A Garden History & Design Minute from the Archives of American Gardens (AAG)
It is the rare garden that changes little over time. One of the few examples of this in the Garden Club of America Collection at the Archives of American Gardens is El Novillero in Sonoma, California. Designed by Thomas Church, the garden is still owned by the Donnell family who has meticulously preserved Church’s 1948 design. Even the mid-century boomerang-print wallpaper in the pool house remains! Most gardens, however, like a tree’s growth rings, have many layers of history that tell the story of their life. Each layer of a garden’s history signals some kind of change: a change in ownership or gardening fads, development, or even destruction.
The Many-Layered Garden
A masterpiece created by Fletcher Steele in 1925, the Spalding Garden was in ruins when the Milton (Mass.) Garden Club acquired a half an acre of the former twelve-acre property in 2004. Club members worked together to lovingly restore a small section of the garden, but the rest has been lost to development. Contemporary photographs of the garden ruins show tantalizing bits and pieces of Steele’s original scheme.
Spalding Garden, Milton, Mass. Elizabeth E. Neville, photog. 2008. Spalding Garden. Elizabeth E. Neville, photog. 2008.
Consider any number of other gardens from an earlier generation. Many have been subdivided for real estate development while others have been downsized to necessarily scale back on the amount of maintenance that is needed. Portions of the original gardens may have been obliterated while others have been rescued and restored or readapted. Without images that show a garden throughout its history and something written down that documents its evolution, its multi-layered story is easily lost.
Please consider documenting a garden even if it has been downscaled or might be considered ‘past its prime.’ The Spalding Garden will likely never be restored as a grand estate garden, but its documentation in the Archives of American Gardens ensures that important information about its history is readily accessible to researchers and garden lovers. Don’t let the garden history in your area disappear! Even if a garden is only a fraction of its former size, or in ruins, it is still an excellent candidate for documentation for the GCA Collection. Gardens are beautiful, but their history may not always be pretty.
All images are from the Garden Club of America Collection at the Archives of American Gardens
By Kate Fox, AAG Intern. June 2011.