Wall

History

In American landscape design, the wall was a masonry construction of dry laid or mortared stone or brick. While treatises and dictionaries often referred to walls as a type of fence and sometimes as a “stone fence,” in American usage, wooden barriers were referred to exclusively as fences (see Fence).

As J. C. Loudon noted in 1834, walls were generally composed of three sections: the foundation, the body formed by courses of stone or brick, and, if desired, the coping (a decorative or protective course on top of a masonry wall). Foundations varied from a single course to a three-foot, below-ground stone foundation, such as the one used for the hog yard at Waldwic Cottage (formerly Little Hermitage), described by William Ranlett (1851). The coping could consist of the same material as the wall, as seen in John William Hill’s 1847 painting of Blandford Church in Petersburg, Va. [Fig. 1], or could be built of contrasting material such as stone or marble, which was used at St. Philip’s Parish in Charleston, S.C., in 1826. William Forsyth recommended wooden coping in order to attach nets that would discourage birds from eating nearby fruit. Walls were sometimes topped with palisades, which extended their height and deterred intruders while providing a visually permeable barrier. This feature provided additional ornament, as the ironwork palisade on the wall at the Governor’s House in New York [Fig. 2] demonstrates.

The choice of materials for the body of the wall depended upon its use and upon the materials that were available. In arid regions, particularly areas with Spanish building traditions, adobe was frequently used. Stone walls were common in New England, where field stones turned up by plows provided ready material for dry laid walls, as that depicted in the painting of Ralph Wheelock’s farm in Pennsylvania (1822) [Fig. 3]. It has been suggested that wall designs from British treatise and pattern books, such as those published in Batty Langley’s The City and Country Builder’s and Workman’s Treasury of Designs (1740), were reworked in wood in the American context. Wooden posts were used in place of piers, wooden members in place of stone fenestration, and baseboards in place of stone bases. The earthen- and pitch-covered wooden walls described by Loudon do not appear to have been employed in America, but fence posts were tarred as a preservative measure.

Walls, like related features such as fences, hedges, and ha-has, served as barriers, supports, and markers of property boundaries. Because of their strength, walls were also used to retain earth; this use is illustrated by the deer wall at Mount Vernon (1798) and the terrace wall at the Deaf and Dumb Asylum in New York [Fig. 4]. Walls were also used to shore up banks at waterfront gardens, as at Westover in Virginia, described by Thomas Lee Shippen (1783), where they served as bulkheads along the banks of the James River.

The vast majority of treatise references to walls discuss their use as supports and protection for fruit trees in orchards and fruit gardens. The length and detail of the instructions suggest the importance of walls as an adaptation to the range of American climatic challenges for fruit growers. A brick wall reflected heat during the day and retained warmth at night, providing a moderating micro-climate and promoting earlier ripening. Fruit walls for “forwarding” the fruit season were useful in the middle and eastern states, but they were not necessary in warmer climates. Brick walls with flues, discussed in detail in numerous treatises, were used in hothouse and conservatory construction (see Conservatory, Greenhouse, and Hothouse). Trellises for training trees and vines were easily attached to brick walls’ porous surfaces. Bricks’ porosity also helped them retain heat much better than stone, even when the stone was painted a dark color. In the rare instance when stone was used, authors suggested that it be faced with several courses of brick on the side on which fruit trees were to be grown.

Most walls were straight, although the merits of serpentine walls were debated in the literature. Some authors, such as Ephraim Chambers (1741–43), argued that the serpentine wall was strong and economical, requiring less thickness to maintain the same strength as a straight wall. These walls also could be used to shelter plants from winds coming from all directions. Thomas Jefferson used a serpentine wall for the faculty gardens at the University of Virginia [Fig. 5]. Others, such as Loudon (1834) and George William Johnson (1847), criticized the serpentine form, arguing that such walls had to be too thick to retain the necessary heat for fruit ripening.

While the practical functions of walls were much discussed, they also made significant aesthetic contributions to landscape design. Philip Miller suggested in 1759 that walls be disguised with “Plantations of Flowering Shrubs, intermixed with laurels, and some evergreens.” Thomas Bridgeman (1832), Edward Sayers (1838), and A. J. Downing (1849) all suggested the use of creeping vines and trellises to incorporate the wall into a naturalistic or picturesque garden setting.

Unlike worm and wire fences, a wall was a decidedly immovable barrier. Its permanence, durability, and scale made it particularly suitable to the monumental and stately requirements of churchyards, cemeteries, and public grounds, as noted in a 1770 description of the Annapolis Parade and as depicted in a view of the White House in Washington, D.C. [Fig. 6]. Loudon in 1834 described walls as the “grandest fences for parks,” although images of American urban parks suggest that by the second quarter of the nineteenth century ironwork fences were the enclosures of choice. In urban settings, walls provided residents with a visual screen from what lay beyond [Fig. 7] and, although not noted in descriptions, they probably served as an effective noise barrier as well. Walls were also used to ornament the front approaches to houses. An over-mantle painting of a house in Fairfield, Conn., illustrates a more decorative treatment of a wall directly in front of the house in contrast to walls and fences on other parts of the property [Fig. 8]. A well-kept wall came to signify the prosperity and good management of the farmer, and, as Timothy Dwight noted in 1796, such walls were “the image of tidy, skilful, profitable agriculture.”

-- Elizabeth Kryder-Reid

Texts

Usage

Fitzhugh, William, April 1686, describing Greensprings, Va. (quoted in Lockwood 1934: 2:46)

“the Plantation where I now live contains a thousand acres, grounds and fencing . . . a large orchard of about 2500 Apple trees most grafted, well fenced with a locust fence, which is as durable as most brick walls, a Garden, a hundred foot square, well pailed in, a Yeard wherein is most of the aforesaid necessary houses, pallizad’d in with locust Punchens which is as good as if it were walled in and more lasting than any of our bricks.”

Anonymous, 8 May 1704, describing in the Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia the construction in Williamsburg, Va. (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; hereafter CWF)

“Ordered. That the consideration of the proposall of the said Committee relating, [sic] to the Capitol being inclosed with a brick wall be referred til tomorrow morning. Ordered. That the Overseer appointed to inspect and oversee the building of the Capitol make a Computation what the Charges may amount to of inclosing the Capitol with a Brick Wall of two Bricks thick and four feet and a half high to be distant sixty foot from the fronts of the East and West Building and the said building and that he lay the same before the House to morrow.”

Washington, George, 27 March 1760, describing Mount Vernon, plantation of George Washington, Fairfax County, Va. (quoted in Johnson 1953: 75)

“Agreed to give Mr. William Triplet, 18 to build the two houses in the Front of my House (plastering them also), and running walls for Pallisades to them from the Great house and from the Great House to the Wash House and Kitchen also.”

Bartram, John, 3 December 1762, describing Charleston, S.C. (quoted in Darlington 1849: 242–43)

“I can’t find, in our country, that south walls are much protection against our cold, for if we cover so close as to keep out the frost, they are suffocated.”

Anonymous, 4 January 1770, describing the State House, Annapolis, Md. (Maryland Gazette)

“The General Assembly having been pleased to grant to the Value of 7500 l. Sterling, for building a State-House . . . and for enlarging, repairing, and enclosing the Parade, not exceeding its present Length of 245 feet, and 160 in Breadth, designed to be enclosed with Stone or Brick Wall, and Iron Palisadoes, if the Iron Inclosure should not exceed 500 Sterling.”

Chastellux, François Jean Marquis de, 1780–82, describing Westover, seat of William Byrd III, on the James River, Va. (1787: 2:172)

“The walls of the garden and the house were covered with honey-suckles.”

Shippen, Thomas Lee, 30 December 1783,

describing Westover, seat of William Byrd III, on the James River, Va. (1952: n.p.)

“the river is backed up by a wall of four feet high, and about 300 yards in length, and above this wall there is as you may suppose the most enchanting walk in the world.”

Morse, Jedidiah, 1789, describing the State House Yard, Philadelphia, Pa. ([1789] 1970: 331)

“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.”

Bentley, William, 3 October 1789, describing the Collins and Ingersoll Gardens, Salem, Mass. (1962: 1:127)

“Capt Collins laid the foundation of his new Sea Wall which makes his garden square at the bottom of Turner’s Lane, on the east side. Capt. S. Ingersoll on Turner’s Estate has added a new picketed fence to his excellent stone wall, which gives a good appearance.”

Dwight, Timothy, 1796, describing Worcester County, Mass. (1821: 1:375)

“In no part of this country are the barns universally so large, and so good; or the inclosures of stone so general, and every where so well formed. These inclosures are composed of stones, merely laid together in the form of a wall, and not compacted with mortar. . . . This relative beauty these enclosures certainly possess: for they are effectual, strong, and durable. Indeed where the stones have a smooth regular face, and are skilfully laid in an exact line, with a true front, the wall independently of this consideration, becomes neat, and agreeable. A farm well surrounded, and divided, by good stone-walls, presents to my mind, irresistibly, the image of tidy,

skilful, profitable agriculture; and promises to me within doors, the still more agreeable prospect of plenty and prosperity.”

Washington, George, October 1798, describing Mount Vernon, plantation of George Washington, Fairfax County, Va. (Mount Vernon Ladies Association)

“Supposing the dot at A to be the highest part of the hill in front of the House. & at the black line from B to C by A the natural shape of the hill (or fall of the hill) the pricked line may be a good direction for the wall, in order to prevent its being too serpentine or crooked—this, in some places, will come in upon the level (or that which is nearly so) of the hill—as at 1, 2, 3—and is often as at 5, 6, 7 & 8 will be below the declivity, & require filling up in order to bring the whole to a level which is to be affected by the Earth which may be taken from 1, 2, 3.—

“There are two reasons for doing it in this manner—the one is, to prevent the wall from being too serpentine & crooked (as the black line)—and the second is, that the hill below the wall may be more of a sameness.—otherwise it would descend very suddenly in some places and very gradually in others.—

“You will observe that this wall is not to be laid out, as worked by a line—the whole of it is serpentine, which I am particular in mentioning least by the expression in your letter of zig-zag. You had an idea that it was to be laid out by line 20 or 30 feet or yards (as the hill would admit) one way then angling & as far as it would go strait another in the following manner.” [Fig. 9]

Adams, Abigail, 1800, describing the Peacefield, estate of John Adams, Quincy, Mass. (quoted in Hammond 1982: 182)

“the President has authorised me to have a number of Lombardy poplars set out opposite the house near the wall which was new just two years ago. . . . he says he will have them extended from the gate . . . to the corner.”

Ogden, John Cosens, 1800, describing a graveyard in Bethlehem, Pa. (p. 15)

“It is surrounded partly with a stone wall, towards the street, where it cannot be enlarged, partly with a neat wooden fence, on those sides where it may be extended from time to time.”

Scott, Joseph, 1806, describing a public prison in Philadelphia, Pa. (p. 46)

“The yard belonging to the criminal prison extends nearly to Prune street, on which is the debtors’ apartment. The whole is surrounded by a lofty stone wall.”

Stebbins, William, 6 February 1810, describing the White House, Washington, D.C. (1968: 37)

“Extended my walk alone to the President’s House:—a handsome edifice, tho’ like the capitol of free stone: the south yard principally made ground, bank’d up by a common stone wall.”

Hosack, David, 1811, describing the establishment of the Elgin Botanic Garden, New York,

N.Y. (pp. 10, 15) “Accordingly, in the following year, 1801, I purchased of the corporation of the city of New- York twenty acres of ground. . . .

“At a considerable expense, the establishment was inclosed by a well constructed stone wall....

“The whole establishment was enclosed by a stone wall, two and an half feet in breadth, and seven and an half feet high.”

Peale, Charles Willson, 15, 27, 29 March 1814,

in a letter to his sons, Benjamin Franklin Peale and Titian Ramsey Peale, describing Belfield, estate of Charles Willson Peale, Germantown, Pa. (Miller, Hart, and Ward, eds., 1991: 3:239)

“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.”

Bryant, William Cullen, 25 August 1821,

describing the Vale, estate of Theodore Lyman, Waltham, Mass. (1975: 108)

“He took me to the seat of Mr. Lyman. . . . It is a perfect paradise. . . . A hard rolled walk, by the side of a brick wall, about ten feet in height and covered with peach and apricot espaliers which seemed to grow to it, like the creeping sumach to the bark of an elm.”

Hunt, Henry, Wm. P. Elliot, and William Thornton, 1826, requesting a Memorial to the House of Representatives of the Congress in Washington, D.C. (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 grounds, they would recommend . . . That a wall five feet high, with a stone coping, be put round the ground appropriated for a Botanic Garden.”

Anonymous, 16 July 1826, describing in the St. Philip’s Parish Vestry Book meeting resolutions made in Charleston, S.C. (CWF)

“The Vestry inform the Meeting that they have entered into an agreement with Corporation of the City to take down the present old brick walls

around the church, on Church Street, and to erect in its place a low wall of brick to be capped with marble and finished with an iron pallisade and three iron gates.”

Viator [pseud.], 15 August 1828, “Nurseries and Gardens on Long Island,” describing André Parmentier’s horticultural and botanical garden, Brooklyn, N.Y. (New England Farmer 7: 25)

“At Brooklyn we called at the celebrated Horticultural Garden of Mr. ANDRE PARMENTIER. This is a recent establishment begun in 1825. It contains 20 acres, and is surrounded by a wall of masonry, after the manner which we are told is practised on the old continent.”

Breck, Joseph, 1 February 1836, “Gardens, Hothouses, &c., in the vicinity of Boston,” describing Bellmont Place, residence of John Perkins Cushing, Watertown, Mass. (Horticultural Register 2: 43–44)

“The garden is a square, level plot, bounded on the north side by the conservatories, which, if we are not mistaken, are four hundred feet in length. On the east and west are high, substantial brick walls, to which are trained a choice collection of fruit trees imported the last season, already formed for the purpose, some of which are protected by glass. The southern wall is very ornamental and substantial, and so low that the whole area and houses may be seen at a single glance outside the wall.”

Kirkbride, Thomas S., 1841, describing the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, Philadelphia, Pa. (1851: 17)

“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.”

Smith, Margaret Bayard, 1841, describing the White House, Washington, D.C. (1906: 393)

“He [Thomas Jefferson] was very anxious to improve the ground around the President’s House; but as Congress would make no appropriation for this and similar objects, he was obliged to abandon the idea, and content himself with enclosing it with a common stone wall and sewing it down in grass.” [See Fig. 6]

Mills, Robert, 23? February 1841, describing the national Mall, Washington, D.C. (Scott, ed., 1990: n.p.)

“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 hot houses and other buildings of an inferior character.”

Trego, Charles, 1843, describing Harrisburg, Pa.

(p. 233) “These public buildings stand in a large enclosure, planted with trees, and surrounded by a brick wall on which is a neat paling.”

Kirkbride, Thomas S., April 1848, describing the pleasure grounds and farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, Philadelphia, Pa. (American Journal of Insanity 4: 347)

“As much as possible of the grounds belonging to a hospital for the insane should be permanently enclosed by a substantial wall of stone or brick. This wall should always be so arranged as in at least a considerable part of its extent, to be completely out of view from the buildings, either by being placed in low ground, if that is practicable, or if not, it can readily be arranged by being sunk in certain places in an artificial trench, and thus to prevent its being an unpleasant feature, or to give the idea of a prison enclosure. Such a wall however, useful as it is, had much better not be put up, unless to enclose a large number of acres, or unless it can be kept from being a prominent object from the buildings.”

Loudon, J. C., 1850, describing Waltham House at the Vale, estate of Theodore Lyman, Waltham, Mass. (p. 330)

“844. Waltham House. . . . to the left and rear of the house are the kitchen-garden, grapery, greenhouse, hothouse, wall for fruit, &c. ...(Downing’s Landscape Gardening.)”

Ranlett, William H., 1851, describing Waldwic Cottage (formerly Little Hermitage), property of Elijah Rosencrantz, Hohokus, N.J. ([1851] 1976: 2:43)

“hog pen and yard, 20 by 27, with a good substantial stone wall.”