Inside a Privately Owned Garden Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.
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There is no shortage of public gardens that were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.: the Jefferson Memorial, the White House grounds, and the National Mall, to name a few. Now, a new book, Immersion: Living and Learning in an Olmsted Garden, explores the history behind a privately owned garden by the famed landscape architect, following a restoration done by the owner of the property.
Nola Anderson and her husband, Jim Mullen, purchased a property in Manchester-By-The-Sea, Massachusetts, known as The Chimneys, in 1991. The estate included an unkempt Italianate garden.
But nearly a century prior, between 1902 and 1914, Olmsted had lovingly brought the gardens at The Chimneys to life for the property's original owners, Boston financier Gardiner Martin Lane and his wife, Emma. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the grounds were neglected for more than 40 years―until Anderson decided to take up gardening for the first time, in order to revitalize and preserve the property.
Over the course of three decades, Anderson restored the famed gardens to their original glory. House Beautiful spoke to the author about her and her husband’s personal connection to The Chimneys, how this book came about, and what the garden restoration entailed.
Anderson and Mullen’s journey towards owning The Chimneys was a few years in the making. She says in the late 1980s, she and her spouse-to-be enjoyed traveling along Boston's North Shore in his little Boston Whaler, window-shopping, in a sense, for a future home. They called their game “Fantasy Pick-a-House” because none of the dwellings were actually up for sale, but the couple “just liked to banter about the size and style, and speculate on price.” They kept returning to a beautiful bay in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, where their favorite fantasy house was located, “set high on a bluff above a stunning white sand beach.” Cut to a few months later, the house was finally for sale. The rest is history!
After researching the original owners of The Chimneys, Anderson knew she had to restore the property. “[Lane] ordered plants, kept a detailed garden journal, and worked hands-on, planting and pruning,” says Anderson. In time, she realized that Lane’s own experience with this garden in many ways mirrored her own; they shared fears, hopes, and joys. “He was impatient and concerned about costs and the weather, because he clearly loved his garden and took immense pleasure and pride in all he created.”
Just a few weeks after purchasing the seafront property, Anderson and Mullen hired Arelyn Levee, a landscape historian with a deep knowledge of Olmsted-designed gardens, to research the original garden plans and documents. Anderson herself took part in the research as well, discovering Lane family papers and Martin Gardiner Lane's diary at Harvard University's Schlesinger Library. Additionally, she sought out writings of personal correspondence from Olmsted Jr., which are now part of the Library of Congress. The Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site and the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Gardens also provided significant historical documents that proved helpful in this venture.
As time went on, Anderson knew she had to document the garden revival in a book. A photographer friend, Clint Cleens, and his wife, Kelly, stopped by The Chimneys for a weekend visit in 2018. “Clint strolled out to the garden one evening to take a few shots as a favor. The results bowled me over,” Anderson says. Much to her surprise, Clemens had never photographed any kind of landscaping until that point in time. And yet, he was able to capture not only what Anderson saw in the garden, but also how she felt.
Like the writings Anderson poured over when conducting research for this book, Immersion: Living and Learning in an Olmsted Garden is now in the library of the Archives of American Gardens at the Smithsonian Institution―and you can add it to your own collection here.
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