August, 1907 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



'7 



The Garden of T. Jefferson Coolidge, Esq. 



Magnolia, Massachusetts 



By William Taylor 



I HE chief element of Mr. Coolidge's place 

 at Magnolia is its garden. It is at once a 

 distinction and a glory. The house itself 

 is an old white rambling structure, which 

 probably Mr. Coolidge himself would be 

 the first to admit to be without interest. It 

 is simply a good old house, amply sufficient 

 for the summer home of its owner and a very good base from 

 which to observe and to enjoy the beautiful garden that has 

 been created across the lawn before it. A formal garden 

 has, of course, nothing to do with an old New England home- 

 stead, and a building of this type in immediate juxtaposition 

 with a garden laid out in formal style, decorated with formal 

 paths, with statuary and with other adjuncts of the archi- 

 tectural garden, would exhibit such a singular and hetero- 

 geneous arrangement of ideas as to be completely at variance 

 with the most ordinary rules of artistic unity. Mr. Coolidge 

 has, therefore, placed his formal garden at some distance 

 from his house, 

 screened it with 

 plants and walls, 

 and made it a spot 

 completely apart. 

 Two purposes were 

 thus accomplished : 

 the house was thor- 

 oughly dissociated 

 from it, and hence 

 any idea of incon- 

 gruity in building 

 was immediately 

 dispensed with ; 

 the garden was 

 strengthened and 

 bettered in every 

 way by its isolation, 

 for one standing in 

 its midst saw the 

 garden only and 

 took no thought of 

 the house. 



The formal gar- 

 den has become so 

 exceedingly popular 

 in this country that 

 comparatively few 

 country seats are 

 now built that do 

 not exhibit it in one 

 form or another. In 

 many instances the 

 proper relationship 

 of the formal gar- 

 den to the house is 

 completely ignored, 

 for any sort of a 

 house is apt to have 

 one attached to it. 

 Mr. Coolidge has 

 followed out the 



only wise course by thoroughly separating his garden, not 

 only from the grounds immediately surrounding it, which in 

 itself was a proper and natural thing to do, but also com- 

 pletely divorcing it from his house, which, while also proper 

 and natural, is much less seldom done. It is well to dwell 

 somewhat on this point, since a garden must not only have 

 interest as a garden, but convey to others lessons of more 

 or less practical import. 



Standing on the entrance porch of the house, one sees to 

 the right a rustic pergola bordered with evergreens on its 

 outer margin. On the left is a rustic arch thickly overgrown 

 with vines, which forms an entrance to the garden. The 

 rustic archway is quite in keeping with the simple character 

 of the road from the house, but immediately within it one 

 enters upon a new world. The garden path gives way to a 

 bridge which is paved with brick and which is reached by 

 stone steps, rising again at the further side, where the path 

 is continued to an arbor or summer house at the further 



end of the garden. 

 This bridge spans a 

 beautiful brook 

 completely hidden 

 in foliage and col- 

 ored shrubs, beneath 

 which you hear its 

 gentle murmur. The 

 borders beyond are 

 ablaze with bloom- 

 ing plants brought 

 to a high degree of 

 cultivation. At the 

 far end is the arbor, 

 thickly overgrown 

 with wistaria. On 

 either side are mar- 

 ble urns, and within 

 the shaded interior 

 is a marble table. 



The walk to the 

 arbor, while it com- 

 mands two chief 

 points of interest, 

 namely, the brook 

 and the arbor, sep- 

 arates the garden 

 into two entirely dis- 

 tinct parts. On the 

 right are rows 

 of old- fashioned 

 flowers for picking, 

 like foxglove, gladi- 

 oli, sweetpeas, and 

 further on a quan- 

 tity of rose bushes 

 of every variety. On 

 the left is the formal 

 garden proper at a 

 somewhat lower 

 level, reached by 

 short flights of stone 



Urns Are Tastefully Placed Among the Flowers 



