by John Jayson Sonnier, APLD, and Bonnie Rosenthal, S.O.S.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, in Forest Glen, Maryland, amid historic examples of the world's greatest architectural styles, workers attacked the dense overgrowth with garden instruments like mythic heroes whose aim was to release the Goddess of Spring from the grasp of Winter, . . . or yeomen in the service of a prince who scaled castle walls to free a sleeping princess. These "soldiers" were not the figures of fairy tales, however, but members of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) assisting a local citizens group to resurrect a vintage garden from neglect and unconcern at a 100-year-old girls school known as National Park Seminary.

The APLD was invited to participate in these efforts to unearth and preserve the historically significant landscape by Save Our Seminary (S.O.S.), a citizens group which formed in 1988 when the Walter Reed Army Medical Center Annex announced plans to build officers housing at the site. John Sonnier, a member of both S.O.S. and the Chairman of APLD's Historic Garden Preservation Committee, scheduled the hands-on effort (pictured opposite) to coincide with the APLD's fall board meeting at the nation's capital. He said, "APLD was fortunate to have the opportunity of experiencing this type of 'dig' in such a vintage garden setting."

S.O.S. spokesperson Bonnie Rosenthal explained that the architectural significance of the site results from the original school owners (1894-1916), whose philosophy was to reinforce education in social graces with architecture of distinct cultural styles. Likewise, the second owner (1916-1937), who turned the school into a junior college for women, brought the world to the students by adding buildings, interior furnishings, and statuary. Among the architectural examples Rosenthal named are an English castle with a stone turret and crenelated roofline; a gymnasium and a theater in Greek Revival style; a Spanish Mission period building; a Swiss chalet; an American bungalow; an American colonial home; a Japanese pagoda; a Dutch windmill; a chateau-style building with a covered walkway; and an Italian "villa," many of which also had associated gardens.

Not surprisingly, for landscape historian Sonnier, one of the most important aspects of the campus of National Park Seminary is its romantic landscape. "Much of National Park Seminary's landscape history is still intact. This was quite evident when I started researching the landscape. . . . Statues, fountains, urns, curving walkways, native and specimen plants, and retaining walls are all just a few of the many improvements that were made to enhance the visual impact . . . . Though there seems to be no physical record of any landscape plan, the grounds were definitely planned. With a map and a careful eye, one can retrace the steps of time," he stated.

Called "The Glen School" in the early 1900's because of its proximity to the great National Rock Creek Park, National Park Seminary was designed to become the most beautiful reservation of the National Capital. The government property extends north of Washington, D.C., on both banks of Rock Creek as far as the District line, within a region whose combination of forest, stream, hill and dale is strikingly beautiful and picturesque as it rises gradually from the city to Forest Glen where the school stands about four hundred feet above the level of the city. However, National Park Seminary is far from well-preserved. Though many original structures have been occupied by the military since 1942, the once prestigious finishing school has deteriorated to a state of near ruin. "Although the site is recognized as a Historic District, the plantings and valuable garden sculptures are treasures that were totally neglected due to the Army's lack of guidelines for maintaining historic gardens," Sonnier said.

To understand the impact of what was seen by the patrons of the school, one has to imagine life in the early 1900's, according to Sonnier. Much of the land between National Park Seminary and Washington was farmland, which created great expansive vistas, affording glimpses of the Washington Monument and the cupola of the Soldiers' Home from several points which have since been obscured by construction of new homes and growth of new forest. "When Dr. Cassedy first opened the school in 1894, most people travelled by horse and carriage," explained Sonnier. "The original approach to the school was a winding path that had led to an inn developed by a railroad in 1887 . . . [which] followed the natural contours of the land leading from the footsteps of 'Ye Forest Inne,' down a deep ravine, along a rocky street, then back up the other side to the train station at Forest Glen. The old winding road is still there, as are the foundations of several bridges that were built. Even the steps that marked the approach across a huge footbridge in a photograph from 1910 still remain . . . [though] a few years later, after cars became the new way of travelling, the school built a bridge over the ravine. Until 1964, in fact, this system was still pretty much intact. However," added Sonnier, "the Beltway that seems to have covered much of the campus is [as yet] a mystery."

In reconstructing the site history, S.O.S. has referenced illustrated school catalogues and journals and conducted interviews with alumni and others, including the former groundskeeper's daughter who lived there as a child, learning not only about the buildings and curriculum, but about woodland plants that used to carpet the region and a formal rose garden that has not survived. In 1994, S.O.S. hosted a 100th anniversary reunion tea party on-site where aging alumni recalled their school days.

National Park Seminary had on its grounds facilities for tennis, riding, canoeing, and archery and augmented cultural studies with physical education, including events in which the different sororities competed. More importantly, according to Sonnier, the grounds were a stage setting for festivals. Festivals "were considered part of the educational system, planned to keep alive myths, legends, and facts of history and literature, to encourage library and art research, to give outlet to the natural dramatic instinct of the young, to teach various individualities to work together for a harmonious common purpose, and to applaud the art of joyous, healthy, community play as one of the essentials men live by . . . . " he quoted from a Washington Historical Society document published in 1930. "The great festival and procession of The Twelfth Night . . . combined the legends and songs of the Orient, medieval England, and the Christian Church, and became a brilliant pageant of color and grouping up and down the Glen," he expounded, "[while] at the crowning of the May Day Queen . . . all students proclaimed 'Under the Greenwood Tree,' a phrase [intended] to be a torch to [a National Park girl's] memory. . . of her own youthful ideas and how far she had transmitted them into action or adjusted them to broader fields of life."

Carrying the torch of National Park Seminary today is S.O.S., whose efforts are partially responsible for the U.S. Army filing "excess" proceedings, by which the government may divest itself of unwanted properties, making them available to other agencies or offering them to private parties. Rosenthal said the work of S.O.S. makes it likely that the property will be offered to the group as the military could quickly relieve itself of preservation obligations. Furthermore, she is convinced that the site will gain recognition with "Landmark" status on the basis of architectural, landscape and women's educational merit. In the meantime, the fate of this romantic garden, like the judgment of Blind Justice, hangs in the balance of time and circumstance. LASN

one of the great tour stops for the intuitive and imaginative, and let's not forget the romantic eye.

For instance, when the APLD volunteers cleared the area around the stone statue of Blind Justice (inscribed in 1867, but presumably brought to the site much later), they also revealed fifty steps that formed a graceful pathway called the Stairway of the Cedars.

Italian formal garden with cedars/stone-carved bench chateau with covered garden with cast-metal urn surrounded by boxwood a pergola (covered bridge) with rose trellis