The past twenty years has seen an increasing interest in the research, preservation and restoration of designed and cultural landscapes piggy-backing on the architectural preservation movement. As long as development pressures continue to build throughout the northeast and historic properties remain attractive places to live and work, the public demand for the appropriate treatment of historic landscapes will continue to challenge landscape architects. As the field of landscape preservation matures, good and bad examples of the treatment of landscapes will emerge, shaping and inspiring future projects. The availability of funding and the varying demands for thorough research and planning for historic sites will shape the extent to which a property is understood, evaluated, treated and managed. Professionals and the general public should demand that each site receive a minimum level of research, documentation and evaluation before any work is undertaken on a historic landscape.

There are many professionals jumping on the landscape preservation bandwagon. Architectural historians, art historians, Landscape Architects and designers, horticulturists and archaeologists are adapting their professional training to include information on the history of the American landscape and its elements. If the demand increases, then perhaps a new professional will emerge – the landscape preservationist – with training in archaeology, horticultural history, landscape architecture/design, architectural history, and cultural geography.

Working with any historic landscape is a three-fold process that includes research, documenting existing conditions and understanding the parameters which will shape the immediate future of the site and its appearance. No matter the size of the landscape, the process is the same, though some of the research and planning tools may vary with the resource.

Research

Today, each historic landscape represents a series of layers shaped by changing land use, storms, pests, disease, changing aesthetic ideas, technological “improvements” and contemporary use. Peeling away each layer of change documents the site?EUR??,,????'???s evolution and provides an understanding of the physical and psychological forces that shaped the present day appearance of the site. This process can be accomplished simply by reviewing historic maps of a town, noting changes in settlement patterns, town center, neighborhood development, changing transportation routes and nodes. Or, it can come about as the result of detailed research of photographs, plans, deeds, maps, and written records – resources from the obscure to the obvious. More resources are emerging all the time. The Catalog of Landscape Records in the United States and its newsletter is an excellent, developing resource information service. Based at Wave Hill, the Bronx, New York, this catalog aims to act as a clearing house of information.

Depending on the level and extent of research desired for a particular site, the following are just a few of the places to look for historic landscape information:

• Deeds – the title searches for specific properties can reveal changes in property size, ownership patterns, and landscape contents such as buildings, gardens, orchards, woodlots, fences and walls.

• Probate Records – house inventories, wills, and other support materials can include specific landscape information, as well as an indication of the economic level of the family (sometimes an aid to determining the potential richness of the landscape).
• Family Papers – diaries, letters, business records and account books can provide information on plant materials, extent of work, descriptions of the landscape and who may have done work for the family.
• Census Records – agricultural census records are very thorough and an invaluable resource for rural landscape preservation information. They reveal the size of the farm, crops produced, acreage use and so forth. Individual census information can provide information on the number and type of individuals living in a household at any given time.
• Tax and Assessors’ Records – the type and specificity of these vary with the town, county or state and the purpose of the assessment or tax.
• Maps – city/town maps, federal agency maps, fire insurance maps, plat maps and maps produced by itinerant surveyors and ?EUR??,,????'??plot-planners?EUR??,,????'?? can indicate a wide variety of landscape information.
• Bird’s Eye Views and Aerial Photographs – these can be especially helpful for late nineteenth and twentieth century changes.
• Newspapers – newspaper records should be spot-checked for information such as real estate advertisements for specific properties, articles on gardening, advertisements for plant materials, and gardening books. They can be useful as well for providing bibliographic information on individuals owning or occupying the historic property.
• Town Records – these can indicate fence styles, settlement patterns, and legal landscape issues presented to the courts, as well as public acquisition and public landscape information through parks department reports, recreation and conservation reports, town planning efforts, etc.
• Photographs, Paintings, Engravings and Drawings – a picture is worth a thousand words, though some can be contrived to obscure undesirable views or to reflect the artist’s perceptions. Postcard company collections and professional photographers’ collections can also be extremely useful.
• Period books, Periodicals, Catalogs – these general sources can provide secondary resource information and background.
• Professional Records – landscape architect, designer, horticulturist/gardener’s plans, client files, planting lists, plans and letters/photographs can all potentially be available for the site.
• Oral History – especially valuable for recent changes, this type of information can be important to complete the archival resource information. Property owners and gardeners or nurserymen/contractors are invaluable.

Research information can be incorporated into a historic landscape report or can be graphically represented through color-coded or shaded maps showing change over time. For example, a study was done in 1988 to document the historic evolution of the Hamilton house in South Berwick, Maine, a property now owned by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. The present lot is a small portion of the original 150-acre tract purchased and built upon by Jonathan Hamilton in 1783. Hamilton built a mansion house” and is said to have included formal gardens, outbuildings and wharves in the improvements to his estate. The site became a working sheep farm for most of the nineteenth century. In 1898, the house and a smaller portion of the property was purchased by the Tyson family for a summer residence. Gardens were constructed and expanded until 1949 when the property was donated to SPNEA. After 1949, to reduce the cost of maintaining the landscape, some of the garden features were eliminated.

In an effort to understand the integrity of the existing landscape and plan for its future, information from photographs, magazine articles, letters, diaries, and the gardeners’ records that documented each era of the landscape were incorporated into a series of site maps. Through the conveniences of computer technology, these maps can be produced singly or as a composite to emphasize elements that remain from each period of the site’s history. Individuals who can usually not read a plan can still understand changes from one plan to the next and can easily understand a color-coded representation showing the oldest to the newest landscape changes.

Existing Conditions

The traditional approach to landscape design begins with an evaluation of what is present on the site. Regional, town, and site specific planning processes begin with a series of maps illustrating the soils, topography, geology, land use, hydrology, conservation resources, architectural resources, and/or vegetation on a given area. Added to this mapping process should be a plan that documents building foundations, stone walls, old roads or paths, existing plant species and their location, views or vistas, garden features, archaeology features, cemeteries, artwork and other features. This map will provide an accurate plan of the site during the study period to be used for future reference, as well as for comparison with historical map data. A complete set of photographs is useful to document the contemporary appearance of a site for future reference and as an accompaniment to plans and/or maps.

Parameters Shaping The Future Of A Site

There is also usually a reason why a historic landscape is being reviewed: developing new town plans to accommodate growth, subdivision of large landholdings, changed use, threats from erosion, development or lack of maintenance. With the review of each property, it is important to understand the new demands on the landscape that will shape decisions made regarding the future of the site. Putting these on paper verbalizes what is trying to be accomplished and can sometimes help to honestly evaluate the intent and extent of the changes being made. What are the monetary parameters driving the change? What changes in use will be seen? Is the landscape a compatible setting for historic structures or does its importance supersede the use or preservation of the architectural features? How much integrity remains from any of the historically significant periods? Can changes be made that minimally alter the integrity of the site? If restoration work is proposed, how much is known from the historic period to accurately restore the landscape? How many compromises must be made if period plant and construction materials are not available?

The combination of research documentation, current site conditions and proposed plans for the future of the site will form the basis for all decisions made regarding the historic landscape. It is the combination of these three that will determine the success and failure of many landscape preservation proposals. In many cases, understanding the scale and character of changes made to the historic landscape determine the success and/or failure of any project.

The process of dealing with historic landscapes is simple to outline but the issues they raise are difficult and complicated. The field is still too new to have a wide range of successes and failures for us to learn from. We have yet to see if, in fact, landscape preservation is practical and desirable by the general public. If it is (and current indications are that it is worth the effort), then new management programs and funding sources must be developed to help promote and preserve our national landscape legacies.

Lucinda Brockway is a landscape historian, preservationist, designer, writer and lecturer. Her company, Past Designs in Kennebunk, Maine, is a landscape design and consulting firm that specializes in the research, preservation and management of period landscapes of all scale. Her firm has serviced a number of governmental agencies, non-profit organizations and private individuals, providing land-use history and management reports, National Register nominations, and historic and contemporary landscape design services.