Author: allisoncrosbie

From the early 1800s to the 1940s a botanical garden occupied 7 acres at the corner of Linnaean and Garden streets. Now the site of an apartment complex aptly named Botanic Gardens, Harvard Botanic Garden was one of the earliest botanical gardens in the United States comprising plants from around the world as well as indigenous trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants that were considered “worthy of attention, as being useful in domestic economy, in the arts, or in medicine.” [1] It is also associated with Asa Gray (1810-1888), a prominent botanist, educator, and writer known for his work to help unify the taxonomic knowledge of plants in North America.

The only remaining evidence of the botanic garden landscape are several specimen trees including, among others, ginkgo (Gingko biloba), American persimmon (Diospyrus virginiana), amur cork tree (Philodendron Amurense), tea crabapple (Malus hupehensis), and pagoda tree (Styphnolobium japonicum). The history of Harvard Botanic Garden is complex and associated with numerous individuals who have contributed to the science of botany. This post offers a glimpse into the history of the landscape itself that was not only a center of academic study and research but also a popular public green space.

The layout of the garden was conceived by Gabriel Thouin, a landscape designer and gardener at the Jardins des Plantes in Paris. William Dandridge Peck, the first professor of natural history at Harvard and charged with starting the botanical garden, met with Thouin on his tour of Europe’s gardens. The resulting scheme consisted of concentric planting beds radiating out from a central pool. The design was later modified to work with the site’s topography, creating formal display beds in the southern portion and locating utilitarian functions to the north, with buildings and greenhouses situated on a terrace overlooking the garden. Peck supervised the construction of the garden and oversaw its management until his untimely death in 1822. Thomas Nuttall, an English naturalist and explorer, then served as curator until 1834 when he resigned to go on an expedition along the Oregon Trail.

In 1842, Asa Gray was appointed the Fisher Professorship of Natural History chair and oversaw the botanic garden. Gray appealed to his American colleagues to send him seeds and specimens from all over North America to grow at the garden and exchange them with European botanists. During his tenure, a new greenhouse and conservatory were constructed as well as a building to house the herbarium he was organizing. In 1871, Gray inaugurated the first Harvard Summer School course with instruction in botany in order to take advantage of the climate to study plants outside. Summer classes in natural history, chemistry, and geology soon followed, and continue today.

Gray retired in 1872 from teaching and managing the botanic garden to focus on his work at the herbarium. That same year the culture of woody plants was transferred to the newly established Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain. Harvard appointed Charles Sprague Sargent, a botanist and graduate of Harvard, as Director of both the botanic garden and the arboretum. At the botanic garden he continued specimen exchanges, overseeing the garden’s upkeep, and providing plants for the botany classes. In 1876, due to the limited amount of space, Sargent received approval from the College to plant a small arboretum on the grounds around the Harvard Observatory, located across Garden Street, featuring a representative collection of mostly North American species. Sargent still planted specimen trees within the garden to test their hardiness such as American beech (Fagus grandifolia), European beech (Fagus sylvatica), tulip (Liriodendron sp.), cucumber tree (Magnolia acuminata), black walnut (Juglans nigra), butternut (Juglans cinereal), cork elm (Ulmus thomasii), and a variety of maple trees. He also oversaw the installation of a large collection of ferns in the western portion of the site.

As new plants were being introduced into the garden, duplicate trees and shrubs were removed to make more room available. Existing plots were cleared, graded, and laid out in a series of long and narrow beds lined with grass paths. Labeled plantings were organized in botanical order according to a prescribed plan. The ground under the shade of large trees was used for rockeries for spring plants that would bloom before the trees were fully leaved and created too much shade. There were two small ponds for the cultivation of aquatics, and a spring at the corner of Linnaean and Garden Street served as a drinking fountain and provided moisture to a bog garden beside it.

Although the garden was primarily devoted to scientific plant displays, exhibits were created to appeal to the general public, including one display featuring plants referenced in Shakespeare’s works. Other beds displayed native plants that flourished during the time of Harvard’s founding, and another bed featured plants mentioned in poems by Virgil.

George Goodale, who succeeded Sargent in 1879, created an exhibit of economic plants, such as those utilized for textiles, dyes, tanning materials, and drugs. Additional trees were distributed throughout the grounds at this time including Austrian pine (Pinus nigra), tulip (Liriodendron tulipifera), American beech (Fagus grandifolia), and yellowwood (Cladrastis kentukea).

Alterations in the garden in the early 1890s included filling in the large water lily pond near Raymond Street because the water level could no longer be maintained after the construction of a sewer. Some of the original greenhouses were also replaced with a new iron-frame greenhouse. Plants for botany classes at Radcliffe were now being cultivated at the garden, and Cambridge public schools were invited to use plants from the garden for their classes.

In the early 1900s, plant displays along the embankment below the terrace contained white arabis (Arabis caucasica), phlox (Phlox paniculata), English daisies (Bellis perennis), grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum), saxifrage (Saxafraga tridactylites), dog-tooth violets (Erythronium dens-canis), yellow daffodils (Narcissus), and a variety of tulips imported from Holland. Landscape architecture students were offered opportunities to gain practical experience by designing planting plans for discrete areas of the garden that were installed by garden staff. In 1910, the Garden House was sold and moved to 88 Garden Street.

In 1917, the border below the terrace was replanted to illustrate the Engler system of plant taxonomy for botany classes. During World War I, residents installed vegetable gardens under the guidance of the head gardener on land adjoining the botanic garden. A model vegetable garden was also installed on the grounds of the botanic garden near the greenhouses for residents to study and imitate.

In 1923, Stephen F. Hamblin, an assistant professor of landscape architecture and horticulture instructor at Harvard, was appointed Director of the garden. The university also formed a visiting committee to plan for the potential use of the garden as a testing ground for all hardy herbs suitable for culture in the region. The collection had 2,000 species, and the committee sought to increase the number to 6,000 and grow 1,000 annuals as well.

Hamblin proposed modifying the grounds utilizing existing trees and shrubs as a background for the herb plantings or provide shade to those in need of it. He also suggested planting annuals in the beds around the central lily pond, installing orchids and ferns in the shade of a large group of trees, planting lilies in a “wild garden” arrangement under tall trees, and placing irises in a long border below the terrace. Additional proposed elements included breeding of new varieties and hybrids of herbs, breeding hardy rose varieties, and planting of American wildflowers.

Unfortunately, Hamblin was not able to fully realize his ambitious plan. In 1929, Harvard’s administration decided that due to chronic inadequate funding, the botanic garden would cease to function as an ornamental horticulture display area and focus solely on scientific study. Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell later announced that the management of the botanic garden would be transferred to the Botany Department and he named professor Robert H. Woodworth as Hamblin’s replacement. Hamblin went on to establish and oversee the Lexington Botanic Garden in Massachusetts. Plant collections deemed no longer relevant at the botanic garden were transferred to Lexington, including a rose collection with the understanding that should the Arnold Arboretum start to cultivate roses, cuttings would be provided. In addition, beds west of the herbarium containing the collection of the American Iris Society were cleared after specimens were taken by the Society or transferred to Lexington.

The continued lack of funds and gardening staff also resulted in neglected grounds that were no longer a desirable place to visit. Although the greenhouses were still used to provide plant material for classrooms and research, they were in such a state of disrepair that it was decided to remove them and transfer selected plant material to other facilities. Outdoor plants continued to be maintained for experimental plantings. Prior to demolition, a large shipment of living plants was shipped to the Atkins Institute in Cuba. Remaining plant material was transferred to greenhouses at Harvard’s Biological Laboratory and the Bussey Institution. Other stock was presented to the Massachusetts State College, the Boston Teachers College, Wellesley College, and Boston Parks Department.

In 1937, Harvard collaborated with the Herb Society of America to plant an herb garden on the site of the demolished greenhouse complex, highlighting plants adaptable to New England conditions. The garden staff would care for the collection, but development would be sponsored by the Society. Initially, an evergreen hedge was planted, and a brick retaining wall and paths were constructed. Fourteen planting beds were laid out, and a wrought iron armillary sphere[2] on a brick pedestal was placed in the center. Three benches, each flanked by four-foot rosemary bushes, were installed along with four large flowering trees. Beds were then filled with herbs donated by members of the New England Group of the Herb Society of America.

In 1945, the City of Cambridge considered acquiring the botanic garden site through imminent domain to construct temporary housing for returning veterans. In response, rare plant species were transferred to the Arnold Arboretum. The City did not follow through, but the Director of the garden at the time, Elmer Merrill, suggested that the property be sold or used by Harvard to develop a housing program. Harvard did not reach a decision until 1948, when the demand for housing became acute. The university proceeded to construct new residences on the botanic garden site for faculty as well as returning servicemen consisting of 117 single-family, duplex, and apartment units and was completed in 1949. Today, the landscape of the Botanic Gardens Apartments still features some wonderful and unusual mature specimen trees from its storied past.

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[1] William Dandridge Peck, A Catalog of American and Foreign Plants Cultivated in the Botanic Garden, Cambridge, Massachusetts, (Cambridge, MA: Hilliard & Metcalf, 1818), introductory page.

[2] model of objects in the sky consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centered on Earth or the Sun, that represent lines of celestial longitude and latitude and other astronomically important features

For additional information, please see resources below:

“The Botanic Garden,” Cambridge Chronicle, Volume XI, Number 44, November 1, 1856.

“New Building at the Botanic Garden,” Cambridge Chronicle, April 2, 1864.

“Harvard Botanic Garden, A Beautiful Home of Floriculture Open to the Public,” Cambridge Chronicle, March 30, 1878.

Gamwell, Edward F. “The Harvard Botanical Garden,” Cambridge Chronicle, June 17, 1898.

“Harvard Botanic Garden,” Cambridge Chronicle, May 14, 1904.

Thomas, Richard. “Remember A Lost Garden.” Cambridge Chronicle, Volume 154, No. 47, September 27, 2000.

Goodale, George Lincoln. “The Botanic Garden at Cambridge.” The Harvard Register, Vol.1, no. 1, Cambridge, MA: Moses King, 1881.

Goodwin, Joan W. “A Kind of Botanic Mania.” Arnoldia, Vol. 56, n. 5, 1996-97, pp. 17-24.

Graustein, Jeannette E. “Natural History at Harvard College, 1788-1842.” Proceedings of the Cambridge Historical Society, Volume 38, 1959-1960.

Hamblin, Stephen F. “In Cause of Horticulture, Botanic Garden of Harvard Performs Valuable Public Service.” Parks and Recreation, Vol. VIII, No. 1, The Institute at Minot, SD: September – October, 1924.

Hamblin, Stephen F. “Plan for Harvard Botanic Garden.” Landscape Architecture Magazine, American Society of Landscape Architects, Vol. 14, No. 3, April 1924, pp. 180-185.

Hammond, Charles A. “The Botanic Garden in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1805-1834.” The Herbarist, Volume 53 (1987), Concord, MA: The Herb Society of America.

Harvard University Catalog, 1903-1904. Cambridge, MA: published by the University.

Ingersoll, Ernest. “Harvard’s Botanic Gardens and Its Botanists.” Century City Magazine, Vol. XXXII, No. 2, June 1886.

Peck, William Dandridge. A Catalog of American and Foreign Plants Cultivated in the Botanic Garden, Cambridge Massachusetts. Cambridge, MA: Hilliard & Metcalfe for University Press, 1818.

In 1949, to meet the acute demand for housing, Harvard University constructed new residences for faculty as well as returning WWII servicemen. According to an article in the April 29, 1948 issue of the Cambridge Chronicle, the primary purpose of the new residences was “to reduce the pressure on Harvard faculty and families and on veterans living and working in the community.” Located at the corner of Linnaean and Garden streets, the site had been the University’s botanic garden and herbarium under the direction of the botany department. In addition to its primary role as a scientific collection, the garden had also been a very popular public green space.

The planned community consisted of 117 single-family, duplex, and apartment units. The architects, Des Granges and Steffian, integrated their plan with the existing terrain and preserved landscape features where possible. Along the site’s northern boundary, single-family and semi-detached houses adjoined Gray Gardens East, while two-story buildings along Linnaean and Garden streets created a transition to the higher density three-story apartment blocks that occupied the center of the complex. Following old garden paths, two new streets were constructed for the development, both named after past curators of the herbarium, Benjamin Robinson and Merritt Fernald.

The multi-unit buildings were organized around courtyards incorporating existing mature trees. Due to the sloping site, three-story buildings transition to two stories on the south sides of the courtyards, so they receive ample sunlight even in winter. Mortared stone and concrete retaining walls and concrete steps negotiated levels within the varied topography. Buildings were constructed of red brick with flat roofs, simple squared-off cornices, and casement windows. The main entrances were designed as focal points with flat-roofed canopies below projecting two-story bay windows. More extensive use of glass flanking the entry door and extending up the bay windows was in contrast to the more austere and opaque brick facades.

In the 1990s, Blackstone Block Architects was commissioned to renovate the complex including  new accessible entrances, signage, outdoor seating, brick sidewalks along Fernald Drive, and new plantings.  The residences remain under Harvard University Housing.

Sources

Cambridge Chronicle, April 29, 1948.

Building Old Cambridge, Susan E. Maycock and Charles M. Sullivan, 2016.

April is World Landscape Architecture Month and we’re celebrating by featuring renowned landscape architect and former Cambridge resident Carol R. Johnson.

Carol R. Johnson was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on September 6, 1929. Her father was a lawyer, and her mother, a school principal.  From them she inherited a love of the outdoors and was shaped by the landscape experiences of her childhood spent in Vermont and Martha’s Vineyard. She first experienced the idea of a designed landscape as a student at Wellesley College, where Frederick Law Olmsted had applied his campus planning concept of building on the hills and leaving the valley open.  She graduated in 1951 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. She then went to work for a commercial nursery in Bedford, Massachusetts.  While there, she met students in the landscape architecture program at Harvard.  With their encouragement, she decided to pursue a career in landscape architecture.

Johnson earned her degree from Harvard in 1957, and in 1958 she was one of the first landscape architects to be hired by The Architects Collaborative (TAC), the renowned architectural practice founded by Walter Gropius.  She left TAC after only one year to start her own practice, taking advantage of projects offered to her through her Wellesley and Harvard contacts. At first, her office worked on mostly suburban private gardens, but Johnson soon had opportunities to expand her projects, such as the landscape of the U.S. Pavilion at Montreal’s Expo ’67, where she collaborated with Buckminster Fuller and Cambridge Seven Associates.

Johnson initially managed her practice out of her apartment in Cambridge and then a small office at 15 Mount Auburn Street in Harvard Square. As the practice expanded, she moved to larger offices in 1986 at 1100 Mass Ave. The firm, known as Carol R. Johnson & Associates, or CRJA, worked on a range of public and private projects including the planning and design of urban spaces, campuses, industrial sites, and waterfronts into popular parks and public spaces. Through the years, the firm developed a national and international clientele with multiple projects in Abu Dhabi, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. In 2001, the firm relocated to Boston where it purchased and renovated a former molasses warehouse in Boston’s financial district.  The firm also established a studio in Knoxville, Tennessee responding to growth in the southeast and mid-Atlantic region. In 2011, CRJA was acquired by the IBI Group of Firms.  Johnson became a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in 1982, and in 1998 she received the ASLA Medal. Johnson officially retired in June 2016.

Projects in Cambridge

Specific projects in Cambridge include Lechmere Canal Park and John F. Kennedy Memorial Fountain and Park, as well as her own home on Brown Street.

 

Built in 1895, the Lechmere Canal functioned as an active seaport until the Charles River Dam Bridge cut off access in 1910, and the canal fell into disuse. In 1978, the City adopted the East Cambridge Riverfront plan to revitalize the neighborhood with commercial and residential development. Johnson’s firm was hired to create a 7.5-acre linear park which wraps both sides of the canal and connects with the Charles River walkway. The canal was edged with sunken gravel paths and bermed lawn panels, maximizing green space along its length. Weeping willows, sycamores, and red maples were planted at regular intervals alongside evergreen shrubs, ornamental grasses, and groundcovers. The canal terminates at a circular basin with a tall jet fountain at its center. This area has a secondary circulation network composed of a raised brick path which provides direct access to the surrounding buildings. The seawall at the basin offers docking for light watercraft, and a small stepped amphitheater and open air pavilion serve as orienting focal elements. Intended as a shady place to sit, the pavilion also incorporated plexiglass panels that interpret the industrial history of the canal. The project also established urban design guidelines for private developers whose buildings edge the basin and canal.

 

Completed in 1987, John F. Kennedy Park is a passive recreational greenspace with several walkways located at the corner of Memorial Drive and JFK Street. At each gateway to the park, entrance pillars display text from the speeches of John F. Kennedy. At the center of the park and on axis with a pedestrian link to Harvard Square, a water feature is surrounded by a wall with additional inscriptions of Kennedy’s speeches.  The cascading water over the text was inspired by Johnson’s hikes in New Hampshire where she saw streams coursing over rocks. Varieties of trees native to Massachusetts and flowering trees which bloom around the time of Kennedy’s birthday were planted in clumps throughout the park. Because of the site’s relationship to the curving Charles River across the street, visitors can enjoy expansive views to the south and west. The park was dedicated as the Commonwealth’s official memorial to Kennedy on May 29, 1987, which would have been Kennedy’s 70^th birthday.

In her former home at 14 Brown Street, an 1928 Colonial Revival, Johnson created a garden out of a limited area.  A garage was constructed in front of the house to one side creating a private space for outdoor dining in the rear with a picnic table under a pergola covered with grapevines. Johnson also extended an existing berm out from the house almost to the front sidewalk, elevating the front yard 4 and a half feet above street level, creating a forecourt to the house with a lawn edged with perennials.  The house was accessed by a walkway alongside the base of the berm. The roof of the garage was designed as another outdoor space used for entertaining as well as a place to read and enjoy the view. Adjacent to the pergola, Johnson also enjoyed tending a vegetable plot surrounded by a low hedge of boxwood.

Sources

https://ibiplacemaking.com/history/

wikimedia

Stocker, Carol. “Creative Landscape Solutions in Crowded Cambridge,” Boston Globe, June 1, 2000.

https://tclf.org/pioneer/carol-r-johnson

 

As part of Women’s History Month, we are featuring the poet, novelist, and memoirist May Sarton.

May Sarton was born Eleanore Marie Sarton in Belgium in 1912. Her parents were George Sarton, a science historian, and Eleanor Mabel Elwes, an artist. Her family fled the country at the beginning of WWI, and after a few years of moving around, May’s father accepted a position at Harvard University. The family settled in Cambridge initially on Channing Place and later moved to 103 Raymond Street. May attended Shady Hill School where she began writing poetry. When her family moved back to Belgium for a few years, May attended the Institute Belge de Culture Française in Brussels. On returning to Cambridge with her parents, she attended Cambridge High and Latin School where she graduated in 1929. May went on to study theater in New York at the Civic Repertory Theatre. After several years, she returned to the Boston area and started writing, teaching creative writing, and directing plays at the Stuart School on the Fenway.

Her first book, Encounter in April, was published in 1937. A year later she published The Single Hound, followed by a collection of poems, Inner Landscape, in 1939. During World War II, she worked for the Office of War Information in the film department. In 1945, she won the Gold Rose for Poetry and the Edward Bland Memorial prize. After the war, with the publication of the novel, The Bridge of Years, and a poetry collection, The Lion and the Rose in 1948, Sarton’s reputation expanded. Her short stories were published in The New Yorker and Harper’s Bazaar, and she wrote several articles for the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, The Kenyan Review, The Reporter, and others. She lived at 14 Wright Street in Cambridge and taught at several universities from 1950 to 1955 and served as Briggs-Copeland instructor in composition at Harvard from 1950 to 1952. In 1954 she wrote a biography of her father, I Knew a Phoenix, depicting Cambridge and the academic world in which she grew up.

After her father passed away in 1956 (her mother had died in 1950), May moved to Nelson, New Hampshire where she bought an old house (the subject of her memoir Plant Dreaming Deep). She wrote two novels, The Small Room and Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing. Because this second book depicted a lesbian affair, she was required to excise some passages before her publisher would agree to accept it. This book is considered the author’s most intense study of the feminine artist as a misunderstood and solitary individual. Sarton lectured at Harvard, Radcliffe, and Wellesley colleges, among other institutions. She was also a Guggenheim fellow in poetry. She held the Golden Rose Award for poetry, the Edward Bland Memorial Prize from Poetry Magazine, the Reynolds Lyric Award of the Poetry Society of America, the Alexandrine Medal of the College of St. Catherine, and the Perkins Memorial Award of Eastern Connecticut’s Thoreau School of Holistic Education.

She published two autobiographies, Plant Dreaming Deep in 1968, and A World of Light, in 1976. In the 1980s, she suffered a stroke, which left her unable to write for over nine months; later she published, After the Stroke in 1988. A year before her death, May published a last volume of poems, Coming into Eighty in 1994. She died of breast cancer in 1995, in Maine.

In 1996, a plaque commemorating her life and work, was installed on the grounds of the main branch of the Cambridge Public Library.

The following is one of her poems published in December 1992,

Bliss

In the middle of the night,

My bedroom washed in moonlight

And outside

The faint hush-hushing

Of an ebbing tide,

I see Venus

Close to

The waning moon.

I hear the bubbling hoot

Of a playful owl.

Pierrot’s purrs

Ripple under my hand,

And all this is bathed

In the scent of roses

By my bed

Where there are always

Books and flowers.

In the middle of the night,

The bliss of being of alive!

 

More of her poems are available at http://www.poetryfoundationorg, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/search?query=may+sarton
A list of her works can be found here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Sarton

Sources

Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org

Cambridge Chronicle, April 23, 1959; March 29, 1956; July 20, 1995

Cambridge Sentinel, October 31, 1925

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/sarton/blouin-biography.html

https://www2.cambridgema.gov/Historic/CWHP/bios_s.html