House & Garden 
S3 
WHEN YOU PLAN YOUR GARDEN 
Give It a Gateway or Two so That Each 
Entrance and Exit May be an Occasion 
RICHARD H. PRATT 
T O be successful the garden gateway 
should be both a siren and a signa¬ 
ture. It should hold an allure, but 
it should also hold a promise. And its 
own beauty should be equalled by that of 
the garden upon which it opens, for the 
loveliest gateway in the world would be 
something of a fraud if it led onto a dreary 
aspect. It should be a temptation with a 
happy ending. 
In its most elemental 
form a gateway is nothing 
more than an opening in 
the wall, fence, or hedge 
that encloses the garden. 
What lifts it above the 
commonplace is the way 
in which it becomes an en¬ 
ticing decoration and the 
faithfulness with which it 
indicates the spirit of its 
garden. If the garden is 
designed along simple lines 
the gateway should share 
the same modesty; if the 
garden rises to glamorous 
heights of formality the 
entrance should soar with 
it. 
It is this extremely im¬ 
portant detail of appro¬ 
priateness which must be 
kept in mind more than 
any other. For the garden • 
gateway, after all, is a sort 
of distilled essence of the 
garden. In fact, one of 
the most retiring garden 
gateways in the country is 
made one of the most suc¬ 
cessful by little else than 
this quality. It is a simple, 
tiny affair consisting of a 
gate of white palings swung 
between two plainly capped 
wooden posts, all nicely 
proportioned. It marks the 
gap in a hedge of tall dark 
cedars which encircles a 
just as simple Colonial 
garden. And its success 
is entirely due to the fact 
that it makes no attempt to outrank the 
garden, but is satisfied with serving as a 
hint of the garden’s unpretentious delights, 
and by hinting so delightfully that a visit 
becomes inevitable. 
In many gardens the gateway affords 
the only architectural note. If possible, 
in such a case, it should repeat the treat¬ 
ment and materials of the house. For 
example, the bridle-path gate shown on the 
opposite page, while it is at some distance 
from the house and is not part of a wall, 
but simply guards the opening in a hedge¬ 
row of pines, is distinctly related to the 
house that, likewise, is built in the English 
spirit of an interesting combination of 
stone, brick, and stucco. 
Perhaps, technically speaking, each gate¬ 
way should include a gate. If there 
are animals to be barred from the garden, 
or if a sense of privacy is to be suggested, 
a gate will be a necessity. In any case 
there is sufficient excuse for a gate—even 
As with this white arched gateway in a New Hampshire garden, 
designed by Charles A. Platt, it is possible to make the only ar¬ 
chitectural note in the garden an effective picture from any point 
in the flowered enclosure 
for a solid one—if it is put in place only 
for its decorative effect, and for the air it 
gives to the most casual entrance. At the 
same time there are gateways so entirely 
complete as decorative openings that there 
would be no point to closing them in any 
In the next article of the series : When 
You Plan Your Garden, the design and 
construction of the pergola will be dis¬ 
cussed together with the much mooted 
question of its place in the garden scheme 
way. Such a one is the rose arch that 
makes a side entrance into the garden 
shown below. A gate across it could 
in no way add to its beauty nor increase 
the pleasure of coming through it. Nor 
could the utter simplicity of the informal 
arbor gateway leading onto a flagged path, 
shown on the opposite page, be improved by 
any further device. 
While there is an infinite variety of 
gateways in point of design 
and treatment they are all 
developments from two 
general kinds: those which 
are open above and those 
which carry some overhead 
construction. When the 
enclosure is a hedge, the 
former type can be made in 
any of the following ways, 
depending upon the charac¬ 
ter of the garden. It may 
consist merely of the hedge 
ends trimmed to accent the 
opening; or the hedge ends 
may be marked by posts 
or piers of wood, stone, 
brick, stucco, or combina¬ 
tions of these materials. In 
any of these latter instances 
a gate or a pair of gates 
may be hung. These free 
standing piers should fit 
tightly against the hedge 
ends to avoid an unsightly 
“leak’’ between the gate 
and the enclosure. 
When the enclosure is a 
fence or lattice, the gate 
piers should repeat the de¬ 
sign of the posts that form 
a part of the fence. They 
may be larger in size but 
their scale should be no 
greater than the others. An 
especially good example of 
this type of gateway is 
shown at the bottom of page 
52. Very often the posts 
of the gateway and fence 
are kept at the same 
size and the accent is 
marked at the entrance by adding to the 
gate piers, in walls of stone, brick and stuc¬ 
co, some detail, such as a. well turned capital. 
The wall ends at the gateway should be 
finished off in such a way that the entrance 
may be definitely marked. This can be 
done by slightly enlarging the wall 
ends into squared piers, and also by 
topping them with stone, brick, tile or 
with cut or molded capitals. The whole 
point is in some way to accent the opening. 
If a gate is to be swung across the opening 
(Continued on page 112) 
