In this dismal and damp week of eternally gray weather, I have been fantasizing about spring while refining a presentation on New England gardens.
While the two are not synonymous, the interplay of architectural features traditionally used in colonial (albeit revival) gardens complement the bright colors traditionally associated with the spring season.
The garden of the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House, located on Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one such place. Owned by the National Park Service, it represents the work of three women; the indomitable Alice Longfellow, daughter of the famous poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and landscape architects Martha Brookes Hutcheson and Ellen Biddle Shipman.
The site has a long, multi-faceted history. The garden, 1.98 acres in size, interprets elements of that history in a fresh and compelling way. It has been completely restored and rehabilitated over the past fifteen years.
Sited across from the Charles River, the property was originally part of a country estate of 90 to 120 acres that was owned prior to the American Revolution by loyalist John Vassall. In 1791 it was purchased by Andrew Craigie.
The Craigie Estate and Botanical Garden are noted on the 1812 John G. Map of Boston and Vicinity
Craigie and his wife, Elizabeth, were both active in local botanical, agricultural and horticultural pursuits. They transformed the grounds of the estate into a picturesque farm. In 1805 they donated three acres of land to Harvard College for a Botanic Garden. Upon Craigie’s death, his wife Elizabeth inherited the mansion and 135 acres of land. To support its upkeep, she rented rooms to boarders and sold flowers and fruits from the garden.
Colored lithograph of Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House, 1842. D.W. Kellogg & Co.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, arriving in Cambridge in 1836 to teach at Harvard University, rented rooms from Mrs. Craigie. Entranced by the property and its historical associations, including as the headquarters of George Washington during the Revolutionary War, he acquired a portion of the house and grounds.
An 1845 watercolor by Vautin shows the Longfellow’s early garden beds and a platform built in the apple tree on the east lawn. Courtesy of NPS.
Longfellow and his wife Fanny tended a small lyre-shaped garden. Cultivated by Fanny, it contained a mix of asters, petunias, pansies, dahlias and roses. In 1847, they hired an English landscaper to design a formal garden in the Italianate style. The garden featured a Gothic “rose window” at its center and a Persian influenced garden carpet pattern.
Historic American Buildings Survey. Frank O. Branzetti, Photographer. July, 1940
It is Longfellow’s daughter and oldest child Alice, who lived at the house until her death in 1928, that is credited with the design of the garden as it appears today. Deeply committed to the preservation of historic places, she aspired to recreate the formal garden of her childhood on the property, both for her personal use and as a site for public gatherings and celebrations.
Alice Mary Longfellow. Photograph courtesy of Eastern National Park & Monument Association
Working with landscape designers, Martha Brookes Hutcheson and Ellen Biddle Shipman, Alice recreated the garden, paying homage to its original design (for which there was no formal plan) and adding colonial revival features.
Hutcheson began work on the garden in 1903 adding arbors and gates. Flower beds were updated based on the original plan, despite Hutcheson’s dislike of the design.
A sundial, bearing an inscription from Dante translated as “Think that this day will never dawn again,” was added to the garden’s center and a small garden with an arbor was planted south of the formal entrance.
Hutcheson’s work reflected both an early twentieth century interest in revival gardens and Alice’s interest in preservation and colonial history.
Twenty years later, Alice hired Ellen Biddle Shipman to update the garden. Shipman replaced the plantings with shrubs, bulbs and perennials making few, if any, changes to the structure of the garden.
HABS Plan of Garden: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Place, 1935
Shipman’s plans for the garden have survived complete with horticultural notes and plant lists. Shipman also recorded information about the plants she replaced, providing valuable insight into Hutcheson’s design.
To preserve, maintain and manage the house and grounds, The Longfellow Trust was established in 1913. Following Alice’s death in 1928, the house and grounds were owned and lived in by a succession of family members, while parcels of the property were sold and subdivided.
In 1973, the National Park Service assumed management of the property. In partnership with the Friends of Longfellow House they successfully restored and rehabilitated the garden as designed for Alice with key features, including the Colonial Revival pergola designed by Hutcheson and the plantings designed by Shipman.
Today, the Longfellow garden is both a quiet oasis in the heart of Cambridge and one of the few surviving gardens of its type open to the public within the greater Boston Area.
Longfellow House – Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site in Cambridge is open seasonally. The grounds and historic garden are accessible, free of charge, year -round during daytime hours. A photo gallery of 91 flowers planted in the garden can be viewed at: https://www.NPS.gov/long/learn/photosmultimedia/longfellow-garden-flowers.htm.
Copyright © 2019 Patrice Todisco — All Rights Reserved
