martinhouseclr

144 DARWIN D. MARTIN HOUSE // CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT that gradually diminishes as it wraps around the verandah and blends in with the clear flatness of the Summit Lawn. This Floricycle grade change creates a relatively deep bowl effect around the Martin House verandah, yet is also rather unnoticeable from most points on the property. The Floricycle compresses a significant portion of the nearly 4-foot elevation change along Summit Avenue and hides it so that it is principally only visible from up close or from the house itself, and effectively gives the house a somewhat misleading appearance of being on a singular flat plane. Indeed, there is a difference of approximately 2 feet in elevation between the exterior finished grade of the house’s Jewett frontage and that of the verandah. The appearance of the house resting on a singular flat plane is also enhanced by the inclusion of a 16” high terrace wall extending fully along the east side of the pergola, creating a 30- foot by 100-foot raised area (the Summit Terrace) which itself is completely flat on its surface. At the base of this terrace is the Summit Lawn, which extends generally level to the Summit Avenue sidewalk and street. The Barton House and environs, including the adjacent parking lot (out of historic core) and the Paddock, are considerably flat, with no visual perception of grade change. The courtyard is also flat, except for a low stone retaining wall along the western boundary of the historic property core. This is associated with a comparatively high concrete retaining wall (and masonry pier) which retains approximately 2.6- feet of grade between the garage parking area and the Gardener’s Cottage and Greenhouse parcel. The stone wall carries this grade retention at the north end and continues south, dropping in height and ending just beyond the porte- cochere where grade meets level with the Jewett Frontage. In general, the presence of topography on the site is visually unsubstantial despite being subject to a considerable grade difference along the public right-of-ways. The lack of vegetative features throughout the property tends to both reveal instances (where landscape would have hidden a grade change) as well as hide them (due to the visual blending effect of the large expanse of lawn). In any case, both the architectural design and the landscape arrangement purposefully have the effect of visually nullifying topography. Vegetation Vegetation materials around the entirety of the Martin House are largely absent due to past removals and reconstruction efforts of the last decade. Some larger trees, both historic and not historic, exist within the landscape, and some new landscape introductions have been introduced for MHRC interpretive purposes, but the majority of the site vegetation currently exists as mown lawn. Though no archeological investigation was completed as part of this CLR, based on photographs and knowledge of construction process, it should be noted that most soils on the property are likely to be Fig. 139, top Flat summit lawn with 16” terrace wall on right. Grade change in Floricycle (background). Fig. 140, bottom The Summit and Jewett grade differences are taken up in the Floricycle area.