Conservatory

History

Numerous published definitions of conservatory indicate that this structure was intended for sheltering citrus trees and other tender plants during the winter. The building type seems to have been invented in the sixteenth century in England and named by John Evelyn in the seventeenth. Although the conservatory was sometimes a free-standing building [Fig. 1], by the early nineteenth century it also was often attached to or formed part of the house, as noted in a plan in the June 1849 Horticulturist [Fig. 2]. Several garden writers, including C. M. Hovey and J. C. Loudon, attempted to distinguish the conservatory from the frequently synonymous term “greenhouse” by arguing that the two forms were fundamentally different. In a conservatory, plants were placed in “free soil” in beds or borders, whereas in the greenhouse they were placed in pots or tubs. In spite of this distinction, the terms seem to have been used synonymously in both American and British garden traditions (see Greenhouse, Hot.house, and Orangery).

Citations of the terms affirm their inter.changeable nature. These references suggest no regional or chronological preference for one term over the other. If there was any nuance or difference in their usage, it was in references to a fine house or structure with architectural pretensions. In these cases, the term “conservatory” seems to have been preferred over that of “greenhouse,” which carried a less architectural and more utilitarian connotation. In his journal, the Horticulturist, A. J. Downing offered many plans for villas and country houses with conservatories. It is interesting to note that in his presentation of house plans, the textual description of some examples used the term “conservatory.” Downing’s plans, however, were inscribed with the word “greenhouse.” In another example, Downing was quite specific about the distinction between the conservatory and common greenhouse, saying that the latter served to supply the former with plants only as they came into “perfection.” The result was that the conservatory was always filled with flowers at the peak of bloom. This display of perennial blooms also led to the alternate name for the conservatory: winter garden. As collections became specialized, more specific terminology was used to describe the conservatory, such as pinery, grapery, or peachery.

In America, the term “conservatory” was applied to a variety of structures including large free-standing buildings, sometimes as long as eighty feet. The term was used also to describe modest spaces of eight to ten feet square (which sometimes were called “plant cabinets”), connected to a main house. Although most descriptions record structures that were rectilinear in plan and longer than they were wide, centrally planned conservatories were also constructed. The architectural style of these buildings usually was matched to that of the houses with which they were associated. For example, Louisa C. Tuthill in her book History of Architecture from the Earliest Times (1848) singled out for praise a large conservatory with a variety of Gothic windows adorning an Elizabethan villa in New Haven.

The success of the conservatory depended upon the efficiency of its heating and ventilation systems. The structure might be as simple as a building with large south-facing windows and a glass roof (often removable) to maximize vertical sunlight. Some conservatories were heated by smoke flues or indoor enclosed stoves. Another method of heating, mentioned by Hovey (1837), was to run hot-water pipes under raised walkways within the structure or along one interior wall.

Loudon brought about a major technical revolution in horticultural architecture in 1812 when he suggested using cast iron and copper for a conservatory’s frames and sashes instead of the traditional structural material of wood. With metals, it became possible to build curving glass-and-iron structures that would last longer, require less mass than wood, and admit more light.

The conservatory was often positioned prominently within the garden because it represented the wealth and erudition of its owner. As John Abercrombie (1817) instructed, it was placed in a “conspicuous part of the Pleasure ground, contiguous to” the house. Since the conservatory was built for the collection of exotics (plants that could not survive without the protection of the glass house), a certain aura of luxury or erudition was associated with the building.

When attached to the house, the conservatory often acted as a transitional space between the architecture of the house and the garden or landscape [Fig. 3]. Hovey (1841) mentioned two examples where the conservatory could be opened by removing glass slats in the warm weather, giving the effect of a piazza adjoining the house.

In the early republic, several of the most important botanical collections boasted large conservatories. Those at Lemon Hill in Philadelphia, dating from the late eighteenth century, were famous and often-illustrated landmarks [Fig. 4]. Elgin Botanic Garden in New York, founded in 1801 in association with the medical school of Columbia College, was represented in prints and paintings by its conservatory [Fig. 5]. The penchant for large private conservatories continued into the mid-nineteenth century, illustrated by the conservatory designed in 1839 by Frederick Catherwood at Montgomery Place [Fig. 6].

As the botanic garden became a part of public gardens and parks, its conservatories became popular places for socializing and spending leisure time in many towns and cities throughout America. As Dr. David Hosack said, regarding conservatories in 1824, “[E]very such edifice, in a place of great public resort, will . . . have its influence in forming and directing the general taste of the country. The novelty of beautiful and curious exotics provided entertainment and rational amusement.” When architect Robert Mills proposed a building for the National Institute in Washington, D.C., in 1841, he presented a Gothic revival museum with four conservatories, flanking the front and rear entrances [Fig. 7]. John Notman’s 1846 design for the Smithsonian Institution [Fig. 8] also featured both projecting conservatory and greenhouse, mirror images of one another.

During the 1830s and 1840s, the increasing appearance of conservatories in America reflected the general fashion for horticultural pursuits among the middle classes. It paralleled the development of commercial nurseries and popular horticultural literature promulgated by writers such as Hovey, Jane Loudon, and Downing, who encouraged the collection of plants in the home. The fashion for amateur gardening, the availability of many new plants, and the possibility of less expensive construction encouraged the addition of small domestic conservatories, a trend that reached a peak in the Victorian era [Fig. 9].

-- Therese O'Malley