.”<ref>Harding 1976, 5–6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> The town, which the Assembly named Bath after the spa in Somerset, England, was to be comprised of one-quarter acre lots laid out by appointed trustees. Proceeds from the sale of the lots at public auction were to be paid by the trustees to Lord Fairfax, and purchasers were required to build houses “twelve feet square at least” on their new parcels within a year. <span id="Assembly_cite"></span>The springs—save for one, which remained under the private ownership of Lord Fairfax—were to “be vested in the said trustees in trust, to and for the public use and benefit” ([[#Assembly|view text]]).<ref>Taylor 2009, 55, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Mozier and Harmison 2011, 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Washington_1777_cite"></span>The August 1777 sale attracted several prominent individuals from Maryland and Virginia, including [[George Washington|Washington]], to purchase lots in Bath ([[#Washington_1777|view text]]).<ref>Washington purchased two lots located on the southeast corner of Fairfax and Mercer streets, two blocks from the springs, for the cost of 100 pounds and 15 shillings. Other early Bath landholders included Horatio Gates, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Charles Mynn Thruston, and Fielding Lewis, among others. Taylor 2009, 56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Harding 1976, 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:0462.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 2, Samuel Vaughan, ''Warm or Berkley Springs, in Virginia'', from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June–September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.]]
<span id="Vaughan_cite"></span>Bath’s streets took the form of a gridded plan arranged just below a large [[square]], as recorded by [[Samuel Vaughan]] in his diary in 1787 [Fig. 2] ([[#Vaughan|view text]]). In another sketch of Berkeley Springs, [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] observed the formation of islands surrounded by the warm spring’s flows, as well as the arrangement of the public [[bath]]s, noting a separate “[[Bath]] for Poor People [g]” [Fig. 3]. Separate [[bath]]s for men and women constructed in the [[square]] in 1786 were likely the work of James Rumsey (c. 1743–1792), an inventor, builder, and “jack-of-all-trades” who had opened a general store and boarding house in town in 1782.<ref>Harding 1976, 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view in Zotero]; and Mabel Henshaw Gardiner and Ann Henshaw Gardiner, ''Chronicles of Old Berkeley: A Narrative History of a Virginia County from Its Beginnings to 1926'' (Durham, NC: The Seeman Press, 1938), 222, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view in Zotero]. The early bathhouses at Berkeley Springs were likely constructed by Rumsey, but this is not certain. See Taylor 2009, 57, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view in Zotero].</ref> The so-called Roman Baths, which are still extant, are in a two-story brick building with a hipped roof that contains ten individual [[bath]] stalls built initially for use by men. Each stall is accessible by a private entrance from the long hallway that runs along the length of the first floor. On the building’s east elevation, a row of ten openings provides ventilation to each stall. The other extant eighteenth-century building, the old [[bathhouse]] or shower [[bath]], was initially constructed for women. The building, a one-story brick building with a hipped roof, is smaller.<ref> Taylor 2009, 56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Harding 1976, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Vaughan_cite"></span>[[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]]'s textual description of Bath notes a flurry of building activity in the town’s early years, including 164 houses constructed over a four-year period, a playhouse, a Methodist church, and several taverns with [[piazza]]s that were among “the best calculated for America of any [he had] seen”([[#Vaughan|view text]]).
[[File:0461.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 3, Samuel Vaughan, Plan of Bath (Berkeley Springs), VA [detail], 1787, from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June-September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.]]

Berkeley Springs continued to prosper as a resort until about 1805 when a fever plagued the summer guest population, reducing the number of seasonal visitors by more than half for the next several years. The relative inaccessibility of Berkeley Springs compared to other springs in the region also contributed to its decline. In 1809 Charles Varlé proposed a redesign to improve Bath’s [[public garden]]. His drawing indicated, among other features, a [[canal]] with a foot [[bridge]] [A], a [[basin]] with a [[jet d’eau]] in the center [B & C], a reservoir or [[fountain]] “covered with a vine treliage in a form of a dome or copula” [E], an additional [[bath]] [F], a sunken [[bowling green]] [H] within a [[parterre]], a two-sided [[sundial]] [I] located near the [[basin]] and [[bowling green]], and two [[labyrinth]]s “contrived so as to be different in their issues and windings” [K] [Fig. 4]. Colonel Robert Bailey (1773–1827), an infamous gambler and entrepreneur, also made a concerted effort to revitalize the resort’s reputation. <span id="Bailey_cite"></span>In an 1813 advertisement he promoted the quality of the springs’ waters, [[bath]]s, [[walk]]s, and lodging, and personally guaranteed that visitors who stayed in his guesthouse would be well satisfied ([[#Bailey|view text]]).
[[File:0460.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 4, Charles Varlé, ''Project for the Improvement of the Square and the Town of Bath'' [detail], c. 1809. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, DC.]]

[[File:1781.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 5, Sophie Madeleine du Pont, Octagonal Bath at Warm Springs (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.15).]]
Visitors to Berkeley Springs during the first half of the nineteenth century celebrated the quality of the springs but sometimes found the town’s infrastructure and amenities wanting. <span id="Paulding_cite"></span>In 1816 James Kirke Paulding (1778–1860) declared “the spring which supplies the ladies’ [[bath]] is one of the finest I have ever seen” ([[#Paulding|view text]]). <span id="Hayden_cite"></span> By 1831, Dr. H. H. Hayden wrote of his disappointment in the “appearance of dilapidation and ruins” that characterized most of Bath’s buildings, although he praised the springs and “the fine and spacious [[bath]]s attached to them” ([[#Hayden|view text]]). <span id="Kercheval_cite"></span>The author and Virginia historian Samuel Kercheval (1767–1845) took a more favorable view in 1833, celebrating the well-known seasonal appeal of Berkeley Springs as a destination for “recreation and pleasure” ([[#Kercheval|view text]]). Sophie du Pont, who visited the springs in 1837, on the other hand, found “nothing very pretty about [Bath], except its situation, in an undulating valley,” but commended the large octagonal [[bathhouse]] [Fig. 5], as “one of the most curious & beautiful objects I have seen, the water is pure & translucent to an almost dazzling degree.” <span id="duPont_cite"></span>She bathed in a smaller [[bathhouse]] comprising four small stalls, including one with a spout [Fig. 6], which she tried at her doctor’s behest ([[#duPont|view text]]).
[[File:1782.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 6, Sophie Madeleine du Pont, ''Spout bath at Warm Springs'' (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.17).]]

[[File:2219.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 7, David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', sheet music cover, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.]] [[File:2220.jpg|thumb|left|David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', notated music, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.]]
The town’s fortunes improved with the extension in 1842 of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad into Sir John’s Run, located just to the west of Bath, making Berkeley Springs the only major resort in the state accessible by rail at that time. But, in a devastating blow to the recent revitalization efforts, an 1844 fire destroyed most of the eighteenth-century buildings. Colonel John Strother (1792–1862), who had operated boardinghouses in town before the fire, built the Berkeley Springs Hotel (also known by the names Pavilion Hotel and Strother’s Hotel), which was completed in 1848 at the southern end of the [[park]]. It was the largest building at the resort and could accommodate four hundred guests.<ref> Harding 1976, 6–7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero]; Taylor 2009, 58, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Mozier and Harmison 2011, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Moorman_cite"></span>Dr. John J. Moorman wrote in 1854 that the u-shaped hotel was situated next to a [[grove]] and that the courtyard was “tastefully ornamented with trees, flowers, and [[shrubbery]]” ([[#Moorman|view text]]). Strother’s son David H. Strother (1816–1888), an artist, included in his 1851 sheet music cover for “A Day at Berkeley Springs” (an instrumental “descriptive piece” composed by Erneste Szemelňyi) a depiction of the hotel at the left as well as the public [[pavilion]] and [[fountain]] at the center [Fig. 7]. The hotel remained a popular accommodation and entertainment venue—known for hosting lively balls and concerts—until it was destroyed by fire in March 1898.<ref>Harding 1976, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

Although Berkeley Spring’s popularity ebbed and flowed over time—as transportation developments made the town more accessible to tourists at the same time that fires and other challenges (not least the U.S. Civil War) caused significant setbacks—it has remained open to the public since its founding in 1776. West Virginia’s Department of Natural Resources has overseen the public [[square]] and [[bathhouse]]s, which operate as Berkeley Springs State Park, since 1970.

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
*<div id="Fairfax"></div>Lord Fairfax, June 1, 1747, in a letter to an unknown recipient (possibly Warner Washington) describing his plans for land near Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Conway 1892: 246–47)<ref> Moncure Daniel Conway, ''Barons of the Potomack and the Rappahannock'' (New York: The Grolier Club, 1892), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TAG2KD5N view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Having been informed that several Persons who go to drink and bath in the Medicinal Springs near the Mountains of Cape Capon and River Potomack, within my Proprietary, do not unnecessarily bark and cut down Timber Trees on the waste and ungranted Lands near the said Springs and the Mountain adjacent, more than useful for the erecting and building the Houses and Cottages required to shelter them, I desire You will in my Name use your best Endeavors to prevent such waste of Timber. . . .

:You may assure the Gentlemen and Others that if the Waters continue to be useful in relieving the Sick I shall cause the Lands around the Springs to be surveyd, and Number of convenient Lots laid off for a Town, also give all Encouragement to invite People to inhabit and Settle there.” [[#Fairfax_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1748"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], March 18, 1748, in a diary entry describing a visit to Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref> Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-01-02-0001-0002-0008 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“We Travell’d up about 35 Miles to Thomas Barwicks on Potomack where we found the River so excessively high by Reason of the Great Rains that had fallen up about the Allegany Mountains as they told us which was then bringing down the melted Snow & that it would not be fordable for severall Days it was then above Six foot Higher than usual & was Rising. We agreed to stay till Monday. We this day call’d to see the Fam’d Warm Springs. We camped out in the field this Night.” [[#Washington_1748_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Thomas"></div>Walker, Thomas, July 9, 1750, in a diary entry describing a visit to Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in McAllister 1911: 172)<ref> J. T. McAllister, “Early Settlers in Greenbrier County. Extracts from the Journal of Dr. Thomas Walker,” ''The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' 19, no. 2 (April 1911), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DZVZ67R4 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“July 9th, we went to the Hot Springs and found Six Invalids there. The Spring Water is very clear and warmer than New milk and there is a Spring of cold Water within 20 feet of the Warm one.” [[#Thomas_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1761"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], August 26–30, 1761, in a letter to Charles Green describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref>Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-07-02-0039 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“To begin then—We arrivd here yesterday, and our Journey (as you may imagine) was not of the most agreable sort, through such Weather & such Roads as we had to encounter; these last for 20 or 25 Miles from hence are almost impassable for Carriages; not so much from the Mountainous Country (but this in fact is very rugged) as from Trees that have fallen across the Road, and renderd the ways intolerable.

:We found of both sexes about 2⟨5⟩0 People at this place, full of all manner of diseases & Complaints; some of which are much benefitted, while others find no relief from the Water’s—two or three Doctors are here, but whether attending as Physicians or to Drink of the Waters I know not—It is thought the Springs will soon begin to loose there Virtues, and the Weather get too cold for People, not well provided, to remain here—They are situated very badly on the East side of a steep Mountain, and Inclosed by Hills on all Sides, so that the Afternoon’s Sun is hid by 4 Oclock and the Fogs hang over us till 9 or 10 wch occasion’s great Damps and the Mornings and Evenings to be cool.

:The Place I am told, and indeed have found it so already, is supplyed with Provisions of all kinds—good Beef & venison, fine Veal, Lamb, Fowls &ca may be bought at almost any time; but Lodgings can be had on no Terms but building for them, and I am of opinion that numbers get more hurt by there manner of lying, than the Waters can do them good—had we not succeeded in getting a Tent & marquee from Winchester we shoud have been in a most miserable situation here.

:In regard to myself I must beg leave to say, that I was much overcome with the fatigue of the Ride & Weather together—however I think my Fevers are a good deal abated, altho my Pains grow rather worse, & my sleep equally disturbd; what effect the Waters may have upon me I cant say at present, but I expect Nothing from the Air—this certainly must be unwholesome—I purpose to stay here a fortnight & longer if benefitted.” [[#Washington_1761_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1769"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], August 18, 1769, in a letter to John Armstrong describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref>Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-08-02-0164 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“About a fortnight ago I came to this place with Mrs Washington and her daughter, the latter of whom being troubled with a complaint, which the efficacy of these Waters it is thought might remove, we resolvd to try them, but have found little benefit as yet from the experiment; what a Week or two more may do, we know not, & therefore are inclind to put them to the Test. it was with much pleasure however I hear by Mr Clingan that you stand in no need of assistance from these Springs which I find are applied to in all cases, altho. there be a moral certainty of their hurting in some—Many poor, miserable objects are now attending here, which I hope will receive the desired benefit, as I dare say they are deprivd of the means of obtaining any other relief, from their Indigent Circumstances.” [[#Washington_1769_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Fithian"></div>Fithian, Philip Vickers, August 31–September 1, 1775, in diary entries describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (Fithian 1934: 123–26)<ref>Philip Vickers Fithian, ''Philip Vickers Fithian: Journal, 1775–1776. Written on the Virginia-Pennsylvania Frontier and in the Army Around New York'', eds. Robert Greenhalgh Albion and Leonidas Dodson (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1934), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/47NU5BKR view on Zotero].</ref>

:“August 31

:Warm Spring by 4 Evening. . . . Cloudy sloppy Day. . . .

:Huge Stone tumbled from the Mountain directly to the Drinking-Spring. . . .

:I took Lodging at Mrs. Baker’s. Mr. Miller, an aged Rheumatic Invalid taken ill in the [[Bath]].

:Fryday Sept: 1

:Drank early & freely of the Waters. About four Hundred now present. Near one Half of these visibly indisposed. Many in sore Distress. . . . Tickets going about for a Ball this Evening. . . .

:Evening

:In one Part of the little bush Village a splendid Ball—At some Distance, & within hearing, a Methodist Preacher was haranguing the People. Frequent Writings on the Plates, &c—In our dining Room Companies at Cards. . . . I walked out among the Bushes here also was—Amusements in all Shapes, & in high Degrees, are constantly taking Place among so promiscuous Company. The Observation, when on the Spot, to see it in real Life. I can picture it out but sadly, is curious & improving.” [[#Fithian_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Assembly"></div>General Assembly of Virginia, October 1776, in an Act establishing the town of Bath at Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Gardiner and Gardiner 1938: 50–51)<ref> Gardiner and Gardiner 1938, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Whereas it hath been represented to this General Assembly, that the laying off of fifty acres of land in lots and streets for a town at the Warm Springs in the county of Berkeley, will be of great utility by encouraging the purchasers thereof to build convenient houses for accommodating numbers of infirm persons, who frequent those springs yearly for the recovery of their health: Be it enacted,. . . That fifty acres of land adjoining the said springs, being a part of a larger tract of land, the property of the Right Thomas Lord Fairfax, or other person or persons holding the same by a grant or conveyance of him, be and is hereby vested in Bryan Fairfax, Thomas Bryan Martin, Warner Washington, the Reverend Charles Mynn Thurston, Robert Rutherford, Alexander White, Philip Pendleton, Samuel Washington, William Ellzey, Van Searingen, Thomas Hite, James N. Edmundson, James Nourse, Gentlemen, trustees, to be by them, or any seven of them, laid out into lots of one quarter of an acre each with convenient streets, which shall be and the same is hereby established a town, by the name of Bath. . . . The said lots to be sold at public auction. . . . The purchasers building a dwelling house twelve feet square at least…trustees to pay the money from the sale to Thomas Lord Fairfax.

:''And be it further enacted'', That all the said Warm Springs except one large and convenient spring suitable for a bath, shall be vested in the said trustees in trust, to and for the public use and benefit and for no other purpose whatsoever.” [[#Assembly_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1777"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], October 27, 1777, in a letter to Samuel Washington describing his purchase of land at Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref>Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-12-02-0030 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“I am very glad Colo. Lewis purchased a Lott or two for me at the Warm Springs, as it was always my Intention to become a Proprietor there if a Town should be laid off at that place. Two Lotts is not more than I wish’d to possess, but if he is altogether disappointed, and cannot be otherwise supplied, I will, under those circumstances, part with one of mine—of this you will inform him; and I shall not only depend upon, but thank, & pay you chearfully, for the Improvements which are necessarily erected for the saving of the Lotts. As I do not know what Sort of Buildings the Act of Assembly requires to save the Lotts, I can give no directions about them; but, if I hold both Lotts which I had rather do I would reserve the best spott for a tolerable convenient dwelling House to be built hereafter. and, if a House which may (hereafter) serve for a Kitchen, together with a Stable, would be sufficient to save the Lotts, they might be so placed as to appear uniform & clever, when the whole are finished, and in that case, content myself with building for the present no more than the Kitchen and Stable.” [[#Washington_1777_cite|back up to History]]

*Anonymous, June 19, 1784, notice in a Richmond, VA, newspaper describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Gardiner and Gardiner 1938: 53)<ref> Gardiner and Gardiner 1938, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“In Berkeley County five [[bathhouse|bathing houses]], with adjacent dressing rooms, are already completed; an assembly room and theatre are also constructed for the innocent and rational amusement of the polite who may assemble there.

:The American Company of Comedians, it is expected, will open there, under the direction of Mr. Ryan, on the 15th of July, and to continue till the 1st of September. It is supposed they will prove so acceptable to the Bathers as to encourage the proprietor to renew his visits yearly.”

*[[George Washington|Washington, George]], September 6, 1784, in a diary entry describing his plans for his property at Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref> Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-04-02-0001-0001-0006 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“Having obtained a Plan of this Town (Bath) and ascertained the situation of my lots therein, which I examined; it appears that the disposition of a dwelling House; Kitchen & Stable cannot be more advantageously placed than they are marked in the copy I have taken from the plan of the Town; to which I refer for recollection, of my design; & Mr. Rumsey being willing to undertake those Buildings, I have agreed with him to have them finished by the 10th. of next July. The dwelling House is to be 36 feet by 24, with a gallery of 7 feet on each side of the House, the whole fronts. Under the House is to be a Cellar half the size of it, walled with Stone, and the whole underpined. On the first floor are to be 3 rooms; one of them 24 by 20 feet, with a chimney at the end (middle thereof)—the other two to be 12 by 16 feet with corner chimneys. On the upper Floor there are to be two rooms of equal sizes, with fire places; the Stair case to go up in the Gallery—galleries above also. The Kitchen and Stable are to be of the same size—18 by 22; the first with a stone Chimney and good floor above. The Stable is to be sunk in the ground, so as that the floor above it on the North, or side next the dwelling House, shall be level with the Yard—to have a partition therein—the West part of which to be for a Carriage, Harness, and Saddles—the East for Hay or Grain—all three of the Houses to be shingled with [ ]”

*<div id="Vaughan"></div> [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan, Samuel]], July 14, 1787, in a diary entry describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (Vaughan: 32, 34–35)<ref>Samuel Vaughan, Samuel Vaughan Diary, 1787–1796, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NIGWMHCK view in Zotero].</ref>

:“The warm [[Bath]]s, as on the otherside [sic], are situated on the lower side of a [[square]] on the East Mountain, & opposite to the principal Street. The Town consists of three long parallel streets & eight at right Angles. There is at present 172 houses, of which 164 have been built within the last four years, a play house well constructed, an Assembly & tea room, a house for the poor[,] a Methodist Church building & Mr. Wolley of Liverpool having bought a Double large framed house, hath this spring built adjoining these to a dining room 54 by 24, five bard rooms adjoining & a drawing room 18 by 24 over which an Assembly room 72 feet by 24 & 14 feet high, & a tea room 33 feet by 25, with [[piazza]]s on both side [of] the houses all completely framed & well filled, which is to be called the Bell Inn. There are several other taverns three of them good framed houses of 2 stories, with [[piazza]]s & [[seat]]s round to both stories & on both sides & the best calculated for America of any I have seen. The town is situated in a vale & partly on the side of the East & west Mountain, the Lots differing in Elevation. At the South end of the town on the west hill there is a range of Rocks & a mile above there is a remarkable cold [?] spring. The warm springs flow in great abundance from the base of the western mountain, forming three romantick Islands, & when all accumilated [sic] forms a large body of water which runs diagonally through the town. The hills on each side with beautiful hanging [[wood|woods]], renders the whole truly [[picturesque]], romantick and original; the climate is temperate, provisions cheap & plenty, except [[green]]s which are scarce. A charming retreat in hot or unhealthy weather, tho too much used for disipation [sic] & gambling, The water is pure & light, without any apparent medical quality, tho found in many cases beneficial. To try their effect & for 3 days drink 3 quarts each day & that only, it causes a swimming [sic] in my head, want quickly of an opening quality by urine & I thought it created an appetite; it is scarcely so warm as milk from the Cow & said to be 57 degrees Fahrenheit thermal. There were 4 Methodist preachers (two for health,) services 3 times on Sunday & once or twice on week days, which are well attended by the lower sort to the neglect on week days of their businesses & families. There was 14 or 15 stores & like many well furnished with goods, for which I should think there was little encouragement; when I left it there was not above 30 persons of note arrived, but it was early in the Season.” [[#Vaughan_cite|back up to History]]

*[[Benjamin Henry Latrobe|Latrobe, Benjamin Henry]], July 1796, in a journal entry about discussing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV), with [[George Washington]] at [[Mount Vernon]] (Latrobe 1905: 54–55)<ref>Benjamin Henry Latrobe, ''The Journal of Latrobe: The Notes and Sketches of an Architect, Naturalist and Traveler in the United States from 1796 to 1820'' (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1905), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/N49VTQS8 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Having inquired after the family I had left, the conversation turned upon Bath, to which they were going. He said he had known the place when there was scarce a house upon it fit to step in, that the accommodations were, he believed, very good at present. He thought the best thing a family, regularly and constantly visiting Bath, could do would be to build a house for their separate accommodation, the expense of which might be two hundred pounds. He has himself a house there which he supposed must be going to ruin. Independent of his public situation, the increased dissipation and frequency of visitors would be an objection to his visiting it again, unless the health of himself or family should render it necessary. At first that was the motive, he said, that induced people to encounter the badness of the roads and the inconvenience of the lodgings, but at present few, he believed, in comparison of the whole number, had health in view. Even those whose object it was, were interrupted in their quiet by the dissipation of the rest. This, he observed, must naturally be the case in every large collection of men whose minds were not occupied by pressing business or personal interest. In these and many more observations of the same kind there was no moroseness nor anything that appeared as if the rapidly increasing immorality of the citizens particularly impressed him at the time he made them. They seemed the well-expressed remarks of a man who has seen and knows the world.”

*<div id="Bailey"></div>Bailey, Robert, June 26, 1813, in a promotion in the Winchester Gazette for Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (Bailey 1813: 3)<ref>Robert Bailey, “Bath Berkeley Springs,” ''Winchester Gazette'' (June 26, 1813), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZKR7U28H view on Zotero]. </ref>

:“Those Ladies and Gentlemen, of Winchester in particular, and the state in general, wishing to visit Bath Berkeley Springs in Virginia, (near Martinsburg,) being the Theatre of America for three months of the year (June, July, August, and even September,) are respectfully informed that the Waters are in their strongest state and in the greatest purity; the [[Bath]]s and [[Walk]]s in the best order, and every attention paid by the subscriber, to render full satisfaction. . . . [T]he public may depend on having the best accommodation—clean beds and bedding, with comfortable rooms; choice liquors, wines, &c. which have been carefully collected; and the tables will be decorated in the first style.

:The subscriber having several houses at Berkeley Springs, he will make the table to suit parties, or have a general table as the Guests may think proper.

:The subscriber has a Drawing Room furnished for the Ladies, a Piano Forte, Maps of different kinds, reading room, &c—a grand Band of Music for balls, once or twice a week as the company may thing [sic] proper. The very best servants are selected for attendance, and every attention paid. . . ." [[#Bailey_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Paulding"></div>Paulding, James Kirke, 1816, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1817: 2:227, 235–36)<ref>James Kirke Paulding, ''Letters from the South'', 2 vols. (New York: James Eastburn, 1817), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H5XVF9WE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“As it is prevailing opinion among your fellow-citizens, that there is nothing refined to the south of Schuylkill, and no watering-place worth visiting except Long-Branch, I will try and set you right in this matter. The truth is, these springs are as gay, as fashionable, and far more delightfully situated than any I have ever visited. In all the constituents of a fashionable watering-place, Berkeley maintains a most respectable rank, inasmuch as it affords as great a variety of character, as many gay equipages, and gay people, and almost as great a lack of variety of amusement, as Ballston or Long-Branch. . . .

:. . . we staid nearly a week at Berkeley. There is a fine drawing-room here, in which the ladies meet to chat, or work, and play at chess, or devise some pleasant excursion. Every night or two there is a ball, in a very splendid room appropriated to that purpose; and in afternoons it is pleasant to stroll backwards and forwards along the brook that skirts the [[green]] in front of the springs, that gush out from the foot of the mountain. There is a [[pavilion]] built over the spring, which is used for drinking, and two [[bathhouse|bath-houses]] —one for either sex. The spring which supplies the ladies’ [[bath]] is one of the finest I have ever seen. It bursts from a fissure in the rock in the form of a cone, much larger than the crown of a hat, and, together with the others, forms a fine stream, in some places six or eight yards wide. This place was formerly the property of the family of Fairfax, once lords of a great portion of the tract of country called the Great Northern Neck of Virginia, situated between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. One of these potent chieftains vested the springs and a little tract around in trustees, to be chosen from time to time, for the use of all comers for ever. People using the [[bath]]s pay a small sum, which is appropriated by the trustees to keeping up the repairs of the place, and other objects of utility and ornament.” [[#Paulding_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Hayden"></div>Hayden, Dr. H. H., 1829, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1831: 102–03)<ref>H. H. Hayden, “Notices of the Geology of the Country near Bedford Springs in Pennsylvania, and the Bath or Berkeley spring in Virginia, with remarks upon those waters,” ''The American Journal of Science and Arts'' 19, no. 1 (January 1831), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/7T5WQA6A view on Zotero].</ref>

:“On my return from Bedford springs, I passed by the way of Pigeon-cove Valley, across the narrow part of Maryland into Virginia, to Bath or Berkeley springs, so called, being in what was but recently Berkeley county. These springs issues from the food and on the east side of an abrupt and elevated ridge, running in a north east direction, about five miles, to the Potomac River, where it terminates, opposite the town of Hancock, Maryland. Little can be said in favor of the village of Bath, since, with the exception of a few buildings, it presents the appearance of dilapidation and ruins. The accommodations for visitors are, however, tolerable, at least for such as are not fastidious. The springs, which are principally magnesian and justly celebrated, especially for the chronic affections, and also the fine and spacious [[bath]]s attached to them, constitute the principal inducement that attracts persons to this place. Indeed, such is their celebrity, that they are, annually, during the months of July and August, frequented, (and that too in no inconsiderable numbers,) by persons of the highest respectability.” [[#Paulding_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Kercheval"></div>Kercheval, Samuel, 1833, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1833: 473)<ref>Samuel Kercheval, ''The History of the Valley of Virginia'' (Winchester, VA: Samuel H. Davis, 1833), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/IRHEDX6N view on Zotero].</ref>

:“This is doubtless the most ancient watering place in the valley. Tradition relates that those springs were known to the Indians as possessing valuable medicinal properties, and were much frequented by them. They were anciently called the ‘Berkeley Warm Springs,’ and have always kept their character for their medical virtues. They are much resorted to not only for their value as medicinal waters, but as a place (in the season) of recreation and pleasure. Bath has become a considerable village, is the seat of justice in Morgan county, and has several stores and fine boarding houses. It is too publicly known to require further notice in this work.” [[#Kercheval_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="duPont"></div>Du Pont, Sophie Madeleine, July 21, 1837, in a letter to Clementina Smith describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Low and Hinsley 1987: 173, 176, 177, 179)<ref>Betty-Bright Low and Jacqueline Hinsley, ''Sophie du Pont, A Young Lady in America: Sketches, Diaries, & Letters, 1823–1833'' (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/U2EJBX3K view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Warm Springs. . . . The most abundant of these gushes from the earth in the middle of a large octagonal [[basin]] of mason work covered with a wooden building having an opening at the top, & four neat & comfortable rooms on as many sides for the accommodation of bathing. This [[bath]] is thirty eight feet in diameter; & the temperature of water 96 degrees—It is one of the most curious & beautiful objects I have seen, the water is pure & translucent to an almost dazzling degree, & rises in ceaseless flow, accompanied by showers of bright gleaming air bubbles. . . .

:The settlement of the springs, consisting of two large brick hotels with long [[piazza]]s in front, & several rows of brick or log cabins, has nothing very pretty about it, except its situation, in an undulating valley completely embosomed in the mountains. Altho’ there is so little company here that we had our choice of rooms anywhere, we preferred a cabin, to be nearer the spring; & we could not have made a better choice….

:Our domicile consists of two rooms communicating, in which we have every thing we want to make us comfortable, & a very attentive & obliging maid to bring us our meals & all we wish for – The front door (from my room) opens towards the roads, & on a path which leads up to the hotel! The door of Elizas room leads out into a green sloping [[meadow]], planted with trees, in the centre of which are the warm springs….

:There are several other springs of the same kind in the [[meadow]]—round one a platform is built with benches, under shady trees, for those who drink the water, which notwithstanding its odour of half spoiled eggs & its warmth, is not very nauseous to the taste—Another [[bathhouse|bath house]] contains four small [[bath]]s, into one of which a spout is arranged for the benefit of those who are recommended to take douches. I have tried this at Dr Horner’s request & think it of service to me, as well as the bathing." [[#duPont_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Moorman"></div>Moorman, Dr. John J., 1854, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1854: 264–65)<ref>John J. Moorman, ''The Virginia Springs: Comprising an Account of All the Principal Mineral Springs of Virginia, with Remarks on the Nature and Medical Applicability of Each'', 2nd ed. (Richmond: J. W. Randolph, 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/4PSBVGF3 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The ''gentlemen’s'' [[bathhouse|bath house]], a substantial brick building, contains ten large bathing rooms. The baths are of cement, 12 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 4 ½ deep, filled from a reservoir by a four inch pipe, and containing about 1600 gallons each. In addition to this, and for the use of the gentlemen, there is a swimming bath, 60 feet long by 20 wide, and 5 feet deep, containing 50,000 gallons. The superstructure is handsome and tasteful, 82 feet long, and contains 14 dressing rooms. The luxury of disporting in this ample and exhilarating pool can only by appreciated by those who have indulged in it.

:The ladies’ bath house is an elegant structure on the opposite side of the grove, 90 feet long, which contains in addition to 9 private baths, a plunge bath 30 feet long by 16 feet wide, 4 ½ feet deep, and floored with white marble. There is also an establishment for shower spout and artificial warm baths. The bathing area is surrounded by a beautiful grove several acres in extent and handsomely improved.

:The Hotel accommodations are extensive and well gotten up.

:Strother’s, the principal hotel at the place, is a large, elegant and well conducted establishment, adjoining the grove, and will comfortably accommodate about 400 persons. It is built upon three sides of a quadrangle 168 feet front by 198, the front building being four stories high, the wings respectively being two and three stories. The court-yard is tastefully ornamented with trees, flowers, and shrubbery. Altogether it constitutes one of the most extensive and comfortable establishments to be found at any of our places of fashionable resort.” [[#Moorman_cite|back up to History]]

*R.J., 1854, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1854: 264–65)<ref>R. J. “Rambling Sketches: Berkeley Springs: Historical and Social,” ''The Southern Literary Messenger'' (December 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/89ZRZSN5 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The swimming bath is for pure recreation and cleanliness, a delightful place. It is fifty or sixty feet long, about forty feet broad, and as clear as crystal. The depth is about five feet—the bottom smooth cement. It is the finest bath I have ever seen, though doubtless there are many larger. You reach the baths through the grove, which is a pleasant promenade. It extends nearly to the top of the mountain. . . . For simple recreation, no place could be more agreeable; and the man who visits Berkeley and the White Sulphur and Saratoga, and returns in preference to either of the latter, is a hopeless case.”

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="5">

Image:2218.jpg|John Warner, ''A survey of the northern neck of Virginia, being the lands belonging to the Rt. Honourable Thomas Lord Fairfax Baron Cameron…as surveyed according to order in the years 1736 & 1737,'' ca. 1747. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, DC.

File:0462.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, ''Warm or Berkley Springs, in Virginia'', from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June–September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.

Image:0461.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, Plan of Bath (Berkeley Springs), VA [detail], 1787, from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June-September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.

Image:0460.jpg|Charles Varlé, ''Project for the Improvement of the Square and the Town of Bath'' [detail], c. 1809. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, DC.

Image:1781.jpg|Sophie Madeleine du Pont, Octagonal Bath at Warm Springs (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.15)

Image:1782.jpg|Sophie Madeleine du Pont, ''Spout bath at Warm Springs'' (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.17)

Image:2219.jpg|David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', sheet music cover, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.

Image:2220.jpg|David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', notated music, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80051018.html Library of Congress Authority File]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Berkeley Springs

2019-12-30T16:29:19Z

L-Baradel: /* Texts */

'''Berkeley Springs''', a resort area in present-day Morgan County, West Virginia, has been well known for its mineral springs since the precolonial period. The Virginia Assembly established the town of Bath (later renamed Berkeley Springs) in 1776, and the town’s trustees soon commissioned the construction of public [[bath|bathhouse]]s in the town [[square]]. It has remained a prominent public spa and leisure destination since the time of its founding.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Warm Springs; Medicinal Springs; Frederick Springs; Bath<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' precolonial–present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Sixth Lord Fairfax (1719–1776); Trustees of Bath (1776–1925); West Virginia Commissioner of Public Institutions (1925–1970); West Virginia Department of Natural Resources (1970–present) <br/>
'''Associated People:''' James Rumsey (builder), Charles Varlé (designer) <br/>
'''Location:''' Morgan County, WV <br/>
'''Condition:''' extant; altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/XvbGG9SPYmJAdJWS9 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
Berkeley Springs is located 1,710 feet above sea level in a valley on the eastern edge of Warm Springs Ridge less than a mile east of the Potomac River in present-day Morgan County, West Virginia.<ref>David L. Taylor, “Town of Bath Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2009), 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero].</ref> The alleged medicinal properties of the area’s mineral springs drew people to both consume and bathe in the waters, and attracted various Native American peoples to visit the area long before European colonists began using the springs regularly around 1740.<ref>James E. Harding, “Berkeley Springs State Park,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1976), 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2229.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, John Warner, ''A survey of the northern neck of Virginia, being the lands belonging to the Rt. Honourable Thomas Lord Fairfax Baron Cameron…as surveyed according to order in the years 1736 & 1737,'' ca. 1747 [detail]. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, Washington, DC.]]
During the colonial period, the springs lay within the Northern Neck Proprietary, a territory of more than five million acres between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers that belonged to Thomas, Baron Cameron, sixth Lord Fairfax (1693–1781).<ref>Lord Fairfax inherited one-sixth of the Northern Neck Proprietary upon the death of his maternal grandmother in the spring of 1710. He inherited the remaining five-sixths of the proprietary from his mother, Katherine Culpeper Fairfax, in May 1719. She had inherited the land from her father, Thomas Culpeper, second baron Culpeper of Thoresway, who had served as governor of Virginia from 1677–1683. See Warren R. Hofstra, “Thomas Fairfax, sixth baron Fairfax of Cameron (1693–1781)," ''Dictionary of Virginia Biography'', Library of Virginia, 2016, http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Fairfax_Thomas_baron_Fairfax_of_Cameron. </ref> Since this time, the springs have been known by many names, including Warm Springs, the appellation used in an early survey map of the Northern Neck [Fig. 1].<ref>This is not to be confused with the town Warm Springs located in Bath County, Virginia, which has also attracted visitors since the colonial period. For more on the history of Warm Springs, Virginia, see Carl Bridenbaugh, “Baths and Watering Places of Colonial America,” ''The William and Mary Quarterly'' 3, no. 2 (April 1946): 163, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FDI9CBAU view on Zotero].</ref> By the mid-1740s, white settlers had reportedly begun to erect makeshift accommodations in the area.<ref>Harding 1976, 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Fairfax_cite"></span>As early as June 1747, Fairfax proposed a town and promised to “give all Encouragement to invite People to inhabit and Settle there" ([[#Fairfax|view text]]). <span id="Washington_1748_cite"></span>A young [[George Washington]], serving as an assistant on a surveying trip for Lord Fairfax, recorded in his diary his first visit to the “Fam’d Warm Springs” in March 1748, suggesting the site’s familiarity to Virginia colonists by this early date ([[#Washington_1748|view text]]).

Although a town was not officially established at Berkeley Springs for another thirty years, the waters continued to attract visitors of different backgrounds and social classes who sought a cure for ailments such as rheumatism or who simply desired rest and relaxation.<ref>Bridenbaugh 1946, 161, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FDI9CBAU view on Zotero].</ref> Moravian missionaries Joseph Spangenberg and Matthew Reutz stopped at Berkeley Springs in 1748 and enjoyed the proximity of the site’s warm and cold springs, noting that “being in the one, you can reach into the other."<ref>Quoted in William J. Hinke and Charles E. Kemper, “Moravian Diaries of Travels through Virginia (Continued),” ''The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' 11, no. 3 (January 1904): 238, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H64SNKMH view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Thomas_cite"></span>Dr. Thomas Walker of Albemarle County recorded his encounter in 1750 with “Six Invalids” and found the springs to be “very clear and warmer than New milk” ([[#Thomas|view text]]). When [[George Washington|Washington]] returned to Berkeley Springs in August 1761 to seek relief from rheumatic fever, he found more than two hundred people “of both sexes…full of all manner of diseases & Complaints.” This number is surprising given how difficult it was to reach the springs during this period; [[George Washington|Washington]] found the terrain to be quite rugged and struggled to pass a road blocked by fallen trees. After completing the arduous trip, bathers often had to construct their own rudimentary shelters. <span id="Washington_1761_cite"></span>[[George Washington|Washington]] was grateful to have secured a tent to pitch, writing that otherwise he “would have been in a most miserable situation” ([[#Washington_1761|view text]]). <span id="Washington_1769_cite"></span> By August 1769, the amenities at the springs had apparently improved enough for [[George Washington|Washington]] to bring his wife and stepdaughter with him in a desperate bid to treat the latter’s seizures ([[#Washington_1769|view text]]).<ref>According to Jeanne Mozier and Betty Lou Harmison, Washington was able to stay in houses during his visits to Warm Springs in the late 1760s, including a house that belonged to his friend James Mercer. ''Berkeley Springs'', Images of America (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2011), 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Fithian_cite"></span>Philip Vickers Fithian (1747–1776), a diarist and Presbyterian minister, stopped in 1775 to drink the waters while on a missionary tour of the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontier. He reported approximately four hundred people at Berkeley Springs—about half of whom he estimated to be ill. The other half were there presumably to enjoy what had evolved into a site of leisure with various evening entertainments, including a ball, card games, and, to his dismay, “promiscuous Company” engaged in “Amusements in all Shapes” ([[#Fithian|view text]]).

The influx of summer visitors prompted the Virginia General Assembly to improve the site and formally establish a town at the springs. A 1776 act called for “the laying off of fifty acres of land in lots and streets” in the hopes of “encouraging the purchasers thereof to build convenient houses for accommodating numbers of infirm person, who frequent those springs yearly for the recovery of their health.”<ref>Harding 1976, 5–6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> The town, which the Assembly named Bath after the spa in Somerset, England, was to be comprised of one-quarter acre lots laid out by appointed trustees. Proceeds from the sale of the lots at public auction were to be paid by the trustees to Lord Fairfax, and purchasers were required to build houses “twelve feet square at least” on their new parcels within a year. <span id="Assembly_cite"></span>The springs—save for one, which remained under the private ownership of Lord Fairfax—were to “be vested in the said trustees in trust, to and for the public use and benefit” ([[#Assembly|view text]]).<ref>Taylor 2009, 55, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Mozier and Harmison 2011, 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Washington_1777_cite"></span>The August 1777 sale attracted several prominent individuals from Maryland and Virginia, including [[George Washington|Washington]], to purchase lots in Bath ([[#Washington_1777|view text]]).<ref>Washington purchased two lots located on the southeast corner of Fairfax and Mercer streets, two blocks from the springs, for the cost of 100 pounds and 15 shillings. Other early Bath landholders included Horatio Gates, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Charles Mynn Thruston, and Fielding Lewis, among others. Taylor 2009, 56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Harding 1976, 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:0462.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 2, Samuel Vaughan, ''Warm or Berkley Springs, in Virginia'', from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June–September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.]]
<span id="Vaughan_cite"></span>Bath’s streets took the form of a gridded plan arranged just below a large [[square]], as recorded by [[Samuel Vaughan]] in his diary in 1787 [Fig. 2] ([[#Vaughan|view text]]). In another sketch of Berkeley Springs, [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] observed the formation of islands surrounded by the warm spring’s flows, as well as the arrangement of the public [[bath]]s, noting a separate “[[Bath]] for Poor People [g]” [Fig. 3]. Separate [[bath]]s for men and women constructed in the [[square]] in 1786 were likely the work of James Rumsey (c. 1743–1792), an inventor, builder, and “jack-of-all-trades” who had opened a general store and boarding house in town in 1782.<ref>Harding 1976, 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view in Zotero]; and Mabel Henshaw Gardiner and Ann Henshaw Gardiner, ''Chronicles of Old Berkeley: A Narrative History of a Virginia County from Its Beginnings to 1926'' (Durham, NC: The Seeman Press, 1938), 222, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view in Zotero]. The early bathhouses at Berkeley Springs were likely constructed by Rumsey, but this is not certain. See Taylor 2009, 57, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view in Zotero].</ref> The so-called Roman Baths, which are still extant, are in a two-story brick building with a hipped roof that contains ten individual [[bath]] stalls built initially for use by men. Each stall is accessible by a private entrance from the long hallway that runs along the length of the first floor. On the building’s east elevation, a row of ten openings provides ventilation to each stall. The other extant eighteenth-century building, the old [[bathhouse]] or shower [[bath]], was initially constructed for women. The building, a one-story brick building with a hipped roof, is smaller.<ref> Taylor 2009, 56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Harding 1976, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Vaughan_cite"></span>[[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]]'s textual description of Bath notes a flurry of building activity in the town’s early years, including 164 houses constructed over a four-year period, a playhouse, a Methodist church, and several taverns with [[piazza]]s that were among “the best calculated for America of any [he had] seen”([[#Vaughan|view text]]).
[[File:0461.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 3, Samuel Vaughan, Plan of Bath (Berkeley Springs), VA [detail], 1787, from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June-September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.]]

Berkeley Springs continued to prosper as a resort until about 1805 when a fever plagued the summer guest population, reducing the number of seasonal visitors by more than half for the next several years. The relative inaccessibility of Berkeley Springs compared to other springs in the region also contributed to its decline. In 1809 Charles Varlé proposed a redesign to improve Bath’s [[public garden]]. His drawing indicated, among other features, a [[canal]] with a foot [[bridge]] [A], a [[basin]] with a [[jet d’eau]] in the center [B & C], a reservoir or [[fountain]] “covered with a vine treliage in a form of a dome or copula” [E], an additional [[bath]] [F], a sunken [[bowling green]] [H] within a [[parterre]], a two-sided [[sundial]] [I] located near the [[basin]] and [[bowling green]], and two [[labyrinth]]s “contrived so as to be different in their issues and windings” [K] [Fig. 4]. Colonel Robert Bailey (1773–1827), an infamous gambler and entrepreneur, also made a concerted effort to revitalize the resort’s reputation. <span id="Bailey_cite"></span>In an 1813 advertisement he promoted the quality of the springs’ waters, [[bath]]s, [[walk]]s, and lodging, and personally guaranteed that visitors who stayed in his guesthouse would be well satisfied ([[#Bailey|view text]]).
[[File:0460.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 4, Charles Varlé, ''Project for the Improvement of the Square and the Town of Bath'' [detail], c. 1809. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, DC.]]

[[File:1781.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 5, Sophie Madeleine du Pont, Octagonal Bath at Warm Springs (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.15).]]
Visitors to Berkeley Springs during the first half of the nineteenth century celebrated the quality of the springs but sometimes found the town’s infrastructure and amenities wanting. <span id="Paulding_cite"></span>In 1816 James Kirke Paulding (1778–1860) declared “the spring which supplies the ladies’ [[bath]] is one of the finest I have ever seen” ([[#Paulding|view text]]). <span id="Hayden_cite"></span> By 1831, Dr. H. H. Hayden wrote of his disappointment in the “appearance of dilapidation and ruins” that characterized most of Bath’s buildings, although he praised the springs and “the fine and spacious [[bath]]s attached to them” ([[#Hayden|view text]]). <span id="Kercheval_cite"></span>The author and Virginia historian Samuel Kercheval (1767–1845) took a more favorable view in 1833, celebrating the well-known seasonal appeal of Berkeley Springs as a destination for “recreation and pleasure” ([[#Kercheval|view text]]). Sophie du Pont, who visited the springs in 1837, on the other hand, found “nothing very pretty about [Bath], except its situation, in an undulating valley,” but commended the large octagonal [[bathhouse]] [Fig. 5], as “one of the most curious & beautiful objects I have seen, the water is pure & translucent to an almost dazzling degree.” <span id="duPont_cite"></span>She bathed in a smaller [[bathhouse]] comprising four small stalls, including one with a spout [Fig. 6], which she tried at her doctor’s behest ([[#duPont|view text]]).
[[File:1782.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 6, Sophie Madeleine du Pont, ''Spout bath at Warm Springs'' (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.17).]]

[[File:2219.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 7, David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', sheet music cover, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.]] [[File:2220.jpg|thumb|left|David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', notated music, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.]]
The town’s fortunes improved with the extension in 1842 of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad into Sir John’s Run, located just to the west of Bath, making Berkeley Springs the only major resort in the state accessible by rail at that time. But, in a devastating blow to the recent revitalization efforts, an 1844 fire destroyed most of the eighteenth-century buildings. Colonel John Strother (1792–1862), who had operated boardinghouses in town before the fire, built the Berkeley Springs Hotel (also known by the names Pavilion Hotel and Strother’s Hotel), which was completed in 1848 at the southern end of the [[park]]. It was the largest building at the resort and could accommodate four hundred guests.<ref> Harding 1976, 6–7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero]; Taylor 2009, 58, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Mozier and Harmison 2011, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Moorman_cite"></span>Dr. John J. Moorman wrote in 1854 that the u-shaped hotel was situated next to a [[grove]] and that the courtyard was “tastefully ornamented with trees, flowers, and [[shrubbery]]” ([[#Moorman|view text]]). Strother’s son David H. Strother (1816–1888), an artist, included in his 1851 sheet music cover for “A Day at Berkeley Springs” (an instrumental “descriptive piece” composed by Erneste Szemelňyi) a depiction of the hotel at the left as well as the public [[pavilion]] and [[fountain]] at the center [Fig. 7]. The hotel remained a popular accommodation and entertainment venue—known for hosting lively balls and concerts—until it was destroyed by fire in March 1898.<ref>Harding 1976, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

Although Berkeley Spring’s popularity ebbed and flowed over time—as transportation developments made the town more accessible to tourists at the same time that fires and other challenges (not least the U.S. Civil War) caused significant setbacks—it has remained open to the public since its founding in 1776. West Virginia’s Department of Natural Resources has overseen the public [[square]] and [[bathhouse]]s, which operate as Berkeley Springs State Park, since 1970.

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
*<div id="Fairfax"></div>Lord Fairfax, June 1, 1747, in a letter to an unknown recipient (possibly Warner Washington) describing his plans for land near Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Conway 1892: 246–47)<ref> Moncure Daniel Conway, ''Barons of the Potomack and the Rappahannock'' (New York: The Grolier Club, 1892), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TAG2KD5N view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Having been informed that several Persons who go to drink and bath in the Medicinal Springs near the Mountains of Cape Capon and River Potomack, within my Proprietary, do not unnecessarily bark and cut down Timber Trees on the waste and ungranted Lands near the said Springs and the Mountain adjacent, more than useful for the erecting and building the Houses and Cottages required to shelter them, I desire You will in my Name use your best Endeavors to prevent such waste of Timber. . . .

:You may assure the Gentlemen and Others that if the Waters continue to be useful in relieving the Sick I shall cause the Lands around the Springs to be surveyd, and Number of convenient Lots laid off for a Town, also give all Encouragement to invite People to inhabit and Settle there.” [[#Fairfax_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1748"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], March 18, 1748, in a diary entry describing a visit to Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref> Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-01-02-0001-0002-0008 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“We Travell’d up about 35 Miles to Thomas Barwicks on Potomack where we found the River so excessively high by Reason of the Great Rains that had fallen up about the Allegany Mountains as they told us which was then bringing down the melted Snow & that it would not be fordable for severall Days it was then above Six foot Higher than usual & was Rising. We agreed to stay till Monday. We this day call’d to see the Fam’d Warm Springs. We camped out in the field this Night.” [[#Washington_1748_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Thomas"></div>Walker, Thomas, July 9, 1750, in a diary entry describing a visit to Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in McAllister 1911: 172)<ref> J. T. McAllister, “Early Settlers in Greenbrier County. Extracts from the Journal of Dr. Thomas Walker,” ''The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' 19, no. 2 (April 1911), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DZVZ67R4 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“July 9th, we went to the Hot Springs and found Six Invalids there. The Spring Water is very clear and warmer than New milk and there is a Spring of cold Water within 20 feet of the Warm one.” [[#Thomas_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1761"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], August 26–30, 1761, in a letter to Charles Green describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref>Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-07-02-0039 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“To begin then—We arrivd here yesterday, and our Journey (as you may imagine) was not of the most agreable sort, through such Weather & such Roads as we had to encounter; these last for 20 or 25 Miles from hence are almost impassable for Carriages; not so much from the Mountainous Country (but this in fact is very rugged) as from Trees that have fallen across the Road, and renderd the ways intolerable.

:We found of both sexes about 2⟨5⟩0 People at this place, full of all manner of diseases & Complaints; some of which are much benefitted, while others find no relief from the Water’s—two or three Doctors are here, but whether attending as Physicians or to Drink of the Waters I know not—It is thought the Springs will soon begin to loose there Virtues, and the Weather get too cold for People, not well provided, to remain here—They are situated very badly on the East side of a steep Mountain, and Inclosed by Hills on all Sides, so that the Afternoon’s Sun is hid by 4 Oclock and the Fogs hang over us till 9 or 10 wch occasion’s great Damps and the Mornings and Evenings to be cool.

:The Place I am told, and indeed have found it so already, is supplyed with Provisions of all kinds—good Beef & venison, fine Veal, Lamb, Fowls &ca may be bought at almost any time; but Lodgings can be had on no Terms but building for them, and I am of opinion that numbers get more hurt by there manner of lying, than the Waters can do them good—had we not succeeded in getting a Tent & marquee from Winchester we shoud have been in a most miserable situation here.

:In regard to myself I must beg leave to say, that I was much overcome with the fatigue of the Ride & Weather together—however I think my Fevers are a good deal abated, altho my Pains grow rather worse, & my sleep equally disturbd; what effect the Waters may have upon me I cant say at present, but I expect Nothing from the Air—this certainly must be unwholesome—I purpose to stay here a fortnight & longer if benefitted.” [[#Washington_1761_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1769"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], August 18, 1769, in a letter to John Armstrong describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref>Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-08-02-0164 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“About a fortnight ago I came to this place with Mrs Washington and her daughter, the latter of whom being troubled with a complaint, which the efficacy of these Waters it is thought might remove, we resolvd to try them, but have found little benefit as yet from the experiment; what a Week or two more may do, we know not, & therefore are inclind to put them to the Test. it was with much pleasure however I hear by Mr Clingan that you stand in no need of assistance from these Springs which I find are applied to in all cases, altho. there be a moral certainty of their hurting in some—Many poor, miserable objects are now attending here, which I hope will receive the desired benefit, as I dare say they are deprivd of the means of obtaining any other relief, from their Indigent Circumstances.” [[#Washington_1769_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Fithian"></div>Fithian, Philip Vickers, August 31–September 1, 1775, in diary entries describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (Fithian 1934: 123–26)<ref>Philip Vickers Fithian, ''Philip Vickers Fithian: Journal, 1775–1776. Written on the Virginia-Pennsylvania Frontier and in the Army Around New York'', eds. Robert Greenhalgh Albion and Leonidas Dodson (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1934), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/47NU5BKR view on Zotero].</ref>

:“August 31

:Warm Spring by 4 Evening. . . . Cloudy sloppy Day. . . .

:Huge Stone tumbled from the Mountain directly to the Drinking-Spring. . . .

:I took Lodging at Mrs. Baker’s. Mr. Miller, an aged Rheumatic Invalid taken ill in the [[Bath]].

:Fryday Sept: 1

:Drank early & freely of the Waters. About four Hundred now present. Near one Half of these visibly indisposed. Many in sore Distress. . . . Tickets going about for a Ball this Evening. . . .

:Evening

:In one Part of the little bush Village a splendid Ball—At some Distance, & within hearing, a Methodist Preacher was haranguing the People. Frequent Writings on the Plates, &c—In our dining Room Companies at Cards. . . . I walked out among the Bushes here also was—Amusements in all Shapes, & in high Degrees, are constantly taking Place among so promiscuous Company. The Observation, when on the Spot, to see it in real Life. I can picture it out but sadly, is curious & improving.” [[#Fithian_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Assembly"></div>General Assembly of Virginia, October 1776, in an Act establishing the town of Bath at Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Gardiner and Gardiner 1938: 50–51)<ref> Gardiner and Gardiner 1938, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Whereas it hath been represented to this General Assembly, that the laying off of fifty acres of land in lots and streets for a town at the Warm Springs in the county of Berkeley, will be of great utility by encouraging the purchasers thereof to build convenient houses for accommodating numbers of infirm persons, who frequent those springs yearly for the recovery of their health: Be it enacted,. . . That fifty acres of land adjoining the said springs, being a part of a larger tract of land, the property of the Right Thomas Lord Fairfax, or other person or persons holding the same by a grant or conveyance of him, be and is hereby vested in Bryan Fairfax, Thomas Bryan Martin, Warner Washington, the Reverend Charles Mynn Thurston, Robert Rutherford, Alexander White, Philip Pendleton, Samuel Washington, William Ellzey, Van Searingen, Thomas Hite, James N. Edmundson, James Nourse, Gentlemen, trustees, to be by them, or any seven of them, laid out into lots of one quarter of an acre each with convenient streets, which shall be and the same is hereby established a town, by the name of Bath. . . . The said lots to be sold at public auction. . . . The purchasers building a dwelling house twelve feet square at least…trustees to pay the money from the sale to Thomas Lord Fairfax.

:''And be it further enacted'', That all the said Warm Springs except one large and convenient spring suitable for a bath, shall be vested in the said trustees in trust, to and for the public use and benefit and for no other purpose whatsoever.” [[#Assembly_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1777"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], October 27, 1777, in a letter to Samuel Washington describing his purchase of land at Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref>Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-12-02-0030 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“I am very glad Colo. Lewis purchased a Lott or two for me at the Warm Springs, as it was always my Intention to become a Proprietor there if a Town should be laid off at that place. Two Lotts is not more than I wish’d to possess, but if he is altogether disappointed, and cannot be otherwise supplied, I will, under those circumstances, part with one of mine—of this you will inform him; and I shall not only depend upon, but thank, & pay you chearfully, for the Improvements which are necessarily erected for the saving of the Lotts. As I do not know what Sort of Buildings the Act of Assembly requires to save the Lotts, I can give no directions about them; but, if I hold both Lotts which I had rather do I would reserve the best spott for a tolerable convenient dwelling House to be built hereafter. and, if a House which may (hereafter) serve for a Kitchen, together with a Stable, would be sufficient to save the Lotts, they might be so placed as to appear uniform & clever, when the whole are finished, and in that case, content myself with building for the present no more than the Kitchen and Stable.” [[#Washington_1777_cite|back up to History]]

*Anonymous, June 19, 1784, notice in a Richmond, VA, newspaper describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Gardiner and Gardiner 1938: 53)<ref> Gardiner and Gardiner 1938, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“In Berkeley County five [[bathhouse|bathing houses]], with adjacent dressing rooms, are already completed; an assembly room and theatre are also constructed for the innocent and rational amusement of the polite who may assemble there.

:The American Company of Comedians, it is expected, will open there, under the direction of Mr. Ryan, on the 15th of July, and to continue till the 1st of September. It is supposed they will prove so acceptable to the Bathers as to encourage the proprietor to renew his visits yearly.”

*[[George Washington|Washington, George]], September 6, 1784, in a diary entry describing his plans for his property at Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref> Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-04-02-0001-0001-0006 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“Having obtained a Plan of this Town (Bath) and ascertained the situation of my lots therein, which I examined; it appears that the disposition of a dwelling House; Kitchen & Stable cannot be more advantageously placed than they are marked in the copy I have taken from the plan of the Town; to which I refer for recollection, of my design; & Mr. Rumsey being willing to undertake those Buildings, I have agreed with him to have them finished by the 10th. of next July. The dwelling House is to be 36 feet by 24, with a gallery of 7 feet on each side of the House, the whole fronts. Under the House is to be a Cellar half the size of it, walled with Stone, and the whole underpined. On the first floor are to be 3 rooms; one of them 24 by 20 feet, with a chimney at the end (middle thereof)—the other two to be 12 by 16 feet with corner chimneys. On the upper Floor there are to be two rooms of equal sizes, with fire places; the Stair case to go up in the Gallery—galleries above also. The Kitchen and Stable are to be of the same size—18 by 22; the first with a stone Chimney and good floor above. The Stable is to be sunk in the ground, so as that the floor above it on the North, or side next the dwelling House, shall be level with the Yard—to have a partition therein—the West part of which to be for a Carriage, Harness, and Saddles—the East for Hay or Grain—all three of the Houses to be shingled with [ ]”

*<div id="Vaughan"></div> [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan, Samuel]], July 14, 1787, in a diary entry describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (Vaughan: 32, 34–35)<ref>Samuel Vaughan, Samuel Vaughan Diary, 1787–1796, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NIGWMHCK view in Zotero].</ref>

:“The warm [[Bath]]s, as on the otherside [sic], are situated on the lower side of a [[square]] on the East Mountain, & opposite to the principal Street. The Town consists of three long parallel streets & eight at right Angles. There is at present 172 houses, of which 164 have been built within the last four years, a play house well constructed, an Assembly & tea room, a house for the poor[,] a Methodist Church building & Mr. Wolley of Liverpool having bought a Double large framed house, hath this spring built adjoining these to a dining room 54 by 24, five bard rooms adjoining & a drawing room 18 by 24 over which an Assembly room 72 feet by 24 & 14 feet high, & a tea room 33 feet by 25, with [[piazza]]s on both side [of] the houses all completely framed & well filled, which is to be called the Bell Inn. There are several other taverns three of them good framed houses of 2 stories, with [[piazza]]s & [[seat]]s round to both stories & on both sides & the best calculated for America of any I have seen. The town is situated in a vale & partly on the side of the East & west Mountain, the Lots differing in Elevation. At the South end of the town on the west hill there is a range of Rocks & a mile above there is a remarkable cold [?] spring. The warm springs flow in great abundance from the base of the western mountain, forming three romantick Islands, & when all accumilated [sic] forms a large body of water which runs diagonally through the town. The hills on each side with beautiful hanging [[wood|woods]], renders the whole truly [[picturesque]], romantick and original; the climate is temperate, provisions cheap & plenty, except [[green]]s which are scarce. A charming retreat in hot or unhealthy weather, tho too much used for disipation [sic] & gambling, The water is pure & light, without any apparent medical quality, tho found in many cases beneficial. To try their effect & for 3 days drink 3 quarts each day & that only, it causes a swimming [sic] in my head, want quickly of an opening quality by urine & I thought it created an appetite; it is scarcely so warm as milk from the Cow & said to be 57 degrees Fahrenheit thermal. There were 4 Methodist preachers (two for health,) services 3 times on Sunday & once or twice on week days, which are well attended by the lower sort to the neglect on week days of their businesses & families. There was 14 or 15 stores & like many well furnished with goods, for which I should think there was little encouragement; when I left it there was not above 30 persons of note arrived, but it was early in the Season.” [[#Vaughan_cite|back up to History]]

*[[Benjamin Henry Latrobe|Latrobe, Benjamin Henry]], July 1796, in a journal entry about discussing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV), with [[George Washington]] at [[Mount Vernon]] (Latrobe 1905: 54–55)<ref>Benjamin Henry Latrobe, ''The Journal of Latrobe: The Notes and Sketches of an Architect, Naturalist and Traveler in the United States from 1796 to 1820'' (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1905), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/N49VTQS8 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Having inquired after the family I had left, the conversation turned upon Bath, to which they were going. He said he had known the place when there was scarce a house upon it fit to step in, that the accommodations were, he believed, very good at present. He thought the best thing a family, regularly and constantly visiting Bath, could do would be to build a house for their separate accommodation, the expense of which might be two hundred pounds. He has himself a house there which he supposed must be going to ruin. Independent of his public situation, the increased dissipation and frequency of visitors would be an objection to his visiting it again, unless the health of himself or family should render it necessary. At first that was the motive, he said, that induced people to encounter the badness of the roads and the inconvenience of the lodgings, but at present few, he believed, in comparison of the whole number, had health in view. Even those whose object it was, were interrupted in their quiet by the dissipation of the rest. This, he observed, must naturally be the case in every large collection of men whose minds were not occupied by pressing business or personal interest. In these and many more observations of the same kind there was no moroseness nor anything that appeared as if the rapidly increasing immorality of the citizens particularly impressed him at the time he made them. They seemed the well-expressed remarks of a man who has seen and knows the world.”

*<div id="Bailey"></div>Bailey, Robert, June 26, 1813, in a promotion in the Winchester Gazette for Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (Bailey 1813: 3)<ref>Robert Bailey, “Bath Berkeley Springs,” ''Winchester Gazette'' (June 26, 1813), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZKR7U28H view on Zotero]. </ref>

:“Those Ladies and Gentlemen, of Winchester in particular, and the state in general, wishing to visit Bath Berkeley Springs in Virginia, (near Martinsburg,) being the Theatre of America for three months of the year (June, July, August, and even September,) are respectfully informed that the Waters are in their strongest state and in the greatest purity; the [[Bath]]s and [[Walk]]s in the best order, and every attention paid by the subscriber, to render full satisfaction. . . . [T]he public may depend on having the best accommodation—clean beds and bedding, with comfortable rooms; choice liquors, wines, &c. which have been carefully collected; and the tables will be decorated in the first style.

:The subscriber having several houses at Berkeley Springs, he will make the table to suit parties, or have a general table as the Guests may think proper.

:The subscriber has a Drawing Room furnished for the Ladies, a Piano Forte, Maps of different kinds, reading room, &c—a grand Band of Music for balls, once or twice a week as the company may thing [sic] proper. The very best servants are selected for attendance, and every attention paid. . . ." [[#Bailey_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Paulding"></div>Paulding, James Kirke, 1816, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1817: 2:227, 235–36)<ref>James Kirke Paulding, ''Letters from the South'', 2 vols. (New York: James Eastburn, 1817), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H5XVF9WE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“As it is prevailing opinion among your fellow-citizens, that there is nothing refined to the south of Schuylkill, and no watering-place worth visiting except Long-Branch, I will try and set you right in this matter. The truth is, these springs are as gay, as fashionable, and far more delightfully situated than any I have ever visited. In all the constituents of a fashionable watering-place, Berkeley maintains a most respectable rank, inasmuch as it affords as great a variety of character, as many gay equipages, and gay people, and almost as great a lack of variety of amusement, as Ballston or Long-Branch. . . .

:. . . we staid nearly a week at Berkeley. There is a fine drawing-room here, in which the ladies meet to chat, or work, and play at chess, or devise some pleasant excursion. Every night or two there is a ball, in a very splendid room appropriated to that purpose; and in afternoons it is pleasant to stroll backwards and forwards along the brook that skirts the [[green]] in front of the springs, that gush out from the foot of the mountain. There is a [[pavilion]] built over the spring, which is used for drinking, and two [[bathhouse|bath-houses]] —one for either sex. The spring which supplies the ladies’ [[bath]] is one of the finest I have ever seen. It bursts from a fissure in the rock in the form of a cone, much larger than the crown of a hat, and, together with the others, forms a fine stream, in some places six or eight yards wide. This place was formerly the property of the family of Fairfax, once lords of a great portion of the tract of country called the Great Northern Neck of Virginia, situated between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. One of these potent chieftains vested the springs and a little tract around in trustees, to be chosen from time to time, for the use of all comers for ever. People using the [[bath]]s pay a small sum, which is appropriated by the trustees to keeping up the repairs of the place, and other objects of utility and ornament.” [[#Paulding_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Hayden"></div>Hayden, Dr. H. H., 1829, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1831: 102–03)<ref>H. H. Hayden, “Notices of the Geology of the Country near Bedford Springs in Pennsylvania, and the Bath or Berkeley spring in Virginia, with remarks upon those waters,” ''The American Journal of Science and Arts'' 19, no. 1 (January 1831), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/7T5WQA6A view on Zotero].</ref>

:“On my return from Bedford springs, I passed by the way of Pigeon-cove Valley, across the narrow part of Maryland into Virginia, to Bath or Berkeley springs, so called, being in what was but recently Berkeley county. These springs issues from the food and on the east side of an abrupt and elevated ridge, running in a north east direction, about five miles, to the Potomac River, where it terminates, opposite the town of Hancock, Maryland. Little can be said in favor of the village of Bath, since, with the exception of a few buildings, it presents the appearance of dilapidation and ruins. The accommodations for visitors are, however, tolerable, at least for such as are not fastidious. The springs, which are principally magnesian and justly celebrated, especially for the chronic affections, and also the fine and spacious [[bath]]s attached to them, constitute the principal inducement that attracts persons to this place. Indeed, such is their celebrity, that they are, annually, during the months of July and August, frequented, (and that too in no inconsiderable numbers,) by persons of the highest respectability.” [[#Paulding_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Kercheval"></div>Kercheval, Samuel, 1833, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1833: 473)<ref>Samuel Kercheval, ''The History of the Valley of Virginia'' (Winchester, VA: Samuel H. Davis, 1833), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/IRHEDX6N view on Zotero].</ref>

:“This is doubtless the most ancient watering place in the valley. Tradition relates that those springs were known to the Indians as possessing valuable medicinal properties, and were much frequented by them. They were anciently called the ‘Berkeley Warm Springs,’ and have always kept their character for their medical virtues. They are much resorted to not only for their value as medicinal waters, but as a place (in the season) of recreation and pleasure. Bath has become a considerable village, is the seat of justice in Morgan county, and has several stores and fine boarding houses. It is too publicly known to require further notice in this work.” [[#Kercheval_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="duPont"></div>Du Pont, Sophie Madeleine, July 21, 1837, in a letter to Clementina Smith describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Low and Hinsley 1987: 173, 176, 177, 179)<ref>Betty-Bright Low and Jacqueline Hinsley, ''Sophie du Pont, A Young Lady in America: Sketches, Diaries, & Letters, 1823–1833'' (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/U2EJBX3K view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Warm Springs. . . . The most abundant of these gushes from the earth in the middle of a large octagonal [[basin]] of mason work covered with a wooden building having an opening at the top, & four neat & comfortable rooms on as many sides for the accommodation of bathing. This [[bath]] is thirty eight feet in diameter; & the temperature of water 96 degrees—It is one of the most curious & beautiful objects I have seen, the water is pure & translucent to an almost dazzling degree, & rises in ceaseless flow, accompanied by showers of bright gleaming air bubbles. . . .

:The settlement of the springs, consisting of two large brick hotels with long [[piazza]]s in front, & several rows of brick or log cabins, has nothing very pretty about it, except its situation, in an undulating valley completely embosomed in the mountains. Altho’ there is so little company here that we had our choice of rooms anywhere, we preferred a cabin, to be nearer the spring; & we could not have made a better choice….

:Our domicile consists of two rooms communicating, in which we have every thing we want to make us comfortable, & a very attentive & obliging maid to bring us our meals & all we wish for – The front door (from my room) opens towards the roads, & on a path which leads up to the hotel! The door of Elizas room leads out into a green sloping [[meadow]], planted with trees, in the centre of which are the warm springs….

:There are several other springs of the same kind in the [[meadow]]—round one a platform is built with benches, under shady trees, for those who drink the water, which notwithstanding its odour of half spoiled eggs & its warmth, is not very nauseous to the taste—Another [[bathhouse|bath house]] contains four small [[bath]]s, into one of which a spout is arranged for the benefit of those who are recommended to take douches. I have tried this at Dr Horner’s request & think it of service to me, as well as the bathing." [[#duPont_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Moorman"></div>Moorman, Dr. John J., 1854, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1854: 264–65)<ref>John J. Moorman, ''The Virginia Springs: Comprising an Account of All the Principal Mineral Springs of Virginia, with Remarks on the Nature and Medical Applicability of Each'', 2nd ed. (Richmond: J. W. Randolph, 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/4PSBVGF3 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The gentlemen’s bath house, a substantial brick building, contains ten large bathing rooms. The baths are of cement, 12 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 4 ½ deep, filled from a reservoir by a four inch pipe, and containing about 1600 gallons each. In addition to this, and for the use of the gentlemen, there is a swimming bath, 60 feet long by 20 wide, and 5 feet deep, containing 50,000 gallons. The superstructure is handsome and tasteful, 82 feet long, and contains 14 dressing rooms. The luxury of disporting in this ample and exhilarating pool can only by appreciated by those who have indulged in it.

:The ladies’ bath house is an elegant structure on the opposite side of the grove, 90 feet long, which contains in addition to 9 private baths, a plunge bath 30 feet long by 16 feet wide, 4 ½ feet deep, and floored with white marble. There is also an establishment for shower spout and artificial warm baths. The bathing area is surrounded by a beautiful grove several acres in extent and handsomely improved.

:The Hotel accommodations are extensive and well gotten up.

:Strother’s, the principal hotel at the place, is a large, elegant and well conducted establishment, adjoining the grove, and will comfortably accommodate about 400 persons. It is built upon three sides of a quadrangle 168 feet front by 198, the front building being four stories high, the wings respectively being two and three stories. The court-yard is tastefully ornamented with trees, flowers, and shrubbery. Altogether it constitutes one of the most extensive and comfortable establishments to be found at any of our places of fashionable resort.” [[#Moorman_cite|back up to History]]

*R.J., 1854, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1854: 264–65)<ref>R. J. “Rambling Sketches: Berkeley Springs: Historical and Social,” ''The Southern Literary Messenger'' (December 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/89ZRZSN5 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The swimming bath is for pure recreation and cleanliness, a delightful place. It is fifty or sixty feet long, about forty feet broad, and as clear as crystal. The depth is about five feet—the bottom smooth cement. It is the finest bath I have ever seen, though doubtless there are many larger. You reach the baths through the grove, which is a pleasant promenade. It extends nearly to the top of the mountain. . . . For simple recreation, no place could be more agreeable; and the man who visits Berkeley and the White Sulphur and Saratoga, and returns in preference to either of the latter, is a hopeless case.”

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="5">

Image:2218.jpg|John Warner, ''A survey of the northern neck of Virginia, being the lands belonging to the Rt. Honourable Thomas Lord Fairfax Baron Cameron…as surveyed according to order in the years 1736 & 1737,'' ca. 1747. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, DC.

File:0462.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, ''Warm or Berkley Springs, in Virginia'', from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June–September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.

Image:0461.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, Plan of Bath (Berkeley Springs), VA [detail], 1787, from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June-September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.

Image:0460.jpg|Charles Varlé, ''Project for the Improvement of the Square and the Town of Bath'' [detail], c. 1809. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, DC.

Image:1781.jpg|Sophie Madeleine du Pont, Octagonal Bath at Warm Springs (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.15)

Image:1782.jpg|Sophie Madeleine du Pont, ''Spout bath at Warm Springs'' (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.17)

Image:2219.jpg|David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', sheet music cover, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.

Image:2220.jpg|David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', notated music, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80051018.html Library of Congress Authority File]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]

Berkeley Springs

2019-12-30T16:28:04Z

L-Baradel: /* Texts */

'''Berkeley Springs''', a resort area in present-day Morgan County, West Virginia, has been well known for its mineral springs since the precolonial period. The Virginia Assembly established the town of Bath (later renamed Berkeley Springs) in 1776, and the town’s trustees soon commissioned the construction of public [[bath|bathhouse]]s in the town [[square]]. It has remained a prominent public spa and leisure destination since the time of its founding.

==Overview==

'''Alternate Names:''' Warm Springs; Medicinal Springs; Frederick Springs; Bath<br/>
'''Site Dates:''' precolonial–present<br/>
'''Site Owner(s):''' Sixth Lord Fairfax (1719–1776); Trustees of Bath (1776–1925); West Virginia Commissioner of Public Institutions (1925–1970); West Virginia Department of Natural Resources (1970–present) <br/>
'''Associated People:''' James Rumsey (builder), Charles Varlé (designer) <br/>
'''Location:''' Morgan County, WV <br/>
'''Condition:''' extant; altered<br/>
[https://goo.gl/maps/XvbGG9SPYmJAdJWS9 View on Google maps]

<hr>

==History==
Berkeley Springs is located 1,710 feet above sea level in a valley on the eastern edge of Warm Springs Ridge less than a mile east of the Potomac River in present-day Morgan County, West Virginia.<ref>David L. Taylor, “Town of Bath Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2009), 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero].</ref> The alleged medicinal properties of the area’s mineral springs drew people to both consume and bathe in the waters, and attracted various Native American peoples to visit the area long before European colonists began using the springs regularly around 1740.<ref>James E. Harding, “Berkeley Springs State Park,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1976), 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:2229.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 1, John Warner, ''A survey of the northern neck of Virginia, being the lands belonging to the Rt. Honourable Thomas Lord Fairfax Baron Cameron…as surveyed according to order in the years 1736 & 1737,'' ca. 1747 [detail]. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, Washington, DC.]]
During the colonial period, the springs lay within the Northern Neck Proprietary, a territory of more than five million acres between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers that belonged to Thomas, Baron Cameron, sixth Lord Fairfax (1693–1781).<ref>Lord Fairfax inherited one-sixth of the Northern Neck Proprietary upon the death of his maternal grandmother in the spring of 1710. He inherited the remaining five-sixths of the proprietary from his mother, Katherine Culpeper Fairfax, in May 1719. She had inherited the land from her father, Thomas Culpeper, second baron Culpeper of Thoresway, who had served as governor of Virginia from 1677–1683. See Warren R. Hofstra, “Thomas Fairfax, sixth baron Fairfax of Cameron (1693–1781)," ''Dictionary of Virginia Biography'', Library of Virginia, 2016, http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Fairfax_Thomas_baron_Fairfax_of_Cameron. </ref> Since this time, the springs have been known by many names, including Warm Springs, the appellation used in an early survey map of the Northern Neck [Fig. 1].<ref>This is not to be confused with the town Warm Springs located in Bath County, Virginia, which has also attracted visitors since the colonial period. For more on the history of Warm Springs, Virginia, see Carl Bridenbaugh, “Baths and Watering Places of Colonial America,” ''The William and Mary Quarterly'' 3, no. 2 (April 1946): 163, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FDI9CBAU view on Zotero].</ref> By the mid-1740s, white settlers had reportedly begun to erect makeshift accommodations in the area.<ref>Harding 1976, 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Fairfax_cite"></span>As early as June 1747, Fairfax proposed a town and promised to “give all Encouragement to invite People to inhabit and Settle there" ([[#Fairfax|view text]]). <span id="Washington_1748_cite"></span>A young [[George Washington]], serving as an assistant on a surveying trip for Lord Fairfax, recorded in his diary his first visit to the “Fam’d Warm Springs” in March 1748, suggesting the site’s familiarity to Virginia colonists by this early date ([[#Washington_1748|view text]]).

Although a town was not officially established at Berkeley Springs for another thirty years, the waters continued to attract visitors of different backgrounds and social classes who sought a cure for ailments such as rheumatism or who simply desired rest and relaxation.<ref>Bridenbaugh 1946, 161, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FDI9CBAU view on Zotero].</ref> Moravian missionaries Joseph Spangenberg and Matthew Reutz stopped at Berkeley Springs in 1748 and enjoyed the proximity of the site’s warm and cold springs, noting that “being in the one, you can reach into the other."<ref>Quoted in William J. Hinke and Charles E. Kemper, “Moravian Diaries of Travels through Virginia (Continued),” ''The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' 11, no. 3 (January 1904): 238, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H64SNKMH view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Thomas_cite"></span>Dr. Thomas Walker of Albemarle County recorded his encounter in 1750 with “Six Invalids” and found the springs to be “very clear and warmer than New milk” ([[#Thomas|view text]]). When [[George Washington|Washington]] returned to Berkeley Springs in August 1761 to seek relief from rheumatic fever, he found more than two hundred people “of both sexes…full of all manner of diseases & Complaints.” This number is surprising given how difficult it was to reach the springs during this period; [[George Washington|Washington]] found the terrain to be quite rugged and struggled to pass a road blocked by fallen trees. After completing the arduous trip, bathers often had to construct their own rudimentary shelters. <span id="Washington_1761_cite"></span>[[George Washington|Washington]] was grateful to have secured a tent to pitch, writing that otherwise he “would have been in a most miserable situation” ([[#Washington_1761|view text]]). <span id="Washington_1769_cite"></span> By August 1769, the amenities at the springs had apparently improved enough for [[George Washington|Washington]] to bring his wife and stepdaughter with him in a desperate bid to treat the latter’s seizures ([[#Washington_1769|view text]]).<ref>According to Jeanne Mozier and Betty Lou Harmison, Washington was able to stay in houses during his visits to Warm Springs in the late 1760s, including a house that belonged to his friend James Mercer. ''Berkeley Springs'', Images of America (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2011), 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Fithian_cite"></span>Philip Vickers Fithian (1747–1776), a diarist and Presbyterian minister, stopped in 1775 to drink the waters while on a missionary tour of the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontier. He reported approximately four hundred people at Berkeley Springs—about half of whom he estimated to be ill. The other half were there presumably to enjoy what had evolved into a site of leisure with various evening entertainments, including a ball, card games, and, to his dismay, “promiscuous Company” engaged in “Amusements in all Shapes” ([[#Fithian|view text]]).

The influx of summer visitors prompted the Virginia General Assembly to improve the site and formally establish a town at the springs. A 1776 act called for “the laying off of fifty acres of land in lots and streets” in the hopes of “encouraging the purchasers thereof to build convenient houses for accommodating numbers of infirm person, who frequent those springs yearly for the recovery of their health.”<ref>Harding 1976, 5–6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> The town, which the Assembly named Bath after the spa in Somerset, England, was to be comprised of one-quarter acre lots laid out by appointed trustees. Proceeds from the sale of the lots at public auction were to be paid by the trustees to Lord Fairfax, and purchasers were required to build houses “twelve feet square at least” on their new parcels within a year. <span id="Assembly_cite"></span>The springs—save for one, which remained under the private ownership of Lord Fairfax—were to “be vested in the said trustees in trust, to and for the public use and benefit” ([[#Assembly|view text]]).<ref>Taylor 2009, 55, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Mozier and Harmison 2011, 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Washington_1777_cite"></span>The August 1777 sale attracted several prominent individuals from Maryland and Virginia, including [[George Washington|Washington]], to purchase lots in Bath ([[#Washington_1777|view text]]).<ref>Washington purchased two lots located on the southeast corner of Fairfax and Mercer streets, two blocks from the springs, for the cost of 100 pounds and 15 shillings. Other early Bath landholders included Horatio Gates, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Charles Mynn Thruston, and Fielding Lewis, among others. Taylor 2009, 56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Harding 1976, 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

[[File:0462.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 2, Samuel Vaughan, ''Warm or Berkley Springs, in Virginia'', from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June–September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.]]
<span id="Vaughan_cite"></span>Bath’s streets took the form of a gridded plan arranged just below a large [[square]], as recorded by [[Samuel Vaughan]] in his diary in 1787 [Fig. 2] ([[#Vaughan|view text]]). In another sketch of Berkeley Springs, [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] observed the formation of islands surrounded by the warm spring’s flows, as well as the arrangement of the public [[bath]]s, noting a separate “[[Bath]] for Poor People [g]” [Fig. 3]. Separate [[bath]]s for men and women constructed in the [[square]] in 1786 were likely the work of James Rumsey (c. 1743–1792), an inventor, builder, and “jack-of-all-trades” who had opened a general store and boarding house in town in 1782.<ref>Harding 1976, 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view in Zotero]; and Mabel Henshaw Gardiner and Ann Henshaw Gardiner, ''Chronicles of Old Berkeley: A Narrative History of a Virginia County from Its Beginnings to 1926'' (Durham, NC: The Seeman Press, 1938), 222, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view in Zotero]. The early bathhouses at Berkeley Springs were likely constructed by Rumsey, but this is not certain. See Taylor 2009, 57, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view in Zotero].</ref> The so-called Roman Baths, which are still extant, are in a two-story brick building with a hipped roof that contains ten individual [[bath]] stalls built initially for use by men. Each stall is accessible by a private entrance from the long hallway that runs along the length of the first floor. On the building’s east elevation, a row of ten openings provides ventilation to each stall. The other extant eighteenth-century building, the old [[bathhouse]] or shower [[bath]], was initially constructed for women. The building, a one-story brick building with a hipped roof, is smaller.<ref> Taylor 2009, 56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Harding 1976, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Vaughan_cite"></span>[[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]]'s textual description of Bath notes a flurry of building activity in the town’s early years, including 164 houses constructed over a four-year period, a playhouse, a Methodist church, and several taverns with [[piazza]]s that were among “the best calculated for America of any [he had] seen”([[#Vaughan|view text]]).
[[File:0461.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 3, Samuel Vaughan, Plan of Bath (Berkeley Springs), VA [detail], 1787, from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June-September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.]]

Berkeley Springs continued to prosper as a resort until about 1805 when a fever plagued the summer guest population, reducing the number of seasonal visitors by more than half for the next several years. The relative inaccessibility of Berkeley Springs compared to other springs in the region also contributed to its decline. In 1809 Charles Varlé proposed a redesign to improve Bath’s [[public garden]]. His drawing indicated, among other features, a [[canal]] with a foot [[bridge]] [A], a [[basin]] with a [[jet d’eau]] in the center [B & C], a reservoir or [[fountain]] “covered with a vine treliage in a form of a dome or copula” [E], an additional [[bath]] [F], a sunken [[bowling green]] [H] within a [[parterre]], a two-sided [[sundial]] [I] located near the [[basin]] and [[bowling green]], and two [[labyrinth]]s “contrived so as to be different in their issues and windings” [K] [Fig. 4]. Colonel Robert Bailey (1773–1827), an infamous gambler and entrepreneur, also made a concerted effort to revitalize the resort’s reputation. <span id="Bailey_cite"></span>In an 1813 advertisement he promoted the quality of the springs’ waters, [[bath]]s, [[walk]]s, and lodging, and personally guaranteed that visitors who stayed in his guesthouse would be well satisfied ([[#Bailey|view text]]).
[[File:0460.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 4, Charles Varlé, ''Project for the Improvement of the Square and the Town of Bath'' [detail], c. 1809. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, DC.]]

[[File:1781.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 5, Sophie Madeleine du Pont, Octagonal Bath at Warm Springs (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.15).]]
Visitors to Berkeley Springs during the first half of the nineteenth century celebrated the quality of the springs but sometimes found the town’s infrastructure and amenities wanting. <span id="Paulding_cite"></span>In 1816 James Kirke Paulding (1778–1860) declared “the spring which supplies the ladies’ [[bath]] is one of the finest I have ever seen” ([[#Paulding|view text]]). <span id="Hayden_cite"></span> By 1831, Dr. H. H. Hayden wrote of his disappointment in the “appearance of dilapidation and ruins” that characterized most of Bath’s buildings, although he praised the springs and “the fine and spacious [[bath]]s attached to them” ([[#Hayden|view text]]). <span id="Kercheval_cite"></span>The author and Virginia historian Samuel Kercheval (1767–1845) took a more favorable view in 1833, celebrating the well-known seasonal appeal of Berkeley Springs as a destination for “recreation and pleasure” ([[#Kercheval|view text]]). Sophie du Pont, who visited the springs in 1837, on the other hand, found “nothing very pretty about [Bath], except its situation, in an undulating valley,” but commended the large octagonal [[bathhouse]] [Fig. 5], as “one of the most curious & beautiful objects I have seen, the water is pure & translucent to an almost dazzling degree.” <span id="duPont_cite"></span>She bathed in a smaller [[bathhouse]] comprising four small stalls, including one with a spout [Fig. 6], which she tried at her doctor’s behest ([[#duPont|view text]]).
[[File:1782.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 6, Sophie Madeleine du Pont, ''Spout bath at Warm Springs'' (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.17).]]

[[File:2219.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 7, David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', sheet music cover, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.]] [[File:2220.jpg|thumb|left|David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', notated music, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.]]
The town’s fortunes improved with the extension in 1842 of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad into Sir John’s Run, located just to the west of Bath, making Berkeley Springs the only major resort in the state accessible by rail at that time. But, in a devastating blow to the recent revitalization efforts, an 1844 fire destroyed most of the eighteenth-century buildings. Colonel John Strother (1792–1862), who had operated boardinghouses in town before the fire, built the Berkeley Springs Hotel (also known by the names Pavilion Hotel and Strother’s Hotel), which was completed in 1848 at the southern end of the [[park]]. It was the largest building at the resort and could accommodate four hundred guests.<ref> Harding 1976, 6–7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero]; Taylor 2009, 58, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Mozier and Harmison 2011, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Moorman_cite"></span>Dr. John J. Moorman wrote in 1854 that the u-shaped hotel was situated next to a [[grove]] and that the courtyard was “tastefully ornamented with trees, flowers, and [[shrubbery]]” ([[#Moorman|view text]]). Strother’s son David H. Strother (1816–1888), an artist, included in his 1851 sheet music cover for “A Day at Berkeley Springs” (an instrumental “descriptive piece” composed by Erneste Szemelňyi) a depiction of the hotel at the left as well as the public [[pavilion]] and [[fountain]] at the center [Fig. 7]. The hotel remained a popular accommodation and entertainment venue—known for hosting lively balls and concerts—until it was destroyed by fire in March 1898.<ref>Harding 1976, 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

Although Berkeley Spring’s popularity ebbed and flowed over time—as transportation developments made the town more accessible to tourists at the same time that fires and other challenges (not least the U.S. Civil War) caused significant setbacks—it has remained open to the public since its founding in 1776. West Virginia’s Department of Natural Resources has overseen the public [[square]] and [[bathhouse]]s, which operate as Berkeley Springs State Park, since 1970.

—''Lacey Baradel''

<hr>

==Texts==
*<div id="Fairfax"></div>Lord Fairfax, June 1, 1747, in a letter to an unknown recipient (possibly Warner Washington) describing his plans for land near Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Conway 1892: 246–47)<ref> Moncure Daniel Conway, ''Barons of the Potomack and the Rappahannock'' (New York: The Grolier Club, 1892), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/TAG2KD5N view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Having been informed that several Persons who go to drink and bath in the Medicinal Springs near the Mountains of Cape Capon and River Potomack, within my Proprietary, do not unnecessarily bark and cut down Timber Trees on the waste and ungranted Lands near the said Springs and the Mountain adjacent, more than useful for the erecting and building the Houses and Cottages required to shelter them, I desire You will in my Name use your best Endeavors to prevent such waste of Timber. . . .

:You may assure the Gentlemen and Others that if the Waters continue to be useful in relieving the Sick I shall cause the Lands around the Springs to be surveyd, and Number of convenient Lots laid off for a Town, also give all Encouragement to invite People to inhabit and Settle there.” [[#Fairfax_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1748"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], March 18, 1748, in a diary entry describing a visit to Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref> Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-01-02-0001-0002-0008 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“We Travell’d up about 35 Miles to Thomas Barwicks on Potomack where we found the River so excessively high by Reason of the Great Rains that had fallen up about the Allegany Mountains as they told us which was then bringing down the melted Snow & that it would not be fordable for severall Days it was then above Six foot Higher than usual & was Rising. We agreed to stay till Monday. We this day call’d to see the Fam’d Warm Springs. We camped out in the field this Night.” [[#Washington_1748_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Thomas"></div>Walker, Thomas, July 9, 1750, in a diary entry describing a visit to Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in McAllister 1911: 172)<ref> J. T. McAllister, “Early Settlers in Greenbrier County. Extracts from the Journal of Dr. Thomas Walker,” ''The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' 19, no. 2 (April 1911), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DZVZ67R4 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“July 9th, we went to the Hot Springs and found Six Invalids there. The Spring Water is very clear and warmer than New milk and there is a Spring of cold Water within 20 feet of the Warm one.” [[#Thomas_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1761"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], August 26–30, 1761, in a letter to Charles Green describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref>Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-07-02-0039 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“To begin then—We arrivd here yesterday, and our Journey (as you may imagine) was not of the most agreable sort, through such Weather & such Roads as we had to encounter; these last for 20 or 25 Miles from hence are almost impassable for Carriages; not so much from the Mountainous Country (but this in fact is very rugged) as from Trees that have fallen across the Road, and renderd the ways intolerable.

:We found of both sexes about 2⟨5⟩0 People at this place, full of all manner of diseases & Complaints; some of which are much benefitted, while others find no relief from the Water’s—two or three Doctors are here, but whether attending as Physicians or to Drink of the Waters I know not—It is thought the Springs will soon begin to loose there Virtues, and the Weather get too cold for People, not well provided, to remain here—They are situated very badly on the East side of a steep Mountain, and Inclosed by Hills on all Sides, so that the Afternoon’s Sun is hid by 4 Oclock and the Fogs hang over us till 9 or 10 wch occasion’s great Damps and the Mornings and Evenings to be cool.

:The Place I am told, and indeed have found it so already, is supplyed with Provisions of all kinds—good Beef & venison, fine Veal, Lamb, Fowls &ca may be bought at almost any time; but Lodgings can be had on no Terms but building for them, and I am of opinion that numbers get more hurt by there manner of lying, than the Waters can do them good—had we not succeeded in getting a Tent & marquee from Winchester we shoud have been in a most miserable situation here.

:In regard to myself I must beg leave to say, that I was much overcome with the fatigue of the Ride & Weather together—however I think my Fevers are a good deal abated, altho my Pains grow rather worse, & my sleep equally disturbd; what effect the Waters may have upon me I cant say at present, but I expect Nothing from the Air—this certainly must be unwholesome—I purpose to stay here a fortnight & longer if benefitted.” [[#Washington_1761_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1769"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], August 18, 1769, in a letter to John Armstrong describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref>Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-08-02-0164 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“About a fortnight ago I came to this place with Mrs Washington and her daughter, the latter of whom being troubled with a complaint, which the efficacy of these Waters it is thought might remove, we resolvd to try them, but have found little benefit as yet from the experiment; what a Week or two more may do, we know not, & therefore are inclind to put them to the Test. it was with much pleasure however I hear by Mr Clingan that you stand in no need of assistance from these Springs which I find are applied to in all cases, altho. there be a moral certainty of their hurting in some—Many poor, miserable objects are now attending here, which I hope will receive the desired benefit, as I dare say they are deprivd of the means of obtaining any other relief, from their Indigent Circumstances.” [[#Washington_1769_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Fithian"></div>Fithian, Philip Vickers, August 31–September 1, 1775, in diary entries describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (Fithian 1934: 123–26)<ref>Philip Vickers Fithian, ''Philip Vickers Fithian: Journal, 1775–1776. Written on the Virginia-Pennsylvania Frontier and in the Army Around New York'', eds. Robert Greenhalgh Albion and Leonidas Dodson (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1934), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/47NU5BKR view on Zotero].</ref>

:“August 31

:Warm Spring by 4 Evening. . . . Cloudy sloppy Day. . . .

:Huge Stone tumbled from the Mountain directly to the Drinking-Spring. . . .

:I took Lodging at Mrs. Baker’s. Mr. Miller, an aged Rheumatic Invalid taken ill in the [[Bath]].

:Fryday Sept: 1

:Drank early & freely of the Waters. About four Hundred now present. Near one Half of these visibly indisposed. Many in sore Distress. . . . Tickets going about for a Ball this Evening. . . .

:Evening

:In one Part of the little bush Village a splendid Ball—At some Distance, & within hearing, a Methodist Preacher was haranguing the People. Frequent Writings on the Plates, &c—In our dining Room Companies at Cards. . . . I walked out among the Bushes here also was—Amusements in all Shapes, & in high Degrees, are constantly taking Place among so promiscuous Company. The Observation, when on the Spot, to see it in real Life. I can picture it out but sadly, is curious & improving.” [[#Fithian_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Assembly"></div>General Assembly of Virginia, October 1776, in an Act establishing the town of Bath at Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Gardiner and Gardiner 1938: 50–51)<ref> Gardiner and Gardiner 1938, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Whereas it hath been represented to this General Assembly, that the laying off of fifty acres of land in lots and streets for a town at the Warm Springs in the county of Berkeley, will be of great utility by encouraging the purchasers thereof to build convenient houses for accommodating numbers of infirm persons, who frequent those springs yearly for the recovery of their health: Be it enacted,. . . That fifty acres of land adjoining the said springs, being a part of a larger tract of land, the property of the Right Thomas Lord Fairfax, or other person or persons holding the same by a grant or conveyance of him, be and is hereby vested in Bryan Fairfax, Thomas Bryan Martin, Warner Washington, the Reverend Charles Mynn Thurston, Robert Rutherford, Alexander White, Philip Pendleton, Samuel Washington, William Ellzey, Van Searingen, Thomas Hite, James N. Edmundson, James Nourse, Gentlemen, trustees, to be by them, or any seven of them, laid out into lots of one quarter of an acre each with convenient streets, which shall be and the same is hereby established a town, by the name of Bath. . . . The said lots to be sold at public auction. . . . The purchasers building a dwelling house twelve feet square at least…trustees to pay the money from the sale to Thomas Lord Fairfax.

:''And be it further enacted'', That all the said Warm Springs except one large and convenient spring suitable for a bath, shall be vested in the said trustees in trust, to and for the public use and benefit and for no other purpose whatsoever.” [[#Assembly_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Washington_1777"></div>[[George Washington|Washington, George]], October 27, 1777, in a letter to Samuel Washington describing his purchase of land at Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref>Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-12-02-0030 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“I am very glad Colo. Lewis purchased a Lott or two for me at the Warm Springs, as it was always my Intention to become a Proprietor there if a Town should be laid off at that place. Two Lotts is not more than I wish’d to possess, but if he is altogether disappointed, and cannot be otherwise supplied, I will, under those circumstances, part with one of mine—of this you will inform him; and I shall not only depend upon, but thank, & pay you chearfully, for the Improvements which are necessarily erected for the saving of the Lotts. As I do not know what Sort of Buildings the Act of Assembly requires to save the Lotts, I can give no directions about them; but, if I hold both Lotts which I had rather do I would reserve the best spott for a tolerable convenient dwelling House to be built hereafter. and, if a House which may (hereafter) serve for a Kitchen, together with a Stable, would be sufficient to save the Lotts, they might be so placed as to appear uniform & clever, when the whole are finished, and in that case, content myself with building for the present no more than the Kitchen and Stable.” [[#Washington_1777_cite|back up to History]]

*Anonymous, June 19, 1784, notice in a Richmond, VA, newspaper describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Gardiner and Gardiner 1938: 53)<ref> Gardiner and Gardiner 1938, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“In Berkeley County five [[bathhouse|bathing houses]], with adjacent dressing rooms, are already completed; an assembly room and theatre are also constructed for the innocent and rational amusement of the polite who may assemble there.

:The American Company of Comedians, it is expected, will open there, under the direction of Mr. Ryan, on the 15th of July, and to continue till the 1st of September. It is supposed they will prove so acceptable to the Bathers as to encourage the proprietor to renew his visits yearly.”

*[[George Washington|Washington, George]], September 6, 1784, in a diary entry describing his plans for his property at Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV)<ref> Washington Papers, [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-04-02-0001-0001-0006 ''Founders Online'', National Archives].</ref>

:“Having obtained a Plan of this Town (Bath) and ascertained the situation of my lots therein, which I examined; it appears that the disposition of a dwelling House; Kitchen & Stable cannot be more advantageously placed than they are marked in the copy I have taken from the plan of the Town; to which I refer for recollection, of my design; & Mr. Rumsey being willing to undertake those Buildings, I have agreed with him to have them finished by the 10th. of next July. The dwelling House is to be 36 feet by 24, with a gallery of 7 feet on each side of the House, the whole fronts. Under the House is to be a Cellar half the size of it, walled with Stone, and the whole underpined. On the first floor are to be 3 rooms; one of them 24 by 20 feet, with a chimney at the end (middle thereof)—the other two to be 12 by 16 feet with corner chimneys. On the upper Floor there are to be two rooms of equal sizes, with fire places; the Stair case to go up in the Gallery—galleries above also. The Kitchen and Stable are to be of the same size—18 by 22; the first with a stone Chimney and good floor above. The Stable is to be sunk in the ground, so as that the floor above it on the North, or side next the dwelling House, shall be level with the Yard—to have a partition therein—the West part of which to be for a Carriage, Harness, and Saddles—the East for Hay or Grain—all three of the Houses to be shingled with [ ]”

*<div id="Vaughan"></div> [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan, Samuel]], July 14, 1787, in a diary entry describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (Vaughan: 32, 34–35)<ref>Samuel Vaughan, Samuel Vaughan Diary, 1787–1796, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/NIGWMHCK view in Zotero].</ref>

:“The warm [[Bath]]s, as on the otherside [sic], are situated on the lower side of a [[square]] on the East Mountain, & opposite to the principal Street. The Town consists of three long parallel streets & eight at right Angles. There is at present 172 houses, of which 164 have been built within the last four years, a play house well constructed, an Assembly & tea room, a house for the poor[,] a Methodist Church building & Mr. Wolley of Liverpool having bought a Double large framed house, hath this spring built adjoining these to a dining room 54 by 24, five bard rooms adjoining & a drawing room 18 by 24 over which an Assembly room 72 feet by 24 & 14 feet high, & a tea room 33 feet by 25, with [[piazza]]s on both side [of] the houses all completely framed & well filled, which is to be called the Bell Inn. There are several other taverns three of them good framed houses of 2 stories, with [[piazza]]s & [[seat]]s round to both stories & on both sides & the best calculated for America of any I have seen. The town is situated in a vale & partly on the side of the East & west Mountain, the Lots differing in Elevation. At the South end of the town on the west hill there is a range of Rocks & a mile above there is a remarkable cold [?] spring. The warm springs flow in great abundance from the base of the western mountain, forming three romantick Islands, & when all accumilated [sic] forms a large body of water which runs diagonally through the town. The hills on each side with beautiful hanging [[wood|woods]], renders the whole truly [[picturesque]], romantick and original; the climate is temperate, provisions cheap & plenty, except [[green]]s which are scarce. A charming retreat in hot or unhealthy weather, tho too much used for disipation [sic] & gambling, The water is pure & light, without any apparent medical quality, tho found in many cases beneficial. To try their effect & for 3 days drink 3 quarts each day & that only, it causes a swimming [sic] in my head, want quickly of an opening quality by urine & I thought it created an appetite; it is scarcely so warm as milk from the Cow & said to be 57 degrees Fahrenheit thermal. There were 4 Methodist preachers (two for health,) services 3 times on Sunday & once or twice on week days, which are well attended by the lower sort to the neglect on week days of their businesses & families. There was 14 or 15 stores & like many well furnished with goods, for which I should think there was little encouragement; when I left it there was not above 30 persons of note arrived, but it was early in the Season.” [[#Vaughan_cite|back up to History]]

*[[Benjamin Henry Latrobe|Latrobe, Benjamin Henry]], July 1796, in a journal entry about discussing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV), with [[George Washington]] at [[Mount Vernon]] (Latrobe 1905: 54–55)<ref>Benjamin Henry Latrobe, ''The Journal of Latrobe: The Notes and Sketches of an Architect, Naturalist and Traveler in the United States from 1796 to 1820'' (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1905), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/N49VTQS8 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Having inquired after the family I had left, the conversation turned upon Bath, to which they were going. He said he had known the place when there was scarce a house upon it fit to step in, that the accommodations were, he believed, very good at present. He thought the best thing a family, regularly and constantly visiting Bath, could do would be to build a house for their separate accommodation, the expense of which might be two hundred pounds. He has himself a house there which he supposed must be going to ruin. Independent of his public situation, the increased dissipation and frequency of visitors would be an objection to his visiting it again, unless the health of himself or family should render it necessary. At first that was the motive, he said, that induced people to encounter the badness of the roads and the inconvenience of the lodgings, but at present few, he believed, in comparison of the whole number, had health in view. Even those whose object it was, were interrupted in their quiet by the dissipation of the rest. This, he observed, must naturally be the case in every large collection of men whose minds were not occupied by pressing business or personal interest. In these and many more observations of the same kind there was no moroseness nor anything that appeared as if the rapidly increasing immorality of the citizens particularly impressed him at the time he made them. They seemed the well-expressed remarks of a man who has seen and knows the world.”

*<div id="Bailey"></div>Bailey, Robert, June 26, 1813, in a promotion in the Winchester Gazette for Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (Bailey 1813: 3)<ref>Robert Bailey, “Bath Berkeley Springs,” ''Winchester Gazette'' (June 26, 1813), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/ZKR7U28H view on Zotero]. </ref>

:“Those Ladies and Gentlemen, of Winchester in particular, and the state in general, wishing to visit Bath Berkeley Springs in Virginia, (near Martinsburg,) being the Theatre of America for three months of the year (June, July, August, and even September,) are respectfully informed that the Waters are in their strongest state and in the greatest purity; the [[Bath]]s and [[Walk]]s in the best order, and every attention paid by the subscriber, to render full satisfaction. . . . [T]he public may depend on having the best accommodation—clean beds and bedding, with comfortable rooms; choice liquors, wines, &c. which have been carefully collected; and the tables will be decorated in the first style.

:The subscriber having several houses at Berkeley Springs, he will make the table to suit parties, or have a general table as the Guests may think proper.

:The subscriber has a Drawing Room furnished for the Ladies, a Piano Forte, Maps of different kinds, reading room, &c—a grand Band of Music for balls, once or twice a week as the company may thing [sic] proper. The very best servants are selected for attendance, and every attention paid. . . ." [[#Bailey_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Paulding"></div>Paulding, James Kirke, 1816, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1817: 2:227, 235–36)<ref>James Kirke Paulding, ''Letters from the South'', 2 vols. (New York: James Eastburn, 1817), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H5XVF9WE view on Zotero].</ref>

:“As it is prevailing opinion among your fellow-citizens, that there is nothing refined to the south of Schuylkill, and no watering-place worth visiting except Long-Branch, I will try and set you right in this matter. The truth is, these springs are as gay, as fashionable, and far more delightfully situated than any I have ever visited. In all the constituents of a fashionable watering-place, Berkeley maintains a most respectable rank, inasmuch as it affords as great a variety of character, as many gay equipages, and gay people, and almost as great a lack of variety of amusement, as Ballston or Long-Branch. . . .

:. . . we staid nearly a week at Berkeley. There is a fine drawing-room here, in which the ladies meet to chat, or work, and play at chess, or devise some pleasant excursion. Every night or two there is a ball, in a very splendid room appropriated to that purpose; and in afternoons it is pleasant to stroll backwards and forwards along the brook that skirts the [[green]] in front of the springs, that gush out from the foot of the mountain. There is a [[pavilion]] built over the spring, which is used for drinking, and two [[bathhouse|bath-houses]] —one for either sex. The spring which supplies the ladies’ [[bath]] is one of the finest I have ever seen. It bursts from a fissure in the rock in the form of a cone, much larger than the crown of a hat, and, together with the others, forms a fine stream, in some places six or eight yards wide. This place was formerly the property of the family of Fairfax, once lords of a great portion of the tract of country called the Great Northern Neck of Virginia, situated between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. One of these potent chieftains vested the springs and a little tract around in trustees, to be chosen from time to time, for the use of all comers for ever. People using the [[bath]]s pay a small sum, which is appropriated by the trustees to keeping up the repairs of the place, and other objects of utility and ornament.” [[#Paulding_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Hayden"></div>Hayden, Dr. H. H., 1829, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1831: 102–03)<ref>H. H. Hayden, “Notices of the Geology of the Country near Bedford Springs in Pennsylvania, and the Bath or Berkeley spring in Virginia, with remarks upon those waters,” ''The American Journal of Science and Arts'' 19, no. 1 (January 1831), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/7T5WQA6A view on Zotero].</ref>

:“On my return from Bedford springs, I passed by the way of Pigeon-cove Valley, across the narrow part of Maryland into Virginia, to Bath or Berkeley springs, so called, being in what was but recently Berkeley county. These springs issues from the food and on the east side of an abrupt and elevated ridge, running in a north east direction, about five miles, to the Potomac River, where it terminates, opposite the town of Hancock, Maryland. Little can be said in favor of the village of Bath, since, with the exception of a few buildings, it presents the appearance of dilapidation and ruins. The accommodations for visitors are, however, tolerable, at least for such as are not fastidious. The springs, which are principally magnesian and justly celebrated, especially for the chronic affections, and also the fine and spacious [[bath]]s attached to them, constitute the principal inducement that attracts persons to this place. Indeed, such is their celebrity, that they are, annually, during the months of July and August, frequented, (and that too in no inconsiderable numbers,) by persons of the highest respectability.” [[#Paulding_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Kercheval"></div>Kercheval, Samuel, 1833, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1833: 473)<ref>Samuel Kercheval, ''The History of the Valley of Virginia'' (Winchester, VA: Samuel H. Davis, 1833), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/IRHEDX6N view on Zotero].</ref>

:“This is doubtless the most ancient watering place in the valley. Tradition relates that those springs were known to the Indians as possessing valuable medicinal properties, and were much frequented by them. They were anciently called the ‘Berkeley Warm Springs,’ and have always kept their character for their medical virtues. They are much resorted to not only for their value as medicinal waters, but as a place (in the season) of recreation and pleasure. Bath has become a considerable village, is the seat of justice in Morgan county, and has several stores and fine boarding houses. It is too publicly known to require further notice in this work.” [[#Kercheval_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="duPont"></div>Du Pont, Sophie Madeleine, July 21, 1837, in a letter to Clementina Smith describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (quoted in Low and Hinsley 1987: 173, 176, 177, 179)<ref>Betty-Bright Low and Jacqueline Hinsley, ''Sophie du Pont, A Young Lady in America: Sketches, Diaries, & Letters, 1823–1833'' (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/U2EJBX3K view on Zotero].</ref>

:“Warm Springs. . . . The most abundant of these gushes from the earth in the middle of a large octagonal [[basin]] of mason work covered with a wooden building having an opening at the top, & four neat & comfortable rooms on as many sides for the accommodation of bathing. This [[bath]] is thirty eight feet in diameter; & the temperature of water 96 degrees—It is one of the most curious & beautiful objects I have seen, the water is pure & translucent to an almost dazzling degree, & rises in ceaseless flow, accompanied by showers of bright gleaming air bubbles. . . .

:The settlement of the springs, consisting of two large brick hotels with long [[piazza]]s in front, & several rows of brick or log cabins, has nothing very pretty about it, except its situation, in an undulating valley completely embosomed in the mountains. Altho’ there is so little company here that we had our choice of rooms anywhere, we preferred a cabin, to be nearer the spring; & we could not have made a better choice….

:Our domicile consists of two rooms communicating, in which we have every thing we want to make us comfortable, & a very attentive & obliging maid to bring us our meals & all we wish for – The front door (from my room) opens towards the roads, & on a path which leads up to the hotel! The door of Elizas room leads out into a green sloping [[meadow]], planted with trees, in the centre of which are the warm springs….

:There are several other springs of the same kind in the [[meadow]]—round one a platform is built with benches, under shady trees, for those who drink the water, which notwithstanding its odour of half spoiled eggs & its warmth, is not very nauseous to the taste—Another [[bath house]] contains four small [[bath]]s, into one of which a spout is arranged for the benefit of those who are recommended to take douches. I have tried this at Dr Horner’s request & think it of service to me, as well as the bathing." [[#duPont_cite|back up to History]]

*<div id="Moorman"></div>Moorman, Dr. John J., 1854, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1854: 264–65)<ref>John J. Moorman, ''The Virginia Springs: Comprising an Account of All the Principal Mineral Springs of Virginia, with Remarks on the Nature and Medical Applicability of Each'', 2nd ed. (Richmond: J. W. Randolph, 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/4PSBVGF3 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The gentlemen’s bath house, a substantial brick building, contains ten large bathing rooms. The baths are of cement, 12 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 4 ½ deep, filled from a reservoir by a four inch pipe, and containing about 1600 gallons each. In addition to this, and for the use of the gentlemen, there is a swimming bath, 60 feet long by 20 wide, and 5 feet deep, containing 50,000 gallons. The superstructure is handsome and tasteful, 82 feet long, and contains 14 dressing rooms. The luxury of disporting in this ample and exhilarating pool can only by appreciated by those who have indulged in it.

:The ladies’ bath house is an elegant structure on the opposite side of the grove, 90 feet long, which contains in addition to 9 private baths, a plunge bath 30 feet long by 16 feet wide, 4 ½ feet deep, and floored with white marble. There is also an establishment for shower spout and artificial warm baths. The bathing area is surrounded by a beautiful grove several acres in extent and handsomely improved.

:The Hotel accommodations are extensive and well gotten up.

:Strother’s, the principal hotel at the place, is a large, elegant and well conducted establishment, adjoining the grove, and will comfortably accommodate about 400 persons. It is built upon three sides of a quadrangle 168 feet front by 198, the front building being four stories high, the wings respectively being two and three stories. The court-yard is tastefully ornamented with trees, flowers, and shrubbery. Altogether it constitutes one of the most extensive and comfortable establishments to be found at any of our places of fashionable resort.” [[#Moorman_cite|back up to History]]

*R.J., 1854, describing Berkeley Springs, VA (later WV) (1854: 264–65)<ref>R. J. “Rambling Sketches: Berkeley Springs: Historical and Social,” ''The Southern Literary Messenger'' (December 1854), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/89ZRZSN5 view on Zotero].</ref>

:“The swimming bath is for pure recreation and cleanliness, a delightful place. It is fifty or sixty feet long, about forty feet broad, and as clear as crystal. The depth is about five feet—the bottom smooth cement. It is the finest bath I have ever seen, though doubtless there are many larger. You reach the baths through the grove, which is a pleasant promenade. It extends nearly to the top of the mountain. . . . For simple recreation, no place could be more agreeable; and the man who visits Berkeley and the White Sulphur and Saratoga, and returns in preference to either of the latter, is a hopeless case.”

<hr>

==Images==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="5">

Image:2218.jpg|John Warner, ''A survey of the northern neck of Virginia, being the lands belonging to the Rt. Honourable Thomas Lord Fairfax Baron Cameron…as surveyed according to order in the years 1736 & 1737,'' ca. 1747. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, DC.

File:0462.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, ''Warm or Berkley Springs, in Virginia'', from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June–September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.

Image:0461.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, Plan of Bath (Berkeley Springs), VA [detail], 1787, from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June-September 1787. Library of Congress Manuscript Washington, DC.

Image:0460.jpg|Charles Varlé, ''Project for the Improvement of the Square and the Town of Bath'' [detail], c. 1809. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, DC.

Image:1781.jpg|Sophie Madeleine du Pont, Octagonal Bath at Warm Springs (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.15)

Image:1782.jpg|Sophie Madeleine du Pont, ''Spout bath at Warm Springs'' (Berkeley Springs), 1837. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. (81.223.17)

Image:2219.jpg|David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', sheet music cover, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.

Image:2220.jpg|David H. Strother (artist) and Erneste Szemelňyi (composer), ''A Day at Berkeley Springs. A Descriptive Piece, op. 27'', notated music, 1851. Library of Congress, Music Division.

</gallery>

<hr>

==Other Resources==
[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80051018.html Library of Congress Authority File]

<hr>

==Notes==
<references/>

<hr>

[[Category:Places]]