martinhouseclr

119 2 // SITE HISTORY & EVOLUTION garden itself, though consisting of nearly a dozen stray Norway maple, black walnut, and box elder trees, does appear to have mown lawn and raked fall leaves throughout. The trees, through quite large in the 1959 photographs [Fig. 109 to 114], do appear to date to the period of abandonment. They are fast growing species and, in a landscape setting without direct competition from other species, would have growth large quickly. By the time of Tauriello’s purchase in 1955, it is possible that he could have mistaken them for trees that were intended to be in the landscape. One remaining evergreen tree – appearing to be a roughly 25 foot tall hemlock – remained in the landscape area between the driveway and stone retaining wall along the property’s original western boundary in 1959. The extensive grouping of Martin-era evergreens (cedars, mostly) previously existing along this narrow landscape strip had been removed and taken to Graycliff in 1929 when the wall area was being improved. Considering Martin’s propensity in expressing sentimentality towards his childhood and family, which was, on more than one occasion, articulated with the personal collection and planting of trees, the existence of this one Hemlock could be related to either his own collection (or that of his then-young son’s) of Hemlocks from Bouckville in 1905 or 1910. The Martins’ greenhouse was removed by owners of the Gardener’s Cottage sometime after 1948 and, in the following decade, whatever remained of the greenhouse foundation had deteriorated nearly to ruin. 258 The photographs of 1959 also show that the interior entry steps of the greenhouse, specified as natural stone on the original greenhouse plans, were actually made from cast concrete. Steps also remained in existence from the garage driveway area down to the Gardener’s Cottage lot, where a pathway and cold-frames once existed along the southern wall of the Greenhouse. Remarkably, it is in 1959 photographs that it becomes the most clear that the complete driveway area in front of the garage consisted of poured concrete, unlike the linear stretch of driveway leading through the porte- cochere to Jewett Parkway. An examination of the collection of William Thorpe photographs, having been dated by Thorpe’s relatives, substantiates the driveway area as a concrete slab to at least as early as the time of Dorothy Martin’s wedding in 1923. 259 A few large succession-type trees also appeared in the front yard and Floricycle area during this time, notably a multi-stemmed Norway maple (appearing to be 10-15 years old) at the eastern base of the front raised planter wall, a second Norway maple among the remaining Floricycle shrubs, and at least two black walnuts (also roughly 15 years old) at the northern end of the Floricycle and within the Summit 258 Martin House Restoration Corporation, Fact Sheet: The Greenhouse for Darwin D. Martin, Susana Tejada, Rev. 2014 259 The photographs showing concrete at the driveway near the garage are identified as Thorpe04, Thorpe06, Thorpe09, Thorpe14, Thorpe15, and Thorpe25 – with #14 being identified as 1923 and the same subject shown in other photos being the same age. The slab appears to have been installed between 1908 and 1923. Fig. 110, bottom Courtyard garden path, looking south between crumbled piers, 1959. Fig. 109, top Courtyard with succession tree growth, 1959.