martinhouseclr

48 DARWIN D. MARTIN HOUSE // CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT plant lists and planting plan previously prepared by Walter Burley Griffin. Indeed, the blueprint version of the 15 February ‘Plan of Plantings’ appears soiled, folded, and includes several hand notations about what was planted or how portions were modified. 120 121 122 123 124 The notations in pen include references to finished grade, a note indicating the truncated limits of the hemi-cycle to permit circulation, two notes identifying plant material installed in the raised terrace around the main house (front and pergola side), as well as individual plant notations. 120 Grade notes state that the ‘Front Raised Terrace’ is +30”, the outside south terminus of the hemi-cycle feature is noted as +26”, the back of sidewalk area at the corner of Jewett and Summit is noted as +30”, three locations within the interior diameter of the hemi-cycle feature are noted as “grade” (presumably reference to +0”), and the Summit Terrace is noted as +16”. 121 The plan legibly identifies the half-circle planting area as “hemicycle” and notes a field change to stop the planting of the northern end of the arc to allow grass to continue through to the Summit lawn area. It reads thus: “Planting of hemicycle to stop here, to permit lawn within it to unite here with rest of lawn.” The hemicycle notations also include a 2’ offset from back of Summit sidewalk at the apex of the arc and a note identifying the hemicycle to be 10’ wide. 122 Hand written notations labeled as “Ginkgo,” “Thorns” and “Evergreens (Scotch and Austrian Pines)” are shown on the east side of the driveway near at the intersection of the front walkway, near the porte-cochere, however this is not the planted location of the first Ginkgo tree on the property, which was located opposite, on the west side of the driveway. That particular Ginkgo location was already drawn on the blueprint plan. 123 A hand written notation labeled “Magnolia” is located just north of the masonry pier on which the Bock sculpture sits. 124 A faint hand written note in pencil on the Summit terrace, and the flower garden (Kitchen garden, along the pergola) reads: “Trench & Fertilize”. One of the most notable changes between the landscape installed in 1905 and the 15 February 1905 ‘Plan of Plantings’ is revealed within the courtyard garden. The ‘Plan of Plantings’ indicates the arrangement of mixed perennial border plants and an allée of cherry trees extending on a north-south axis up each side of the center planting area within the courtyard garden. 125 The plan includes four cherry trees on each side, both fruiting and non-fruiting varieties. Based on the photographic record, it is likely that these cherry trees were installed in May of 1905 but were removed shortly after the installation of the clothes poles in early 1906. 126 It does not appear as if the highly mixed perennial border plants were installed in the center of the courtyard garden along the allée ground plane. In their place a much simpler combination of peony and oriental lilies was installed. The blueprint ‘Plan of Plantings’ includes hand written notes along each north-south planting bed, stating ‘peony.’ 125 The cherry tree allée on the 1905 blueprint plan (taken from the pencil version of the original, not the pen overlay) includes both fruiting and non-fruiting species, including prunus serrulata (flowering cherry, non-fruiting), prunus pseudocerasus, prunus pseudocerasus ’waterii’, and a species labeled “prunus auda semp.” 126 One possibility is that the small cherry trees were removed in spring of 1906 as changes were undertaken in other areas of the landscape. The Martins had Wright design laundry- line “clothes poles” (designed in December 1905) that were installed in very early 1906 and took up similar positions as the cherries. A photograph shows small ornamental trees and the clothes poles coexisting in the courtyard garden in very early spring (or late winter) 1906 (UB Archives: MS22.5_441C). Based on the photographic record it appears not all plantings were installed per the plan which certainly would not have been unusual. Of the plants that are identifiable, particularly in distinctive locations such as the raised terrace at the front of the house, early photographs taken by Henry Fuermann & Sons show what appear to be ornamental grasses – while the 1905 blue print distinctly notes other plants in this location. 127 The front raised planter on the 1905 ‘Plan of Plantings’ blue print includes a hand written note reading: “On this terrace, walled in as it is, we have planted low [reoccurring?] vines and shrubs, Honeysuckle, Taxus Canadensis, juniperous [sic] canadensis, Forgetmenot, Partridge berry etc.” However, no photos clearly show what would seem to be very distinctly identifiable evergreens such as Yew or Juniper in the front raised planter. There are two noteworthy and interrelated possibilities explaining the difference between what is noted in the 1905 blueprint ‘Plan of Plantings’ and what appears in the early photographic record: One being that the blueprint with the hand written field notes in ink represents both a record of the spring 1905 field alternations as well as a longer-term record of the plantings that were changed or adjusted over time by the Martins’ gardener 127 The Henry Fuermann & Sons photograph of the front terrace (published in Ausgefuhrte Bauten, Ausgefuhrte Bauten 06 the CLR photo compilation) dates ca. late summer 1906. Fig. 30, opposite Elms planted within the Courtyard, May 1905. Photo shows elms the following year, on September 1, 1906.