martinhouseclr

118 DARWIN D. MARTIN HOUSE // CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT is located, and rented out the remaining units. Tauriello also modified the basement, turning it into his own architecture office, and adding a new basement entry at the southwestern base of the verandah. The site modification included a new walkway leading to the basement entry, and ultimately, several landscape alterations throughout the property. The initial landscape alterations consisted solely of plant material changes, though he appears to have kept much of the extant plant material still in visibly good shape – the shrub-skeleton of the Floricycle, selected front yard shrubs, and the deciduous shade trees included. Tauriello added ornamental trees at the main entry (river birch) and along the new walkway to the basement office (crabapple), and generally reconditioned and manipulated many of the mixed perennial and shrub beds adjacent to the house and within the front raised planter. 256 Characteristic to suburban landscapes and maintenance regimes of the period, the shrubs were almost exclusively cleanly sheared. If the sheared plant materials were remnants of the Martins’ ownership period, which they may not have been, their character and presentation had severely changed. Doubly inconsistent with prior representations of the landscape was the fact that the plant material appears to have lacked design definition, and consisted of singular specimens unconnected to a holistic theme. Additionally, the sheared shrubs standing 256 It is possible that the river birch tree was added before Tauriello’s purchase in 1955, as it is shown in a color photo of the landscape at or around the time of his purchase. minuscule and vertically erect in the front raised planter, appears to be in disagreement with the horizontal lines of the brick work – seemingly uncharacteristic of the landscape as designed in 1905. [Fig. 107] A circa 1955 color photograph of the font yard showing fully overgrown, yet probably original Martin-ownership plant material, appears to be taken prior to the heavy-handed maintenance occurring during Tauriello’s ownership. 257 [Fig. 108] Most obviously, the photo reveals that is it likely Barberry (green, not an Atropurpurea variety, also known to exist in the plant list) near the intersection of the front walk and the driveway. Despite substantial shearing, the front yard and the area around the Tauriellos’ new basement entry and the Floricycle, appears to be the most originally intact portions of the Martins’ landscape at the time. By 1959, the rear portions of the grounds, which were not visible from the street frontages, had declined so severely that successional-type tree growth had turned the former courtyard into a genuine woodlot. The masonry piers and wall of the fountain are visibly crumbling, the courtyard walkway and the driveway in front of the garage were covered in weed growth, and the adjacent parcels which contained vegetable gardens late in the Martins’ tenure, were overtaken by both trees and understory succession growth. The courtyard 257 The photograph appears to be the earliest color photo of the property known to exist. Though undated, the CLR authors believe that photograph can be set prior to black and white photos of cleanly sheared shrub material due to the presence of a younger river birch – shown near the front entry steps. Fig. 107, top Jewett frontage, alterations by Tauriello, c. 1958. Fig. 108, bottom Early color photograph (the earliest known in color) appears to be at time of Tauriello purchase, c 1955 or earlier.