United States of America -- Virginia -- Albemarle -- Charlottesville
Scope and Contents:
1 folder and 16 digital images. The folder includes worksheets and a copy of an article.
General:
Located on two acres, this property has been owned and gardened by members of the same family since 1940, and consists of a series of all season garden rooms each with it's own unique purpose. At first Scotch broom had to be dug up, the farmland had to be improved, paths were laid, and periwinkle dug from the woods was planted as ground cover. There were few trees - a sweet gum tree was planted for quick shade - and a Victory Garden and fruit orchard were planted during World War II. The house, designed by architect Marshall Swain Wells in 1939, was apttered after a dependeny at the Colonial Williamsburg Palace. In 2005 landscape architect Charles J. Stick designed a formal entry garden paved in brick with four boxwood parterres surrounding white crape myrtles. Belgian landscape architect Francọis Goffinet designed an English style cottage garden that spans the front of the center of the house, filling beds with continuous summer blooms, with arched gateways at either end smothered in roses. Behind the house Stick replaced overgrown boxwood that defined mid-century garden rooms with a flagstone terrace. Goffinet also designed a formal allée of four boxwood-edged beds filled with flowering perennials and shrubs that terminates in a grove of crape myrtle.
The kitchen garden, also formal, has four smaller parterres growing herbs with espaliered apple trees as wall on one side. The chapel walk passes a dog cemetery that has stone benches and markers, leading to a stone chapel modeled on a gazebo at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. A meditation garden at one end of the cottage garden has a low stone wall, white sand floor, and a large espaliered camellia. The white garden was redesigned in 2017, pruning back 75-year-old boxwood and adding white peonies and ephemeral bulbs. A log cabin built circa 1830 was relocated to this property, placed so the porch faces west for viewing sunsets over the Blue Ridge Mountains. Paths through the wooded areas lead to the pollinator garden for bees and butterflies, the birch walk inspired by groves seen in England, a secret garden, and a cabin walk and cabin garden. The periwinkle outside the cabin had succumbed to fungal disease so a dry stream, stone wall, and plantings including dwarf Japanese maples, dogwood, hellebores, astilbe, ferns and hosta comprise a newer garden room. More natives including wildflowers have been planted along the original winding paths and in woodlands.
Persons associated with the garden include Birney and Irene Sims (former owners, 1938-1973); Marshall Swain Wells (architect, 1939); M. Jack Rinehart, Jr. (architect, 1991, 2005); Francọis Goffinet (landscape architect, 1993); Charles J. Stick (landscape architect, 2006); C. Colston Burrell (horticulturist, 1991-2017); Leslie Harris (horticulturist, 1991-2017); Donna Ernest (gardener, 1991-2017).
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Topic:
Gardens -- Virginia -- Charlottesville Search this
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.
