File:American homes and gardens (1907) (18127445506).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesga41907newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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94 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS Mareh, 1907 The Garden of Charles W. McAlpin, Esq. Morristown, New Jersery HILLSIDE, gently sloping, with long, broad stretches almost level; a generously wide field of ground, bordered on right and left by pleasant growths of trees of forest size, and long uprising; and a great belt of foliage, dense and green at the summit, a curtain of nature's own devising, shutting in the open space below. This, in briefest outline, is the garden of Mr. Charles D. McAlpin at Morristown, N. J., designed by David W. Langton, landscape architect, of New York- It Is an isolated garden, a garden for itself alone. That is to say, it is neither related to the house nor immediately in juxtaposition to it. A house there must be for every garden; since there can be no garden unless there be some one to enjoy it; and enjoyment in the countryside is difficult without the house—as difficult, no doubt, as it would be without a garden wherein one may be at peace with nature and oneself. But the McAlpin garden lies alone on its hillside, with the house before and below it, and separated from it by a vast wall of arbor vita?, whose great arch frames the central path and forms an open- ing and approach of wonderful dignity and charm. Thus the garden is not un- heralded. On the contrary its bound- ing wall of everlast- ing green piques one's curiosity as to what may be beyond it. The great arch, moreover, lifts Its head proudly and may be seen from afar; truly, it is a mark of some signi- ticance; no mere hint, but a true em- blem of triumph. Though the slope of the ground is moderate, the level of the lower garden area is almost above the roof of the house, whose sum- mit may just be dis- cerned above the dense enclosing hedge. The arch- way passed, one stands within the flower garden. It is an immense rec- tangle, hedge bor- dered on right and left with central beds of grass and flowers, cut by straight paths. As a design it could not be slm-
Text Appearing After Image:
A Great Wall of Arbor Vit^ Separates the Garden from the House, Which Is Reached Through a Superb Living Archway pier; as a garden it could not be finer. The borders are faced with the gayest bloomers, chiefly annuals, that run from end to end, and are returned to the arch of entrance. The grassed spaces in the center are so large that even though much of their surfaces is taken for flower beds, the green sward counts, and counts considerably, in the general effect. The center of the whole has the Venetian wellhead one looks for almost Instinctively In such places, with clusters of bay trees in earthenware pots, standing sentinel-like around it on the nearby grass. Rectangular borders of evergreens, placed well within the grass, mark still more definitely, the impor- tance of the center; while flower masses on each end and on the outer side of the grass complete the planting here. A wall fountain, truly Byzantine in design, forms the chief fea- ture of one side of the garden—an interlaced slab let into a backing of brick, with an open arch above for further em- phasis. Looking straight ahead from the point of entrance—the mammoth arch of arbor vltae—the ground rises; at first with a sharp slope; then more gently; and all this upper area is crowned with a group of pergolas, pergolas built around a second garden, one at a higher level than the first, over- looking It, In, per- haps, much the same way that the Acro- polis at Athens over- looked the city at its feet. The simile is, perhaps, somewhat far-fetched; yet the effect of these per- golas, bounding a silent, open square, actually above the lower ground, actu- ally overlooking the nearby foreground below it, actually giving the eye a new outlook over distant hills and valleys be- yond—the effect is one of stimulating interest. The pergolas gar- den Is of agreeable spaciousness. One w a n d e rs through long alleys, bordered with great piers of stone, vine clad, with open roofs; or pauses a moment at the central openings, marked with clusters of plain white col- umns; or lingers in the tea houses or observatories

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