The House of the Seven Gables
A Colonial Revival Garden (Salem, MA)
Overview
A Colonial Revival Garden is the colorful and charming centerpiece of The House of the Seven Gables Historic Neighborhood (Salem, MA). While key garden landscape styles change slowly, and often remain as foundations for later garden styles, the Colonial Revival Garden – sometimes termed Colonial Restoration Garden - is an imagined thing based on very little reality.
Nostalgia and the concept of "the good old days" seep into the Colonial Revival approach and present history as we dream it and not in its reality. Administrators at many historical landscape gardens hold onto Colonial Revival designs, despite increasing evidence gathered by garden historians and archeologists that colonial gardens were:
- simple,
- functional, and probably
- somewhat plain.
This early 20th century Colonial Revival approach was the mind-set of Caroline Osgood Emmerton, Salem (MA) philanthropist, when she bought the 17th century Turner House in 1908. Informally termed "The House of the Seven Gables", the Turner House was famous because of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1851 novel The House of the Seven Gables upon which it was apparently patterned. Emmerton wanted to capitalize on the maritime history of the Turner House, its literary associations with Nathaniel Hawthorne and its 17th century origins to fund The Settlement, her Salem charity.
Colonial Revival Style and The House of the Seven Gables
Emmerton's intention was to furnish and smarten up the house, and portray the gardens with the then existing ideas of Colonial Revival charm. She hired Joseph Everett Chandler, a trained 'antiquarian' and 'preservation architect,' who was a leading advocate of the early 20th century Colonial Revival style. They worked together to restore The House of the Seven Gables and its garden (1909 – 1917) by blending historical facts and nostalgia to make this part of Salem's colonial past appealing and attractive.
The Twenty-first Century
Emmerton wanted the initial Colonial Revival garden to be an "oasis of beauty" and enjoyed as much by neighbors as paying guests. She was adamant about grounds maintenance and set standards still practiced. Because of Emmerton's foresight, The House of the Seven Gables and its surrounding historic neighborhood became a New England treasure and an American icon.
Current thinking is that the most historically significant garden landscape feature of the House of the Seven Gables grounds are the Colonial Revival raised bed areas. Almost a century ago, Joseph Everett Chandler originally laid out these now historic beds in a patterned design. Lush spring bulb and summer/autumn annual plantings in these beds still capture for guests the charm of Colonial Revival plantings as Emmerton had hoped they would.
Plant Selection
The Colonial Revival raised beds, and plants throughout the rest of the grounds, represent four centuries of floral color and planting schemes. Here are some examples:
Dominant Color Scheme - Pastels and Gray/greens:
- Artemesia species (artemesia),
- Santolina chamaecyparissus (lavender cotton), and
- Lavandula angustifolia (lavender).
Typical Colonial Revival Plants - Color and Form:
- Delphinium x hybrida (delphinium cultivars),
- Heuchera sanguinea (coral bells),
- Dianthus barbatus (sweet William), and
- Thymus vulgaris (common thyme).
Summer flowers - Carefree-appearing Combinations:
- Chrysanthemum parthenium (feverfew / matricaria)
- Lobularia maritima (white or pink sweet alyssum),
- Ageratum houstonianum (floss flower)
- Pelargonium geraniums (pink double-flowered 'Mrs. Lawrence')
- Antirrhinum majus (snapdragon cultivars), and
- Salvia farinacea (Mealy-cup sage / blue salvia).
Late Summer / Autumn plantings:
- Chrysanthemum x morifolium [Dendranthema grandiflora] (fall-flowering chrysanthemums),
- Impatiens walleriana (bedding impatiens / busy lizzie),
- Begonia semperflorens-cultorum (wax begonia / fibrous-rooted begonia), Lobelia erinus (bedding lobelia)
- Amaranthus caudatus (love-lies-bleeding / tassel flower), and
- Cobaea scandens vine (missionary bells).
©Text and photograph by Georgene A. Bramlage. 2007. Reproduction without permission prohibited
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