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TRANSACTION'S OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 



While his tendency was princijially to- 

 ward the formal, and many of his gar- 

 dens were designed for individual strik- 

 ing features of perhaps varied types, yet 

 these were always properly harmonized 

 and the general scene would not suffer. 

 He claimed to be the earliest exponent of 

 the formal garden in America, the Ponce- 

 de-Leon Hotel in Florida and the estate 

 of R. G. Dunn at Narragansett Pier con- 

 taining his first efforts along these lines. 

 Up to this time landscape architects had 

 followed the vogue of Olmsted and 

 Downing of this country, who in turn 

 had been influenced by the teachings of 

 Humphrey Repton, the famous English 

 landscape architect of the 18th century. 

 Apart from early Colonial gardens, the 

 formal garden in America put in its first 

 appearance in the early nineties. How- 

 ever, Mr. Barrett did not allow the form- 

 al class of treatment to influence him 

 wholly and he used to advantage much 

 of the informal type of landscape (which 

 he would term "Reptonian"), and his 

 work shows many excellent examples of 

 this style. 



Among the most prominent country 

 places he designed, the following may be 

 mentioned: P. A. B. Widener, Ogontz, 

 Pa. ; H. O. Havemeyer, Islip, L. I. ; Jo- 

 seph H. Choate, Stockbridge, Mass. ; 

 Martin Maloney, Spring Lake, N. J. ; 

 Stanley Mortimer, Wheatley Hills, L. I. ; 

 H. D. Auchincloss, Newport, R. L: Nor- 



man R. Ream, Thompson, Conn. ; W. F. 

 Havemeyer, Seabright, N. J. ; F. D. Ad- 

 ams, Seabright, N. J. ; C. B. Alexander, 

 Tuxedo, N. Y. ; and Elliot F. Shepard, 

 Scarborough, N. Y. 



Personally Mr. Barrett was a most 

 agreeable and lovable character. One of 

 his chief delights was to sit over his pipe 

 in long converse with a fellow practition- 

 er, discoursing on the theories of land- 

 scape design, and relating the many in- 

 teresting incidents of his career. His 

 clients invariably became his friends and 

 he was always a welcome guest at their 

 homes. By nature truly an artist in all that 

 the word means, his mind was free from 

 sordidness of any kind, and his "art" was 

 to him the greatest thing in the world. 

 An offense to his "art" was an offense 

 against him personally, and no landscape 

 architect ever set his profession upon a 

 higher pedestal. Like most real artists, 

 he was not a good business man and this, 

 combined with an affliction of the throat, 

 helped to curtail the activity of his prac- 

 tice and many of his personal comforts 

 during the last decade of his life. With 

 Mr. Barrett passes one of the most pic- 

 turesque personalities in the profession 

 of the landscape architect, and one of its 

 most steadfast promoters. In these days 

 where press of commercialism grows 

 stronger as time passes, and old ideals be- 

 come increasingly difficult to follow, Mr. 

 Barrett's figure is one that will be 

 missed. 



