House 
& Garden 
WHEN YOU PLAN YOUR GARDEN 
The Arbor and the Pergola, Which Are Really the same Thing, 
Can Make or Mar the Final Appearance of the Scheme 
RICHARD H. PRATT 
I T seems a fairly credible theory that 
arbors were made before gardens. 
Yet if one were to investigate the 
matter in a history of garden design (which 
would mark one immediately as a curious 
sort of garden enthusiast) one would prob¬ 
ably find the whole subject rather mistily 
discussed. This historical vagueness makes 
it easy to put forth the theory that no one 
ever thought of making a garden until after 
they had built a little summer house close 
at hand from where they could overlook 
the view. Then they began to fix up at¬ 
tractively the space in between, and the 
space in between gradually became a gar¬ 
den. Sometimes it must have seemed a 
good idea to make a shaded walk to the 
arbor. Naturally, then, when the impulse 
came to decorate the intervening area this 
long arbor became a part of the garden. 
In this way there were created two kinds 
of arbors; the type which was a sort of 
retreat, or overlook, or resting place, and 
the type which was a sheltered passage. 
The sheltered passage kind was made to 
cover a path that led from the house to 
some definite object beyond the house, or 
that connected two definite points in the 
vicinity of the house. The kind of arbor 
which served as an outdoor retreat was 
located at some nearby spot of vantage and 
became eventually the focus point of the 
garden. 
The origin of these things are not only 
interesting, but they are valuable items to 
keep in mind when gardens and arbors are 
being built today. For occasionally one 
sees detached arbors that are so located and 
designed that they cannot be used suitably 
either as a resting place or as an overlook 
And there are long arbors that neither lead 
anywhere or connect anything. And if it 
is true that gardens were first devised as a 
pleasant accessory to arbors the position 
and purpose of the arbor in the garden 
must still be of considerable importance. 
But before discussing in detail the matter 
of the arbor's place in the scheme of the 
modern flower garden it would be well to 
consider the various types of construction 
to which it is susceptible. The simplest, of 
course, is that which consists of a light 
frame of wood, or of metal rods, covered 
with vines. This type is an outgrowth of 
the desire to emphasize the importance of 
plants over architecture, and it can be ex¬ 
tremely effective in gardens that are infor¬ 
mal in treatment. The rose arbor in the 
center of the opposite page, for instance, 
is an example of this method of design, in 
which the arched supports are of secondary 
importance and the bloom and foliage of 
the roses the main objects of interest and 
beauty. The arbor in this case is nicely 
appropriate to the spirit of the border gar¬ 
den over which it has been placed. 
When an arbor begins to take on an air 
of structural sophistication it may properly 
be called a pergola. It will always remain 
an arbor, but when it is made up of col¬ 
umns or piers and cross-beams whose de¬ 
tails are consciouslv decorative and thought- 
An arbor oj ce¬ 
dar poles done ar¬ 
tistically in the 
rustic manner and 
covered with hop 
vines and roses 
This pergola cov¬ 
ers a curved, 
sunken path and 
is supported on 
piers oj white'- 
washed brick 
An arcade of ivy 
covered archways 
in an unusually 
effective deriva¬ 
tive of the arbor 
