THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



ette, Pierre L'Enfant (1755-1825), a cultivated engineer and archi- 

 tect. He designed many buildings in America, laid out country 

 places and gardens and became principally noted for his plan of 

 Washington, D. C. His artistic abilities were pronounced. 



Joseph Ramee (1764- 1842), a noted French architect, came to 

 this country in 181 1, remaining until 1816, and made plans for 

 many country places and towns in this country (including New 

 York State), his most noted work, perhaps, being that of the de- 

 sign of Union College, Schenectady. 



Andre Parmentier (1780- 1830), a talented master gardener, ar- 

 rived here in 1824 from Belgium and established a botanical garden 

 in Brooklyn. This was a great success and his reputation spread- 

 ing, he made plans for country places not only in the locality of 

 New York but also in the South and in Canada. 



Michaux, while primarily a botanist, was a man of culture and 

 wide experience (an early tradition was to the eflfect that he was 

 the lost Dauphin of France, son of Louis XVI) and it is known 

 that he was consulted in the laying out of country places and 

 gardens. The garden of the Old Varick Estate, "Prospect Hall," 

 in Jersey City was well known in its day and was said to have 

 been designed by Michaux. 



Major L'Enfant was well known in New York. He was the 

 architect for the Old City Hall on Wall Street and also made plans 

 (which were never carried out) in 1790 for the development of a 

 large then suburban section to the northward of the city limits 

 and extending from Greenwich to Corlear's Hook on the East 

 River, patterned to a certain degree from the Regent's Park in 

 London. 



There must have been practitioners of local origin also, and 

 though the particular reputation of a certain Theopilus Harden- 

 broeck, "practical surveyor and architect," has not come down to 

 us, nevertheless his advertisement in an early New York news- 

 paper (1757) to the effect that he designed "pavilions, summer 

 houses, garden seats and greenhouses" is most interesting. Un- 

 doubtedly, there were others of his profession. That there was 

 at this period, therefore, real professional and artistic talent in 

 landscape gardening seems to be more or less evident, and there is 

 no doubt that the owners of country seats availed themselves of 



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