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The Legacy of Fletcher Steele in Milton, MA

by Kathleen Keith

Clifford Gardens - Fountain garden with tripartate sitting wall Clifford Gardens - Fountain garden with tripartate sitting wall

In May 2007, the NELDHA History Networking group collaborated with the Milton Garden Club for a tour of three Fletcher Steele designed properties in the town where Steele once had 29 clients. The tour included two well-maintained private residential properties, along with a third garden, once part of the 12-acre Philip Spaulding estate. Several years ago, the Milton Garden Club rescued this semi-walled garden from a developer’s wrecking ball, and now the Garden Club is in the process of an ambitious restoration plan for the half-acre Spaulding Garden.

Clifford Gardens - Fritillaria imperialis sculpture Clifford Gardens - Fritillaria imperialis sculpture

The plantings of the two private residential properties, the Charles Clifford house and the Helen Gilbert house, have been gradually scaled back from the original designs due to a very different labor market from the one that existed prior to the mid-20th century when full time gardeners maintained the grounds. Nonetheless, Fletcher Steele’s hand is still visible in both the planting and the architectural features in all three properties.

Clifford Gardens - 'Kennelwirth' ivy Clifford Gardens - 'Kennelwirth' ivy

Clifford Gardens - Great lawn from terrace Clifford Gardens - Great lawn from terrace

The tour began at the residential property formerly owned by Charles Clifford. Steele’s garden plan for the Clifford property began in 1925 and with Mrs. Clifford he continued making refinements to the design until 1937. An illustrated plan of the Clifford property in Fletcher Steele, Landscape Architect; An Account of the Gardenmaker’s Life, 1885-1971 by Robin Karson helped visitors to locate significant features on the grounds. The formal half-court turnaround with rhododendrons beneath the grove of magnificent beech trees is the only feature visible from the street. Steele believed garden pleasures should be reserved for the owners and not necessarily on view for public consumption.

The design for the private rear yard included many features: a tripartite walled fountain garden, a dry wall garden, elaborate rose gardens, grape arbor, an octagonal vegetable garden, and distant views of Great Blue Hill. Extant features include the tripartite walled fountain garden close to the house, where the fountain still bubbles in dappled sunlight. Steele’s decorative wrought-iron railing with its Fritillaria imperialis motif on the house terrace defines the point where the grounds open to the sweep of the great lawn below. Kenilworth ivy, a Steele signature plant, persists between large granite steps leading from the house terrace to the great lawn where some of the original tree plantings survive along the lawn edge. While the rose gardens have been grassed over and mature trees block the views of Great Blue Hill, using the plan of the property helped visitors in finding vestiges of the grape arbor and outlines of the vegetable garden beneath an overstory of mature tree plantings at the lawn edge.

Helen Gilbert Garden - Chinese Chippendale latticework fence Helen Gilbert Garden - Chinese Chippendale latticework fence

Helen Gilbert Garden - Chinese wall Helen Gilbert Garden - Chinese wall

Helen Gilbert Garden - Vase shaped brick walk Helen Gilbert Garden - Vase shaped brick walk

The property Steele designed for Miss Helen Gilbert is a short distance from the Clifford property, but on a much smaller scale of one acre. Although Steele kept to his tried and true design scheme of three elements in the Gilbert design - house terrace, middle ground, and focal point - the plan was a modern departure from many of his earlier designs for suburban properties.

The current residents are the third owners of the property Steele began to transform for Miss Gilbert in 1954. It is unusual, as well as fortunate, that all the plans, photographs, and correspondence from Steele to Miss Gilbert remained with the house, and were passed on to successive owners. This trove of archival materials was an invaluable resource when the current owners purchased the property, as the grounds were overgrown, and many original plants had deteriorated. The initial task for the current owners was to identify both the significant surviving plants and architectural features to determine the important elements in Steele’s design before embarking on a restoration project. The owners have been conscientious stewards of the property as it retains much of its original design and integrity, particularly in its hardscape features. Notable hardscape features include the low white fence in a Chinese Chippendale latticework style, which surrounds the front yard, and the Chinese wall at the base of the lower house terrace. (Steele had designed a Chinese wall for Naumkeag at the time he was working on the Gilbert property, and his correspondence with Miss Gilbert indicated that the Naumkeag work might have been his inspiration for both of these features.) While the original front lawn plantings have been replaced, Steele’s charming vase shaped brick walk is still intact.

Helen Gilbert Garden - Geometric patterned planting beds Clifford Gardens - Geometric patterned planting beds

Helen Gilbert Garden - Columns and Persephone Sculpture Helen Gilbert Garden - Columns and Persephone Sculpture

Steele designed two house terraces in the back yard. The alpine lawn and a mosaic bed in the upper terrace were redesigned to accommodate an outdoor family dining terrace in a brick and bluestone-patterned surface. The lower house terrace was multi-tiered with geometric patterned planting beds, which had become uneven and weed filled over the years. In the restoration process, stonemasons ripped out and regraded the lower house terrace, and reset the original granite pavers using Steele’s template for the geometric pattern.

At the bottom of the lower house terrace Steele’s signature birches guide one’s view down the hill toward the distant pair of columns and the stone sculpture of Persephone at the back of the property. Helen Gilbert primarily enjoyed her garden from within the house, as she employed a full time gardener to tend the property. She did not use or live in the garden spaces as its current owners do with their children. Today boys play ball in the lower rear meadow beneath the watchful gaze of Persephone. The Persephone sculpture has developed the patina of age in its landscape setting, and Fletcher Steele might well applaud that time and decay has added to her beauty. ^[1]

Spaulding Estate - Bowling alley and shell fountain Spaulding Estate - Bowling alley and shell fountain

Spaulding Estate - Boxwood in rose garden Spaulding Estate - Boxwood in rose garden

Steele’s plan for the twelve-acre Spaulding estate, begun in 1924 and continued until 1932, was a departure from his earlier work on large-scale estates in its organization and its style. The gardens were to one side of the house, and views from the rear of the house were of lawn and meadow with Great Blue Hill in the distance. Great Blue Hill was a favorite focal point in Steele’s designs for Milton properties when he was able to work it into the design. Today all that remains of the Spaulding estate are the bowling green and the enclosed rose garden. It is initially difficult to grasp the idea of Steele’s design for the entire property from this small garden remnant, which is still charming in its disconnected and ruined state. Perhaps its charm derives in part from its surviving architectural features – the 8-foot walls that enclose and protect the rose garden, and the low walls that define the edges of the bowling green.

Spaulding Estate - Walled rose garden Spaulding Estate - Walled rose garden

Spaulding Estate - Brick and stone edging in rose garden Spaulding Estate - Brick and stone edging in rose garden

The Milton Garden Club has engaged Lucinda Brockway of Past Designs to guide them in the restoration of this historic garden. The new stewards of this garden gem in the rough have already tackled removal of invasive and volunteer plants from the garden, and identified original plants to retain. Although the boxwood hedges in the rose garden are overgrown, many have survived years of neglect in remarkably good condition. The Garden Club has begun the daunting chore of radically pruning back the boxwood in the rose garden. While the purpose of pruning was to improve plant growth habit, the pruning has also revealed long hidden brick and stone edging on the rose garden paths, another Fletcher Steele architectural feature. Other surviving plants include the April blanket of squill and crocuses on the rose garden paths. Although none of the original roses survived, replacement plants were installed this year.

In the bowling green, only one of the twelve elm trees that enclosed its edges survives, and the rhododendrons are replacements of the originals. The shell fountain on the limestone and marble pedestal in its curved niche was the focal point of the bowling green. It remains intact in a ruinous state.

The Spaulding estate with its views of lawn, meadow and Great Blue Hill no longer exists, and the land has been re-contoured into a residential sub-division of large homes. However, it is an interesting historical note that while the Spaulding estate is gone, the Spaulding Garden’s new address is Fletcher Steele Way.

Note: Fletcher Steele, Landscape Architect; An Account of the Gardenmaker’s Life, 1885-1971 by Robin Karson was the major source of information on Fletcher Steele’s designs and plant materials for the three properties discussed in this article.

All Photos by Kathleen Keith.  You can reach Kathleen at Kjgkeith@aol.com.